Theme Shop Directory (2014)

Last year I published a list of independent WordPress theme shops ordered by Alexa rank. Since then a number of new ones have opened up, a few have closed doors, and a couple have rebranded or changed hands.

I thought it would be interesting to look at these numbers again to see how the independent theme market has changed over the year. I updated the ranking table and posted the new information at the bottom of this post.

Directory

Alexa data isn’t necessarily correct as it is based on traffic estimates. It also doesn’t indicate anything about actual revenue numbers. So the “data” here should definitely be looked at with skepticism. It is, however, one of the few independent measures we have to rank websites.

The biggest takeaway for me is that the Alexa ranking for all the top theme shops improved significantly. Every single shop in the top 25 is doing better than last year. I think this shows a continued interest in commercial themes and that well established shops are likely benefiting the most.

It’s probably worth mentioning that the large theme marketplaces still far outrank independent theme shops. ThemeForest is ranked 94, CreativeMarket 3,904, Mojo 3,996. However, they operate on a completely different scale and isn’t really something I looked at with this data.

In terms of independent shops, WPMU Dev jumped 5 spots to claim the first position. The Alexa rank is based primary on traffic, so it makes sense that a theme shop like WPMU Dev which posts a lot of content would rank highly. But overall there wasn’t too much movement at the top. A few new shops are listed in the top 20 (Yi Themes, ColorLib and Athemes)- but they’re all well-established sites, I just wasn’t aware of them a year ago.

ThemeGrill is one new entrant that managed to rank highly (#34). It’s looks like they launched in February 2014. I’m surprised to see them above established shops like Theme Foundry, Obox, Press75, etc., but they do have a number of popular themes on wordpress.org, so perhaps that’s a way to get recognized quick. CyberChimps also seems to benefit from this approach. (Again, Alexa just measures traffic, not revenue.)

Elmastudio, Engine Themes, Tesla Themes, Theme Foundry, CPO Themes, and Blu Chic are all shops now in the top 50 that had a 20k+ ranking improvement. They each have great sites and good collection of themes, so this looks well-deserved.

WP Bandit, DevPress, Press75, and Gorilla Themes were previously in the top 50 but declined this year (10k+). Interestingly enough, two of those shops also changed ownership this year. Press75 is now being run by Travis Totz (of WestWerk) and DevPress was taken over by myself (Devin Price). My educated guess is that these shops didn’t market or release enough new work in the last year to maintain existing traffic, but it will be interesting to see where they stand next year.

If you know of any shops I missed please mention them in the comments. If you have any other thoughts based on rankings, I’d also love to hear them.

