Start Bootstrap

Start Bootstrap is a free, open source library of website themes and templates built on Bootstrap 4, providing developers and designers with downloadable designs for one-page sites, dashboards, blogs, and business websites.

What is Start Bootstrap?

Start Bootstrap is a collection of 14 themes and 14 templates, all distributed through the website startbootstrap.com and a GitHub repository. Each download provides ready-to-use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that can be edited and deployed directly. The project is built on Bootstrap 4, and every theme and template in the catalog is released under the MIT license, allowing free commercial and personal use.

Key Features

• Free and open source — Every theme and template is free to download and licensed under MIT, with no attribution required.
• Built on Bootstrap 4 — All 28 designs are up to date for Bootstrap 4, giving you consistent layout and component behavior.
• Wide range of designs — The catalog includes one-page themes (Agency, Creative, Freelancer, Grayscale), admin dashboards (SB Admin, SB Admin 2), blog themes (Clean Blog, Blog Home, Blog Post), and portfolio options (Stylish Portfolio, The Big Picture).
• Business-ready designs — Full business website designs such as Business Casual and Modern Business provide ready-to-fill pages for products, services, and contact information.
• E-commerce templates — Shop Homepage and Shop Item offer starting points for online store frontends.
• Jekyll version available — Clean Blog is also offered as a Jekyll version for static site generators.
• Starter templates included — Bare provides a Bootstrap HTML starter template, while Scrolling Nav and Simple Sidebar add navigation patterns.
• Popular open source project — The GitHub repository has 7,155 stars.

Who is Start Bootstrap for?

Start Bootstrap is aimed at web developers and designers who want a Bootstrap-based starting point instead of building from scratch. Freelancers can use the Freelancer or Resume themes for personal portfolios. Startups and small businesses can customize Business Casual or Landing Page for marketing sites. Developers who need an admin interface can use SB Admin 2 as a dashboard base.

What can you do with Start Bootstrap?

• Freelancers and independent professionals: Download the Resume theme to create a clean, printable résumé page, or use Freelancer to showcase projects and client work.
• Bloggers and content writers: Use Clean Blog or Blog Post templates to publish articles with a polished, readable layout.
• Web developers: Start with Bare or Modern Business to prototype new client sites quickly, then customize the HTML and CSS to match the brand.
• Startups and SaaS products: Use Landing Page or New Age to build a product marketing page with a call-to-action layout.

Pricing and license

Start Bootstrap is free. All themes and templates are released under the MIT license, so they can be used for personal and commercial projects at no cost. The Start Bootstrap website itself is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, which only affects copying the site’s design, not the downloaded themes.

FAQ

Is Start Bootstrap really free?

Yes, every theme and template is free to download and use under the MIT license, including for commercial projects. No payment or attribution is required to use the themes.

Do the themes work with Bootstrap 5?

The catalog is explicitly built on Bootstrap 4, so the themes and templates are not built for Bootstrap 5. Migrating them to Bootstrap 5 would require updating markup and styles yourself.

Does Start Bootstrap offer admin templates?

Yes, there are two admin themes: SB Admin, a free Bootstrap admin template, and SB Admin 2, a more feature-rich dashboard theme. Both are included in the theme list.

Can I use Start Bootstrap themes on a static site generator?

Yes, one theme — Clean Blog — is available in a Jekyll version. The remaining themes are plain HTML templates, so you can integrate them into any static site generator by adapting the files.

What is the difference between themes and templates on Start Bootstrap?

In the Start Bootstrap catalog, items labeled themes include complete designs such as Agency and Creative, while items labeled templates include smaller page layouts such as Blog Home and Shop Item.