25 Best Jekyll Themes for Blogs and Portfolios in 2026
A curated list of the best Jekyll themes for blogs and portfolio sites in 2026 — with live demos, star counts, and who each theme is best for.
Looking for a Jekyll theme in 2026? There are thousands on GitHub, but most are outdated, poorly maintained, or just not that good. This list covers the 25 best — tested, actively maintained, and organised by use case.
Best Jekyll Blog Themes
1. Chirpy
| **Stars: 7,000+ | Best for: Developer blogs** |
Chirpy is one of the most polished blog themes available. It comes with dark/light mode, a sidebar with categories and tags, table of contents, reading time estimates, and strong SEO out of the box. The design is clean and modern.
2. Minimal Mistakes
| **Stars: 12,000+ | Best for: Everything** |
The most versatile Jekyll theme in existence. It supports blog posts, portfolio layouts, documentation, splash pages, and a dozen pre-built skins. The documentation is exceptional. A safe choice for almost any project.
View Minimal Mistakes on JekyllHub →
3. Beautiful Jekyll
| **Stars: 5,700+ | Best for: Quick personal blogs** |
Beautiful Jekyll is designed to get you publishing in minutes. Fork the repo, edit _config.yml, and your site is live. No local setup required. One of the easiest Jekyll themes to get started with.
View Beautiful Jekyll on JekyllHub →
4. So Simple
| **Stars: 1,800+ | Best for: Minimal personal sites** |
Clean, content-focused, and fast. So Simple strips away everything that’s not essential, leaving a beautiful reading experience. By the creator of Minimal Mistakes.
5. Type on Strap
| **Stars: 800+ | Best for: Medium-style reading experience** |
A theme focused on typography and readability. Clean headers, comfortable line length, and good colour contrast. Well-suited for long-form writing.
6. Huxpro
| **Stars: 5,400+ | Best for: Personal brands** |
A full-screen hero image layout with clean post typography. Originally created by a Alibaba engineer and widely adopted for personal sites and technical blogs.
7. Contrast
| **Stars: 900+ | Best for: Ultra-minimal design** |
Dark background, light content area, excellent readability. Contrast takes minimalism seriously — no images on the homepage, just clean post listings.
8. Cayman Blog
| **Stars: 500+ | Best for: Simple GitHub project blogs** |
Based on GitHub’s Cayman theme. Clean, lightweight, and great for project documentation blogs. Easy to deploy directly from GitHub.
Best Jekyll Portfolio Themes
9. Hacker Blog
| **Stars: 700+ | Best for: Developer / terminal aesthetic** |
A dark, terminal-inspired blog theme. Monospace fonts, green-on-dark colour scheme. Stands out from the crowd — perfect for developers who want something distinctive.
View Hacker Blog on JekyllHub →
10. al-folio
| **Stars: 11,000+ | Best for: Academic / research portfolios** |
The most popular academic Jekyll theme. Features publication lists, project showcases, a CV section, and a blog. Used by researchers and professors at universities worldwide.
11. Freelancer Theme (Jekyll port)
| **Stars: 2,000+ | Best for: Freelancer portfolios** |
A one-page portfolio with a project grid, skills section, and contact form. Based on Start Bootstrap’s Freelancer template, converted to Jekyll.
12. Creative Theme
| **Stars: 1,200+ | Best for: Agency / studio portfolios** |
Bold homepage with scroll animations, a full-screen hero, and a filterable portfolio grid. Suited for design studios and creative freelancers.
13. Researcher
| **Stars: 600+ | Best for: Academic researchers** |
Ultra-minimal single-page academic theme. Designed to showcase publications, education, and research interests without distractions.
View Researcher on JekyllHub →
Best Jekyll Documentation Themes
14. Just the Docs
| **Stars: 8,000+ | Best for: Product documentation** |
The best Jekyll documentation theme. Full-text search, nested sidebar navigation, callout blocks, and excellent accessibility. Used by thousands of open-source projects.
View Just the Docs on JekyllHub →
15. Docco
Best for: Code documentation with inline comments
Renders code and comments side by side in a two-column layout. Classic documentation style popularised by CoffeeScript docs.
16. Slate
| **Stars: 2,000+ | Best for: API documentation** |
Clean documentation with a dark left-hand navigation sidebar. Popular for REST API reference documentation.
Best Minimal Jekyll Themes
17. Minima
Best for: Absolute beginners
Jekyll’s official default theme. Not glamorous, but very clean and a great learning base. Every Jekyll installation starts with Minima.
18. Whiteglass
| **Stars: 400+ | Best for: Long-form writing** |
Inspired by Medium’s reading experience. Wide margins, large body text, excellent reading comfort. Great for writers.
19. Pixyll
| **Stars: 1,800+ | Best for: Photography and minimal portfolios** |
Designed to put images front and centre. Clean whitespace, big typography, and a focus on visual content.
20. Swiss
Best for: Type-focused minimalism
Based on the Swiss/International Typographic Style (think IKEA design language). Strong grid, clean typography, neutral palette.
Best Dark Jekyll Themes
21. Devlopr Jekyll
| **Stars: 2,500+ | Best for: Developer blogs with dark mode** |
Feature-rich developer blog theme with dark mode, reading time, newsletter signup, post categories, and Google Analytics. One of the most complete free themes available.
22. Klise
| **Stars: 1,300+ | Best for: Clean dark design** |
A dark, minimal blog theme with excellent typography. Auto dark/light mode based on system preference. Clean and fast.
23. Jasper2
| **Stars: 900+ | Best for: Magazine-style dark blogs** |
Inspired by Ghost’s Casper theme. Full-screen hero images, card-based post grid, and a polished magazine feel. Dark mode built in.
Best Jekyll Themes for Businesses
24. Agency Jekyll Theme
| **Stars: 1,000+ | Best for: Marketing agencies** |
Multi-section one-page theme with services, team, portfolio, and contact sections. Clean corporate design.
25. Massively
| **Stars: 700+ | Best for: Bold graphic design portfolios** |
Big typography, strong visual hierarchy, full-width background images. Makes a strong first impression. Ported from HTML5 UP.
How to Choose
For a personal blog: Start with Chirpy or Minimal Mistakes — both have excellent documentation and are actively maintained.
For a portfolio: al-folio (academic) or Freelancer (creative) depending on your field.
For documentation: Just the Docs, no contest.
For something distinctive: Hacker Blog or Massively — they stand out visually.
For the fastest start: Beautiful Jekyll — fork and go.
All themes listed here are available with live demos on JekyllHub. Filter by category, style, or features to find your perfect match.