Where to find premium and free WordPress themes

It’s often said that how you look defines who you are. This is particularly true for your blog or website: if it looks good there’s a change it is good, so users will want to stick around a little longer. That’s why is important to invest time and/or money in a design that differentiates your website from the other hundred millions on the Internet.

What I want to do with this post is make a list of  websites that offer Free or Premium (paid) themes for WordPress, the most used blogging platform in the world. Even if ‘free’ sounds good I recommend you choose a paid theme (that will be used by few blogs) or pay someone to make a custom theme that best suits your blogs’ target audience.

Free themes directories for WordPress

Let’s see what are the best free WordPress themes websites around the web:

• WordPress.org website – the official website of WordPress offers some good themes to choose from. Unfortunately the new version offers few sorting options so you’ll have to browse each page
• Topwpthemes.com - you can sort theme by number of columns, adsense ready, fixed width, widget ready and so on.
• Bestwpthemes.com – it’s not a collection of themes but a collection of articles that point to themes by different criteria: best themes for small businesses, best themes for freelancers and so on. It also has premium paid themes
• Themespreview.com – a themes directory with nice previews, many sorting options and user ratings

Paid premium WordPress themes directories

Here’s where you should look if you’re planning to get some income from your blog. A premium WordPress themes guaranties that you won’t find if on your neighbor’s blog. Let’s see some websites that offer this kind of service:

• Premiumwp.com – this is the place for themes that will change the look of WordPress so bad that users won’t know that you use a free CMS platform
• Woothemes.com – as the name says, here you’ll find themes that will make you say “woo, that looks nice”. You can buy one theme at a time or signup for membership
• Dailywptheme.com – a collection of themes from various providers with a few sorting options

What I didn’t find

…is a website which offers extensive sorting options. Many times I know what I’m looking for: for example a simple theme, two column, light colors, widget ready, WordPress 2.8+ compatible and without needing any plugins. When you know what you’re looking for is hard to filter all the themes around without proper tools.

What websites do you use when you look for a WordPress theme and why?