Creating a personal website can be tricky – and not just from a technical perspective. Because, while many of us love talking about what we do – be that writing, designing, consulting, coaching, or inventing – most of us don’t like talking about ourselves.
So – how do you overcome those barriers, and put together a stunning personal website that you can be proud of?
Well, it all starts with a template. Templates – or themes – are pre-built, “plug and play” design layouts which you can build your site around. When you create your site with a website builder (such as Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy), templates act as the foundations – giving you a quick, convenient, and professionally designed place to start.
But of course, not all personal website templates are created equal. So below, we’ve collected 11 of our favorites. (And the best part? Eight of them are free!) These templates will inspire you, engage you, and provide the motivation to get your personal website off the ground.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Personal Website Template
Before you jump straight into selecting your personal website template, there’s a few things you should consider first. These include the template’s:
- Design and customization options: can you easily modify its colors, fonts, and layouts to personalize it to your own unique brand’s look and feel? Look for templates that provide this flexibility – without needing extensive coding knowledge.
- Responsiveness: with so many of your online audience browsing on mobile devices, your template needs to look good not only on desktop computers – you need to make your website mobile-friendly, too. So before picking a template, preview it. Test it out on multiple different devices, and check if it explicitly mentions responsiveness.
- User experience: does your template have intuitive navigation menus? What about a logical structure, which makes it easy for your site’s visitors to find what they’re looking for? Make sure your chosen personal website template minimizes clutter and friction – and makes for a smooth browsing experience.
- Integrations: ensure your template plays nicely with all the other software, platforms, and tools your website will need to work alongside. Will you need to add social media profiles or links? How about an email newsletter signup button, or a video background? Make sure your chosen template supports this – before building your site around it!
Top Personal Website Templates
Ready to browse the 11 best personal website templates? Below, you’ll find our top selections: from website builders as diverse as Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, and Weebly.
Let’s dive in!
1. RJ Thomas
From GoDaddy | Free
Sleek design, minimal clutter, and plenty of white space make GoDaddy’s RJ Thomas one of our favorite free personal website templates. It doesn’t hurt that GoDaddy is one of the fastest and easiest website builders to create and customize a site too!
Keeping it simple – with black lettering against a white backdrop – the RJ Thomas template embraces a stripped-back, clutter-free menu bar and simple, hassle-free scrolling. Quick links make it easy to jump to your social media profile, while dedicated sections for your projects and services – plus embeddable contact forms – make navigation a breeze.
We recommend this free template for designers, or freelancers looking to create a neat, no-nonsense summary of what they do.
2. Italix
From Yurii Khimanin for Webflow | $24
As a creative designer, it’s not always easy to stand out from the competition – you’re going up against some of the world’s most creative and tech-savvy people, after all!
However, Italix – one of our favorite personal website templates, designed by Yurii Khimanin for Webflow – can help.
Italix allows you to showcase dynamic image carousels to place your personal profile or portfolio in the spotlight. The template embraces parallax scrolling to create the illusion of depth as you scroll – with neat diagonal, criss-crossing lines adding to the striking effect.
While there’s no dedicated blogging section (this template is targeted at designers and visual creatives), Italix does make it easy to place your portfolio in the limelight – and communicate your key values and vision.
Italix costs $24 to purchase.
More Information
- Like the look of Webflow’s templates, but not sure what the builder is like? Check out its pros and cons in our full Webflow Review.
3. Train of Thought
From Wix | Free
Perfect for writers, editors, bloggers, journalists, Wix’s Train of Thought is a truly top-tier template. And, it’s free!
With bold, black typography set against a plain white background, Train of Thought echoes the layout of popular newsletters. Channeling an elegant, editorial energy, Train of Thought’s most notable feature is its dedicated section for blogging, where you can showcase your latest writing in a way that catches the eye – and the imagination.
More Information
- If you like Wix’s designs specifically, you can browse our top pick of the Best Wix Templates next!
4. Suhama
From Squarespace | Free
Featuring chunky white text against a blood orange background, Squarespace’s Suhama personal website template makes some bold design decisions – and we love them.
Ideal for designers and visual thinkers, Suhama exudes creativity and flair. It offers the chance to build a website built less on words, but on a striking look and feel; to lean less on the diction – and let the design do the talking! You can customize the template to suit your own style, too – choose your own color palette and change up the font, for example, or add some images.
The Suhama template is included for free in your Squarespace subscription.
More Information
- Squarespace scores top for design in our web builder research, making it a great choice. If you want to see a wider selection of Squarespace templates, we’ve hand-picked 14 of the Best Squarespace Templates available for you to browse.
