Over the past few years WordPress has become the undisputed #1 choice for professional bloggers and website owners. As of this writing, self-hosted WordPress has been downloaded 25,814,443 times. There are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of premium WordPress theme templates available for download and purchase.

While it’s possible to download free themes online, I would highly recommend being very careful about where you get your themes. There are a lot of badly coded themes out there with vulnerabilities and security holes, not to mention structures that can hurt your site’s chances to rank in search engines. Do not download themes just from anywhere. I would make sure that the theme you install on your own site is being offered by a reputable company and has been coded by a competent coder (or team).

One easy way to get a top quality theme is to buy it from a vendor who screens and vets the themes they sell. Themeforest and Elegant Themes are 2 such premium theme shops that ensure their themes are well-coded and malware-free. They have also become 2 of the most popular places for people to get themes - not only because they’re of premium quality, but also because they are beautifully designed to give your site that professional look and feel.

Below we have collected only the best of the best, and made sure all the themes are modern and responsive. The WordPress theme templates we include below have been rated 5 stars by people who have downloaded and had a chance to review the themes.

Top 5-Star Rated WP Themes

1. Inspired - Clean & Minimal Theme w/20 Skins

details | demo

2. Flagship - Large Top Slider Theme

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3. Exotico - Large Slider Adaptive Theme

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4. XO Modern - Responsive HTML5 Theme

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5. Un Altro - Dark Brown Portfolio Theme

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6. Sooperstore - E-commerce-Focused Theme

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7. Stonex - Bold Theme with Well-Spaced Gril Layout

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8. Stacker - Bold Grid-based Theme

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9. Responsy - Simple & Elegant Agency Theme

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10. Prolio - Creative Design Agency Theme

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11. Pocket - Minimal Theme Focused on Legibility

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12. Origami - Simple Blog Theme

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13. Modena - International Translation-Ready Theme

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14. Fashionista - Fashion Black and White Pinterest-Inspired Theme

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15. Extra News - Magazine Style Theme

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16. Energetic - Fluid & Responsive Theme

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17. Dolphin - Wooden Background Theme

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18. Deadline - Professional Adaptive Theme

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19. Dare - Creative Agency Theme with lots of Whitespace

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20. Co-Porlio - Corporate Responsive Theme

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21. Cartoon - Revolution Slider Adaptive Theme

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22. Big Bang - Clean White Responsive Theme

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23. Bangkok Press - Magazine Style Theme

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24. Maja - Clean Responsive Theme

details | demo

25. Matam - Restaurant-Focused Theme

details | demo

26. Hypershot - Fullscreen Porfolio Theme

details | demo

I hope you enjoyed looking through these WordPress themes. They are all built to be responsive - meaning they are optimized for mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, and Android. I highly recommend going with a responsive theme since most modern websites are now being built to accomodate every possible screen size. If you want more choice themes, also check out designmodo’s list.