How to solve the mystery of finding the best WordPress themes

Searching for the best WordPress themes that suite your needs, can be a daunting task. There are hundreds of thousands of themes available via the web and taking time to review 20 let alone 100 of them can take multiple hours. Below we have outlined our technique for expediting this process and finding the top WordPress themes.

When searching for WordPress themes, identify a keyword that describes the industry, layout, or purpose of your website. Below are examples of keywords.

• eCommerce
• video
• blog
• music

Using one of these keywords, search google using any of the below phrases.

• best [insert keyword] wordpress themes
• free [insert keyword] wordpress themes
• best wp themes for [insert keyword]

From experience when using the above search terms you will come across the same 4 or 5 websites that serve as a curator of WordPress themes. Listed below are the websites we use and we have ordered them based on our preference.

• Colorlib – This by far is our favorite place to find great WordPress themes. Colorlib provides curated list for almost every type of WordPress theme you can think of.
• AThemes – While AThemes provides quality content that rivals Colorlib, they do not have as many curated list as Colorlib.
• WPBeginner – Last but not least is WPBeginner. Similar to AThemes, WPBeginner doesn’t have as many curated list for WordPress themes and the theme analysis isn’t as detailed as we would prefer at times.

During your WordPress theme discovery there are 3 things you should look for before making a decision to purchase.

1. Mobile Responsiveness – Most good themes will have demos that allow you to view how the theme will look on mobile devices. This is important because every theme isn’t mobile responsive and everyone’s mobile responsiveness isn’t the same. If a theme doesn’t provide you the ability to test it on a mobile device, think twice before purchasing. With content being at our fingertips, the majority of your visitors will come from mobile devices. Not having a clean and crisp mobile friendly website can be detrimental to your brand.
2. Demo Importer – When viewing theme demos, we must keep in mind that it is a demo. The content that is beautifully crafted and perfectly placed does not come included. Therefore, when you install the theme it will look nothing like the demo. In most cases, this defeats the purpose of purchasing the theme in the first place. If you want to use the demo as a starting place for your design efforts, be sure that the theme provides a demo importer feature. Or else you will be stuck trying to recreate the demo from a blank canvas.
3. Freemium – If you aren’t sold on a theme or are not sure if it will meet your needs, freemium themes are the best way to go. While typically they are limited and do not allow you to customize everything you would like, freemium themes provide you great insight into the user friendliness of the theme. Depending on your technical expertise and patience, this can be a deal breaker as some themes are not as intuitive as others.