Theme Company Alexa Rank 2014 Change Since 2013
WPMU Dev 850 -4339
ElegantThemes 851 -1059
WooThemes 902 -1015
StudioPress 1494 -1327
Theme Fusion 2834 New
Yoo Theme 3202 -955
RocketTheme 3354 -882
MyThemeShop 3388 -5950
Templatic 4244 -2507
AppThemes 4365 -3624
iThemes 4645 -5309
Themify 4809 -6787
Ink Themes 4944 -3210
Yi Themes 5482 New
Colorlib 5719 New
PremiumPress 6515 -5039
DIY Themes 6696 0
ThemeFuse 6898 -3021
Theme Junkie 7488 -2545
WPZOOM 7797 -1615
ATHEMES 8507 New
Cyber Chimps 8519 -7128
Elmastudio 9606 -31883
Bavotsan 10163 -9033
Engine Themes 11709 -39727
Magazine3 11896 -3589
PageLines 12228 -2199
ColorLabs 12915 +604
Headway Themes 13054 -4699
Graph Paper Press 13468 -5367
TeslaThemes 13636 -163044
CSS Igniter 13740 -6741
Dessign 15308 +938
Theme Grill 15466 New
Organic Themes 16224 -5690
Gabfire Themes 16801 +185
SM Themes 17385 New
ThemeTrust 17885 -6219
Solostream 18031 -172
Themes Kingdom 18489 -3063
Theme Horse 19016 New
SiteMile 19480 -4716
Theme Foundary 22123 -29164
Obox Themes 23296 -2116
Catch Themes 23650 +10837
Astoundify 25109 -39216
MH Themes 26216 New
Code Stag 27527 New
ThemeZilla 28182 +11571
CPO Themes 29830 -49660
Simple Themes 30161 -12745
ThemeHybrid 30828 -10364
Alien WP 34776 -11722
Blu Chic 35013 -61819
WPShower 35109 +8767
Themedy 35726 -10584
Contempo 35988 New
HeatMap 38364 -12536
ThemeBeans 41902 -14026
Theme Furnace 43120 -32947
MarketPress 43641 -100009
Gorilla Themes 46899 +10599
Template Express 47086 New
Towfiqi 47709 New
Frogs Themes 49076 -33351
Tokokoo 50006 +19857
Press75 52345 +11858
PressLayer 52901 -88442
Theme Isle 54009 New
RichWP 54096 +8459
WPLook 55980 -54764
UFO Themes 58450 -58682
Organized Themes 60607 -49465
Designer Themes 61252 +10800
Press Coders 63538 +20342
Theme In Progress 65418 New
Photocrati 66717 +3009
Nimbus Themes 70711 New
Think Up Themes 71620 New
Themekraft 72820 +15094
ThemeShift 73083 +3472
Styled Themes 75682 -43304
DevPress 76603 +26326
ThemeLab 77438 New
WPCasa 79601 -17909
WP Bandit 79629 +58998
Authentic Themes 79645 -78926
Gents Themes 82033 New
HermesThemes 83196 -37077
BragThemes 84520 -36217
Zappy Themes 85271 New
Slocum Themes 86,357 New
DesignOrbital 88763 New
Array 89049 +14953
Design Orbital 90115 -3656
Compete Themes 90520 New
Icy Pixels 90827 New
Mint Themes 95714 +31039
DX Themes 96365 +38148
Up Themes 97477 +47411
ThemeBoy 100152 New
BizzThemes 101425 +32712
Appendipity 101547 New
Pro Theme Design 101779 +15294
Themes4all 104102 -362482
Acosmin 110498 -470808
Dev4Press 111725 +12481
Shaken and Stirred Web 115762 +21006
Imon Themes 117400 New
ViVA Themes 118441 -23058
Anariel Design 124916 -22383
Storefront Themes 125458 +20842
ThemeWarrior 137937 +1453
Audio Theme 145794 New
Splashing Pixels 154902 +47644
DolcePixel 155572 -10651
Nice Themes 160424 +4559
NattyWP 193328 +48082
Panda Themes 193783 +75788
Rockable Themes 199256 +109211
Der Prinz 203146 +33569
Captain Theme 249989 -243473
Flexithemes 255443 +131183
Just Good Themes 306951 New
WP Arcade 310552 +106414
cr3ativ 316070 New
Theme Spectrum 328187 +66590
Theme Weaver 343057 -274256
Theme of the Crop 347996 New
Aloha Themes 351246 +154408
Themes Zen 353014 +57058
eFrog 367863 +67275
Clover Themes 374496 +153579
Museum Themes 377415 -131420
Church Themes 377536 +14695
Chimera Themes 392279 +239803
WPshoppe 415130 +178544
Simply WP 415433 +214560
Studio 164a 420246 New
Foxnet Themes 451580 -158529
Serene Themes 484712 New
ThemeLoom 514251 +268099
SkyThemes 533889 -197437
WP for Church 546521 +56429
Theme Supply Co 598200 +304879
ThemeJam 641158 -205429
Bluz Themes 760244 +305629
Legend Themes 804619 +19911
Skematik 1024024 +761791
Templatica 1095766 +807895
Peaxl 1156439 -1243562
Lean Themes 1246232 New
Theme Fit 1247356 +507566
Theme Sumo 1585884 +935360
Monster Themes 2702662 +1247855
WinPress 2897786 +2096363

About Devin

I am a developer based in Austin, Texas. I run a little theme shop called DevPress and help manage a WooCommerce shop with Universal Yums. Find me on twitter @devinsays.

30 Responses

  1. Very cool, Devin, thanks for putting this together. I love the idea of getting more data on theme shops to see what the broader trends are. I had the idea to try and track down financial/download data for the top theme shops, but it turns out that stuff is all secret. Who would have thought? :)

  2. It’s cool to see your list updated. Sometimes I would forget who all is our there and return to your old list to reacquaint myself with the landscape.

    Would you please add churchthemes.com? We launched last September and are the most popular theme shop for churches according to Alexa.

  3. Chris McCoy

    i wouldnt put wpmudev on the list, thats just my personal opinion, most of the traffic is for tutorials, not actual theme traffic, the themes in the members area is very limited compared to the others on this list.

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