How to Find the Perfect Free WordPress Theme

The overwhelming number of free available WordPress themes can be confusing. How can we separate the small set of high-quality themes from the rest, which is sometimes a catastrophe in design aspects?

This article will show you how to separate the wheat from the chaff and discuss the aspects that are important for choosing the ideal theme for your website.

Why choose a free theme over a premium one?

This article focuses on free themes, but we don’t want to conceal that there are also good reasons for using premium themes. In many cases, premium themes provide better quality, in terms of codes and appearance. However, there are free themes that outclass inferior premium themes. Just because it’s premium, doesn’t have to be good per se.

Often, you don’t necessarily need a premium theme. A high-quality free theme can also meet your requirements. Although most of them lack in features, compared to premium themes, they have one advantage. You can add missing features by installing plugins. If you change the theme, the plugins will stay. Premium themes, however, often come with more features than you actually need.

Of course, the above list isn’t complete. Do some research to find more free high-quality themes. Keep on reading, if you want to know what to look for when doing the research.

Customising themes – What to keep in mind

Before choosing a theme, you should get one thing straight. Do you want to use the original theme or do you want to modify it?

If you make major changes to a well-matched theme, you’ll run the risk of destroying the harmony and turning a good theme into rubbish. It’s recommended to keep the original theme and only make little adjustments, if really necessary. Subsequent changes to the design won’t survive an update, unless you use a child theme.

The best and easiest way is to find a theme you really like. Look for a decent theme and get started with the things that really matter – producing content and making your website popular.

By the way, there’s no such thing as a perfect theme. You’ll always find something to criticise. So don’t be too picky or you’ll end up as a nervous wreck with lots of wasted time.

The basics of finding a free WordPress theme

Following some basic rules will make the choice of a theme a lot easier.

1. Download free themes only from WordPress.org

You can find free themes outside WordPress.org and popular premium theme vendors. But using them is a bit of Russian roulette. They’re often poorly coded and were rejected by WordPress for that reason. Moreover, those themes are notorious for containing malware.

Note: There’s no reason for a developer not to upload their free themes to WordPress.org. Always be skeptical towards free themes offered outside WordPress.org.

1a. Exception: Free themes from popular premium theme vendors

The only trustworthy source for high-quality themes besides WordPress.org is a renowned premium theme vendor. Their themes are usually well made and come with a bunch of features. Occasionally, you can get them for free. Here you don’t have much to worry about.

2. Check important key data before you download a theme from WordPress.org

Yet, another good reason to download themes from WordPress.org is, they provide information that you won’t get elsewhere.

• Last updated: Only use themes which have been constantly updated over the last six months.
  
  
• Downloads: A good rule of thumb is, the more downloads a theme has, the more popular it is and the better it might be.
  
  
• Ratings: Ratings are just a rough guideline. Read them carefully, especially the 1- and 2-star ratings, to get an idea of why and how the theme was rated. A poor rating doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad theme.
  
  
• Support: Free themes rarely have good support. Check the ratio of solved to unsolved support entries to get an impression of the developer’s willingness to solve problems. Weak support can be a real deal breaker.

Putting a free WordPress theme to the acid test

A good-looking theme doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good theme. Hence, you should first check if it meets your requirements and expectations before you start using it.

A good live demo is helpful, as the preview function in WordPress.org is pretty elementary. Previews only show a limited amount of text and configurations. Therefore, we are dependent on the developer’s website, where we can hopefully find live demos of their themes.

If you, however, can’t find a live demo, you should keep your hands off the theme. A serious developer bothers to create a live demo of his theme and there’s a simple reason for that. He wants to make sure that his work is being widely spread.

So again, if you can’t find a live demo, keep your hands off the theme!

Check the theme for responsive design

Responsive design means that the theme responds to any output device, in order to ensure an optimum readability of the content.

A responsive design is a must-have nowadays because people increasingly use their mobile devices, rather than their home computers, to surf the internet.

Don’t miss out on this relatively high percentage of people just for a static design. This means that a non-responsive design should be a criterion for exclusion.

Final tests

A good theme stands out due to its speed. Even if it’s not perfectly configured, it’s not a slowpoke. As by now, the loading performance is a ranking criterion for Google. So you should make sure that your theme becomes a real “racer” if you make little adjustments.

Test your favourite theme for its performance before you start using it. There are plenty of tools out there. We recommend Pingdom Tools.

Final security check

Security is the highest asset and should be taken seriously. Check each theme for serious security issues or malware before you install it. You can use tools like Sucuri or the Sucuri WordPress plugin.

Conclusion

There’s no silver bullet for finding the perfect free theme. But in this article, we took a closer look at some points that may help you with choosing the right theme. Gathering information should always be the first step and you’’ll be well equipped with the best tools.

SOURCE: Noupe