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15+ Best WordPress Starter Themes for Developers & Designers in 2024
Starting from scratch when you build your website implies that you are free to do whatever you want. It provides ample space for creative expression, but it can take a lot of time to get started. In short, many of the initial tasks are required and are time-consuming. The excellent news is that WordPress starter themes can help. Building your own WordPress site using a starter theme is one approach to overcome all of these problems by giving you the power to build a completely personalized and built just for your needs design, brand, and look.
What Is a WordPress Starter Theme?
A WordPress starter theme provides a basic skeleton you can develop on top of. Using a WordPress starter theme you can build on a sound framework without worrying about the nuances of the coding of a theme. The themes, which may be even HTML, CSS, and most popular WordPress templates, are also known as naked themes.
Why do you need WordPress Starter Theme?
If you are looking to build a brand from scratch then you can use WordPress starter themes. The WordPress starter themes are fully functional and customizable. So you can add colors and designs according to your brand’s personality, preferences, and choices. In addition to that, if you are first time designing a website theme then we highly recommend you to use a WordPress starter theme as it comes with various different options to customize the way the website works with your content and functionality.
Which themes have Starter Templates?
WordPress starter themes that come with starter templates are designed with users in mind. These starter themes are simple to customize and professionally designed.
We have looked at a ton of WordPress starter themes, and we think there are few important ones you should consider. These starter themes include Astra, Genesis, Beans, Joints WP, Ultimatum, Nebula, GeneratePress, Kadence WP, Bridge, Understrap, Enfold, Gantry, DIY Themes, Template Toaster, Hybrid Core, and Blank Slate!
Each of these themes will provide you with a great base. All of them are great options.
Astra
Astra is a premium WordPress starter theme. It comes with pre-built websites. It reduces the time of website design by using pixels ready to use the example site in our starter templates library. Astra provides you the ability to turn off the page title and sidebar. You can also create full-width pages with design freedom. Its features include colors and typography, layout settings, header options, and many more. It is integrated with page builders like Elementor, Learn Dash, Beaver Builder, Toolset, Yoast, etc. In addition to that, it is WooCommerce and translation ready.
Pros
- It is customizable
- You don’t need coding expertise
- It has fast performance
- It is lightweight
- It is SEO friendly
Cons
- Options for header/foot style can be better
Genesis
Genesis Framework is a WordPress starter theme for developers that will empower you to quickly and easily build excellent WordPress websites. Whether you are a rookie or skilled developer, Genesis offers the safe and search-engine-optimized foundation for WordPress to places you could never think of. Furthermore, it will enable you to optimize your website with every device. It comes with demo content, plugins, and Gutenberg blocks. Genesis is the basis of any intelligent design of WordPress. It has an advanced airtight safety system and SEO technology. It provides top-notch support.
Pros
- It is WooCommerce ready
- It is accessibility-ready
- It is customizable
- It is mobile friendly
- It is SEO friendly
Cons
- Genesis also comes with some blown integrated options that may not be necessary, such as the SEO feature for WordPress. You don’t require the built-in SEO functionality if you prefer using an SEO plugin.
Innovio
The Innovio theme is made for different website types, including startup, software, SaaS and landing pages. It is also a perfect fit for machine learning, data analytics, and data science sites. There are tons of amazing layouts, templates and other powerful elements you can use as a base, which will lessen the amount of work you’ll have to do while building. Speaking of building, you also get WPBakery – one of the best drag-and-drop page builders on the market – bundled for free.
Plenty of useful shortcodes, social share functionality, and Yoast SEO plugin compatibility are just some of the amazing features Innovio comes with. Also, you can easily connect your website to Google Analytics, which will allow you to monitor the way your visitors behave while on your page.
This theme requires no coding knowledge whatsoever to build a user-friendly and functional website. Get your business off the ground with Innovio’s help!
Pros
- It is highly customizable
- It is translation ready
- It is SEO friendly and mobile ready
- It is WooCommerce ready
- WPBakery and Slider Revolution plugins included
Cons
- None found
OceanWP
Ocean WP is a lightweight WordPress starter theme. It comes with great useful features. It is fast and translation-ready. It comes with features including one-click website demo templates, import option, quick installation, custom sections, 3 mobile menu styles, sticky header, side panel, custom page layout, global fonts, typography, Elementor widgets, and many more. In addition to that, Ocean WP is compatible with page builders like Elementor, Brizy, Toolset, Beaver Builder, Divi, Gutenberg, etc. It does not have coding expertise. What’s more, is that Ocean WP is fast-loading.
Pros
- It is WooCommerce ready
- It is beginner-friendly
- It is customizable
- It is fully responsive
- It is SEO ready
Cons
- The free version has limited features and options
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a lightweight theme for WordPress with an emphasis on speed and convenience. Performance is crucial to us, thus a new generate press install adds up to your page size to less than 10 kb (gzipped). Our new block editor (Gutenberg) allows you more flexibility over the content creation. GeneratePress is the ideal topic for you if you use page builders. It is fully compatible with all major page builders, including the Elementor and Beaver Builder. Its features include microdata integration, widget areas, navigation locations, sidebar layouts, drop-down menus, and navigation color presets, and more.
