Best Minimalist WordPress Themes

This collection of minimalist WordPress themes represents the best minimalist themes available for WordPress. Often in design less is actually more, and a minimal WordPress theme design can really make your content and pictures stand out and look great. While there are different opinions of what qualifies as minimalistic design, we define minimalist theme design as a design style that emphasizes simplicity with little unnecessary graphic design elements with a focus on content and simplistic beauty.

These minimalist themes will transform your standard WordPress blog into a great looking site that will really stand out and keep people coming back. This is a dynamic gallery that is updated often.

Canvas
Canvas can be used as a clean and minimalistic WordPress theme or a fully featured theme framework. It has a huge amount of backend design control (90+ options) that allow you to easily customise every element of the theme to make the design, layout & typography exactly as you want. It also includes 5 different site width options, 6 layout options for the content/sidebars, custom widgets, custom navigation builder, and a child theme friendly structure with custom hooks to easily customise the theme via the use of child themes.

canvas wordpress theme

Layout Options
canvas layout options

General Styling Options
canvas styling options

Custom Navigation (drag and drop customisation)
woo custom navigation

Features

Customize any element – 90+ options to tweak colours, borders, font-sizes, font-families etc
Upload background & header imagery via the backend
Easy change site width – easily change between 5 different site widths (980, 960, 940, 880 and 760 pixels) and also an option to box your layout in.
6 Layout Options – choose between 6 different layouts for and order of content/sidebars (full width, 2 col left, 2 col right, 3 col left, 3 col middle, 3 col right). Canvas also lets you specify individual layouts per post or page
Custom Widgets – Tabs, Flickr, Twitter, Adspace, Search etc
Child Theme Friendly – custom hooks makes it a lot easier to customize the theme via a child theme without touching any code in the main parent theme
Custom Navigation – allowing you full customization over how your navigation should be structured
Backend options panel – make simple changes without editing code, like adding your own logo, changing to an alternate colour style, adding Google Analytics code
Cross browser compatible
Auto-sizing thumbnails
Localized for translations
Custom page templates

Price: Standard: $70, Developer: $150
Demo & Release Page | Download

Superblogger WordPress Theme
A minimalist blog magazine style WordPress theme from RichWP. Superblogger is available in both light and dark colour options.

Price: Superblogger Package: $59.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Press WordPress Theme
A stylish multipurpose minimalist WordPress theme from Obox Design which could be used as a gallery, portfolio, product listing page or stylish personal blog. The theme features a customisable homepage with each row being its own widget, 7 colour scheme options, and the OCMX-Live content management system that gives you incredible control of your theme and website.

press wordpress theme

Price: Single: $50, Developer: $100
Demo & Release Page | Download

Bloggingstream WordPress Theme
Bloggingstream is a multi-use minimalist WordPress theme from WooThemes that could be used as a magazine website. The theme features an integrated lifestream, 2 different layout options, 7 ad spaces to help you make money, a theme options page, 11 different colour schemes and more.

Price: Single Use: $70, Developer: $150
Demo & Release Page | Download

DailyNews WordPress Theme
A minimalist blog magazine style WordPress theme from RichWP. The theme is available in both light and dark colour styles.

daily news wordpress theme

Price: RichBiz Package: $59.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

The New Yorker 2 WordPress Theme
New Yorker is a minimalist magazine WordPress theme from StyleWP which is an impressive clone of the NY Times website. This theme features automatic thumbnail generation, multiple layout combinations and more.

Price: $39
Demo & Release Page | Download

WP Advanced Newspaper Theme
WP Advanced Newspaper is an advanced modified version of the original WP Newspaper Theme which contains a variety of new features and a new layout. The theme features an eye catching featured posts section, unique newspaper layout, automatic image resizer, and an integrated theme settings page to tweak the layout.

