Explore the top selections for blank WordPress themes, which act as foundational frameworks for crafting custom designs. Known as “starter themes” or “naked themes,” these templates come pre-filled with fundamental WordPress PHP, CSS, and HTML code, enabling users to modify them according to specific requirements. Unlike theme frameworks, blank WordPress themes are designed for customization, streamlining the development process and minimizing the need to write extensive code from scratch. This approach also reduces the risk of omitting crucial files or code necessary for a theme’s proper functionality. Enhanced with features like responsive layouts and sample data, these themes simplify testing and optimization. Below, we present an overview of the 10 best free blank/starter WordPress themes currently available.
Roots is a premier open-source WordPress starter theme, crafted with HTML5 Boilerplate and Bootstrap. Its Theme Wrapper feature facilitates code reuse, streamlining the development process. Explore themes developed with Roots in the Roots Gallery, and get started with the theme’s official documentation.
Demo | Download Page (github.com)
Underscores, or _s, is a complimentary blank WordPress theme developed by Automattic. It offers five layout templates but lacks a pre-built responsive layout, requiring manual creation. ThemeShaper’s tutorial series aids in creating WordPress themes using Underscores.
Download Page (underscores.me)
Bones is a free blank theme built upon HTML5 Boilerplate, featuring a responsive design and following the Mobile First philosophy. WPtuts+ provides an extensive tutorial to assist in using this starter theme effectively.
Download Page (github.com)
This blank theme assists in creating semantic and structurally solid HTML5 WordPress themes. The post template incorporates the hNews microformat for enhanced search engine comprehension.
Download Page (github.com)
The HTML5 Blank WordPress Theme is a performance-optimized template for developers, offering features like dynamic sidebars and boilerplate code for utilizing WordPress Shortcode API.
Demo | Download Page (html5blank.com)
This project converts the popular HTML5 Boilerplate into a blank WordPress theme, using a modern HTML5 blog structure recommended by Opera Web evangelist Bruce Lawson.
Download Page (github.com)
The Naked WordPress theme is ideal for learning theme development, featuring inline comments for understanding the theme-building process.
Demo | Download Page (bckmn.com)
WP-Flex is a responsive blank WordPress theme with features like sample data for unit testing and strict adherence to WordPress theming guidelines.
Demo | Download Page (github.com)
JointsWP is built on top of Foundation 5 and offers both Sass and plain CSS versions for customization.
Demo | Download Page (jointswp.com)
BlankSlate is a minimalist blank/boilerplate theme that serves as a midpoint between creating themes from scratch and using comprehensive starter themes like Roots or Underscore.
Download Page (wordpress.org)
Site
Repo
License
Developer
Popularity*
Roots
GitHub
Custom
Roots
5469
Underscores
GitHub
GPLv2
Automattic
4254
Bones
GitHub
WTFPL
Themble
2945
HTML5 Reset WordPress Theme
GitHub
Uknown
Tim Murtaugh
1091
HTML5 Blank WordPress Theme
GitHub
MIT
Todd Motto
938
HTML5 Boilerplate for WordPress
GitHub
The Unlicense
Zencoder
748
Naked WordPress
GitHub
Unknown
Joshua Beckman
214
WP-Flex
GitHub
GPLv2
Dennis Gaebel
131
JointsWP
GitHub
Uknown
Jeremy Englert
82
BlankSlate
GitHub
GPLv3
TidyThemes
18
*Popularity was calculated by summing up the number of people who watch, have starred, and have forked the project on GitHub as of January 7, 2014.
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