Pros
- It is WooCommerce ready
- It is fully responsive
- It is translation ready
- It is easy to use
Cons
- None found
KadenceWP
Kadence is a WordPress basic theme that comes with header addons, fixed elements, ultimate menu, hooked elements, header/footer scripts, advanced header builder, design options, custom layouts, great typography, WooCommerce addon, and more. With the Kadence theme, you can use the global color palette to easily apply colors on your website. In addition to that, it has social links integrated. A wide range of websites using this theme from scratch. You can use it to build websites for e-commerce, the website of the company, and the website of the course.
Pros
- It is lightning fast
- It is SEO optimized
- It is fully responsive
- It is accessibility-ready
- It is free
Cons
- Further starter templates are required
- Conditional headers do not contain
- No option of white label.
- A limited number of supporting page building plugins
Bridge
The Bridge is a starter theme that is suitable for almost anybody. Whether you want to create a website for your business, a business team, a lawyer, a medical doctor, or an independent user, or a personal blog, Bridge is your best choice. The Bridge theme is built with WPBakery or Elementor. Its key features are 24 layout concepts, 500+ unique demos, code video tutorials, full listing functionality, auto-update, code slider, headers, fixed headers, custom post formats, side menu, footer, mega menu, and more. It provides professional support.
Pros
- It is WooCommerce ready
- It is customizable
- It is translation ready
- It is SEO ready
- It is responsive
Cons
- No opportunity for a live preview of the general theme
- It can be difficult for novices because the subject includes many alternatives
Enfold
Enfold is a beautiful, extremely flexible, and completely responsive WordPress starter theme for corporate websites, store sites, and users who want to present a nice website. Enfold comes with features like 1 click demo import, powerful layouts, parallax and video background, and lifetime updates. In addition to that, Enfold is a multipurpose WordPress starter theme. It is SEO optimized. This is a responsive theme, which can be adapted to match your visitors’ screen size. Moreover, it is integrated with popular page builders.
Pros
- It is translation ready
- It is retina ready
- It is fully responsive
- It is user friendly
Cons
- None found
Beans
Beans is a flexible and starter theme. It is a lightweight theme. This theme comes with a built-in ultimate front-end library. It offers advanced technologies, stable updates, top-notch documentation, etc. On all devices, Beans appear amazing. The material is not only correctly resized, but Beans also generate, cache, and serves pictures that are most suitable for your website’s device. All code lines are maximally optimized and all the parts are loaded only if necessary.
Pros
- It is fast loading
- It is user friendly
- It is SEO friendly
- It is responsive
Cons
- None
JointsWP
JointsWP is one of the best WordPress starter themes. With this theme, you can start your entrepreneurial journey with a solid foundation. It provides flexibility to the users. It does not come with unnecessary shortcodes. Moreover, you can take advantage of Sass or CSS. It is user-friendly. Its features include custom login, admin functions, off-canvas top bar, off-canvas menu, and responsive top bar.
Pros
- It is mobile friendly
- It saves your time
- It is best for beginners
Cons
- None
Ultimatum
Ultimatum is best for beginners, designers, and even developers. It comes with a unique design building in which native WordPress widgets may be dragged and dropped. Unlike other frameworks, you don’t have to add-ons with Ultimatum. You may merely drag and drop any plug-in or widget to your preferred location in Ultimatum. You may save several messy sidebars on the widgets screen with the layout editor. Ultimatum allows you to view exactly where the widgets are placed. It is integrated with bbPress.
Pros
- It is user friendly
- It comes with great features and functionality
- It provides great device support
- It is WooCommerce ready
Cons
- None found
Nebula
Nebula is a WordPress theme that is totally responsive and can be used for a range of websites, including companies, portfolios, photographs, or other sites. The theme comes with a powerful content builder, including portfolio, gallery and blog, and different content modules. It offers custom functionality, plugins and libraries, admin features and options, analytics and data, security and optimization and so much more. The Nebula Options page allows the nebula functions to be activated/disabled, as well as project-specific data such as geolocation applied.
Pros
- It is user friendly
- It is responsive
- It has great functionality
Cons
- None
Understrap
Understrap is best for WordPress developers. You can add beautiful, flexible, and responsive designs. You can use it for yourself as a starting point and create your own design theme. Or you may use it to create your own child theme for Understrap is a parent-theme context. In this documentation, we advocate the second route. It comes with great features and functionality. In addition to that, it is customizable.
Pros
- It is mobile-ready
- It is translation ready
- It is simple and powerful
- It is user friendly
Cons
- None found
Gantry
Gantry is a free and open-source WordPress starter theme framework that allows you to design bespoke Grav, Joomla, and WordPress themes. It provides a lot of features for both new and expert programmers. Gantry has an active Gitter.im community where you may receive support if you run into any issues. It comes with a drag and drop layout manager with visual building blocks and mega menu support. Moreover, it is lightweight and optimized for performance.
