Two years ago, it would have been difficult to fathom the number of premium theme designers on the market. Today, there are dozens, and it can be difficult to separate the best from the worst. Many are delivering stunning products that can suit a wide range of blogs, while others focus on smaller niches, like video or business themes.
We have traditionally reviewed a number of the top theme designers, as they have continued to deliver upon their promises – providing elegant, well-designed themes and offering additional bonuses and world-class support. However, in this review, the top theme {premium} theme designers will be pitted against one another, so you can easily see the designers that stand out from the rest.
We focused on the designers that offer a number of themes, or at a minimum, frameworks that stand out from the rest. If you have any other suggestions to add to the list, please leave a comment. They are listed in alphabetical order.
1. Aloha Themes
Owned and operated by Bernadot Studios, LLC, the company behind the themes has been in business since 2003 with over twelve years of web design experience. They are a branch of the Gorilla Themes brand after the two partners moved down separate paths.
Their themes are modern and are typically priced around $75. Currently, they are only carrying the themes from the Gorilla Themes partnership, but will be expanding in the future.
Licensing is under the GPL.
2. Colorlabs Project
Themes by Michael Jubel Hutagalung are ideal for people who want content-rich themes that don’t break your budget. They are priced at $50 and $70 each for single-user licenses. Each theme, Arthemia and Platformate include advanced features that allow you to create a portal for your visitors, whether your focus is on news, providing tutorials, or even as a personal blog if you integrate a lot of content.
3. DIY Themes
Although the DIY Themes focuses solely on the Thesis Theme, there are many child themes that can be used to create a unique look with the theme. As a framework, it provides exceptional SEO, accessibility, usability, and flexibility, allowing you to instantly create a great site without having to re-code the back-end of the theme.
It is priced a little steep at $87 for a personal option, but you do receive lifetime theme updates, access to the Thesis Forums, and additional styles.
4. Elegant Themes
For those on a tight budget, you can’t really go wrong with what Elegant Themes offers – unlimited access to all their themes for just $39.00 per year. With more than twenty-six themes, you can use the themes without single-use or developer licenses (there aren’t limitations) and there is a theme that you’ll find desirable for your next project.
Looking over their six latest themes, you’ll find a news/magazine theme, a bold magazine/blog theme, a photography/showcase theme, a unique small business template, and two other typographic-rich clean magazine themes. All have advanced customization panels, are widget-ready, and compatible with most modern browsers.
5. Gabfire Themes
Gabfire’s themes are all unique, focusing on the magazine and showcase/photography niches. Priced at $59 apiece, they are still quite affordable considering the number of features and options packed into each theme. Deals will allow you to save even more; for example, there is a “Five for One” deal, in which you can get five of their themes for the price of one.
Licensing is under the GPL.
6. Gorilla Themes
With both magazine and real estate themes, Gorilla Themes packs a lot of bang for your buck. Most of their themes are about $80, but are all optimized, include a ton of features, and make it easy to build a business around your site.
The purchase of their themes allows you to access their dedicated support forums where you will find tehme updates, full theme documentation, as well as tutorials.
Licensing is under the GPL.
7. Headway Themes
Headway is similar to DIY Themes in the way it will be delivering themes – focusing on a single theme framework and possibly introducing child themes in the future. Designed to make creating a unique site easy, the theme is ideal for both developers and designers in the way it can be customized. Introducing a revolutionary layout editor, design options, configuration panel, and search engine optimized code, it packs a lot of features in one small package.
At $87 and $164 for a personal and developer package, respectively, it is priced in the same range as the Thesis Theme and bundles a lot more features, in my opinion. Video tutorials and introductions are available even before you begin using the theme.
8. iThemes
iThemes has a great collection of business, “Web 2.0,” blogger-inspired, and flexible themes that are all ideal for taking your site to the next level. While pricing is around $80 for each theme, you’ll find that they have packages and bundles that make them much more affordable.
With well-designed code, special plugin integration, and a good number of unique features, their themes stand out from the rest of the pack.
Licensing is under the GPL.
9. iWak Themes
iWak’s themes are plug-and-play, with no need for additional tutorials and options to help you get the theme customized to your liking. Rich theme options, multiple color schemes, and flexible advertisement management allow the themes to be set up within a matter of just a few minutes.
Licensing is under the GPL.
10. NattyWP
Twenty-four themes are currently available from NattyWP, each designed professionally for either bloggers or people looking to make an impact online. Many of their themes come packaged with alternative page templates, custom widgets and additional color schemes. All of these options can be configured within the theme’s back-end panel.
Pricing starts at $45 for individual themes (single-user license) and $75 for a three month membership to their themes club that gives you access to all their themes.
11. Obox Design
Obox Design focuses on a simple pricing format and a combination of options and designs that blow most other themes right out of the water. A dedicated support forum is available for people who have purchased themes. Focused on bloggers and people who publish multimedia to their sites, their themes are all well-designed and can suit a large portion of the blogs out there.
Licensing is under the GPL.
12. Omni Theme
In some ways, the Omni Theme (both the standard and professional versions) are the perfect themes for social media sites. They are user-friendly, affordably priced at $80, and contain a number of different styles that you can choose from to give your site a unique look.
13. One Theme
Starting at $99, Omni Theme packs a lot of “non-standard” features, making it ideal for businesses and personal blogs, as there are various styles available to suit your personal tastes.
Thumbnail generators, localization tools, various homepage layouts, and easy image uploads makes the themes easy to use and manage.
14. Templatic
Templatic has recently been branching out with more advanced, CMS-like themes that allow you to take your site to a whole new level and focus on specific niches. For example, take a look at their latest themes – Grace was created for church and ministry sites, Snippet was created for photographers and people who want a more divided theme, while MagFolio is for designers and people who want to showcase their work online.
