Underscores on the back-end
Start with simple, powerful theme code based on Underscores — the best-practices starter theme from Automattic, the company founded by the co-creator of WordPress®.
Open Source · WordPress® Theme Framework · Maintained by HDC
Underscores + Bootstrap.
The free theme framework for handcrafted WordPress® sites.
Understrap is an independent, open-source theme built for the WordPress® content management system. WordPress is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation.
Trusted by more than 100,000 sites…
- Harvard University
- Intel
- The Oscars
- Nginx
- Tokyo 2020 Olympics
- National Wildlife Federation
- American Humane Society
- University of Miami
- Boys & Girls Clubs
Built for custom WordPress® developers.
The best of both worlds — a proven starter theme and the industry-standard front-end.
Bootstrap on the front-end
Add beautiful, flexible styles, components, grids and responsive design with Bootstrap — the industry standard for mobile-first development.
The Understrap Promise
Open-source freedom, backed by a serious company.
Understrap is an open-source project maintained and powered by Howard Development & Consulting, a web development firm with more than 20 years of experience innovating online.
We're building a community on open-source principles, supported by continuous improvements from our paid development team — so you get the flexibility and freedom of open source, plus the stability and security of knowing there's a serious company behind the project.
Join Our Community on GitHubOur developers speak for themselves.
We use Understrap for most of our WordPress® projects. It's a great starting point for just about any design — it takes a lot of the initial setup out of the equation, so we start building sooner. Easy to customise to our clients' needs and to build our own custom sections.
Understrap has changed the web game for me! I use it for nearly EVERY site I build — it has become a key part of my theme-building process. The perfect theme to build beautiful responsive sites. Stop reading my review and get strapped!
We've been using Understrap for years. It easily saves us 10 hours of work on custom web builds. The best part is fast-loading pages with zero bloat — perfect for SEO.
Our developer uses Understrap when we want to quickly test a new product idea or event type. Since switching to Understrap, we save both time and money with these launches.
All my agency websites are based on Understrap. When you run a team, frameworks are indispensable. A theme with Bootstrap and Font Awesome, very well structured — it was love at first sight. Thank you for creating and sharing this awesome theme.
Understrap has been the perfect theme for me as a developer, and an absolute pleasure to use for the past 4 years. It is clean, fast, lightweight, and super easy to customize using Understrap's child theme. Thank you Understrap!
From the team behind Understrap
Need a hand with a high-stakes WordPress or web build?
Understrap is maintained by HDC — a U.S.-based team that ships complex, high-stakes web & AI projects on time and on budget, and partners with agencies to get big builds done right. Meet the team, see our portfolio, or book a free consult.