Recommended Themes

Many page builders can run out of the box on any given WordPress Theme.

From a technical point of view, this is very easy to achieve - as simply the page builder plugin will typically load its own CSS library ON TOP of your Theme's CSS. Of course this is a source of bloat, duplication, disorder, and poor performance.

LiveCanvas has a different approach, for the sake of keeping things as DRY as possible.

The LiveCanvas plugin assumes you are using a theme which is based on Bootstrap (v4 or v5) - and does NOT load ANY extra CSS or JS file.

These are the themes that we suggest for having a powerful yet lightweight core:

1. [BEST] Picostrap , served with a child theme

The picostrap theme is a free and open source solution for frontend developers, bringing easy SASS support to WP.

It comes with a specific blank child theme so you have a great starting point for your own custom work.

It does focus on speed - delivering a lightweight yet fully featured integration of Bootstrap 5 and WordPress.

For more information, please refer to the picostrap.com website.

The project started in 2020 as a fork of UnderStrap, the open source champion below.

2. UnderStrap: a vanilla starter theme

UnderStrap is a very solid and efficient open source WordPress starter Theme based on Bootstrap 4.

It's the GitHub project that received most "stars" from worldwide developers in the Bootstrap-based WordPress Themes arena.

It's SASS pipeline is based on command-line tools that you should install to take profit of Bootstrap.

3. ANY  theme based on Bootstrap 4 or 5

The LiveCanvas plugin can work any  theme, providing that it's based on Bootstrap 4 or v5 (recommended).

In the LiveCanvas backend settings panel, enable the option: "Use on any Theme".

If using Bootstrap version 5.x, like we really recommend, please enable the option: "Use Bootstrap 5" (othewise, by default, Bootstrap 4 will be considered).

4. Your own Bootstrap 4/5 - based, fully custom theme

First of all, make sure your Theme does include the Bootstrap  CSS and JS files  (v4.x or v5.x).

Then, follow these simple steps:

  1. Please add to your Theme's functions.php file: 
     

function lc_theme_is_livecanvas_friendly(){}
  2. Now, let's declare explicitly which Bootstrap version you have enqueued in your Theme.
    Add the snippet below to your Theme's functions.php file, choosing one of the possibile values:

     
function lc_theme_bootstrap_version() { 
return 5.3; //for latest Bootstrap, or
//return 5; //for   Bootstrap 5.0 .. 5.2 , or
//return 4;  //for   Bootstrap 4 
}
  3. In your Theme folder, make a subdirectory  named "page-templates".
  4. Inside that folder,   create a file called "empty.php" with the following code: 
     

/* Template Name: Empty */

defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

get_header();

while ( have_posts() ) :
the_post();
the_content();
endwhile;

get_footer();