How to choose the right EmDash starter theme

Most people pick an EmDash starter backwards. They scan three screenshots, gravitate toward the prettiest one, and only later realize they chose a base that solves the wrong problem.

EmDash launched in beta on April 1, 2026. The official starter set is small — blog, marketing, portfolio — and that is a feature, not a limitation. Fewer choices means less analysis paralysis. The trick is picking based on the job, not the jacket.

This guide walks through each starter, explains who it fits and who it doesn't, and helps you decide in under five minutes.

First question: what is the homepage supposed to do?

Forget the screenshots for a moment. Answer this:

When someone lands on your homepage, what should happen next?

If they should start reading articles, browsing archives, or subscribing to updates — that is a publishing job. The blog starter wins.

If they should understand your offer, see proof, and take a next step like signing up or booking a call — that is a conversion job. The marketing starter wins.

If they should look at your work, evaluate quality, and then reach out — that is a showcase job. The portfolio starter wins.

This sounds obvious. But most wrong theme decisions start here — teams say they want "a modern website" when they actually need an editorial engine, a sales page framework, or a proof-driven portfolio.

Blog Starter: when content does the heavy lifting

Pick this one if:

• You will publish articles, notes, or changelogs on a regular cadence
• Search traffic is part of your acquisition plan
• Archives, categories, and reading flow matter as much as the homepage
• Your content team needs to keep shipping without touching code

This starter works well for founder blogs, editorial brands, newsletters with public archives, documentation-adjacent content programs, and niche media projects. If visitors will find you through your ideas first, this is the safest bet.

What you get out of the box: post archives, single-post routes, category and tag pages, search, RSS, and a Cloudflare-ready D1 + R2 setup. You can fork and deploy in minutes.

Marketing Starter: when the homepage has to sell

Pick this one if:

• You are launching a SaaS product, service, or productized offer
• You need hero sections, proof blocks, FAQs, and clear next-step CTAs
• Conversion structure matters more than archive structure on day one
• The first screen must answer "what is this?" and "why should I care?" immediately

This is the cleanest base for public launch pages, product sites, and offer-driven landing pages. If your first real traffic will land on sales pages rather than articles, start here.

What you get out of the box: hero, features, testimonials, FAQ, and pricing blocks — all built as Portable Text composites you can rearrange from the admin UI. Conversion-oriented structure without a page builder.

Portfolio Starter: when proof leads the conversation

Pick this one if:

• You are an agency, studio, freelancer, or visual product brand
• Project pages matter more than blog posts
• Work examples carry the sales conversation
• The site needs to feel like a showcase before it feels like a publication

This starter is often the right answer for teams who think they need a marketing site but actually close business through work examples. If showing is stronger than telling in your market, pick this one.

What you get out of the box: project grid and detail pages, case-study layouts, an image-first layout system, and the same EmDash admin workflow for managing projects as you would posts.

What if none of them feels right?

Usually that means one of two things.

Second: your use case is hybrid. Maybe you need a marketing homepage now but know content will drive acquisition later. Maybe you want an editorial site with stronger conversion sections than a blog gives you.

When that happens, do not chase perfection. Pick the starter that handles the job that matters in the next 90 days. You can always extend it later — that is the point of a repo-first architecture.

The 30-second decision guide

Still unsure? Use this filter:

• Pick Blog Starter if content, archives, and publishing cadence matter most
• Pick Marketing Starter if offer clarity and conversion matter most
• Pick Portfolio Starter if work, proof, and projects matter most

The one mistake to avoid

Picking the starter that looks the best instead of the starter that fits the job.

A beautiful wrong base creates slow, expensive work later. A boring screenshot on the right structure is almost always the better business decision.

This matters even more in EmDash than in WordPress. You are not swapping a skin inside a monolith — you are choosing a repo-first starting point that shapes your information architecture, content model, and launch workflow. Get that right and everything else gets easier.

Next steps