Business Casual is a free, open-source Bootstrap HTML theme from Start Bootstrap that provides a ready-made multipurpose website layout with landing, about, blog, and contact pages. Built on the Bootstrap framework and styled with SCSS, the theme compiles Pug templates into static HTML and CSS that any web browser can render without a server.
What is Business Casual?
Business Casual is a multipurpose website theme for Bootstrap created by Start Bootstrap, an open source library of free Bootstrap templates maintained by David Miller. The theme takes HTML, SCSS, Pug, and JavaScript source files as input and compiles them into a static dist directory containing plain HTML and CSS files that you can edit directly or open in a browser. It is distributed under the MIT license, so it can be used for personal or commercial projects.
Key Features
- Four prebuilt pages — The theme includes a landing page, an about page, a blog page, and a contact page, giving a small business a complete site structure out of the box.
- Bootstrap-based responsive layout — Built on the Bootstrap framework, so the grid, components, and utilities behave consistently across desktop and mobile viewports.
- Pug and SCSS source files — The
srcdirectory contains Pug templates for HTML and SCSS for styling, allowing developers to reuse partials and variables before compiling. - npm build workflow — Includes scripts such as
npm run buildto compile assets, HTML, JS, and CSS intodist, plusnpm startto launch a live preview with watch and reload. - MIT license — Released under the MIT license, permitting free use, modification, and distribution, including in commercial projects.
- Live preview and demo — A hosted live preview is available on the Start Bootstrap GitHub Pages URL so you can see the theme rendered before downloading.
Who is it for?
Business Casual targets small business owners, freelancers, and web developers who need a professional-looking brochure site without building from scratch. A small business owner can download the release and replace the placeholder text and images with their own content. A freelance web designer can use the Pug and SCSS source files to create a custom design and compile it with npm. A developer learning Bootstrap can study the theme's components and structure to understand common layout patterns.
What can you do with Business Casual?
- Small business owners: create a simple marketing site with a landing page, about page, blog, and contact form area without writing code from scratch.
- Freelance developers: customize the Pug partials and SCSS variables, then run
npm run buildto generate a static site for deployment on any hosting service. - Students and learners: use the template as a reference for how Bootstrap layout and components are organized.
How does Business Casual work?
For basic use, download the release, open the dist folder, and edit the HTML and CSS files directly; preview changes by opening index.html in a browser. For advanced use, clone the GitHub repository, run npm install to install dependencies, then run npm start to launch a live preview that watches for changes to the Pug, SCSS, and JS source files and reloads the browser automatically. The package.json file defines additional scripts for building individual asset types.
Pricing
Business Casual is free. It is released under the MIT license by Start Bootstrap LLC, and the GitHub repository also carries an MIT license badge.
FAQ
Is Business Casual free to use?
Yes, Business Casual is free and released under the MIT license. You can use it for personal or commercial projects, modify it, and distribute it with no licensing fees.
What pages are included in Business Casual?
The theme includes four pages: a landing page, an about page, a blog page, and a contact page. All four are built with the same responsive Bootstrap layout and share common styling.
Do I need npm to use Business Casual?
No. If you only want to edit content, you can use the compiled files in the dist directory. npm is only required for the advanced workflow where you want to recompile Pug and SCSS source files.
Who created Business Casual?
Business Casual was created by Start Bootstrap, an open source library of free Bootstrap templates, and is maintained by David Miller. Start Bootstrap is based on the Bootstrap framework created by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton.
