THEMES
9 Best Free Minimalist WordPress Themes For Bloggers
Looking for the best free minimalist WordPress themes? You’ve landed at the right place!
There are thousands of WordPress themes out there and choosing the right one can be very daunting, especially if you’re looking for a free minimalist theme.
Free themes are abundant in the WordPress themes repository. This makes it difficult to pick the ones that are actually good.
A minimalist theme helps your visitors focus on your content resulting in more engagement and conversions.
After extensive research, I’ve found some of the best free minimalist WordPress themes you should use on your website.
But, before directly jumping into the list, let’s take a look at what makes a good minimal WordPress theme.
There are many factors you should consider before choosing a theme.
Let’s get started.
How To Choose The Perfect Minimal Theme For Your Blog?
Design
A minimal WordPress theme shouldn’t have a bloated design. It should be simple and only have the essential features required in WordPress themes.
Speed
Speed is one of the most important factors for choosing the perfect minimal theme. A theme that’s not fast enough will result in bad user experience.
9 Best Free Minimalist WordPress Themes
Now, let’s take a look at some of the best free minimalist WordPress themes.
The themes have been reviewed based on some important factors that will help you choose the perfect one for your website.
PixiGo
PixiGo is a theme developed by Pixify and is an ultra-fast minimal blog theme. The theme has a simple design without unnecessary customization options.
What makes PixiGo so unique than many minimal themes is that you don’t have to go through a list of customization options to make it work according to your needs.
All you have to do is install PixiGo and you’re ready to go.
Speed
As mentioned above, PixiGo is an ultra-fast theme which means you won’t have to worry about speed optimization at all.
The theme has a 98/100 score on Google PageSpeed Insights.
Also, PixiGo loads in under 0.8 seconds making it really the fastest WordPress theme. Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
PixiGo has a modern yet simplistic design without any unnecessary features.
The theme comes with basic customization options allowing you to change the look and feel of the website with 1-click.
PixiGo is responsive and looks great with AMP active resulting in a perfect combination of speed and design.
Features
PixiGo comes with some great features that help accelerate the design and speed of your website.
Here’s a list of the features available in PixiGo WordPress theme:
- Image lazy loading
- AMP Ready
- Page Builder support
- 1-Click Branding
- Post meta customization
- No JQuery
- Gutenberg ready
- Optimized for ads
- SEO Optimized
- Progressive loading of assets
- Translation & RTL Ready
PixiGo is perfect for you if …
… you want a minimal theme for your blog.
The theme doesn’t require any customizations to set it up allowing you to just plug and play.
It’s extremely fast that will help you with your organic rankings and provide good user experience to your readers.
Astra
Astra is a popular WordPress theme developed by Brainstorm Force. The theme is super fast and is very lightweight.
The theme has a simple minimal design and comes with many customization options.
Speed
The theme size is less than 50kB on the front-end and loads in under 0.9 seconds.
Astra doesn’t have any JQuery which makes it very fast. The theme has a 99/100 score on Google PageSpeed Insights.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
Astra has a very minimal layout and comes with some great customization features.
You can change the typography, colors, and layout of your website.
The theme has many other design options too but most of them are available only in the pro version leaving the free theme with only basic customization.
Features
Here is the list of features in the Astra WordPress theme:
- Layout settings
- Colors and typography options
- No JQuery
- Hooks & filters
- Translation & RTL Ready
- Page Builder support
- SEO Optimized
Astra is perfect for …
… blogs that want a minimal look and good performance.
The theme is fast and comes with plenty of customization options.
The only drawback is that some important features are only available in their pro version forcing you to pay for these features.
Schema Lite
Schema Lite is a free WordPress theme made by MyThemeShop. The theme is very fast and SEO friendly.
It also comes with a pro version.
Speed
When it comes to speed, Schema Lite loads very fast in under 3 seconds.
But the page size is over 700KB and the number of requests is around 70. Comparing this to PixiGo or Astra, Schema Lite lacks in performance.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
The theme has a very simple look but not very minimal. There are good customization options.
The theme also comes with some short-codes you can use in your content. There are also retina ready font icons available in the theme.
Features
Here are the features included in the Schema Lite theme:
- SEO Ready
- Adsense optimized
- Left or right sidebar
- Color options
- Social media widget
- Shortcodes
Schema Lite is perfect for …
The theme is suitable for blogs who want a simple design but still want some fancy customization such as background image, widgets, and more.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a minimal blog theme focused on speed and usability. The theme is lightweight and SEO optimized.
The theme also comes with a premium version which comes with demo sites and many other customization options.
Speed
GeneratePress is a very fast theme but not as fast as PixiGo or Astra. The theme loads in under 1 second while the others load in under 0.5 seconds.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of GeneratePress theme:
Design
GeneratePress also has a very minimal design which looks very close to Astra theme. The customizer options let you change the typography and colors of only certain elements.
The theme also has layout controls which are a bit limited as most of the options are only available in the premium version.
GeneratePress is Page Builder friendly and also Gutenberg ready.
