If you've been blogging for awhile or looking to start up a more professional blog for your business then ultimately you'll want to invest in a premium blog theme. Premium blog themes offer benefits that free themes do not such as support, admin control panel options, advanced ad features, etc. Since I am a huge fan of wordpress and have been using it for over 4 years now I have come across (I think) almost every premium wordpress developer ever. This isn't however an exhaustive list because I looked at which developers are still upgrading their themes (to atleast WP 3.7). If I found a developer who's last blog post was several months ago with no mention of theme upgrades I didn't include it. There's no reason for me to promote outdated themes so I excluded them. So here they are, wordpress developers currently producing the best premium themes on the market.
This post has been updated (12/8/2013) to remove any broken links. Some of these companies no longer exist. So I unlinked them.
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Thesis stands above all the rest in its advanced features. From layout options, typographic control to built in SEO capabilities Thesis is really a steal at the price. This site is powered by Thesis! Be sure to check out the demo. |
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iThemes has been around a long time. They offer a wide array of premium wordpress themes for every type of site imaginable. From corporate themes to themes for photographers iThemes offers something for everyone. |
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StudioPress premium themes are perfect for a small business or an individual looking to establish their online presence with WordPress. We offer professional services for internet marketing, search engine optimization, content management, blog and web design. |
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Woo Themes have made a name for themselves by offering a large number of high quality premium wordpress themes. You can join their membership club or purchase only one at a time. You'll be hard-pressed to not find a theme you're looking for. |
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RichWP offers a number of professional themes to choose from. Even though they are new to the theme market they offer themes that are unique and worthy of promotion. Especially unique are their photoblog themes. |
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Elegant Themes offers a wide range of themes you can gain access to by joining their club. And for only $20 a year this is one of the cheapest clubs around. Elegant Themes also releases themes on a regular basis so be sure to check them out. |
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Gorilla Themes really shines when it comes to producing premium themes for real estate agents. They offer quite possibly the best looking wordpress themes for real estate around. Don't overlook their other themes though. |
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Graph Paper Press offers a wide range of premium wordpress themes. From magazine style themes to themes built specifically for photographers or media producers. A lot of the themes are free as well. Great use of javascript should be mentioned. |
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Arthemia is only one of the main themes that Colorlabs produces. Perfect for blogs with a lot of content, If you are running an online magazine or a corporate website, Arthemia Premium might just be the solution you're looking for. |
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Wp Remix makes all you control freaks content with a premium blog theme that is highly customizable. If you're comfortable with a WYSIWYG editor and want a theme with unlimited ability then check out WP Remix. You won't be disappointed.*No Longer Online |
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Theme Galaxy offers 8 premium wordpress themes to choose from. If you're comfortable editing theme files you might want to take a look at their theme andromeda. If you're developer these could be the themes for you.*No longer link worthy |
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Unique Blog Designs offers a great niche of premium blog designs for those that are concentrated on earning money from their sites. They really focus on the affiliate marketer and offer a range of themes that don't disappoint.*No longer a theme company |
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Gabfire Themes offers premium wordpress themes that are perfect if you want to run a magazine style blog or have tons of content. They currently offer 5 different themes to choose from and from the demos you can see that content is what these themes love. |
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Zidalgo is a premium wordpress theme vendor that offers 4 premium wordpress themes with clean code. If you can't find what your looking for from the many other wordpress vendors try them. Definetely worth giving a look.*No longer online. |
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Themeshift is run by Simon Rimkus, a German web designer who has been designing wordpress themes since 2007. His designs are very clean and professional looking. What others offer in quantity Simon offers in Quality. Check them out. |
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ThemeForest… What's there to say. If you you haven't browsed the unique wordpress themes at Themeforest you're really missing out. Tons of designers and tons of themes. You're bound to find what you're looking for here. |
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PremiumThemes offers a theme club where for one price you can download and use any theme you like and they create new themes every month. R.Bavesh is the founder and has produced some nice themes to check out.*No longer a theme company |
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SoloStream designs and delivers Premium WordPress Themes that make it easier and more cost effective for small business owners to connect with their customers, make a name for themselves and earn more money. |
If you're a wordpress theme developer developing premium themes and you're not on this list please don't hesitate to contact me.
Hi,
I am just confused. I really now cant decide which one to use. I have Artisteer but that does not give you real things you need.
I like the thesis but it is mostly a default one which you need to add the others things yourself. If i took time to customize it why do I need that? I can just create my own.
They do not give demo so I can check which I think they are hiding real weaknesses.
I kind liked forest but I am not sure they are doing good with SEO. Thesis does well with SEO but not in Design.
Did you sort from highest to lowest or just as you collected?
Which one do you suggest to use for myself and for my clients?
I am still stick to Forest which has everything there but I am not sure. Arthmenia is good but not for SEO.
What it seems that the themes are professional for design is not good for SEO and vice versa?
I would like to hear from author.
Yes Elik,
Finding the perfect theme is hard. You have to balance SEO with something that looks good. Luckily I’m going to be releasing some skins for Thesis that should help out people who like Theisis but don’t like the way it looks out of the box. Theisis is pretty bland out of the box and for newbies it can be quite hard to customize. That’s why I’m creating some custom Thesis skins for it. Seriously, should help out a lot.
Thanks,
I like Thesis because of their SEO Part but then you have to sit down and work on it for a lot customization. I think that would be waste of time.
I am somehow liked Theme forest but probably they rarely care about SEO. They all seems fancy designers.
Yes. You are right that it is very hard to find something with good SEO and call to action Design. But in Theme Forest I liked Fancy Theme which gives kind of Good Design and Good blogging. I am undecided. The problems come with word press themes is their headers. They put a lot of coding java which makes harder for crawling. Thanks for reply but I am not planning to buy Thesis.
When there are a lot of things, you are becoming confused which to choose.