Posted by Of recent, there are so many free WordPress themes all over the internet.
But how can you be assured that these free WordPress themes are safe for download and if they can give you exactly what you need (in terms of design and functionality) in your WordPress website?
Currently there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world of which WordPress powers 38% (over 455 million) of all the websites.
Many people would like to download and use those free WordPress themes. Though there is nothing wrong with that. It may be that you just started a new website or you don’t have enough money to go for premium themes.
In case if you don’t know how to get interesting answers to your questions in SERP, don’t worry you’re in the right place.
In this post I will cover all the necessary basis – Including: where to find those free WordPress themes, how to scan it to know if it contains any malware and how to upload/install it on your website.
I’ll also provide you a guide on how to properly set it up in your WordPress website (without any payment).
So keep reading.
Where to locate free WordPress themes
According to my research, free WordPress themes can be found in many third party websites. But some of them may not be legit due to the high rate of online hackers today.
If you’ve been following my previous articles, you’ll know that I like sharing to my noble readers the best and most recommended articles.
I will advise you to search for theme developers (people that create & design WordPress themes). From their website look for their free WordPress themes and select the one that best fit your business.
Most theme developers create free and premium version of a particular theme. The reason why they offer free version of their themes is to show you some of their works that is limited in functionality.
They will now show you things that they removed in the free version which were included in the premium version.
Of course all premium themes have theme documentation while some of the free WordPress themes don’t have it.
If you’re new to WordPress, read my guide on how to create a WordPress website.
Pros of free WordPress themes
- It has a limited feature – This sometimes helps website loading speed to be faster
- You can easily customize your website layout
- You don’t need to pay the developer before you can access it
- The codes that constitute the themes are simple
Cons of free WordPress themes
- Limited design and functionality – free themes lack good design and layout
- Restricted support options – theme developers offer support through their forums and they are not ready to reply questions in that forum
- You need to have knowledge of web design languages for you to customize your site
- They are not really unique – since the developer didn’t invest much time in designing it
Below are some recommended sites where you can find free WordPress themes
Before you can successfully obtain a WordPress theme that is free from malware, you need to make sure that you download from a reputable source.
That is websites that people recommends and sites that also provide premium themes if you wish to upgrade.
Also you need to scan every free theme to know if they contain any virus.
Official WordPress Theme Directory
This is a web page where the owners of WordPress and some theme developers publish free themes for people to select and install.
This is a reputable source and I placed it as the first acceptable web pages where you can find free WordPress themes that is free from malware.
Currently they have over 8,000 themes in their theme directory. They also provide options like: popular, latest, ⚙ Feature Filter; which will help you to easily find themes that best suit your website.
They provide you options for you to preview the theme before you can download the zip file.
Although some of their themes are of low quality and you have to customize a lot even when you have imported the Demo Content.
Themegrill
This website offers both free and premium WordPress themes. With this you don’t have to be worried if their themes are infected with virus.
They offer those free themes to get your attention, then they will show you their well-designed premium themes in case if you wish to upgrade.
Themegrill provides you features like:
Documentation – this will be a guideline when customizing and importing the Demo contents.
Support – in case if you encountered any challenge, you can easily contact theme for help.
Changelog – this contains all the changes they’ve made since the time they developed that theme.
aThemes
They provide with good professional looking themes. They have different demo designs of which you can select your favorable design from a particular theme.
aThemes offers their users a free theme support in their forum and theme documentation. They created a platform for answering questions regarding the challenges their users encountered following their theme documentation.
Themeisle
Themeisle provides you with lightweight free WordPress themes fast speed grade. Some of their themes loads under 1 second.
Another advantage is that their page size is well optimized.
Mythemeshop
Mythemeshop offers quality themes with nice layout and their website is trusted by thousands of users around the globe.
Rarathemes
They offer responsive free WordPress themes with awesome designs. A free text documentation will be delivered to you if you download their free WordPress theme.
Rarathemes also provides catalog to show the difference between their free vs premium themes may be if you want to upgrade your plan.
Justfreewpthemes
Justfreewpthemes offers free blog/magazine WordPress themes with responsive layout, premium design and free for download.
They review themselves as the Better Free WordPress Theme Directory!
How to scan any free WordPress theme from virus
One of the most recognized online scanning website in the world is VirusTotal. VirusTotal which Microsoft recommends, uses over 60 antivirus scanners and URL/domain blacklisting services to check if your files and URL has been flagged for malware.
