20+ Best Minimal WordPress Themes: With Simple, Elegant Designs

Minimal design on the web is timeless, with plenty of whitespace, and clean site designs that can breath with simple elegance.

The beauty of the minimalistic approach is that every piece of your content, be it images, videos, or blog posts, takes center stage. Pair that with clever copy and you’re bound to see an increase in conversion rates.

What Do Minimalist WordPress Themes Have to Offer?

Even though they are called minimal, don’t let the name deceive you. They may have a simple-looking design but minimalist WordPress themes pack quite a punch when it comes to features. 

The minimal WordPress themes on our list give you plenty of options to highlight your images to show off your portfolio or products. Here are some of the most popular ones from Envato Market and Elements: 

Envato Elements

With Envato Elements you can download unlimited WordPress themes for beautiful creative websites, all for a single monthly fee. If you create a lot of sites, this option is perfect for you.

Let’s look at some of the most popular minimalist examples before we cover ThemeForest. 

1. Buran

Buran puts the minimalism in your hands; after all, in a theme where content plays such a central role, it could quickly be filled with visual details and extravagance. But assuming you respect the minimal web design, this theme is perfect for showing off any portfolio.

Framed in a soothing gray, Buran comes with all the fundamental tools and features you’d expect of a premium theme, and it’s also built with SEO best practices in mind.

2. Adios

Check out the beautiful Adios template below; one which features regularly in our “best of” WordPress roundups. It’s really striking, uncomplicated, fully responsive and retina ready, and it comes with these features, among many others:

• Solid typography
• Visual Composer page builder
• 26 custom shortcodes
• Advanced portfolio layouts, including masonry and classic options
• Portfolio filtering

20 Best Minimal WordPress Themes

Continuing this curated theme list, we showcase Envato Market’s best minimal WordPress themes with simple, modern designs. We update this roundup regularly, removing themes which aren’t maintained or kept current, whilst adding new, best-selling themes to the top of the list.

3. Werkstatt

Riddled with layout options for personal blogs, agency websites, portfolios, whatever, Werkstatt maintains a common thread of minimalism through all its demos. Striking graphics, bold whitespace; a perfect offering for the minimalist.

4. Authentic

Touted as being “perfect for lifestyle bloggers and magazines” Authentic offers a clutter-free design, whilst giving content publishers plenty of ways to show off their work. This is a major update from version 1, and the new release has earned Authentic some of the highest ratings seen amongst its peers since the relaunch.

5. Calafate

“Whitespace” doesn’t infer “white” per se. In fact, some of the color combinations used in Calafate’s designs are far from plain white, demonstrating some really attractive color palettes in the process. Calafate is aimed at anyone looking for a clean portfolio, or online shop.

6. Proton

Proton is a lovely minimal theme; its classic homepage and portfolio layout gives the impression of high-quality raw paper–you can almost smell the ink! Its online shop variant is equally calming to behold, with clean typography, bold lines and plenty of breathing space. Take a look at the screenshot and see for yourself:

7. Journey

Journey features a clean and elegant design with a slight retro feel. It offers three homepage variations, each of which puts a strong focus on your photography. 

The video variation also allows you to feature videos front and center and the parallax variation has gorgeous parallax sections to add visual appeal to your website. 

This clean WordPress theme features include a responsive, retina-ready design, unlimited typography and color options, 11 blog layouts, and plenty of custom widgets to add your content with.

8. Mega

Mega is a gorgeous simple WordPress theme suitable for a variety of small business websites. The theme offers nine homepage variations and a custom page builder which makes it easy to edit any of the existing layouts. You can also create completely custom layouts to make a unique look for your website that best suits your needs. 

The advanced theme options panel allows you to easily change the theme’s colors and typography, add your own custom styles, and much more. Mega is fully responsive and optimized for retina screens, which means all your website elements will always appear crisp and look good on any device.

9. Grand Portfolio

If you are a freelance designer or a creative agency looking to showcase your portfolio in an approachable way with a touch of elegance, look no further than Grand Portfolio. 

This theme was designed with creatives in mind, featuring bold imagery and charming typography. This simple WP theme design includes predefined layouts for architects, creative agencies, photographers, designers, musicians, bloggers, and much more. 

It comes with a WordPress customizer that allows you to style any element with your choice of colors and fonts. The included page builder makes it easy to tweak any layout and come up with a unique design. The theme is fully responsive and coded with the best SEO practices in mind.

10. XStore

XStore is an excellent choice for an online store owner interested in minimal design. Your products are put at the forefront with large images and the theme offers more than 30 layouts to create a truly stunning website. 

The minimal layout makes it easy to filter through your products and bring the attention to your bestsellers or items you currently have on sale. Individual products can have different layouts to highlight your products features. With a responsive design and plenty of customization options, this elegant WordPress theme will make a great first impression on your customers.

11. Juster

Juster is a minimal and clean WordPress theme with a fully responsive design and the option to choose between a one-page or a multi-page layout. This modern WordPress theme includes more than 15 predefined layouts and over 200 shortcodes to add buttons, call to actions, toggles, columns, and much more. 

It also allows you to easily create your own unique style with unlimited color options, integration with Google Fonts, and FontAwesome icons. You can choose between a video background or a parallax background and easily add an online shop.

12. SmartBlog

SmartBlog has an airy feel and is best suited for authors or bloggers who want to break out as freelance writers. The clean and modern design is easy on the eyes but still has plenty of features under the hood. 