Price: Standard: $59, Developer: $179
Demo & Release Page | Download

BlogNews WordPress Theme
BlogNews is a stylish multi-purpose minimalist WordPress theme from Gabfire Themes. The theme has two different homepage layout options: magazine style (pictured below) or an optional blog style format (see demo). The theme also features 6 different colour schemes, serif or sans-serif font styles, automatic thumbnail generation and a built-in theme settings panel with 74 different options.

blog news wordpress theme

Price: Standard: $59, Developer: $179
Demo & Release Page | Download

The Journal WordPress Theme
The Journal is a classy minimlaist magazine style WordPress theme from WooThemes. The theme features a carousel slider and tag based highlights section on the homepage, neat typography, 6 widgetized areas and 10 different styles to choose from.

the journal wordpress theme

Price: Single Use: $70, Developer: $150
Demo & Release Page | Download

Daily Edition
A clean and sophisticated minimalist WordPress theme from WooThemes. The theme includes a unique featured content slider on the homepage, a customisable homepage layout with lots of modules which can be enabled or disabled, 16 colour style options and much more.

Daily Edition Premium WordPress Theme

Price: Single Use: $70, Developer: $150
Demo & Release Page | Download

Celebrity Gossip
A minimal WordPress theme which features a unique photo gallery layout for the home page. The theme features automatic thumbnail creation for the home page, a theme options admin panel to manage advertising, logo, layout options etc and comes in 3 colour styles: light, warm and dark.

Price Single Site: $35, Multi Site: $95
Demo & Release Page | Download

Big News WordPress Theme
A minimalist blog magazine WordPress theme from RichWP. The theme features automatic image resizing, numerous page templates including a photo gallery, a comprehensive options panel that allows you to control many aspects of the theme such as: font types and sizes, navigation, advertising, colours, design elements and more.

BigNews Premium WordPress Theme

Price: BigNews Package: $69.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Alpha Group Inc. WordPress Theme
Alpha Group Inc. is a clean and simple business WordPress theme from Style WordPress which can be easily modified from its built-in theme options menu.

Price: $19
Demo & Release Page | Download

Personal Agency Theme
A minimalist portfolio / business WordPress theme from RichWP. The theme automatically detects if it’s a photo or text post and adjusts the page layout accordingly. It also features automatic image resizing and comes in light and dark colour options.

Homepage
personal agency wordpress theme

Image Post
personal agency theme

Price: Personal Agency Package: $59.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Prospectum WordPress Theme
Prospectum is a clean, minimalist business WordPress theme from Viva Themes. The theme features a fully widget based homepage with featured products / services slideshow, and a unique 2 level main navigation menu which shows sub pages.

prospectum wordpress theme

Price: $41
Demo & Release Page | Download

Rich Biz WordPress Theme
A minimalist business / CMS premium WordPress theme from RichWP. The minimalist theme places the focus on your products and services, and is available in both light and dark colour schemes (see demo).

Rich Biz WordPress Theme Version

Price: RichBiz Package: $69.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Smoke & Mirrors
A stylish minimalist design personal blog premium WordPress theme from Obox Design. The theme includes a new Like and Unlike post voting system, automatic image resizing, menu control functionality, and the OCMX-Live backend options panel.

Smoke & Mirrors Premium WordPress Theme

Price: Single: $50, Developer: $100
Demo & Release Page | Download

Showcase WordPress Theme
A stylish minimalist photo gallery / portfolio premium WordPress theme from RichWP. The theme allows you to publish photos in hierarchical galleries, and albums and includes an integrated blog. The theme features 3 homepage options: slideshow, gallery or blog, automatic image size generation, 2 colour scheme options and more.

Slideshow Homepage Option
richwp showcase theme

Gallery Homepage Option
richwp showcase theme

Photo Post
richwp showcase theme

Blog
richwp showcase theme

Price: Rich Showcase Package: $69.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Thesis Theme
Out of the box the thesis theme theme design is simple minimalist beauty. Thesis is a powerful, high quality WordPress master framework that makes it easy for anyone to run a professional, customized blog or website. In addition to excelling at critical tasks like SEO, site speed, and layout flexibility, Thesis comes with one of the most comprehensive Option Panels that allows you to easily control and customize almost every aspect of the framework with ease. You can select the font style and sizes, colours for most elements, the number of columns (1, 2 or 3 columns), the order of those columns and the exact width of each individual column – all without having to dig into the pages of code. Thesis also boats the strongest SEO of any WordPress theme. Some well know internet personalities and SEO “gurus” use Thesis.

