Free Bootstrap Themes

[eggbrain]

First thing I check when I read "Free" is I see what the license is (MIT/BSD). Unfortunately, you can't find out what license the theme uses until you get the actual theme. You don't get the actual theme until you put your email address in. I couldn't submit my email address until I subscribed to the newsletter (but upon trying it again in incognito I wasn't prompted to subscribe -- might have been an error on my part, although the checkbox seems borked).

I went ahead and took the plunge with a Mailinator address to see what I could find out, and it looks like there isn't any license to the themes at all. I'm not sure if this is good or bad -- if code has no license, is it a free for all?

Second thing I check is whether the free theme inserts links in the code to their own website (visible or invisible). From what I see, that is not the case with the theme I downloaded.

Looks like some great resources guys, but a little more information would be invaluable. Can't wait to try some of these out for some quick sites though :)

[NewHatMatt]

I did some poking around, and the license information can be found here: http://www.blacktie.co/about-themes/

It uses the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

[Kiro]

Am I the only one who never care about licenses? It says "free" so I download it. What is the worst thing that can happen?

[oafitupa]

No license is bad. If code (or any other IP) has no license, it's fully protected by default and you can't use it safely.

[jfaucett]

same thing happened to me, for some odd reason this site came off as sketchy to me - I even whoisd her which didnt help matters much. Is it just me or do others have profound mistrust for domains that don't reveal their identity?

[rmrfrmrf]

Somewhat tangentially related, but it's been bugging me for a while -- is every brogrammer in America really this ridiculously attractive, or are hackers using model "stunt doubles"? One wouldn't expect GitHub to be full of gorgeous male models who happen to sit in perfect coffee shop lighting while laughing in an almost robotic perfection, but here we are!

(The stock photos on the site made me think of it, haha.)

[btgeekboy]

Those of us that aren't model-grade attractive don't post photos.

Oh, and also not a brogrammer, so... maybe this doesn't apply to me.

[guelo]

Yes, we are gorgeous.

[schnevets]

I'm curious if the Carlos mentioned in the More Info page (www.blacktie.co/info/) is the same Carlos mentioned in the bio of the Small theme. If so, I think we've discovered the bald, beer drinking designer behind the stock photo model.

[morganherlocker]

There are sub genres of the beautiful headshot as well. In the open GIS world, the trend is towards beautiful people hanging out on the side of a mountain. Although there are notable exceptions (my not-so-notable self included) most of these people seem to be from Colorado or Sweden.

Has anyone else noticed sub-themes within github headshots or is gis an anomaly?

[minimaxir]

I've noticed a rise in cartoonified hacker portraits as well, which is a stylistic alternative.

[AfroDiva]

Haha nice one , this something that it was bugging me out for a while too.

[mixmastamyk]

Stock photos use models.

[rfnslyr]

Maybe people just put time into their appearance? It's amazing how far a good diet, good sleep, exercise, and some grooming can go.

[wasd]

The themes are beautiful and the presentation is nice but the required email opt in totally turns me off. Why not just host these on github? I actually want to be on your newsletter but I don't like that you are forcing people to do so [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7002338

[sgdesign]

The "tweet to download" model is bad because you're forcing someone to endorse a product publicly before they even get a chance to try it, thus potentially hurting their credibility.

On the other hand, the "leave email to download" model is completely fair. Not only is it used by the overwhelming majority of companies (most apps require some form of signing up), but you're also the only one receiving those email. So the cost is entirely personal.

So in this case, it's really a matter of whether or not the transaction is worth it for you, and I don't think you have any grounds to complain.

P.S. I'm not the author by the way, I just get ticked off seeing that objection, especially when somebody is already not charging any money for their products.

[thehodge]

Some of these are really great although I always chuckle at the idea of web design agencies using free themes for there own website.

[atourgates]

I feel it says something fairly sad about the state of the industry when "Agency" themes are some of the most popular website themes out there.

Sort of the (sad) opposite of demonstrating your craft in your own tools: http://www.finewoodworking.com/woodworking-plans/article/the...

[jongold]

"Munter" means something that presumably you don't think it means.

[joeblau]

LOL, I just looked it up, then went back to the page and now I can't stop laughing.

[jedbrown]

Heh, and here I was wondering what the style had to do with climbing ropework. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnter_hitch

[willwill100]

"cheerful" in german?

[extrapolate]

Why have a checkbox[1], if we can't toggle it.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/WbCJQsk.png

[bkm]

Many European countries require an opt-in subscription model by law ("EU Opt-In Directive") where the user explicitly states it want to receive the newsletter (e.g. it not being a side effect of a registration).

[Phrodo_00]

I think it's really weird that the example content is about design companies. Shouldn't those design their own homepages?

[techwizrd]

I've always thought that too. Either way, these themes look pretty good. I like Bootstrap themes for simple one-off projects or demos that I want to try. For anything serious I'll at least change the colors and modify things.

[kazagistar]

Eh, they are probably just using content that they know about themselves so it has a reasonable and realistic feel. Lorel ipsum or John Smiths get boring fast.

[akbar501]

For the curious, I did some digging and found the following:

Blacktie.co was created by Carlos Alvares (http://www.alvarez.is/). He's a designer who has a number of paid themes on https://wrapbootstrap.com/user/Basicoh. Blacktie appears to be his own site where he gives away some free themes in exchange for your email address.

[ajayjain]

Very cool, I might use one of these! The email with the download link was marked as spam by gmail, so you might have to do a search in:anywhere.

Some other free themes: http://wrapbootstrap.com (I'm not affiliated, just love their stuff). They have less files and a compiled css file for their themes.

[corobo]

I realise they're cheaper than coffee but I'm not seeing any free themes here at all. Even sorting lowest to highest price the lowest is $4. Do they have a hidden category somewhere for free?

[lindig]

"Education: Web Designer | Greenville University. Business Master | Loyal Univesrity." <--

[sixQuarks]

The responsive breakpoints are not really optimized on the themes I took a look at. Leaves a bunch of space on the margins, sometimes breaks way too early, images aren't responsive, etc.

I guess you can't complain when it's free though.

[jonaldomo]

I think the market for HTML templates is on the rise. Is anyone else seeing that?

[eddieroger]

I think it's more symptomatic of developers realizing that UI is hard (guilty), and while we may think it's easy to make something, it's hard to make it something people want to use. I can't tell you how many times I've nearly bought a Bootstrap theme rather than making one myself. Call it lazy, call it throwing money at your problems/weaknesses, but I agree, there's a rising market for themes.

[kenshiro_o]

Just downloaded a theme by using a throwaway email address and have already customized it. Looks really slick!

I have also just discovered fontawesome, which just shows that I really need to improve my front-end programming skills...

[beh]

As someone just getting started with front end development and who learns best by tinkering, this is a great resource.

What are some other Bootstrap focused resources to learn front end development?

[guelo]

getbootstrap.com/getting-started, getbootstrap.com/css, getbootstrap.com/components and getbootstrap.com/javascript

[bluetidepro]

Are these awesome themes on GitHub? it would also be really nice if they were all under one repo, or each had their own! Just an idea. Great work!

[eflowers]

No Less files? That feels like something that would be really helpful.