Use the Live Customizer to tweak your website’s colors and fonts and take advantage of various custom widgets to add additional content to your pages. The theme has a responsive design that looks beautiful on smaller screens and individual posts have a special “Like” feature which encourages user interaction.

Start your blog using this simple WordPress them, and let your narrative and clean, authentic imagery tell your stories. With plenty of whitespace and layout options, your brand and blog content can stand out with a contemporary site design that helps engage your audience. 

13. Stag

Stag is a beautiful portfolio theme with a minimal, responsive design. Stag offers six homepage variations as well as unique layouts for your portfolio pages. 

A powerful theme options panel allows you to easily tweak any aspect of your website, from colors to fonts while the page builder makes it easy to create custom layouts. 

This minimal WP theme puts your portfolio content first. It's SEO-ready and includes built-in social media widgets to help your visitors share your lovely designs, artwork, or product showcase. 

14. Infinite

Infinite is a responsive, minimal, multipurpose WordPress theme with tons of features to turn your website into a stunning online presence. Infinite offers plenty of predefined layouts to get your website set up as fast as possible. The theme includes an easy to use page builder and an advanced theme options panel to customize any aspect of your website.

15. Artmag

Artmag is a simple and clean WordPress theme with five different homepage layouts and a powerful page builder plugin—which makes it easy to tweak your layouts or create new ones. The theme options panel allows you to easily modify your website’s colors and thanks to the SEO optimized code, you’ll get an instant boost in your search engine rankings. Artmag is fully responsive and retina-ready. 

16. Enfold

Enfold is a gorgeous responsive theme with a clean and minimal layout. It can adapt to a variety of niches and has plenty of customization options which are user-friendly and easy to use even for beginners. 

This minimal WP theme comes with predefined layouts, which are a great starting point when you get ready to build your website. Enfold includes a page builder which will make it easy to create unique layouts for all of your pages. On top of that, it has been optimized to load fast and comes with SEO optimized code.

17. Bateaux

Bateaux is a creative, minimal WordPress theme with a pixel-perfect and responsive design. It features elegant typography and stunning images to showcase your work in a stylish way. 

Numerous predefined templates and customization options make this elegant WordPress theme perfect for anyone who wants to have the ultimate control over their website’s look and feel. The themes Blueprint page builder is very easy to use and gives you even more creative freedom when it comes to designing your layout.

18. Digital Agency

Digital Agency is a minimal and responsive WordPress theme built with marketers and digital agencies in mind. The theme includes three predefined layouts which are easy to tweak with the included Visual Composer plugin. 

On top of that, you can choose your own colors and change fonts with the theme’s easy to use admin panel. The theme also includes Ultimate Addons plugin which allows you to add video backgrounds, parallax sections, and much more to create a truly impressive website. 

19. Solstice

Solstice offers a stunning visual experience to anyone who visits your website. The clean and minimal design is a great way to draw attention to your recent works or your latest articles. This simple WordPress theme design offers over 140 options to create the perfect visual style for your brand and includes several pre-made logo templates to jumpstart your next project. 

20. Primrose

Primrose is a great choice for eCommerce websites looking for a clutter-free design. Thanks to the simple, drag-and-drop page builder, tons of options, and WooCommerce integration, you can create your online shop in a matter of minutes. The responsive design of this modern WordPress theme will make sure your store looks great on any device. Primrose also includes a child theme for those who want to make complex customizations quickly.

21. Vong

Vong is a responsive and minimal portfolio theme with all the right elements to present your company in style. Styling options include unlimited colors and fonts, and the page builder allows you to easily add templates to feature your team members, testimonials, and more. The theme is retina-ready which ensures your work will appear crisp on high-resolution devices and make a great impression on potential clients.

Are Minimal WordPress Themes a Good Choice for Small Business Owners?

Any business owner who prefers a clean layout and distraction-free design should consider investing in simple WordPress themes. Especially if you want to focus on showcasing your content first. This applies to service-based business owners, as well as freelance designers and writers, alike. 

With a simple user interface of a minimal WP theme: 

• Potential clients will be able to quickly find the content they are interested in. 
• The lack of distracting elements will make it easier to get them to focus on your calls to action. 
• Last but not least, the simple design will make your website load faster, which is always a plus. 

Also, if you're a web designer, or help small businesses setup their WordPress websites, a minimal theme design is a great choice for designing a variety of client sites with—whether for their new blog, to showcase their portfolio of products, or launch their entrepreneurial brand with an elegant, authentic style. 

There are lots of styles of WordPress themes to consider though, if minimal isn't the direction that fits your brand best.

More WordPress Theme Design Options

We have a number of curated WordPress theme showcases here on Envato Tuts+. If you need more options, browse through these guides: 

• 
  WordPress Themes
  27 Best WordPress Magazine Themes for Blog and News Websites in 2022
  Brenda Barron
• 
  WordPress
  20 Best WordPress Video Themes: With Beautiful Gallery and Fullscreen Features
  Brenda Barron
• 
  Inspiration
  29 Best Portfolio WordPress Themes for Creatives
  Brenda Barron

Also, learn more about how to choose the best website template or WordPress theme: 

• 
  Web Design
  How to Choose a Website Template (What's Best for Your Site?)
  Brenda Barron

A Minimal Design Can Take You Far

Minimalist websites are a great way to draw the attention of your website’s visitors to your content as well as your call-to-action sections.

All of our themes are easy to install and if you need more options, we have thousands of professional WP themes on Envato Market (ThemeForest) with new WordPress themes trending weekly. 

For those of you who are ready to give your website a makeover and increase your conversion rate, choose one of our best minimalist WordPress themes today.

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