thesis wordpress theme

Thesis Options
thesis-options

Thesis Design Options
design-options

Key Features

Thesis Options Panel – one of the most comprehensive theme options panel in a premium WordPress theme. Allows you to easily control and customise almost any aspect of the framework with ease. You can customise everything including, font styles, colours what you want to appear in the navigation menu, page titles, your RSS feed, what meta data shows on your post / page, how your archive page shows up etc.
Layout Options – Thesis gives you a multitude of column and width options to choose from. You can select the number of columns (1, 2 or 3 columns), the order of those columns and the exact width of each individual column – all without having to dig into the pages of code.
Features and Teasers – Thesis gives you an option called ‘features and teasers’ that allows you to have a front page that is more of a magazine style showing featured posts and short excerpts of other posts with thumbnails.
Colour Control – Thesis allows you change the colour of virtually every element of theme. Easy change text, border, link, background colours etc.
Automatic Thumbnail Generation – Thesis will automatically resize pictures and generate thumbnails for your posts.
No coding experience required – The Thesis option panels allow you to command your site with ease without requiring detailed knowledge of HTML, PHP or CSS.
Future Proof Customization System – Allows modifications with a custom style sheet meaning you can modify your theme and protect it against any future upgrades.
Less Plug-ins Required – some of the capabilities that you would normally use plug-ins for are built into the theme. For example SEO options, Google analytics or other header and footer code, navigation menu options etc can all be managed in the theme options panel.
Pixel Perfect Typography – Thesis has polished typography with finely-tuned geometrics for maximum legibility. You can select what type, and size, of font you want in all the different sections of the theme.
Hooks – Thesis has a custom hook architecture that allows you to add to, subtract from or modify the functionality of your Thesis installation. It allows you to isolate all of your custom changes to just two key files. This makes your Thesis installation easy to customize, and easy to upgrade.
Rich Style Classes – Thesis features built in classes to help you make important content stand out, and add some pizzazz to your site. You can add a drop-cap, alert box, a note box, or even wrap text around adsense ads etc.
Customisable Multimedia Box – Thesis includes an optional fully customizable multimedia box which can be used for rotating random images, video, advertising or your own custom code.
Search Engine Optimization – Thesis boasts the strongest SEO of any theme on the market today thanks to its expertly-coded HTML + CSS + PHP framework.
Support – Access to documentation and a great support forum managed by talented and helpful staff
Continuous Improvement – Thesis is continually being upgraded and improved and new featured added. When you purchase thesis you get access to lifetime updates.
Much More – read about all Thesis features here

Price: Personal: $87, Developer: $164
Demo & Release Page | Download

BlogBeast WordPress Theme
A minimalist blog style WordPress theme from RichWP designed for image rich blog posts. The theme allows you to publish posts in 3 different ways, full image post, half image post and normal post. BlogBeast comes in 8 different colour schemes.

blog beast wordpress theme

Price: RichPhoto Package: $59.90
Demo & Release Page | Download

Affiliate WordPress Theme
Affiliate from RichWP is a premium WordPress theme designed for affiliate websites, but can be used for a variety of purposes including business websites selling your own products, or even a personal site. The theme includes 3 different layout options (grid view, half page list, normal post list) and includes a comprehensive backend options panel to control theme and design options.

affiliate wordpress theme

Features

3 different layout options (grid view, half page list, normal post list)
Custom Page Templates (Full Size Page, Page with Comments, Subpage List)
Photo-, Flash-, Video-Gallery Functionality
Comprehensive Backend Theme Options
Advanced Design Settings (control fonts, colours and font sizes, sidebar positions, backgrounds, switch between 960px and full screen, borders, alignments, thumbnail sizes etc and more)
Ability to Change Theme Structure (Navigation over Logo, Footer outside the container, etc. …)
Change Number of Gallery Thumbnails per Page (Lists)
Change Gallery Thumbnail Sizes
Logo upload
Navigation menu control
Automatic thumbnails
Easy Installation & Setup
Works in all the latest major browsers
Widget ready, Threaded Comments, Gravatar support for Comments

Price: Affiliate Theme: $69, Affiliate Theme Pro: $127
Demo & Release Page | Purchase

Structure
A modern, minimalist premium WordPress theme from Organic Themes. The premium theme includes a featured content Javascript slider, post thumbnail integration, portfolio page template, multiple colour options and enhanced theme control and layout options.

structure wordpress theme