According to Wazuh, VirusTotal is an online service that analyzes files and URLs enabling the detection of viruses, worms, trojans and other kinds of malicious content using antivirus engines and website scanners. It also can be used to detect false positives.
VirusTotal is a free service with numerous features that make its use very interesting.
Currently VirusTotal allows their users to upload maximum file size of 650MB. This include zip files and other files.
From my research, I found out that VirusTotal is owned by Google.
How to properly use VirusTotal to scan your free WordPress themes
I’ll show you how to scan any WordPress theme (zip files) using VirusTotal before you upload it to your WordPress website. All you have to do is to follow the steps below.
Step 1: Go to the website
Visit VirusTotal.com > click on File then click on Choose file.
Step 2: Select and upload your file
After you have clicked on Choose file, a pop up will open. From that pop up you can now select your file.
In this article I will upload a free WordPress theme and allow the website to scan it for me. I intentionally used this example to show you how to scan free WordPress themes from virus.
I uploaded a free WordPress theme called Narrator, see the scanned result in the step below.
Step 3: view your scanned result
When you upload your file (theme) that is in zip format, VirusTotal will quickly go through all the files in that files and check if there is any malware in it.
From the scanned result, there are three sections which will give you more info about the scanned file. They are: Detection, Details, and Relations. You can navigate through this sections to view other scanned info.
With the above guide you can easily scan all free WorsPress themes that you may wish to use in your website.
If you want to install free themes easily from your WordPress dashboard without downloading and uploading the zip file, follow the guide below ↓↓↓
Install free WordPress themes directly from your WordPress dashboard
You can also install free WordPress themes into your dashboard directly from WordPress theme directory.This is a reputable source and you can bypass scanning the theme and install straightaway from your dashboard.
To achieve this – login to your WordPress dashboard > go to Appearance > Themes > Add new
You may need to view the theme details and the demo before installing it.
If you didn’t find your favorite theme in the first page, use the: search, popular, latest, favorites and ⚙feature filter; to look for your suitable theme.
How to install themes on WordPress
I will provide you a simple guide on how you can install a theme on your WordPress. You can either upload a zipped (.zip) theme or you can install directly from WordPress theme directory.
Upload a theme (zip file)
Login to your WordPress dashboard i.e. https://yoursite.com/wp-admin
Go to Appearance > Themes > Add new > Upload Theme. A box will drop down which you will browse zip themes within your computer. Then click on Install Now to install the theme.
I will advise you to only upload the themes that you have scanned using VirusTotal to avoid having issues when using your theme.
Installing directly from WordPress theme directory
WordPress usually comes with a default theme. In case if you don’t like it and wish to find other free themes from your dashboard, read this section (above this current section) →→→ Install WordPress themes directly from your WordPress dashboard.
When you’re through uploading or installing your theme, you can now start customizing your theme. This includes adding: logo, site title, description, editing the footer, changing theme color; etc.
Conclusion
Of a truth if you’ve followed this article sequentially, you must have known where to find free WordPress themes, how to scan them from virus and how to upload it to your WordPress website.
This guide showed you the best known websites where you can find free amazing WordPress themes.
I also reveals the best online file scanner for scanning your free WordPress themes before you can upload to your website.
From research, many people start their website with free themes to save the cost of web development at the initial.
They may upgrade to a premium theme when they start earning from their website and requires more features.
Share this knowledge to your friends. Your comments will be appreciated if you have any.
Best
Thanks
If some one wishes expert view regarding blogging
then i recommend him/her to pay a visit this website, Keep up the good work.
Thanks for recommending my website.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later
on. Cheers
Am glad that you like my articles as well as my blog design.
Keep visiting my blog.
Its such as you read my mind! You appear to know a lot approximately this, like you wrote the e-book in it or something.
I feel that you can do with a few percent to pressure the message home a bit, however other than that, this is excellent blog.
An excellent read. I will certainly be back.
Am happy that you find my articles helpful.
Keep visiting. More new articles are coming up.
I seriously love your blog.. Great colors & theme.
Did you create this website yourself? Please reply back as I’m trying to create
my own personal website and would love to find out where you got this
from or exactly what the theme is called. Kudos!
I created it by myself although with the help of a theme.
Am a web developer so I designed a lot in this website.
If you want me to design a website for you, use the contact form to contact me
Hi there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using?
I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m having
a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for
something unique. P.S Apologies for
being off-topic but I had to ask!
Its not a problem if you’re asking off-topic question.
This is an open platform. So you’re free to ask your questions.
Concerning your Questions, I’m using WordPress for this blog but I designed a lot for it to look awesome like this.