Pros
- It offers customer service
- Price is reasonable
- It provides advanced features
- It is user friendly
Cons
- In comparison to other solutions in its area, it lacks functionality.
DIYThemes
DIY Themes comes with premium WordPress starter themes. They contain the basic layouts from which you can build your own website. This is yet another theme that makes use of a page builder. It also makes use of Skins, which are theme overlays, and Boxes, which are a simple way to create sidebars. Because of this combination, you may start building your website without the steeper learning curve of some of the other possibilities. It is customizable.
Pros
- It is user friendly
- It comes with great features and functionality
- It is SEO friendly
- It has great typography
Cons
- None found
Template Toaster
Template Toaster is a WordPress theme framework – it is free and scalable. In addition to that, it is SEO-friendly. It is perfect for both – novice users and experienced developers. It is compatible with popular CMS. It offers templates that provide compliance with web standards. Moreover, it comes with a responsive design. Moreover, it has a drag and drops template builder and WYSIWYG editor. It has great features and functionality. It is WooCommerce ready. So if you want to build your website from scratch, Template Toaster is the best choice for you. In addition to that, Template Toaster has compatibility with major and popular CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento.
Pros
- It is responsive
- It is good readability
- It is user friendly
- It is customizable
- It has an excellent customer support
Cons
- The pricing option is not the best
- The uploaded template cannot be edited.
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Blank Slate
Blank Slate is a lightweight and clean WordPress starter theme. It is best for developers and even beginners. Even, Blank Slate doesn’t include pre-built CSS. With Blank Slate, you begin to feel as if you’re putting together a jumble of borrowed elements rather than actually developing your own one-of-a-kind website. In addition to that, it feels like you are attempting to change that with themes that are basic, clean, and minimalist. It is WooCommerce ready.
Pros
- It is user-friendly
- It is SEO friendly
- It is free
- It is customizable
Cons
- None
Hybrid Core
Hybrid Core is another best WordPress starter theme to use. It is made for designers and developers to maintain control of their websites. It offers great and useful features and functionality. It comes with breadcrumbs, custom gallery, schema.org microdata, multiple theme layouts, and many more. Its key features include layouts API, font loader, media grabber, media meta, template system, and utility functions.
Pros
- It is free
- It is customizable
- It comes with useful functionality
- It offers premium support
Cons
- None
What’s your favorite WordPress education theme?
Many aspects can influence how people view your branding, and the aesthetic of your website is one of them. As a result, having a professional, visually appealing, and responsive design is critical, as it will help you earn credibility and enhance conversion rates. The WordPress starter themes can grant you a great starting point to launch your site.
So, what’s your favorite WordPress starter theme?
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This is a pretty fantastic list, I am not sure if I am worth of ranking with the likes of some of these competitors, But I have been working very hard on a WordPress framework for building Child Themes. I am proud of it and continue to develop it.
https://wordpress.org/themes/generic-framework
Always good to see updates like this. Frameworks are great starting tools for those like me who don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
Thanks for the update!
Glad you liked it Roberto :)
Frameworks are great starting tools for build wordpress content.
Thanks for the update!
Roots is my prefered starter for every project. With the gruntfile and package.json, its awesome site structure using bootstrap and less there’s nothing else I require in a development theme.
Hi, i’m new how web developer with wordpress, I use genesis framework but I need to know other framework and I’m interested with roots but I can’t use it because I don’t understand how edit or how build website with it. Please, I need a tutorial that explain how build a website with this framework.
you can read into it here: https://roots.io/docs/
If you never built a theme from scratch I wouldn’t suggest roots as it may be a bit complexe with its template structure.
Get used to WordPress themes by playing around with the default themes (twentyfourteen) or UNDERSCORES. This way you know how the basics work and can get into more advanced techniques soon.
This is a great list, but I am surprised not to see Suffusion here. Curious whether you don’t recommend using it, or whether it was an oversight in an already very long and thorough review list. Either way, this is a very helpful post!
I’ll be sure to look into it, the next time I do a similar post.
Thanks Kimberly.
Hi. https://ultimatumtheme.com/
Very nice Framework / Theme whith plenty of Options.
I love it.
Thanks for the mention! (JointsWP)
Its insane to look back on some of these themes and see how far they have come. I remember when Roots was still new – now it’s on the verge of being a fully fledged framework.
I agree with Stefan.
https://ultimatumtheme.com/ kicks ass!
Genesis and thesis is most experienced frameworks. We always recommend and utilize these valuable framework from blogging journey. Thank a lot for this informative sharing with us.
Always good to see lists like this, saves a lot of time, currently looking for framework to start working with and this will save some time for me! Thanks! Like the site, will join newsletter list!