If you’re a WordPress developer looking for a blank theme to kickstart your projects, this article highlights 5 of the most popular and useful blank themes. These themes are lightweight, flexible, and perfect for custom development.

1. Underscores (_s)

Developed by Automattic (the team behind WordPress), Underscores is one of the most well-known blank themes. It comes with minimal styling, allowing developers to build themes from scratch.

Website: https://underscores.me/

GitHub Repo: GitHub – Automattic/_s

Popularity: Over 100,000 developers have used it as their starting point.

2. Sage

Sage is a modern starter theme that uses tools like Laravel’s Blade templating, Webpack, and Bootstrap. It’s ideal for developers who want a modern workflow.

Website: https://roots.io/sage/

GitHub Repo: GitHub – roots/sage

Popularity: Highly regarded in the developer community for advanced workflows.

3. HTML5 Blank

HTML5 Blank is a simple yet powerful blank theme that emphasizes clean and semantic HTML5 markup. It’s a great choice for fast development.

Website: https://html5blank.com/

GitHub Repo: GitHub – ToddMoto/HTML5-Blank-WordPress-Theme

Popularity: Widely used by developers seeking a no-frills theme base.

4. Bones

Bones is a mobile-first blank theme designed with responsive development in mind. It’s lightweight and comes with useful features for beginners and pros alike.

Website: https://themble.com/bones/

GitHub Repo: GitHub – edehler/bones

Popularity: Known for being beginner-friendly and practical.

5. BlankSlate

BlankSlate is a minimalistic WordPress theme with no extra styles or scripts—just pure blankness to let developers have full control.

Website: https://blankslate.io/

GitHub Repo: GitHub – tidythemes/blankslate

Popularity: Praised for its simplicity and ease of use.

Each of these themes has its strengths, so pick the one that best fits your project needs. Happy coding!