This is embarrassing – but, I still remember the talks we used to have back in the day (circa 2009-10) when I was part of a design/dev company. We were brainstorming different ideas, and my colleagues proposed that we transition to building WordPress themes exclusively. I was the one to veto. At the time I believed that the market wasn’t big enough for WordPress theme stores to make profits over the long haul.
Yep, that was me.
Anyway, here we are, more than a decade later. WordPress now powers more than 43.6% of the entire web, and the theme business is booming…
…or is it?
Well, you could argue that the dominance of WordPress has also made the market exceedingly competitive. As more and more developers have set up shop to offer WordPress themes of their own, the pie has become increasingly fractioned. In turn, the profit margins have gotten progressively thinner.
That notwithstanding, there’s a special category of WordPress theme stores that have managed to outshine all of their rivals. Through hard work, persistence, and providing quality WordPress themes, they’ve established themselves as market leaders. This 2023 WordPress theme shop directory reveals not just their identities, but also their global ranks, plus the positions they hold in the market. Think of it as the ultimate compilation of the 100 best WordPress theme stores and providers.
Where the WordPress theme shop directory data comes from
For the sake of accuracy, we’ve drawn all our ranking data directly from SimilarWeb’s website analysis engine. This is what has replaced Alexa Rank as the de facto system for global website ranking, after Amazon retired Alexa.com in May of 2022.
SimilarWeb itself is just as good as, if not better than, Alexa’s ranking system. Its internet analysis tools calculate the relative ranking of a website based on the volume of monthly unique visitors and page views. As such, the leading websites are always the ones with the highest traffic and engagement rates.
Take, for instance, a site with a global rank of 5000. This would mean that according to SimilarWeb, the site in question is the 5000th most visited website on the entire web.
One quick way to verify the accuracy of this whole system is to review the topmost-ranked websites. You’ll notice that the first position is taken up by Google. This is followed by the websites you’d expect to be listed: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Baidu, and Wikipedia.
Keep in mind, though, that the metrics here are never absolute. SimilarWeb, instead, ranks sites based on their relative performance against other websites.
Hence, even when your WordPress theme store has maintained or grown its traffic numbers, your global rankings could still drop. It all depends on how your theme shop ultimately weighs up against other websites.
The 2023 WordPress theme shop directory
Our WordPress theme shop directory is in the form of a table. It showcases 100 of the best WordPress theme stores along with their respective global rankings at the beginning of the year.
(You can sort the table by clicking on the headers.)
Theme Store | 2023 Global Rank (SimilarWeb) | Position |
---|---|---|
ElegantThemes | 24,701 | 1 |
Colorlib | 44,408 | 2 |
Astra | 46,601 | 3 |
ThemeIsle | 58,303 | 4 |
Qode Interactive | 62,400 | 5 |
GeneratePress | 93,952 | 6 |
Muffin group | 100,857 | 7 |
Theme Fusion | 107,054 | 8 |
XTemos | 113,312 | 9 |
tagDiv | 137,793 | 10 |
aThemes | 153,509 | 11 |
RadiusTheme | 175,683 | 12 |
Kadence WP | 184,142 | 13 |
iThemes | 194,616 | 14 |
W3Layouts | 195,765 | 15 |
SeedProd | 206,786 | 16 |
OceanWP | 221,086 | 17 |
Themify | 244,811 | 18 |
Kriesi.at | 247,263 | 19 |
Themeco | 248,715 | 20 |
ThemeNectar | 251,570 | 21 |
WPBakery | 255,966 | 22 |
Theme Grill | 259,278 | 23 |
MyThemeShop | 262,619 | 24 |
Yoo Theme | 262,871 | 25 |
Brizy | 278,517 | 26 |
WPExplorer | 286,368 | 27 |
Themeum | 289,314 | 28 |
8Theme | 290,518 | 29 |
GoodLayers | 291,803 | 30 |
Artbees | 306,326 | 31 |
