The theme upload functionality is exclusive to privately hosted blogs and sites using the WordPress.org software. This means that you cannot upload any themes to your WordPress.com blog – you can only install themes available through their theme shop.

• Learn more about WordPress.com
• View a short video on the difference between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

So what can you do if you want to use a self-hosted WordPress theme?

Option 1: Host WordPress Yourself

Hosting WordPress yourself has several benefits, including:

• Often cheaper – standard web hosting costs between 1.99 and 9.99 USD per month. Check out our Hosting partners linked from our footer below for great recommendations known for their value and WP compatibility.
• Complete control over your content and website look and feel
• Direct access to Site support – your host will likely offer support via phone, email or ticket and get back to you quickly regarding any outages or issues with WordPress.
• Direct access to Obox support – We are able to provide more thorough support for themes running on self-hosted WordPress installs, whereas our support of themes on.com is limited to setup and basic styling questions only.

We offer several tested an approved hosting referrals here.

Once setup, the theme can be installed under Appearance  → Themes under the Install tab. View the Setup Guide.

Transfer Content From WordPress.com

The following article outlines how to export your content from your wp.com account and move it into your self-hosted install:

How to Move from WordPress.com to a Self-hosted WordPress.org install

Option 2: Try Layers

You can see how Layers works and begin customization on our free Try Layers website. If you wish to keep your work, simply export the data for use anywhere you decide to install Layers, or choose to host your site with one of our Layers Pro partners.