When you decide to start a new web project based on WordPress you have many options for themes. You can look for a free theme from the WordPress Themes gallery or from one of the many WordPress theme websites that are available. You can hire a designer to create a custom WordPress theme for you, but when you are just starting out that could be more than you are willing or wanting to spend. A compromise between using a free theme and getting a custom made WordPress theme is to use a WordPress premium theme.

The difference between most free WordPress themes and a WordPress premium theme is the level of support. Most WordPress premium themes offer a support and upgrade package to keep the theme up to date and working with new versions of WordPress. Each premium theme package is different so you need to make sure you read the details about the theme. Aside from support options most premium themes set themselves apart by the number of options that you can set from inside of WordPress itself without the need to know any programming. There is definitely a higher level of quality programming that goes into a premium theme and they are well worth spending some money on if you want a high quality, well coded, and graphically pleasing theme.

Thesis

Thesis is one of those premium themes that really does set itself apart from other premium themes. The customization you can do to Thesis without knowing any coding is pretty amazing. You have probably seen a blog using Thesis and did not know it. It is highly configurable and is a great choice for people that want a great looking theme. I have considered purchasing the Thesis developers option myself for use on some of my own personal web projects. It would be money well spent.

Price: $87.00 for Personal option licence, $164.00 Developers option.

*WooThemes

WooThemes offers some fantastic themes for a WordPress website. You can purchase an individual theme or join their theme club and have access to all of their themes. I have tested out some of the free themes they offer and was very impressed with them. They do offer some themes for free if you want to try one out before you purchase one of their themes of join the theme club. Overall they have some very nice themes available.

Price: For individual themes - Single User License is $70.00. A Developer license is $150.00. The Theme club prices start at $150.

StudioPress (Revolution)

The Revolution premium theme was literally a revolution for premium themes. It might have been the first to actually catch my eye as a premium theme and set itself apart from other WordPress themes. Revolution has now been rebranded as StudioPress, and while you can’t find the original Revolution or Revolution 2 themes on the site, there are some great themes available. Themes are still released under the GPL license and when you purchase a theme package you are purchasing a support package. StudioPress themes are excellent and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a premium theme for their WordPress powered site.

Price: Packages start at $59.00.

WP Remix

WP Remix is similar to Thesis above in some ways. One theme can be adapted to many different styles. The default style is nice on it own but with an additonal 50 page layouts to choose from the WP Remix theme is many themes in one. WP Remix is a solid premium theme that would be very useful for a WordPress website for either business or personal use.

Price: Single use license $75.00. Multiple use license $275.00

Thematic

I was not sure if I should place Thematic in this post, because it is not really a premium theme, rather it is a WordPress theme framework. You can build on top of Thematic to create premium themes. It is open source, highly extensible, and search engine friendly. It might be more appropriate for those that want to build their own custom theme, but there are premium themes built on top of Thematic. These are called child themes or Thematic Themelets. The two complete Themelets that are available at the Thematic website are Acamas and Travailler. Both a sharp looking Themelets and use the power of Thematic. There are links to other sites that have created Themelets for Thematic on the side bar so if either of those two Themelets are not what you are looking for you can browse to the others.

Price: Single site license - $38.00.

Theme Spinner

Theme Spinner has some nice premium themes available. They offer a support forum where you can ask questions and look for answers if you are having problems with the themes. The themes look nice and are affordable, so you can focus on writing your content for your website instead of fiddling around with the looks.

Price: Pro themes start at $49.00 for one time use.

Press Box

According to the Press Box website, Press Box is like getting 864 themes in one with the number of options that you can set to make your Press Box WordPress theme feel like yours. Press Box is an impressive looking theme and the number of options that you can set in the WordPress administration is great. They also offer a demo of the administration section so you try out the administration features of Press Box. If you like the Thesis theme but want to save a little money then Press Box might be perfect for you.

Price: Standard license $45.00. Standard license with extended support subscription $45 plus $10 / month. Multiblog license $125.00.

elegantthemes

With elegantthemes you do not purchase an individual theme but you subscribe for $19.95 per year and you have access to all of their themes and future themes as long as you are a member. If you like to change your WordPress theme occasionally then elegantthemes might be perfect for you. With access to all future themes it is also easy to change your theme once a year or when they release a new theme that you like.

Price: $19.95 / year with access to all themes

colorlabsproject

colorlabsproject currently has two premium themes available, Arthemia and Platformate. The Arthemia theme is a magazine style theme that would work well for a business. The Platformate theme is more suited to a personal blog. It offers 5 possible colour schemes.

Price: Single license starts at $50.00

Gabfire Premium Themes

Gabfire Premium Themes offer some nice looking magazine and newspaper styles themes. They tend to not look much like blogs, but if you are thinking of creating a news or magazine style WordPress website they could be just the thing. They offer a great deal of information on the frontpage and are well suited to multiple authored websites.

Price: Single site license starts at $59.00.

Blog Oh Blog

Blog Oh Blog offers some interesting premium themes. I found the SlidePress theme to offer something new and different as far as WordPress themes go. It presents your blog in a slideshow format instead of the long scrolling page. As of this writing they had nine premium themes available. Most of them would be best for personal blogs but there is a magazine style theme. Each theme has something unique to offer to make your blog stand out such as a slideshow component, a ticker or a jQuery Accordian effect.

Prices: Single site license starts at $49.99.

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Hopefully that list of premium themes has given you some ideas and inspiration for your next WordPress website and blog. Using a premium theme is an excellent decision if you want a well coded website with lots of easy to customize options and you do not feel like sitting for hours learning HTML, CSS and PHP to tweak another theme. The downside is your website design is not totally unique on the Internet, but with the number of options available in some of the premium themes they can be hard to spot that they are based on the same theme.

What is your favourite WordPress premium theme? Is there anything you dislike about premium themes? Let me know below.