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6 Places To Find 1st-Class WordPress Themes

Posted 07th January, 2015 by Aliysa

One of the many assets of the world’s favourite CMS is the sheer amount of themes that are available. As I write this there are 2932 themes available from the theme directory alone and that number is ever rising higher. With so many options to choose from it can be hard to find a good, well-coded and professional looking theme. Here’s 6 places to find awesome themes for your site.


WordPress.org

WordPress.org free and premium themes

OK, it's a little obvious, but I have to start with the official WordPress theme repository - it’s without a doubt the best of the bunch for free themes. Tags help you easily navigate through the thousands of themes on offer. The big advantage of searching from WordPress.org is that all themes are reviewed before being added to the repository, to make sure they adhere by the theme guidelines, meaning you’re less likely to encounter poorly designed or misbehaving themes. Themes are also reviewed by users, giving you valuable third party information before you decide to go ahead and download.

You should be a little tentative about downloading free themes from anywhere but the regulated WordPress depository, to avoid the chance of installing a ‘malicious theme’ which can cause serious problems for your site. However, a number of established and trusted theme merchants also offer free themes.


Theme Hybrid

Theme hybrid free themes

The brainchild of Justin Tadlock, a well-known name in the WordPress world, Theme Hybrid offers up a number of completely free themes built on the Hybrid Core theme framework. A number of the free themes available here are not available from the WordPress.org repository.


Graph Paper Press

Graph Paper Press themes

Graph Paper Press offer 51 themes - most of which are premium - which are cleanly designed, tailored towards creatives. All themes are available for $149, however, you can pick one of 13 themes to download upon free registration, which you can browse through here.


ThemeForest

Theme Forest

Part of the Australian company Envanto, who own a number of online brands including the education site Tuts+, ThemeForest is a huge marketplace of WordPress themes and a range of other themes and templates. There are currently 4854 premium WordPress themes to browse on the marketplace, authored by hundreds of developers and designers. You can live preview all themes and probe buyer ratings.


Elegant Themes

Elegant themes

With a portfolio of 87 themes, Elegant Themes creates beautiful themes which are all available upon membership. They provide a variety of themes for a variety of uses, including blogs, ecommerce, portfolios and apps, to name a few. An Elegant Themes membership is extremely affordable relative to other premium theme merchants, with technical support and updates included. They do offer one free theme - Serene.


Woo Themes

Woo themes

Woo Themes are a team of WordPress enthusiasts who build commercial WordPress themes, and also a range of plugins (you may have heard of WooCommerce). They have gained a reputation for offering feature-rich themes - currently 59 of them - that suit content-heavy sites. They come at a price though - themes are bought as packages starting at $39, which includes a year of support and updates. They also offer a handful of older themes free-of-charge.


There are many, many other third party WordPress theme vendors out there, but be cautious and stick to reputed sources. It’s generally advised to only use sources that are verified by WordPress.

Where do you find your WordPress themes, and have you had any experience of these sources? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Categories: WordPress, Web Design

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