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Working with WordPress is a pleasure for a Web Developer but every WordPress project will contain a degree of repetition and common tasks. Creating a child theme and working with an existing free or premium WordPress theme can often give pretty quick results but often unpicking existing code and removing unnecessary elements can waste more time than anything else. This is where WordPress starter themes and frameworks come in.

What is a WordPress Starter Theme?

A WordPress theme designed to be a flexible starting point for rapid WordPress development. Some starter themes are designed with the developer in mind – these remove unnecessary design elements allowing the developer to get straight on with building a theme rather than removing unnecessary code, whereas others are designed with the non-technical in mind and make development more accessible with the use of options pages and drag-and-drop design interfaces.

Recommended WordPress Starter Themes and Frameworks

I’ve worked with a wide variety of WordPress themes and frameworks and after comparing them, have come up with a selection of five I’m are very comfortable in recommending. Each theme has its own unique pros and cons which individual developers will have to experience for themselves in order to determine which is best.

Bones

Bones is more than just frameworks. It is designed for the Web Developer who wants to make WordPress designs their own. It’s based on HTML5 Boilerplate and the 960 grid system. The theme is built with easy customisation in mind and encourages developers to work on top of the framework rather than using child themes. Bones offers:

• Comes in two flavours, classic and responsive (responsive version is for mobile devices and adopts a mobile first approach)
• Well structured code, particularly CSS
• Well documented

Visit website: themble.com/bones

Whiteboard Framework

Whiteboard Framework is designed to provide a starting point for WordPress developers with an emphasis on speed and efficiency. Whiteboard’s philosophy extends from the knowledge that too many WordPress developers waste time cleaning out unnecessary code and design items from other frameworks. Whiteboard framework provides:

• A completely free and open source framework
• Support for HTML5, CSS3, and WordPress 3.x
• Minimalist design theme that can be easily removed or built on top of
• Multilingual support

Visit website: whiteboardframework.com

Starkers

Starkers is probably the theme I’ve use the most out of all those listed in this post. It’s a stripped-down version of the Twenty Ten theme that comes as standard with WordPress. The developer has removed all unnecessary styles, elements, functions, and CSS classes to provide a truly bare-bones theme ready for your customization. Starkers offers:

• Minimal and only essential code and templates included
• Easy of use that assists rapid development
• Ideal base for developing WordPress themes from the ground up without the hassle of removing the unneeded code that can be found in some starter themes and frameworks

Visit website: starkerstheme.com

Roots

Roots is another minimalist theme based on HTML5 Boilerplate, Starkers (see above), and the most popular CSS frameworks. Roots helps you build your WordPress sites quickly, using a variety of options like automatic homepage creation, permalink settings, and optimised navigation configuration. Roots offers:

• Sound base for development, built on HTML5 Boilerplate and a multitude of CSS Frameworks
• The following CSS Frameworks: Blueprint CSS, 960.gs, 1140px Grid, Adapt.js, Less Framework 4, Foundation by Zurb, Twitter’s Bootstrap
• Outputs cleaner code and includes automated features to speed up development

Visit website: rootstheme.com

PressWork

PressWork is slightly different to the WordPress starter themes listed above in that it is a front-end drag-and-drop editor rather than a starter theme as such. PressWork allows the creation and editing of WordPress themes in a live preview environment and is therefore the ideal WordPress design tool for non-technical individuals looking for all the benefits of WordPress without the advanced knowledge of a professional developer. PressWork includes:

• Support for WordPress pages, themes, and links
• Built-in HTML 5 support
• Built in support for Google fonts
• Full compliance with W3C standards

Visit website: presswork.me

If you’re a WordPress developer, you’ll know the value of good themes and frameworks. I’d recommend giving all five of the above a go if you haven’t already done so. You’re bound to find elements you like in all of them. But once you find the right WordPress starter theme for the type of work you do, you’ll enjoy a much more efficient development environment which allows you to build WordPress websites quicker and more efficiently.