My 10 Favorite Premium Theme Providers

I remember the first time I used WordPress, before I learned how to make themes. I would spend hours on Google searching for some nice free themes. If I remember correctly the only premium theme available at the time was Premium News by Adii. From then there has been a lot of WordPress Theme Developers that have decided to create there own premium themes. Over at WordPress.org you can find a long list of sites that offer commercial themes. But on this list not all themes are of exceptional quality or have the best of the themes available now a days.

Today I decided to create a list of WordPress Premium Theme site that offer the some of the best looking themes, or pretty darn good support. I will be making small comments on how i feel about the themes, prices, services and such.

Lets start with some of the most known now a days.

WooThemes

They have 59 themes at the moment from which 9 are free. You can either buy single themes for the price of $70 for a "Standard" package or $150 for the "Developers" package. Or you can even subscribe to there theme club. I personally haven't used a theme by them but I do have various friends that use(d) one or more themes and say that the quality of support is impressive. I have tested there themes threw a WordPress MU installation they have, that allows you to try out there themes for a period of 24 hours. Did i mention they are PRO-GPL?

Elegant Themes

This has to be the cheapest theme club available right now. For the price of $19.95 you get a one-year subscription. Currently they have 30 themes available. I must say that there latest themes look amazing. They were the first to make there own framework for the themes option panel, since then a lot of theme companies have followed there steps on this path.
Here at Slimmity we are currently giving away 3 subscriptions to there theme club. Click to find out more.

StudioPress

StudioPress doesn't only have 14 themes but it has its own theme framework called Genesis. Genesis was actually launched yesterday. Of course most premium theme companies now a days have there own frameworks but they use them to create there theme, rather then offering it so others can make there own themes. You can buy individual themes for $59.95 or get there Pro-Plus that includes all there themes along with all future themes (this is a lifetime subscription!). They also offer you a 25% discount if you purchased either a StudioPress or Revolution theme. And they are GPL Friendly.

ThemeForest

This might be one of the biggest out there, and that's because ThemeForest is a marketplace. It has over 2.000 items available from PSD designs to WordPress and some other CMS'. There's many good things to say about this marketplace, choose to say that they spend money to get buyers for your items. On the buyers side it could be a little bad that they don't force sellers to give support for there themes. But then again not offering support would decrease your sells. You can even find people on there forums that more then happily would customize the themes you buy for a small fee. The prices on the themes can go any where from $10 to $40, there's 2 types of licenses single use and extended. The extended license costs 15 times the single use licenses price.

Obox Designs

Offering 11 WordPress theme with out of the box designs, i have to say there themes are unique not only because of the design but how they use the colors. Maybe at a simple glance you might think there out of there minds with some of there themes but I see them and say "If only i could find a use for them". Not only do there themes support WordPress but some microblogging platforms like Tumblr and Posterous. Obox Designs offers 2 different licenses for there WordPress themes, Single user that costs $50 and Developer that goes for $100, the only difference is that a Developer gets a layered PSD file along with there theme.

Theme Hybrid

This is a theme framework from where you can download all the themes for no cost at all. But they do offer a payed subscription that makes you eligible for there quality tutorials and support forums. The cost for the two previously mentioned services is $25 per year, which is really cheap if you think about it.

AgentPress

I can say that this is the best Real Estate theme I have ever used. Easy to customize and manipulate to fit your needs. Even the default design of this theme is very pretty. The only thing that I dislike of this theme is the price. The theme its self costs $99.95 but if your a really basic user you can pay an extra of up to $200 to get it installed on your server along with some SEO and needed plugins.

Pro Theme Design

With only 5 themes under the belt ProThemeDesign is still well known for the simplicity and efficiency that there themes offer. All there themes have a clean and soft feel, but without leaving a side the usability and simplicity a theme should have.

WP Zoom

They started as a WordPress related blog offering occasional themes mostly premium, after some time the owners decided that they would concentrate in creating premium themes rather then content for the blog. They currently have 15 themes available. There themes are well done, I have tried the theme called "Gallery" and must say that everything looked pretty good. Only thing that i didn't like about it was the documentation. It was minimal and not that helpful. The price for a single license is $69 and for $149 you can get a developers license.

ThemeJam

A brand new company that just lunched yesterday. As of now they are offering 2 premium themes and 1 free theme. I was lucky enough to be chosen beta tester before the launch, the themes are pretty nice but they are kind of hard to customize entirely. ThemeJam offers there themes in various packs. Email templates, html & css template and of course WordPress. The prices start at $19 for email template, $29 for html and $59 for WordPress. You can get all the versions of template you wish for $99. Price isn't that high considering most companies sell there themes for $70-90. This one is really worth trying out.

Final Note

I'm aware there are way more sites to buy themes from then these 10, and I'm pretty sure you have your own different opinion for the companies mentioned in this post. But I must point out that this is how I feel about them. If you wish to express your opinion leave it in the comments so everyone knows what you feel.