Less is more.
This principle applies to the web industry as well.
So, let’s get straight to the point.
Usually, website owners try to make their site MORE effective, functional, and user-friendly. While doing so, they end up pouring in tonnes of features and extras on their website. A huge fraction of bloggers are also the victim of this addiction.
So, what has this resulted into?
Tonnes of amazing features in websites, BUT huge portions of puzzled and annoyed visitors too. Web visitors that find difficulty navigating your website, or the ones that find themselves hard to concentrate on your content with all the bells and whistles around on the screen.
So, what is the ultimate solution?
Using a theme with a minimal design is undoubtedly a good idea. First, it does not clutter your website with unneeded designs and features. Second, your visitors will be able to concentrate on your content fully.
This is the reason that minimalist themes business has started speeding up.
This week, I have spent days of my life vetting through hundreds of cost-free WordPress themes of minimal design. And, I have collected 10+ best free minimalist WordPress themes of 2020 for bloggers, portfolio websites, and other kinds of websites too.
Enjoy this. And if you want to find free themes for your next project, consider checking our collection of the best free WordPress themes.
Table of Contents
CosmosWP – Multipurpose Minimal WordPress Theme
CosmosWP – the most advanced multi-purpose free WordPress theme is great for building any kind of websites. Since the theme lets you control every single designing aspects of your website, you can easily build a blog, travel website, business website, or e-commerce website of a minimal design.
The theme has 14 free ready-to-import demos for different kinds of websites. So, building your dream website so easy and quick with CosmosWP.
You can find many premium features in this free theme. This lightweight and super-fast WooCommerce WordPress theme is WooCommerce ready and supports major plugins. Likewise, it supports major page builders like Gutentor, Elementor, Beaver Builder and more. Moreover, it is Gutenberg-ready as well.
When it comes to customization options, CosmosWP has infinite customization options, which result in endless design possibilities. So, this is a theme for you if you want a blog or website of minimal design with a wide range of customization options.
Key Features
- Gutenberg-ready minimal WordPress Theme
- Lightweight (less than 1 MB) and loads super fast
- 14 ready to import demos
- WooCommerce ready
- Page Builders compatible
- Header and footer builders
- Customization options
Portfolio Web – Clean Portfolio Theme
Building a portfolio website and letting the world see it opens up so many opportunities for creative professionals. And it is also true that creative professionals like writers, designers, developers, speakers, or any other professionals prefer to have a portfolio website with minimal and uncluttered design. If you are one of them, Portfolio Web free minimal portfolio WordPress theme can be the perfect option for you.
The theme has a demo content that you can import easily to start building your website. You can customize the theme through WordPress live customizer and also use 10+ available widgets on the homepage, sidebar, and footer area.
Besides, the theme offers you features like unlimited slider, header options, footer options advanced logo options, header image/video, custom sidebar areas, and more. You also get features like color options, layout controls, social media integration, and translation readiness for free.
Moreover, it is compatible with Page Builder by Site Origin Plugin.
Key Features
- Mobile-friendly and SEO-optimized
- Infinite color options
- Advanced customization options
- 10+ custom widgets
- Page Builder compatible
- Custom copyright text
- Custom widgets
Chosen – Bold & Minimalist Free WordPress Theme
Chosen is the product of Compete Themes – a theme company with plenty of free clean and minimalist WordPress themes. Many bloggers and writers have favored this bold and minimalist free WordPress theme, so it is quite a popular one among those who prefer minimalism.
Chosen is carefully optimized for speed. Using this cleanly coded theme will help you keep your website page loading speed faster than most of the websites. Since it uses the content-first approach in its design, you can be assured that your content will grab the attention of your visitors, and for long.
Besides, the theme has impressive features like Gutenberg compatibility, WooCommerce integration, and Elementor compatibility. What a complete theme this is!
Key Features
- Content-first designing approach
- Gutenberg compatible
- Cleanly coded and regularly updated
- Speed-optimized
- WooCommerce integration
- Elementor Page builder compatible
Punte
Punte is a minimalist free multipurpose WordPress theme. If you are looking for business, blog, e-commerce, restaurant, medical, charity, spa, and a wide range of websites then, Punte is a go-to theme. As the theme is Gutenberg compatible, the complex website building is way smooth. It has a powerful page builder and comes with twelve starter websites that can be imported in a click.
