Top Open-Source Frameworks for
WordPress Plugin & WordPress Theme Developers

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Sage
8,802
2,735
15

A starter theme with a modern front-end development workflow.

GitHub
Homepage
Underscores
7,892
2,570
44

Lean starter theme.

GitHub
Homepage
Boilerplate
4,532
1,209
56

A standardized, object-oriented foundation for building plugins.

GitHub
Homepage
Timber
3,458
336
193

Theme templating using Twig.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
CMB2
1,806
436
138

Toolkit for building metaboxes, custom fields, and forms.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
TGMPA
1,347
379
79

Easy way to require and recommend plugins.

GitHub
Homepage
Redux
1,323
516
6

Extensible options framework.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
ACF
1,320
321
313

Powerful custom fields generator.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Meta Box
840
445
68

A custom meta boxes and custom fields toolset.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Kirki
754
200
78

Customizer abstraction toolkit for theme developers.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Unyson
715
160
210

Drag & drop page theme builder, options, customizer and extensions.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Herbert
650
105
92

Standardised approach to building plugins.

GitHub
Homepage
Pods
645
194
1,153

Custom content types and fields.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Hybrid Core
562
147
4

Theme development toolbox.

GitHub
Homepage
WP Plugin Template
510
191
25

A robust code template for creating a standards-compliant WordPress plugin.

GitHub
Homepage
Odin
448
198
28

Agile theme development framework.

GitHub
Homepage
Themosis
410
78
68

Modern MVC powered, Laravel-ish, for building custom components.

GitHub
Homepage
Titan
308
125
93

Admin pages, options, meta boxes, and theme customizer options with a few lines of code.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Fieldmanager
286
68
120

Toolkit for custom field types.

GitHub
Homepage
Codestar
254
136
95

A lightweight options framework.

GitHub
Homepage
Vafpress
224
104
69

Theme options framework.

GitHub
Homepage
ButterBean
187
21
20

Meta box framework built on Backbone.js and Underscore.js.

GitHub
Homepage
Cherry
130
77
24

Easy to use WYSISYG theme framework.

GitHub
Homepage
_child
51
9
0

_child is a child theme boilerplate.

GitHub
Homepage
Nebula
50
17
63

Advanced Starter theme.

GitHub
Homepage
Options
49
12
0

Adding a full featured options panel in themes.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
WPCustomize
43
7
0

Customizer boilerplate for plugins and themes (currently a theme based features implementation).

GitHub
Homepage
Freemius
42
27
42

Analytics, monetization and marketing automation.

GitHub
Homepage
DustPress
28
12
15

A theme framework for writing templates with Dust.js templating engine and separate data models.

GitHub
Homepage
Piklist
27
6
2

Rapid development framework.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
WP Customizer Utilities
15
5
0

Customizer controls and settings for faster customizer experience.

GitHub
Homepage
Boots
8
0
0

Modular, extendable, composer powered plugin & theme framework.

GitHub
Homepage
Options Definitely
7
3
1

Comprehensive framework for settings screens.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Toolset Types
4
2
0

Custom post types, custom taxonomies and custom fields.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage
Post Types Definitely
4
1
5

Comprehensive framework for post types and taxonomies with meta UI.

WP.org
GitHub
Homepage