Developing a WordPress website begins with choosing a theme. There are two options here: use a ready-made, fully functional template or use a starter theme.
The second method is more labor-intensive, but it pays off in the long run. In this article, I will explain what a WordPress starter theme is, how to choose one that suits your needs, and which designs of this type are currently popular.
What is a WordPress starter theme?
In the web development community, a WordPress starter (or initial) theme is often referred to as a “blank slate.” It can be of various levels:
- Minimal. Includes the basic file structure and basic styles. Does not contain built-in complex functions or a ready-made design.
- Medium. Built on a popular framework (e.g., Bootstrap) or has well-developed styles. May include some popular settings.
- Advanced. Close to a full-featured theme, but easy to customize.
Depending on your specific goal, it makes sense to choose a different level of template to start with.
When you need to develop a WordPress project with a custom design and specific tasks, I recommend giving preference to starter themes.
The best WordPress starter templates
Here is a selection of themes that are often used as starters on the WordPress engine. They are convenient for creating unique websites.
Underscores
A prominent representative of the minimal Underscores starter theme group. It is clean code without unnecessary elements, scripts, and styles, which can be used when developing your own template.
There is a special input field on the template page. Enter any name in it and click the “Generate” button. After that, a ZIP archive will be downloaded to your device, which you can use for development.
Underscores has clean HTML5 and CSS code, a clear structure, and a ready-made 404 page.
As for the cons, they are obvious: it takes a lot of time to launch a website on Underscores. You will need to add all the styles yourself, as well as write the required functionality.
Starter theme on Bootstrap
For developers who prefer the popular Bootstrap framework and plan to build their theme on it, UnderStrap is a convenient choice as a starting point. Even from the name, it is clear that it combines Underscores and Bootstrap.
In UnderStrap, users get an understandable Underscores base on the backend, and the frontend can be designed using flexible styles and components from Bootstrap version 5.
The theme has over 100,000 installations, open source code, and detailed documentation.
WP Bootstrap Starter
For developers who prefer to use Bootstrap 4, it is better to choose WP Bootstrap Starter. It is designed to work with popular WordPress extensions, including Contact Form 7 and WooCommerce. The theme is also fully compatible with Visual Composer and Elementor builders.
WP Bootstrap Starter currently works on modern versions of WordPress. However, it has not been updated since 2021, which is worth considering when choosing it.
Foundation with Bootstrap
Bootstrap is not the only popular framework among developers. There are other options, one of which is Foundation.
FoundationPress is a starting point for working with this CSS framework. It stands out for its flexibility, adaptability, and hundreds of built-in styles (buttons, forms, lists) that make it easier for layout designers, designers, and programmers to develop a WP template from scratch.
One of the features of FoundationPress is that all its styles are written in SASS. For developers who are not familiar with this CSS-based meta language, it may be difficult to adapt the template to their needs. But for many, this will be a big plus.
HTML5 Blank
Often, developers have their own “basic” responsive CSS code or want to connect a less common framework to create a truly unique project in terms of layout. In such cases, I would recommend choosing HTML5 Blank as the starting WordPress theme.
As the name suggests, this is an “empty” HTML5 starter template. It includes style files, but they are not filled in. At the same time, the project structure itself is competently built on the basis of the modern HTML5 markup language.
