Cool Minimal Astro Blog Themes
What is Astro?
Astro is a web framework for markdown-based websites and blogs. I enjoy using it, especially when paired with Obsidian for drafting site content.
Previously, I use a tweaked version of Fuwari for davidvkimball.com, and have been for just over a year now (when this post was originally written). However I’m considering switching to a more minimal theme (which I have!), so here are the ones I’m looking at.
Each theme is open source, so I’ll link to a live demo of the theme along with a link to the GitHub repository. And of course, they each have a light and dark theme.
Zaduma
I love its understated design, but something that really stands out is this command button on the top right.
With it you can toggle the site’s theme with a keyboard shortcut or quickly search through posts. I really like it and would love to think of way to implement something like this on my own site.
astro template
Astro Modular
This is a theme I created. Designed to be flexible and really look however you want. There’s a “minimal” preset you can use or you can go all-out and enable all of the bells and whistles.
The search icon on the top right can also be worked into a command palette. It’s a snappy way to get to content quickly.
It has native Vault CMS integration and optional features that work natively with Obsidian like graph view.
This theme also supports almost every kind of embeddable Obsidian content, including bases. Embedding a base will render as a table.
LaTeX math, video, audio, PDF, YouTube, X post, and Mermaid diagrams are also all supported.
If you’re an Obsidian/Vault CMS user, you get a dedicated plugin with tons of settings to adjust. They affect your local dev site instantly if you use pnpm dev. You can adjust global settings like site name, URL, header and footer, navigation, style, and set custom images for favicons, open graph images, and more.
You can also toggle any of the many features or use a template.
If you’re looking for complete customization and flexibility, this is one I highly recommend. Especially if you like using Obsidian. I also recommend using it’s sister theme Axis if you want even more features.
A flexible Astro blog theme designed for Obsidian users.
Astro Nano / Astro Micro
This theme gives you a little bio, latest post section, a work experience section, and a recent projects section on the main page.
Each project works sort of like a blog post as separate items.
I particularly enjoy the subtle pop-in effects when a page loads, it’s elegant without being overbearing.
A fork of Astro Nano called Astro Micro adds a sleek quick search function (via Pagefind) and also has comments (via Giscus), although I think adding comments may take away some of the appeal of a minimal theme.
Nevertheless, it seems like the defacto version of the design.
Astro Nano is a static, minimalist, lightweight, lightning fast portfolio and blog.
Blog theme for Astro with search and comments built-in. Zero frameworks.
Minimal
What I love about this theme is how Obsidian-like it feels. From the typeface choices to the purple highlights, it just feels like it’s something straight from the Obsidian team. In fact, it’s not dissimilar from their CEO Steph Ango’s design.
Minimalistic astro blog theme.
Chiri
Chiri is great because it truly lets you focus on the content and not get distracted by fancy buttons or other visual distractions.
In particular I enjoy the hover effect on posts, and the snappy but subtle fade animations between page loads. It all feels very deliberate and premium.
Effortlessly share your thoughts in a calm & dustless space.
Axis
Similar to Astro Modular, Axis is a great theme option if you want a feature-packed Astro theme you can use with Obsidian and Vault CMS. It’s also very similar to my current website theme.
It also has an optional graph view you can use, which should be 1<1> with Obsidian if you use Vault CMS. One advantage of Astro Modular is the graph shows connections between any content type, not just posts. You can also link to special tag pages that “just work” between Obsidian and your website.
It has an intuitive command palette that can be invoked with CTRL/CMD + K. Using arrow keys and enter allows for quick navigation, it can search posts, pages, you name it. Pressing tab will cycle your options.
Beyond the comprehensive Obsidian embed support, this theme also supports extended embed options, including Spotify, GitHub, Codepen, Soundcloud, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Figma, Reddit, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Steam, and even any website URL as a preview using opengraph metadata. In fact, anything that’s included in the Extended Embeds Obsidian plugin.
Axis also has a dedicated plugin called Axis Settings with custom header or footer code injection options along with a minimal cookie consent banner. Very helpful for Google Analytics 4 set up or similar.
If you prefer to go the cookieless tracking route, I recommend GoatCounter.
Navigation edit controls are very intuitive and easy to use.
For advanced Astro users: you can also create custom content types from this plugin! Very handy if you don’t want to be pigeon-holed into the posts/pages/docs/projects default options.
The one caveat is this is the only paid theme on the list. But if it seems like it’s for you, nab it! I hear the person who’s making it is pretty good at incorporating user feedback.
Which One?!
There are lots of cool Astro templates to pick from, even beyond the minimal ones I mentioned here. Check out this huge collection of Astro themes. I’ve prefiltered the link to be just open source themes, but there are paid options as well.
Astro’s official website has their own collection of themes, too.