The compatibility with the WooCommerce plugin has made the theme more compatible with online stores. Also, the theme fits perfectly on all the screen types and is retina ready. Although the theme is well optimized and well coded still, there are experts to support your queries’ lifetime. Most importantly, there are powerful theme options that let you build a stunning website in no time.
Key features of Punte:
- 12 pre-build starter sites that are installed in a click
- Free Elementor Add-on plugin
- Customizable header and footer sections
- Responsive and retina ready
- Free lifetime support and updates
- Compatible with major page builder plugins
- SEO optimized
Fashion Diva – Minimal Fashion Blog Theme
If you’re looking for a minimalist theme, then you can’t go wrong with Fashion Diva. A child theme of Blossom Fashion, this theme features a simple yet efficient design. It is best for fashion and lifestyle blogs.
Fashion Diva comes with 2 header layouts, 2 homepage layouts, and 2 banner layouts. You get a striking Featured Area to showcase your star posts. An eye-catching Newsletter section helps generate more leads.
This theme supports social media integration with links to your social media in different areas. You can even place your Instagram feed to increase your social media followers. This theme is also translation-ready, allowing you to localize your website easily.
Key Features:
● Change Theme Color
● Google Fonts
● WooCommerce Compatible
● Layout Choices
● Featured Area
● Instagram Feed
● 20 Custom Widgets
Minimal Business -For Businesses and Agencies
Minimal Business is an elegant free business WordPress theme with a design influenced by minimalism. The theme is apt for all kinds of business websites like corporate, creative agency, and lawyer websites.
The theme offers maximum flexibility when it comes to advanced features. You get full customization options through the customizer. You get carousel slider options, read more text options, custom logo, background color/image options, banner options, social icons multiple client section layouts, multiple slider layouts, and five homepage sections.
Besides, the theme also is well-optimized for various screen sizes and it is SEO-friendly as well.
Key Features
- One-click demo import
- Fully responsive design
- Multiple demos (Corporate & Lawyer)
- Sidebar layout options
- Banner options
- Custom widgets
Chronus – Minimalist Design for Blogs & Magazines
Chronus is a free, lightweight, and minimalist WordPress theme made in Germany. The theme is ideal for news websites, personal blogs, and magazines. Its design evokes your readers to entirely focus on your content so that you can get the most out of your readers’ concentration.
The theme has a responsive layout, which ensures your website will look great on all devices. The theme has custom page templates and a great magazine homepage that you can use to build your site quickly.
Its Theme Customizer lets you customize the theme easily so that you can give your site a personal touch. Likewise, its custom widgets offer you all the flexibility that you need to build a fantastic website with Chronus.
Key Features
- Mobile-friendly
- SEO-optimized
- Custom widgets
- Flexible magazine-style homepage
- Easy translation
Minimalist Blogger – For Bloggers
Here comes another superb minimalist blogging theme that you get for completely free. Built by Superb Themes, Minimalist Blogger is a free minimalist WordPress theme that has accumulated the right set of features and combined it with the amazing, clean design which has resulted in such a pleasing WordPress theme.
First, Minimalist Blogger uses a responsive and search engine optimized design and layout. Second, it offers you custom site title, tagline, logo, favicon, header title color, background color, header background color, and header image. Playing around a little with these custom options will surely result into the unique and impressive design of your website.
And if you would love to polish up your website, then you can upgrade to its premium version any day.
Key Features
- 100% responsive
- Minimal yet creative design
- Optimal performance
- Header background color options
- Widely customizable
MinimalBlog – For Personal Blogs
Simple, clean, and lightweight, MinimalBlog is a free WordPress theme perfect for personal bloggers, food bloggers, and travel bloggers. The theme has accumulated so many creative features to help you build an amazing blog and share your writings with the world.
The amazing thing about MinimalBlog is it has mixed the modern, classic, and minimal design, and such combinations have resulted in such a beautiful theme. With its great typography and the equal focus on images, you can build a blog that truly stands out from the rest.
Moreover, the theme has great features like three header layouts, color options, many Google fonts options, multiple post layouts, category slider, and so on.
Key Features
- Gutenberg compatible
- Background color/image
- Three header layouts
- Color options
- Advanced theme options
- 20 Google fonts
- Category slider
- Multiple Post layouts
Elan – Minimalism at its Best
Elan is a free minimal blog WordPress theme with such a clean and elegant design. The theme combines its pleasing design with the minimalist color style, which makes your blog look so elegant. Writers, photographers, bloggers, and any other creative professional can use this theme to build their photography websites, portfolio websites, or blogs with Elan.
