As a new Magento user, you may be excited about designing your store. You may even have an imaginative picture of what your finished store will look like. However, fulfilling your vision may be complicated if you don’t have design or coding experience.
Fortunately, themes are one of Magento ecosystems’ more inherent and useful parts — they enable you to customize your store’s appearance and even incorporate additional functionality. In fact, with the right theme, you can customize your store to look like what you want it to look like, without any coding and design.
Let’s see what are Magento themes and where to find them.
What are Magento Themes?
A Magento theme is a group of files (graphics, style sheets, and code) that describe the overall appearance of your Magento store. Themes provide a way for the user to customize the store’s layout, font color, font, images, colors, widgets etc.
You can think of the theme as the fully customizable skin of the website – but it also adds functions to the store. Rather than simply providing a look and feel for your store, a theme allows you to edit the appearance of your site.
For example, let’s say you sell dog food, but you also have a blog by the side. With the right theme, you can show all the products, variations, and pages related to the product selling – while having a different design for the blog page.
Themes are a big part of the Magento ecosystem. The platform has lots of themes. Many of them are free too. If you are starting with a Magento store, you should always pick a theme to make your website design more accessible.
Multi-purpose Themes vs Niche Themes
All the themes can be divided into two categories:
- Multi-purpose themes
- Niche themes
Multi-purpose themes: A multi-purpose theme can work for a large number of different niche stores. The themes include different types of pages, extensions, codes, widgets, and tools that provide multiple options to customize the store’s design. There is no focus – only options to configure a store as per your imagination.
Niche themes: The niche-specific themes are made for a certain field. For example, the store’s design that sells sundresses would be different from the store that sells electronic gadgets. Both are targeted towards a different audience – hence the design would be different. There is usually less customization when the theme already comes with the functions and design that your store’s niche needs.
There is no best policy to choose the Magento themes. But you should look at your requirements and pick accordingly. If you want to customize from scratch, a multi-purpose theme would be a better option.
Free vs. Premium Magento Themes
You do not have to spend money to get the Magento theme for your store. There are plenty of high-quality themes available at no cost.
Free Themes: Free themes, similar to free extensions, should undergo rigorous testing before you activate them on your store. You have to check the reviews, support, ratings, and documentation.
The free theme provider does not offer support, as the support is part of the paid plan.
However, it does not mean there is no support with the free themes. The support would be at the low priority and through forum discussion. Most of the time, you have to solve the issues yourself.
So, if you are going with the free option, pick a popular theme, as they will have a highly active forum, and you can find a solution quickly.
Paid Themes: Paid themes are built the same way as the free themes, but many other features are unlocked. The priority support is a big advantage. You will require a subscription for the support and updates. But the cost is worth it if you frequently need support and updates. The regularly updated themes keep the Magento store safe and secure.
What theme you need: Free or Premium – It depends on your requirements. If you have the time and expertise to manage the open-source and free theme, they can work excellently for you.
A premium option is great for a more packaged deal with support and updates.
Where to get Magento Themes?
There are many Magento themes available at all cost range, niches, and customizations. But it could be divided into two categories:
Magento Marketplace:
The Magento Marketplace is for free/paid Magento themes and extensions. All themes have been manually checked via a thorough review process before being listed on the marketplace. As such, it is recommended to open the marketplace first when looking for a budget-friendly new theme.
For each theme, you’ll be able to review the information that can help you make an informed choice. For example, you can check when it was last updated, technical specifications, read customer reviews and ratings, and access the theme’s support forum.
In addition, you can preview the theme directly from its themes page using default data. For a fuller live demo, you’ll often find a link to the developer’s website. This gives you a chance to see the theme in action, although installing a theme on a test site of your own carries minimal risk.
Magento Theme Developers Website
If you do not want to roam around the listing, checking the Magento themes, you can always go to the website of the popular Magento theme developers.
Here is the best Magento theme for a fast eCommerce website.
6 Free Magento 2 Themes:
- Pixtron
- Ketty
- Fashion
- Ves Kasitoo
- F2
- FreeGo
5 Paid Magento 2 Themes:
- Porto
- Beat
- Ultimo
- JewelRix
- Close
We have shortlisted these Magento themes for you. They are fast, have support and documentation, and are regularly updated. Search the name on Google for the website and marketplace listing.
Hire a Magento Developer
If no theme helps you create a store of your dream, you can hire a Magento developer. Before that, hire a designer and create a design for the store.
Once the design is ready, you will know exactly what you are looking for. You can hire a freelance developer, Magento agencies or outsource the complete Magento store development.
Developing your theme may give you more flexibility in designing, it will also cost a lot. You have to keep it updated and need a developer to manage it. The theme has to be compatible with the Magento and technological updates.
Wrap Up
This quick article teaches what Magento themes are and where to find them. Lots of research went into when looking for a Magento theme – but it’s all worth it.
Changing the theme also changes the store’s design which is not good for the brand. Once your customer gets used to a design, you do not want to disrupt the flow.
If you encounter any issue regarding the Magento theme, please leave it in the comment box.