Theme Junkie | 325,460 | 32 |
CMSMasters | 344,316 | 33 |
CommerceGurus | 347,358 | 34 |
TieLabs | 363,782 | 35 |
Compete Themes | 385,511 | 36 |
Codeless | 401,005 | 37 |
StudioPress | 411,669 | 38 |
ThemezHut | 419,379 | 39 |
CSS Igniter | 457,048 | 40 |
VWThemes | 465,160 | 41 |
SKT Themes | 465,962 | 42 |
Iconic | 520,166 | 43 |
MH Themes | 547,245 | 44 |
PixelGrade | 595,171 | 45 |
Press Customizr | 608,441 | 46 |
PremiumPress | 639,180 | 47 |
Catch Themes | 647,304 | 48 |
Dessign | 648,468 | 49 |
Meks | 665,232 | 50 |
WPZOOM | 678,592 | 51 |
ThemeZee | 723,625 | 52 |
Templatic | 772,474 | 53 |
HeroThemes | 791,249 | 54 |
RocketTheme | 838,541 | 55 |
Astoundify | 851,415 | 56 |
Graph Paper Press | 908,610 | 57 |
Rextheme | 937,458 | 58 |
Cyber Chimps | 972,589 | 59 |
Grace Themes | 1,003,226 | 60 |
Visualmodo | 1,048,683 | 61 |
Blu Chic | 1,063,415 | 62 |
Ink Themes | 1,065,770 | 63 |
FameThemes | 1,071,708 | 64 |
Designseer | 1,095,120 | 65 |
ThemeHunk | 1,104,148 | 66 |
QuanticaLabs | 1,139,540 | 67 |
WPShopmart | 1,203,563 | 68 |
MC Starters | 1,232,446 | 69 |
Theme Freesia | 1,268,272 | 70 |
United Themes | 1,309,480 | 71 |
Engine Themes | 1,417,199 | 72 |
WPlook | 1,483,179 | 73 |
Restored 316 Design | 1,544,418 | 74 |
85ideas | 1,566,395 | 75 |
ProDesigns | 1,579,691 | 76 |
Theme Horse | 1,583,013 | 77 |
ProteusThemes | 1,610,961 | 78 |
GretaThemes | 1,627,661 | 79 |
17th Avenue | 1,628,161 | 80 |
ThemeTrust | 1,642,725 | 81 |
Althemist | 1,729,016 | 82 |
Cryout Creations | 1,754,323 | 83 |
Dream-Theme | 1,798,395 | 84 |
Progression Studios | 1,803,172 | 85 |
HashThemes | 1,815,562 | 86 |
Themes Kingdom | 1,832,993 | 87 |
DIY Themes | 1,834,279 | 88 |
SM Themes | 1,860,023 | 89 |
Extend Themes | 1,907,549 | 90 |
Elmastudio | 1,971,442 | 91 |
ThemeInWP | 1,978,543 | 92 |
AppThemes | 2,076,087 | 93 |
Church Themes | 2,153,721 | 94 |
eVision Themes | 2,182,015 | 95 |
Theme4Press | 2,195,904 | 96 |
GavickPro | 2,239,258 | 97 |
Hogash Studio | 2,241,977 | 98 |
Mystery Themes | 2,259,527 | 99 |
8Degree Themes | 2,324,495 | 100 |
Our conclusions
There you have it. A data-backed WordPress theme shop directory that confirms the most popular WordPress theme providers.
The point of this whole exercise is to separate the tried and tested theme designers from the rest. The WordPress community generally does a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff, and there is no chaff here. The internet fame that these top 100 enjoy speaks to how much these theme developers are valued by WordPress users themselves. After all, it’s unlikely that they’d be this popular if they put out lousy themes.
You can count on them to provide you with the best WooCommerce themes, best SEO-friendly WordPress themes, best blogging WordPress themes, best free WordPress themes, fastest WordPress themes, etc
If you’re very particular about the quality standards of your WordPress templates, then you might want to stick to the top six providers:
- ElegantThemes.
- Colorlib.
- Astra.
- ThemeIsle.
- Qode Interactive.
- GeneratePress.
These WordPress theme stores are ranked among the top 100,000 websites globally. That’s well within the 99.99 percentile of all the active websites today. It speaks volumes about their exceptionally high approval rates.
ThemeForest is pretty popular too. However, we’ve decided to leave it out this time because it doesn’t develop themes. It is, instead, a theme marketplace. Our WordPress theme shop directory is all about the companies behind the assets you see distributed on ThemeForest and other popular WordPress theme marketplaces.
What do you think of the current state of the WordPress theme market and the companies in it? Do you think that WordPress will continue to grow? Perhaps even above the 50 percent mark in web market share?
…
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Great store collection. Sad to see Cridio Studio is missing. http://crid.io
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