5. Creative X
From BRIX Templates for Webflow | $79
Ideal for product designers and freelance tech whizzes, Webflow’s Creative X – available for $79 – is a doozy. Its stripped-back two-tone color palette lends itself to black-and-white images, which complement the typography’s more modern, digital style. Through this, Creative X balances and blends two worlds – to staggering, stunning effect.
That’s not to say Creative X’s style sacrifices substance. With a blog section, prominent CTA buttons, and clickable social media links, Creative X provides the beautiful building blocks for an impressive personal website.
6. Success
From Wix | Free
Ideal for life coaches, personal trainers, and public speakers (basically, anyone that needs to motivate for a living!) Wix’s Success template is bold and brilliant.
Set against an aspirational and completely customizable backdrop image, this template exudes ambition and adventure. Design-wise, it melds black text on white backdrop, with an underlay of vibrant aquamarine – while eye-catching, angular CTA buttons invite your site’s visitors to click and learn more about your brand and services.
Dedicated “About Me” and “Services” sections complete the picture, while an embedded contact form in the footer means no one will leave your personal website… at least not without wanting to get in touch first!
More Information
- You can’t switch Wix templates once you publish your site, so it’s important to choose carefully. We discuss Wix’s templates, as well as its pricing, pros, and cons, in our Wix Review.
7. Grant
From Squarespace | Free
Well-suited to entrepreneurs and those working in the farming or agricultural industries, Grant is a Squarespace template that hearkens back to website design of old. With a striking background image, a powerful one-two heading/subheading combo, and a clear, clickable CTA, Grant helps your personal website not only convey information – but tell a story.
8. H.B. Harrolds
From GoDaddy | Free
GoDaddy’s classy, charming personal website template is ideal for freelance writers and professionals looking to position their brand in a more premium way, without the price tag. Free template H.B. Harrolds melds pared-back design with elegant typeface and imagery – to produce irresistibly effective results.
Functionality-wise, H.B. Harrolds ticks all the right boxes, too, including:
- A press section
- Blog
- Ability to offer downloadable content
- Built-in slots to showcase quotes, from your own work or the authors who inspire you
9. Aaron Plus
From Shikhar Sharda for Webflow | $49
If you’re happy to pay for the privilege, personal website templates don’t come much better than Aaron Plus. Designed for Webflow by web designer and developer Shikhar Sharda, Aaron Plus is available for $49.
Aaron Plus really leans into the whole “less is more” philosophy. Harnessing white space and large, black, simple typography, this personal website template goes for minimal design; maximum impact.
Beyond the simple, understated elegance of its design, Aaron Plus offers plenty of functionality. It boasts spaces dedicated for showing off your services, skills, and experience – while shining a light on the projects you’re most proud of.
10. Randi
From Squarespace | Free
Set against a peach backdrop, Squarespace’s Randi template is bursting with uninhibited joy and enthusiasm.
Ideal for lifestyle coaches, dietitians, nutritionists, and yoga instructors, Randi’s playful design – and emphasis on vibrant colors and hues – will help endear your personal brand to your online audience. A transparent menu bar, which features understated social media links and links to “Book a Consultation” help this personal website template avoid coming across as “sales-y” – and keeps the focus on your services.
Like all Squarespace templates, Randi comes at no extra cost since it’s included in your Squarespace pricing plan.
More Information
- Squarespace has some of the best templates on the market, but what else does it have to offer? Learn more about its strengths and weaknesses in our full Squarespace Review.
11. Stock and Quarter
From GoDaddy | Free
Do you have a passion for fashion? Are you looking to start an online clothing store or sell shoes online – and develop your personal brand in a hotly contested, highly competitive industry?
If so, GoDaddy’s Stock and Quarter is the personal website template for you.
Set against a daring, dynamic background image, Stock and Quarter keeps the text sections minimal – allowing images to take center stage. Of course, this is perfect for fashion sites, and a dedicated image gallery ensures the focus remains on the garments.
On top of all that, a blog section enables regular, meaningful engagement with your audience. While ecommerce integrations allows you to build – and start selling through – your own online store.
It’s worth noting that while this is a free template, available on GoDaddy’s free plan, if you do want to sell online you’ll need to upgrade to one of GoDaddy’s ecommerce plans to accept payments.
Summary
When choosing a personal website template, it can be easy to get caught up in all the bells and whistles of neat design. Which is fun, of course – and matching the design of a template to the unique look and feel of your brand is a key part of the process.
That said, it’s vital to remember the other key factors that make a template the right fit – and ask those all-important questions before you decide:
- Is the template responsive – on desktop and mobile?
- Is the template customizable?
- Is the template simple to navigate?
- Does the template integrate with the other software and systems I need it to?
Armed with all this knowledge, you’ll be able to pick the personal website template that isn’t just right for your industry, or your customers, or your specific title or job role.
But that’s right for you.
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