Get Free Premium Website Themes with These Simple Tricks

Introduction

Premium themes provide many benefits over free themes, which is why they often cost money. Premium themes tend to have better design, more features, superior support, and regular updates. This allows you to create a more professional, functional website.

Some key advantages of premium themes include:

• More customizable design options like fonts, colors, and layouts
• Drag and drop page builders for easier editing
• Built-in SEO optimization
• Integrated ecommerce and membership features
• Top-notch customer support from theme developers
• Frequent updates and bug fixes
• Better performance and security
• Detailed documentation and tutorials

While free themes can still work well, premium options unlock more flexibility and power for your website. However, premium themes can get expensive, especially if you need multiple licenses. This guide will explore different methods of getting premium-quality themes 100% free. With some effort and creativity, you may never have to pay for premium WordPress themes again!

Types of Free Themes

There are several ways to get free premium website themes, but not all free themes are created equal. The most basic free themes typically come from large theme marketplaces like WordPress. These have very limited customization options and may quickly look outdated.

The WordPress theme directory offers hundreds of free themes anyone can download and install on their site. These are open source and functional, but often lack the polished design and robust options of premium commercial themes. They tend to have basic layouts, color schemes, fonts, and features. Some may not be optimized for speed or mobile design either.

While these basic free WordPress themes work, they offer less control and flexibility compared to premium options. You usually can't easily change the column layouts, fonts, colors, and other design elements. The free themes in the WordPress directory are a good starting point, but won't give you the high-end look and functionality most web design clients want these days.

WordPress Theme Directory

The WordPress Theme Directory is home to thousands of free themes that you can download and use on your WordPress site. This officially-sanctioned theme repository contains themes submitted by developers from around the world.

The major advantage of the Theme Directory is the sheer number and variety of free themes available. With thousands to choose from, you're very likely to find a theme that suits your needs, whether it's a simple blog, an online store, or a portfolio site. You can browse themes by various categories like blog, business, photography, etc. to narrow your search.

While having so many options is great, the downside is inconsistent quality across themes. Since the directory is open to submissions from anyone, theme quality can vary widely. Some themes meet high coding standards while others may have bugs or security vulnerabilities. It helps to read user reviews and ratings to gauge a theme's quality before installing it. Sticking with popular themes from well-known developers is generally a safer bet.

Overall, the WordPress Theme Directory should be one of your first stops when looking for a quality free theme. Just be selective in your choice and do some vetting beforehand. With a bit of searching, you're likely to find several suitable free theme options.

Customizing Existing Themes

One way to get a free premium-quality theme is by customizing an existing free theme to suit your needs. This allows you to take a basic theme and tweak it to have the features and design you want.

Child Themes

Creating a child theme is a great option if you want to modify a theme while still receiving updates from the parent theme. Child themes use the functionality of the parent theme while allowing you to override templates, stylesheets, and functions.

To create a child theme, simply make a new folder and style.css file. Reference the parent theme in the stylesheet header and enqueue the parent theme styles. Then any customizations like templates, css, and functions can go into the child theme folder.

This keeps your changes separate from the parent theme. When the parent theme is updated, the child theme will receive the updates too while your customizations remain intact.

Modifying Code

You can also directly modify theme code to add custom functionality and styling. This could involve editing existing templates, adding new template files, or changing style sheets.

Just be cautious when updating the theme, as your changes could be overwritten. Work in a development environment first before modifying a live site.

Changing Stylesheets

To change a theme's design and styling, you can override the stylesheets. For example, you could create a /css/custom.css file in your child theme folder. Then add any CSS modifications to override the parent theme's styles.

This allows updating the original stylesheets while ensuring your custom CSS remains in place. You can modify colors, fonts, spacing, layout, and more.

With some customization work, you can take a basic free theme and mold it into a premium-quality theme tailored to your website. This requires theme development skills but allows great control over the end result.

Theme Giveaways and Contests

Many theme developers will run giveaways and contests to promote new themes and build their email lists. This is a great way to get premium themes for free legally.

Theme developers often give away themes to build buzz and get more users trying out their products. They may offer a free new theme for newsletter signups, run contests on social media, or give away older themes they no longer sell.

Signing up for developer newsletters and following them on social media are good ways to find out about upcoming freebies and contests. Some developers run regular free theme giveaways.

The caveat is developers will require you to share your email address and subscribe to their lists. But you can always unsubscribe later. Just be prepared for promotional emails pitching their paid offerings.

Contests usually involve social media participation, like liking Facebook pages, sharing tweets, or posting images with a theme. This helps developers grow their audience. The prize is often a free theme download code.

So keep an eye out for promotions from popular theme companies. With a little effort, you can score high-quality premium WordPress themes at no cost through giveaways and contests. Just be ready to provide your email address in exchange.

Single-Use and Personal Themes

Many theme designers will create free themes for specific purposes or events that website owners can use for a limited time. These are essentially single-use themes offered for free with the intent that users will only use them temporarily.

