Jekyll remains one of the most reliable static site generators in 2026. With over 50,000 GitHub stars and native GitHub Pages integration, it offers zero-cost hosting: push Markdown to a repo, and your site builds and deploys automatically — no CI/CD, no build scripts, no monthly bill.
The Ruby-based generator has been around since 2008, giving it the largest theme ecosystem of any SSG. We reviewed GitHub to find the 15 best free Jekyll themes that are actively maintained, well-documented, and genuinely worth using today.
Category: Academic/Portfolio | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
The most popular Jekyll theme on GitHub, purpose-built for researchers with dedicated pages for publications, talks, teaching, and a structured CV. Ships with a BibTeX-to-Markdown generator, 6 skins, and Docker/DevContainer support. Forked from Minimal Mistakes, stripped down to focus on what academics need.
Best for: Researchers, postdocs, and professors who want a professional academic web presence with structured publication and CV pages.
Category: Academic/Portfolio | CSS: Bootstrap + MDB | License: MIT
The most feature-rich academic theme available, with auto light/dark mode, Google Scholar citation badges, a team directory, and a blog engine supporting Plotly.js charts, Jupyter notebooks, Mermaid diagrams, and LaTeX math. Bootstrap + Material Design styling gives it a polished, modern look. More setup than Academic Pages, but significantly more capable.
Best for: Research groups and academics who want the most feature-rich academic theme available and don’t mind spending time on initial setup.
Category: Multi-purpose | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
The Swiss Army knife of Jekyll themes: 9 skins, multiple layouts, SEO with Twitter Cards and Open Graph, 6 comment systems, i18n for 35+ languages, and Algolia/Lunr.js search. Works as both a gem-based and remote theme. Arguably the best-documented Jekyll theme in existence, and the foundation that Academic Pages and many others forked from.
Best for: Anyone who needs a general-purpose Jekyll theme that can serve as a blog, portfolio, documentation site, or all three.
If you’re also evaluating admin panel solutions for your web projects, check out our roundup of the best Tailwind admin dashboard templates covering React, Vue, and framework-agnostic options.
Category: Blog/Technical | CSS: Bootstrap | License: MIT
Purpose-built for technical blogging with polished dark mode, pinned posts, hierarchical categories, auto-generated TOC, MathJax, and Mermaid diagrams. Ships as a PWA with offline reading and built-in search — no external service required. DevContainer support means zero local Ruby setup.
Best for: Developers and engineers who write technical content and want a professional blog without any design work.
Category: Documentation | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
A focused documentation theme with Lunr.js search, hierarchical parent-child navigation, collapsible sections, dark mode, and callout blocks. Navigation is defined in the front matter of Markdown files — no separate configuration required. Deploys to GitHub Pages with zero configuration beyond _config.yml.
Best for: Teams documenting open-source projects, APIs, or internal tools — the Jekyll equivalent of Docusaurus for the React ecosystem.
Category: Blog | CSS: Bootstrap | License: Apache-2.0
A visually striking theme built around full-width header images, an author sidebar, and a publication-style reading experience. Supports PWA features, tag-based organization, and syntax highlighting. Posts look best with a large banner image, so plan to source header photos.
Best for: Bloggers who write visual content and want a polished, publication-style reading experience that stands out from minimalist Jekyll themes.
Category: Blog/Personal | CSS: Bootstrap | License: MIT
Designed for first-time Jekyll users, with step-by-step docs from fork to first post. Includes SEO, 6 comment systems, Google Analytics, search, cover photos, and MathJax. Nearly everything is configurable through _config.yml without touching HTML or CSS.
Best for: First-time Jekyll users and non-technical bloggers who want a professional site with minimal friction and maximum configurability.
Building web applications alongside your Jekyll site? Our guide to the best Django admin dashboard templates covers free admin panels for Python-based backends.
Category: Blog | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
The official default theme maintained by the Jekyll core team, guaranteed compatible with the latest versions. Offers 6 skins, RSS feeds, SEO tags, and customizable Sass variables — no CSS framework, no JS libraries. The ideal starting point for understanding how Jekyll themes work; many popular themes started as Minima forks.
Best for: Developers who want a clean, no-frills blog foundation or a learning base for building their own custom Jekyll theme.
Category: Landing Page | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
Enter your App Store ID and the theme auto-fetches your app’s icon, name, price, description, and screenshots. Supports video previews, privacy policy pages, changelog, and download buttons for both stores. Your landing page stays in sync with your store listing automatically.
Best for: Indie developers who need a professional mobile app landing page in minutes, without manual screenshot resizing or marketing copy.
Category: Resume/CV | CSS: Bootstrap | License: Attribution required
Turns your resume into a responsive single-page site powered by a YAML data file. Edit _data/data.yml with your experience, education, and skills. Offers 8 color skins and print-friendly output. Note: free but requires an attribution footer link; removing it needs a purchased license.
Best for: Job seekers who want a professional online resume in 15 minutes with zero HTML editing, and don’t mind the attribution link.
Category: Multi-purpose | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
iOS-inspired design with clean typography, 6 skins, i18n, search, and auto-generated TOC. Standout feature: a built-in extension system for MathJax, Mermaid, Chart.js, and embeddable audio, video, and slide presentations. Compatible with GitHub Pages via remote_theme.
Best for: Educators, presenters, and content creators who need rich multimedia embedding (audio, video, slides, charts) beyond just text and images.
For developers working with PHP frameworks, our collection of the best Laravel admin dashboard templates includes free solutions with built-in authentication and CRUD operations.
Category: Resume/CV | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
A cleaner alternative to Online CV with card-based layout, timeline for work experience, and dark mode. All content is YAML-driven with better typography and visual hierarchy. Fully MIT licensed — no attribution requirements. Works seamlessly with GitHub Pages.
Best for: Job seekers who want a modern-looking online resume with MIT licensing freedom and dark mode support.
Category: Blog (Minimalist) | CSS: Nearly no CSS | License: MIT
Approximately 1KB of CSS total — not minified, just genuinely tiny. Perfect 100s across all Lighthouse categories and sub-100ms load times. Supports light, dark, and auto modes, RSS feeds, and SEO meta tags. Proof that a blog only needs HTML and a handful of typographic styles.
Best for: Minimalism advocates and performance purists who want the fastest possible blog with zero visual distractions.
Category: Blog | CSS: Custom SCSS | License: MIT
Modern flat design with a parallax banner header, night mode toggle, Font Awesome 5 icons, and gradient-backed category headers. Card-based post listings and smooth scroll animations rival premium themes. Full remote_theme support — no need to fork the repository.
Best for: Bloggers who want a visually engaging Jekyll site with parallax effects and colorful design without a heavy CSS framework.
Exploring JavaScript framework options for your web applications? Our guide to the best Vue admin dashboard templates covers free Vue.js admin panels with modern tooling.
Category: Blog/Portfolio | CSS: Bootstrap SCSS | License: MIT
Combines a blog engine with portfolio and gallery pages, plus light/dark mode, search, KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, and Docker support. The portfolio and gallery pages set it apart from pure blog themes. Actively maintained with commits as recent as February 2026.
Best for: Developers, designers, and writers who want to showcase projects alongside blog posts with dedicated portfolio and gallery pages.
Every theme on this list works with GitHub Pages’ free hosting and has been battle-tested on thousands of real sites. Whether you need an academic portfolio, a technical blog, a documentation site, or a YAML-powered resume, fork a repository, customize the config, and you’re live — your only cost is the time spent writing content.
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