The Underscores (_s) theme is an awesome option for WordPress developers that want a clean yet flexible place to start building their own custom themes. Created by Automattic (the people behind WordPress.com), it is not a finished WordPress theme with fancy layout and style, it is a “starter theme” to be modified. Think of it as a blank canvas with the right amount of front-end structure and code to help save developers time.
The best part about Underscores is that it doesn’t dictate unnecessary style decisions or layout restrictions. Instead, it gives you the basics: HTML5 templates, minimal CSS, and excellent accessibility options so that developers can quickly setup custom design work, without needing to remove bloated code.
If you are building sites from scratch, or for clients who want something different, this theme gives you designer freedom, while providing a technical foundation that abides by WordPress best practices and standards. You’ll get fast loading, clean code, and excellent support for child themes.
Developers like that it’s lightweight and constructed with best practices for modern development. No matter if you’re a pro or a beginner, Underscores helps you take your HTML and make it into a WordPress theme so you can take control. That’s what makes it so commonly suggested when you read articles on WordPress theme development and custom WordPress website design.
Why Developers Prefer Starter Themes Like Underscores

Underscores and other starter themes are options that many WordPress developers turn to. As opposed to full theme, which are bloated with a bunch of things you may not even use, starter themes only provide the essentials. Which is to say: you begin with clean, lean code that you can mold into what you want.
It speeds up development, in other words. Now, instead of wrestling with pre-styled sections or turning off stuff they don’t want, developers can just get to work building what their clients require. It also makes debugging simpler since you know precisely what code executes and where it comes from.
A second major benefit is learning. Since it follows WordPress coding standards and is documented well, its also a good learning tool for people who are new and want to understand how themes are constructed. It’s also kept by WordPress maintainers, so you can rely on that it follows the latest platform updates and best practices.
This openness, dexterity, and so on, is what makes starter themes different. They’re not in your way – they’re helping you to start even from the ground up, fully in “command”. And for developers creating
Features That Make Underscores Ideal for Development
What gives Underscores its strength as a base for developers? The answer lies in its built-in features—key elements that help speed up development without creating a mess.
To start, it uses up-to-date HTML5 and comes with all the needed template files. This cuts down on hours of work because the framework is ready to go. You don’t need to build common files like header.php, footer.php, or functions.php from the ground up.
It even provides semantic markup, and supports accessibility by default. This is a major plus as you would effectively have made your site usable by everyone and make it good for SEO.
Another good point is the amount of html and css. It’s conducive to creating a readable layout, yet it doesn’t box you into a design. Developers can also easily over style their components without fighting a bazillion rules.
Aside from that, Underscores has action hooks and filters, like full themes. You can also utilize it as your starter theme to create child themes or other specialized themes for clients or for sale.
All that said it’s obvious that _s is more than just a skeleton—it’s a carefully constructed framework that enables developers to remain productive and concentrate on making original, functional websites.
Accessibility and Clean Code Standards
Accessibility and clean coding standards are two of the most underrated advantages of Underscores. Accessibility is so important. As many governments and industries demand websites that can be used by everyone, every website owner has an obligation to ensure their website is usable by everyone whatever device (even by people who use a screen reader or rely on keyboard navigation).
Underscores comes with ARIA roles, skip links and proper heading structures. So even before you start writing any extra code, you are already conforming to many of the accessibility standards. This can also help out your clients with regard to any potential legal ramifications associated with accessibility conformance.
Clean code is another area where Underscores excels. All files from the Underscores template have clear documentation, are formatted with whitespace, include file headers and all adhere to coding standards. This makes working within a team of developers and troubleshooting errors much easier.
Having a clean codebase is important for long-term projects. With unique custom-WordPress website development, clarity and flexibility stand out as the most important factors.
SEO and Performance Benefits

Underscores is built with speed in mind. It doesn’t load any unnecessary scripts, plugins, or styles. That means your site is already fast and more user-friendly (and better for SEO).
Google and other search engines consider loading speed as a factor in rankings; and by starting with a lightweight theme like Underscores, you’ve already given yourself a leg-up. Additionally, the HTML5 structure and semantic markup help search engines understand your content.
Additionally, you can control what is added into the theme; so, you don’t fall for the ridiculous number of useless plugins or runtimes and slow-down by loading pointless and bloated third-party code.
What does that mean? A fast, SEO-friendly, lightweight website that is easier to optimize and to maintain.
How to Customize Underscores for Your Project
This is where the real magic begins! Underscores starts with the bare minimum. That means developers get to create what they need for each project, be it portfolio, blog or eCommerce site. After that, you will then style your site using your own CSS or frameworks like Tailwind or Bootstrap. Because Underscored is just a starter theme, and does not have a lot of boilerplate styling, it’s easy to plug in your design system, or just start from scratch.
You’ll create custom templates, layouts and functionality using the WordPress loop, custom post types and either ACF or Gutenberg blocks. Underscores does not hold your hand; Underscores will help you take advantage of modern tools and workflows that make customization easy and clean! This is the perfect starting point if you’re focused on custom WordPress theme development and you want the end product to be created with your original creativity and coding standards in mind!
Using Template Hierarchy Efficiently
Underscores utilizes WordPress’s template hierarchy to give the developer more control over the way content types and pages are displayed. By using template files, you can directly decide how you want to present your posts, pages, categories, or custom post types directly to the user. Having a clear understanding of and utilizing this hierarchy allows you to optimize the user experience for the purpose of every section you create. For example, you could design a custom template for a product page that effectively displays features, pricing, and reviews differently from how you would create a blog post.
This aspect of customizability and versatility is an additional reason developers use Underscores – it interacts with all of WordPress’s powerful tools for themes, without enforcing a rigid structure.
Integrating Advanced Functionality
Underscores is also a fantastic baseline for developers looking to build in advanced features. From integrating WooCommerce for eCommerce, to building layouts with dynamic content with ACF, to adding, headless functionality with REST API… Underscores can do it all.
Because it is unopinionated, there are no compatibility concerns with what ever popular tools or plugins are being used. You own your codebase, and you can install features as you need.
That’s why many developers who are building their own tailored experiences, or even SaaS products, with WordPress often want to start with Underscores.
Conclusion
Underscores is not just a tool, but a partner in the creative process. Underscores provides the framework, clarity and flexibility developers need to create attractive, practical and fast WordPress websites – without the baggage that comes with bloated themes.
Underscores meets you when your a newbie and just learning how to build or if you are an experienced developer, delivering a complex solution for your clients; Underscores gets you where you are and helps you create your vision with confidence.
It’s so light weight and follows modern coding standards, accessibility and lots of customization options, it’s more than good for anyone serious about theme development. It’s also perfect for agencies that focus on custom WordPress solutions or those providing WordPress developer services.