For example, designers may create special holiday themes, like for Christmas or Halloween, that have decorative elements built into the theme. Website owners can activate these on their sites during the holiday season to change the look and feel, then switch back to their normal theme after the holiday passes.

Other examples are themes created for special events like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, conferences, or any other one-time event. The theme designer makes these available for free so people can use them to create a website for their special event.

The advantage of these types of single-use free themes is that they save you time and effort compared to having to build a custom theme from scratch. And because they are offered for free, there is no financial commitment.

The downside is that they are usually only made for specific purposes, so you are limited in how much you can modify or customize them. But for simple one-off uses, these free single-event or special purpose themes can be handy.

Free Theme Clubs and Communities

Joining a free theme club or community can be a great way to get access to premium quality themes without having to pay. Many of these clubs operate on a membership model, where you pay a small monthly or annual fee to gain access to a library of themes and other resources.

The advantage of joining one of these clubs is that members often get exclusive access to themes that aren't available to the general public. Most clubs partner with theme designers and developers to offer themes to their members before they are released elsewhere. So as a member, you can get your hands on cutting-edge themes.

Another benefit is access to a community forum. Most clubs have discussion forums where members can get support for any issues they have with the themes, making it easy to get help. You can also connect with other members to share tips and theme recommendations. The forum creates a helpful community around customizing and implementing the themes.

So if you want early access to premium-quality themes along with community support, joining a theme club membership site can be worthwhile. Just make sure to research the options, as some may have more themes or better forums than others. With an active community and frequently updated library, these clubs can be a fantastic resource for getting free premium themes.

Premium Theme Freemium Versions

Many premium theme creators offer free versions of their paid themes. These "freemium" themes provide basic functionality and design options to give users a preview of the premium theme. However, the free versions have limited features and customization compared to the full paid versions.

The free versions serve as a way for theme developers to promote their premium offerings. They allow users to test out the theme before committing to purchase the pro version. The free version will contain basic templates and design elements, but advanced features like additional page layouts, custom widgets, extra color schemes, and premium support will require upgrading to the paid theme.

For example, a freemium theme may only have options to change colors and fonts in the free version. But the pro version could have advanced styling controls, one-click design skins, animation effects, etc. The free version likely won't permit removing footer credits linking to the theme company either.

The goal is to entice users to pay for the premium version to unlock the full capabilities and customizations. Freemium themes let users get a feel for the theme quality and functionality, but limit what's available unless they upgrade to pro. So while they provide a free theme option, most features remain locked behind the paid version.

Learning to Create Themes

If you have some web development and design skills, learning to create your own custom WordPress themes can be a great way to get premium-quality designs for free. With a little time investment, you can create exactly the theme you want rather than relying on pre-made options.

There are a few different approaches to creating themes:

Using Templates and Frameworks

For beginners with limited coding expertise, a good option is to start with an existing theme framework or starter theme that already contains the core WordPress files and functionality. Popular frameworks like Underscores, GeneratePress, and Bootstrap provide a solid foundation to then customize and modify to your preferences. Most frameworks utilize standard languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript so you can tweak the code without advanced programming knowledge. This allows customizing things like the theme colors, fonts, layout, and more.

Developing Custom Code

For advanced developers and designers, building a theme from scratch allows for the most flexibility and control. This involves starting with a blank WordPress theme folder structure and hand-coding all the necessary template files, stylesheet, and functions. Proficiency with web languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP is required for this approach. The advantage is being able to fine-tune every aspect of the theme design and functionality exactly how you envision it. However, this approach requires more effort upfront before getting a workable theme compared to using an existing framework.

The great thing about creating your own WordPress theme is that it's a one-time effort. Once you have a custom theme, you can reuse it again and again on new sites and continue making enhancements over time. So learning these theme development skills can pay off in the long run with unlimited access to personalized premium-quality themes.

Conclusion

There are many ways to get free premium website themes if you know where to look and are willing to put in some effort. The WordPress theme directory offers thousands of free themes, some of which have premium-quality designs. Customizing existing free themes through CSS and plugins can also transform them into premium-like themes.

Participating in theme giveaways and contests run by theme companies is a great way to win free premium themes. Some theme companies also offer single-use or personal themes for free. Joining free theme clubs and communities gives you access to free themes and resources. Even premium theme companies usually offer freemium versions of themes with basic features. If you have design skills, you can also learn to create premium-quality themes yourself.

The key takeaways are:

• The WordPress theme directory has high-quality free themes. Look for themes with 4+ star ratings and recent updates.

• Customize free themes by editing CSS, using plugins like Elementor, and tweaking settings/options.

• Enter giveaways and contests to win free premium themes. Follow theme companies on social media for announcements.

• Check if theme companies offer single-use or personal themes for free. These have premium designs.

• Join free theme clubs and communities like WPBeginner to access curated free themes.

• Premium theme companies like Elegant Themes offer freemium versions of themes to try out.

• Learn theme development to create premium designs yourself. Start with a theme framework like Underscores.

With some effort and creativity, you can find high-quality premium website themes for free through various methods. The key is knowing where to look and how to customize existing resources.