The theme has built-in one-click demo import, which lets you start building your blog quickly. Its modern and clean design layout is fully responsive, SEO-optimized, and widgets-ready. Moreover, the theme has the left and right sidebar option so that you can choose the sidebar position on your blog.
In addition, the theme is Contact Form 7 compatible as well. Build stylish contact forms and encourage your reader to subscribe or contact you.
Key Features
- Mobile-friendly and SEO-optimized
- White color dominant design
- Sidebar option
- Widgets ready
- Contact Form 7 compatible
- Translation ready
Limpia – For Minimalist Fashion Bloggers
Limpia is a free minimalist WordPress blog theme built for fashionistas and influencers. The theme is Gutenberg-ready and allows you to create posts and pages easily with the new stunning WordPress page editor.
The theme is Jetpack-optimized, which will help you create Google maps, contact form, and so many awesome functionalities with this theme.
The theme is SEO-friendly and is well-optimized to respond correctly to different screen sizes from small smartphones to 4K displays TVs. Moreover, the theme offers features like quick setup, in-depth customization, translation readiness, and so on.
Key Features
- Responsive to all devices
- Gutenberg-ready
- Lots of white-space
- Image-focused
- Jetpack-optimized
- Translation-ready
Arke – The Most Minimalist Theme Ever!
Arke is THE MOST MINIMALIST free WordPress theme with no distracting features. The theme has excluded every general feature to make it insanely minimalist. It suits best for building blogs for writers.
One of the advantages of using Arke is the quick page loading speed. Avoiding the use of general features, Arke has been able to achieve lightning-fast page loading speed that other themes will never achieve.
With Arke, it is more about what are the features it has shut out rather than what are the features it has.
The theme is intentionally minimalist, and it supports no distracting features like custom backgrounds, categories, widgets, sidebars, tags, Gravatars, and customizer settings. All you have is a clean screen to spit out words, and your readers will read what you have written without any distraction. And nothing connects your readers with your message better than this theme.
Key Features
- Super-fast loading speed
- Intentionally minimalist
- No sidebars and widgets
- Single content homepage
Impronta – Free WordPress Theme with Clean Design
Impronta is a free blogging WordPress built on a solid framework. This theme uses minimal design and is fully responsive to all screen sizes.
The theme uses the left sidebar where you can place widgets to display your menu, search box, author’s detail, recent posts, recently-commented codes, and so on.
This SEO-optimized theme uses a clean layout with a single column. It also emphasizes images; so you can combine beautiful pictures and your writings to keep your readers engaged in your blog.
Overall, this is a great blogging theme for minimalists.
Key Features
- Easy customization option
- Responsive design
- Translation ready
Anariel Lite – Free Modern Theme with Clean Design
Anariel Lite is a free WordPress theme that uses modern and minimalist design. With the use of minimal and only the most-needed features, Anariel Lite is the perfect blog theme for writers and minimalist bloggers.
Anariel Lite provides you grid, full-width, boxed, and a default sidebar layout options. You can choose your favorite layout and choose to have your full-width or sidebar pages with the slideshow as well.
The theme is made for readability so that your readers will focus more on your content. It supports all the major post formats like video, gallery, audio, link posts, and more.
Besides, the theme has social media integration, Instagram block, CSS3 animation features and animation, email subscription section, and so on. But, don’t let all these features to question yourself whether Anariel Lite is really a minimal WordPress theme.
Key Features
- Multiple layouts
- Fast-loading and SEO-optimized
- Clean & crisp design
- Instagram and Facebook integration
- Email subscription
Diarjo – Free Theme for Blogs & Portfolio
Diarjo is a free creative WordPress theme with a minimalist layout that is perfect for blogs and portfolio websites. The theme is fully-optimized for mobile devices and is based on the Bootstrap framework.
The theme offers you masonry layout and gallery, which are indeed the features that minimalist loves to have.
Diarjo has an Options Panel to customize the theme and your website. Likewise, it is widget-ready, translation ready, and supports the latest WordPress versions.
Overall, the theme offers you so many options to build a clean website without distractions.
Key Features
- Mobile-friendly design
- Masonry layout
- Post formats
- Widget ready
- Translation ready
Final Words
So, have you found the theme that you wanted? Which one of these minimal WordPress themes impressed you the most? You can comment down below. We would love to hear a word or two from you.
Interested in checking our other blogs? Below are the few ones.