A Themes Club is available for $299.00, which is more expensive than others, but comes out on top of others that offer a per-month membership. You’ll also find most of their themes in the $39 to $59 price range, depending on their release date and the number of features.
15. Press75
Press75 offers some of the best video themes available on the market. Themes are priced at $75 per theme, or $275 for all their themes (past, present, and future). Custom back-end panels and unique plugins have been integrated, which all combine to make uploading video and sharing content with others extremely easy and pleasurable.
Licensing is under the GPL.
16. Pro Theme Design
The Mimbo Pro WordPress Theme is one of the most advanced themes on the market. It is priced at $80 and can be used much like the other parent/child themes on the market to customize your theme. It combines first-class HTML and CSS, along with a comprehensive control panel to make it easy to manage and utilize the theme’s features.
Licensing is under the GPL.
17. RichWP
RichWP offers state-of-the-art WordPress content management system themes that combine professionally-optimized for search engine results, are widget-ready, and have easy installation and support guides. Themes are priced at around $60 and an all-themes package is available for $249.
Licensing is under the GPL.
18. ShoppingThemes
ShoppingThemes is a designer that focuses on unique themes, including domain parking, shopping cart, and Twitter microsite themes. Themes are affordably priced, at just $15.
Licensing is under the GPL.
19. Solostream
With themes at around $79 for single-user licenses (for more advanced themes), they are affordable and feature-packed with plenty of options. For example, the latest theme includes nine different color options, custom footer widgets, custom page options, and all the standard WordPress features.
Their themes focus on the magazine and business market, as their themes are professional in nature and packed with many unique features.
20. StudioPress
StudioPress Themes are professionally designed and are by the same designer as the popular “Revolution Theme” series that helped launch the magazine/premium themes surge. Their themes are perfect for small businesses or individuals looking to establish their online presence with WordPress. Some of the main features of their themes: professionally search engine optimized, easy-to-use theme options pages, widget-ready and advertising-ready, includes PSD files to customize themes, and each purchase includes lifetime support and detailed theme tutorials.
Individual themes cost $59.95 and your can purchase all their themes for $199.95.
Licensing is under the GPL.
21. StyleWP
StyleWP offers a wide selection of professional and clean WordPress themes, both for news and professional sites. All their themes feature a free developer’s license, built-in theme options panel, and comprehensive user guides. Most of their themes are in the $20 to $40 range, making them affordable, especially for the number of features that each includes.
22. SuperStar Themes
The themes by SuperStar Themes are well-designed, flexible, and are easy to customize. They are priced at $39 for a single-user and $69 for a developer license. Threaded comment support, multiple color schemes, and slideshows are built into many of their themes.
23. Templamatic
Templamatic allows you to sell and purchase themes. Their themes vary in price and style, but they are generally blog and business-oriented. XHTML/CSS themes area also available.
24. Theme Spinner
Theme Spinner offers professional themes for bloggers that have clean layouts and designs. Each of their themes are widget-ready, AdSense-ready, Gravatar-ready, and contain the logo PSDs. Their themes run from $39 to $59, depending on the number of features and when it was released.
25. Theme Wars
Vote for the top designs on Theme Wars, with the top one available for purchase. Multiple-use packages are available for $69, while the developer packages are $149. You’ll find that most contain powerful theme control panels, options available to upload your logo with one-click, and featured content sliding galleries.
Licensing is under the GPL.
26. ThemeForest
ThemeForest allows you to rate, browser, and purchase through a large selection of premium themes – over three hundred to be exact. All the themes are extremely affordable, at between $10 and $40.
Licensing is under the GPL.
27. ThemeShift
Headed by Simon Rimkus, there are currently three professional magazine and real estate themes on the site, each unique. Pricing starts at 39 €.
Licensing is under the GPL.
28. Viva Themes
Their themes are professional and high in quality. Each are compatible with WordPress, have 100% table-less CSS designs, and have advanced theme option panels. Pricing is around $45 for each.
Licensing is under the GPL.
29. WooThemes
WooThemes features themes for all types of web publishers. They are known for top-notch support and extremely feature-packed. New themes are released monthly and you’ll surely find a theme that suits your tastes.
Pricing is $70 for a standard package, with the Theme Club Memberships starting at $125+$15 per month.
Licensing is under the GPL.
30. WordPress Themes Market
All WTM Themes contain valid, compatible, code, are plugin-ready, contain monetization options, and you can also get free installation support. Free updates will be provided forever.
Regular licenses are about $47, while developer licenses are about $197.
31. WP Now
WP Now offers professional themes starting at a low price. Great support, competitive prices, and quality themes are some of the biggest highlights of the themes from WP Now. Their themes start at just $29.
32. WP Zoom
WP Zoom offers professional themes for businesses, photographers, and bloggers. Each are high in quality and ideal for a large portion of blogs. Their themes are in the range of $69 to $149, depending on the theme and the particular package (single or developer license).
33. Zidalgo Themes
Zidalgo’s themes are $75 each and give you access to their themes for a single site. Developer licenses are $249, allowing you to use a single theme on an unlimited number of domains. Each theme is carefully designed to cater to the needs of bloggers. News, social networking, and image features are integrated into many of their themes.
Conclusion
All of the theme designers listed above offer great features and benefits that many free theme designers do not offer. With the wide variety of theme clubs and offers available, you can will be able to find many themes that are priced at under $100 and packed with all the necessary features.
What premium theme designer is your favorite – which of those listed above do you prefer to go to when you need a professional theme, and what has your experience been with premium themes?