Features
These are the features included in GeneratePress theme:
- No JQuery
- SEO optimized
- Colors and typography options
- Layout Control
- Page Builder friendly
- Translation & RTL Ready
GeneratePress is perfect for …
If you are running a blog that doesn’t need any special customization features, then GeneratePress is the right theme for you.
OceanWP
OceanWP is a free multi-purpose WordPress theme that comes with many pre-made demo layouts.
The theme also comes with WooCommerce features built-in so you don’t have to use any third-party plugins.
Speed
When it comes to speed, OceanWP gets a decent score on most speed grading tools.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
The theme comes with many free demo sites that you can import and use right away. It also provides extensions you can use with the theme to power up your website.
OceanWP works with major Page Builders and is eCommerce ready.
Features
OceanWP is loaded with many features. Here are the features available in the free version of the theme:
- Fully responsive
- eCommerce ready
- SEO friendly
- Translation & RTL ready
- Free extensions
- Demo sites
- Page Builder support
OceanWP is perfect for …
OceanWP isn’t just a minimal blog theme. With the different demo sites available, you can make your website exactly the way you want.
The theme is perfect for bloggers, eCommerce businesses and startups.
Arba
Arba is a very minimal and beautiful looking WordPress theme by XStream Themes. The theme has a gorgeous layout with a hero section followed by a list of posts.
Speed
Arba WordPress theme is insanely fast scoring 96/100 on Google PageSpeed Insights test. The theme page size is less than 300KB.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
The theme provides the basic customization options that allow you to change the colors and customize the single post meta.
There aren’t any special customization features that let you change the typography, layout, or sidebars.
Features
Though the theme has a gorgeous design, there aren’t many features in the theme:
- Color customization
- Fully responsive
- SEO friendly
- Page Builder support
Arba is perfect for …
If you’re looking for a theme that doesn’t require much customization, Arba is the right choice for you.
Wisteria
Wisteria is a clean and minimal looking WordPress theme made by WPFriendship. The theme has a responsive layout and with a focus on the content to improve readability and user experience.
Speed
Wisteria theme has a loading time of around 2 seconds and scores 80/100 on Google PageSpeed Insights.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of Wisteria theme:
Design
The theme has a very clean content-focused design making it very suitable for bloggers. You can set custom headers or menu in the theme along with a custom background.
There are many customization options available in the theme. But the free version of the theme lacks many essential features such as schema markups, Adsense ready, Jetpack support, and automatic updates.
Features
Here are the features of Wisteria theme:
- SEO friendly
- bbPress compatible
- Font Awesome icons
- Footer copyright editor
- Retina optimized
- RTL support
Wisteria is perfect for …
The theme is suitable for bloggers who want to use a theme where the sole focus is on the content.
MT Writer
This theme by Mighty Themes is minimal and SEO friendly. The theme is mainly designed for bloggers.
Speed
The theme loads in under 3 seconds making it not as fast as other themes such as PixiGo or Astra.
A few speed optimization tricks can help you bring down the speed and make the theme even faster.
Here are the GTMetrix stats of the theme:
Design
MT Writer has a minimal hero section followed by blog posts which makes it perfect for bloggers.
It has a custom author box, estimated reading time, related posts widget, and other such features.
The theme is also compatible with the Gutenberg editor.
Features
Here are the features of the MT Writer WordPress theme:
- SEO friendly
- Custom hero section
- Typography options
- Google Fonts integration
- Font Awesome icons
- Preloaders
- Color options
- Adsense ready
- Gutenberg compatible
MT Writer is perfect for …
The theme is perfect for bloggers who are looking for a minimal theme that lets them build their brand without much hassle.
Elvina
Elvina is a free minimal WordPress theme by Spiracle Themes. The theme comes with 4 different layouts and has a very premium look.
The theme features a slider, sticky headers, and 1-click imports.
Speed
The loading time of the theme is under 3 seconds and the page size is about 1.5MB. The theme has a score of 74/100 on Google PageSpeed Insights.
Here are the GTMetrix stats for the theme demo:
Design
Elvina WordPress theme has a very modern and premium look. The theme comes with 4 demos and you can import these demos easily on your website.
The theme has many features including parallax background, layout settings, color options, sticky sidebar, and more.
Some of the features of the theme such as Google Fonts support, typography options, Google Maps, etc are only available in their premium version.
Features
Here is the list of features included in the free version of the theme:
- Parallax background image
- Built-in sharing icons
- Sidebar options
- Color options
- Sticky header
- 1-click demo import
- Translation ready
- SEO friendly
Elvina is perfect for …
Elvina theme is perfect for bloggers who want a premium looking theme with lots of customization options.
Conclusion
These were the 9 best free minimalist WordPress themes that you can install on your website. The theme you choose is subjective to your preferences but don’t forget the important factors such as speed and essential design features.
Before choosing a theme, also make sure it is updated regularly by the developer.
Lastly, if you have any questions regarding this list, feel free to comment down below.
Ahfaz Ahmed
Ahfaz Ahmed is a designer and a blogger who writes content on marketing, SEO, design, and more.
© Pixify. All Rights Reserved.