One big advantage WordPress has over other CMS software is that it is very easy to customize and create themes for. This has created an ever-growing marketplace of premium WordPress themes. No matter what your website is about, if you have some money to spend, you can find the right theme for you!
Over the years, we saw the creation of WordPress theme clubs, which are subscription-based membership websites where you can download any theme in their inventory for one low monthly or yearly price. Some of these clubs are Elegant Themes, WooThemes, StudioPress, and Themify.
You can also individually buy WordPress themes at other places such as ThemeForest, where theme developers sell their own themes. We at AdFicient tend to prefer this method as there is a larger selection and the themes offered are generally more unique. Of course, if we’re developing a custom theme for a client, then we prefer to start from scratch using one of the many starter WordPress themes -- I’ll go over that process in a future article.
Last time I shared the 10 Best Free WordPress Themes of 2013 and recently published a follow-up feature, 10 Best Free WordPress Themes of 2014.
However, if you want something a little more unique -- and you have some money to spend -- check out my list of the 10 Best Paid WordPress Themes of 2013:
1. Panic Station - $45
Panic Station is a responsive theme that has a beautiful full-screen background support. Not only does this theme look great, it also has slick effects and page transitions. Everything on this theme is unique and designed specifically for it. It is truly one of this year’s most unique WordPress themes.
2. Weald - $40
The main reason I included this theme in this list is because it is one of the cleanest themes you can buy. Although this is mainly a portfolio theme, it could be used for various other purposes as well. It has the most common features such as responsive design, unlimited color schemes, portfolio with multiple categories, and so on.
3. Braxton - $45
Braxton is a beautiful magazine-style WordPress theme packed with features such as featured headline, infinite scroll, sticky navigation and sidebar, featured slider on category pages, and unlimited colors. While this theme would not be great for all websites, it would be amazing for a magazine. The second you look at it, you know it is a website of a magazine.
4. Simplicity - $45
Simplicity could be described as 3D flat design theme. It is flat design in nature but has 3D effect for an extra kick. The design looks similar to what Google has been doing lately because they tend to add sharp drop shadow effects to their flat design elements (such as icons). Simplicity has a multi-purpose layout, it’s very customizable, and has full social media integration.
5. Chariot - $40
If you’re a fan of flat design, then this is one theme you should try. The theme has awesome features such as responsive design and retina-ready, wide and boxed layouts, shortcode generator, page builder, and much more. Chariot is very minimal and simple; you’ll find it difficult to find any clutter here. Everything works flawlessly and scrolling through the design is an experience for your users.
6. Atlas Directory & Listings - $55
Atlas is quite possibly the best directory and listings theme for WordPress. It is packed with useful features such as membership, PayPal and Stripe payment support, email notifications, dashboards, and much more. This is one of those themes that takes full advantage of Google Maps, which makes it that much cooler.
7. Barberry - $55
Barberry is a Swiss design-inspired eCommerce theme that fully supports the WooCommerce plugin. It is built on the Bootstrap framework and fully responsive as well as retina-ready. There are literally too many features to list; however, once you look at the theme, you will see what I mean. Barberry is a very minimal theme and doesn’t use much color in the design, which makes your products become the focal point of the website.
8. Million - $45
Million is a responsive, retina-ready, multi-purpose theme with a clean layout and a unique navigation design. Its advanced admin panel allows you to change things such as logo, styling, header info, fonts, and most other things in the design. You can also select between boxed and full-width layouts. If you want your website to pop, this is definitely a great theme to try.
9. Retro - $45
OK, we all know that flat design is “in” right now, but this theme proves that skeuomorphism can still work well on websites. It is fitting that this theme is called Retro so the case can be made for heavy usage of textures and patterns. The theme includes all the most important features such as unlimited colors, sliders, and integrated shortcodes.
10. Safarica - $40
Safarica is a colorful and creative blogging theme. It is highly customizable and comes with many layout templates to fit any situation. One of the layouts that I love is the tiled posts layout, which is set on a fixed background image so that it feels very spacious and dimensional when scrolling through.
Conclusion
Although there are hundreds of other well-designed and developed WordPress themes released this year, these 10 are the ones I like the most. I tried to include themes that have several different design styles and usages so that they’d be relevant to as many people as possible.
What’s your favorite paid WordPress theme this year? Let us know in the comments.
