Choosing the right WordPress theme is a big decision. You want to keep your design (theme) for at least 3-5 years, so choosing wisely is important. For the past few years there has been a trend towards minimalist WordPress themes that keep things bare bones and allow the most creativity to make your site unique.

Today we will review the best minimal WordPress themes from a wide variety of sources and explain the key differences in each. We will also perform a speed test on the themes’ demo sites so you can have an idea of how well the theme has been coded with speed standards in mind. After going through this review, you should have a good idea of what minimalist theme to choose!

Here Are The Best Minimalist WordPress Themes to Use in 2015:

1. Salient

What’s Unique?

Salient has been a staple on Themeforest’s top WordPress themes list for awhile. It has a great style and it continues to be updated with new trends and layouts that you can easily change to without moving to a new theme.

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2. Converio

What’s Unique?

Converio has done something I think has been needed for awhile. Instead of just making another theme that looks like everything else, they have actually created conversion optimized marketing pages. These include a landing page with lead capture forms built in, a selling page that does the same thing and a coming soon page that can be used to create pre-launch buzz. Although Converio is considered a minimalist WordPress theme, it has a lot going on behind the scenes that can help your business.

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3. Divi 2.0

What’s Unique?

Divi is Elegant Theme’s flagship theme, the one they put most updates and features into. You will get a strong page builder and other features exclusive to Elegant Themes. This theme also has the benefit of continual updates that keep things fresh with a whole new theme.

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4. Starter

What’s Unique?

This is a free theme from Themeum, which is a company that has mostly paid (premium) themes. Starter has all of the little features you are probably look for: parallax sections, one page navigation, Google Fonts. All this, in a free theme.  You do get what you pay for, though. The speed test leaves a lot to be desired.

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5. Underscores

What’s Unique?

Underscores is an actual “starter” theme, the most minimal WordPress theme you can get. There is no pre-loaded CSS, just core WordPress functions you can built a site from scratch from. This is not a beginner’s theme, it is intended to be used by designers who can build a layout using CSS. Our speed test is a bit misleading because there is no media to load on this page, just un-styled text. The is the go-to theme if you want to build from scratch.

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