# Starter Theme on GitHub

**URL:** <https://forum.ghost.org/t/starter-theme-on-github/39040>\
**Category:** Themes\
**Created:** [June 8, 2023, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/starter-theme-on-github/39040 "2023-06-08T16:29:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChrisM](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/chrism/32/24817_2.png) [@ChrisM](https://forum.ghost.org/u/ChrisM)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/starter-theme-on-github/39040/1 "2023-06-08T16:29:38Z")

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I started working with the [starter theme](https://github.com/TryGhost/Starter) on GitHub, but noticed that it seems a bit old compared to [Casper](https://github.com/TryGhost/Casper) and [Headline](https://github.com/TryGhost/Headline).

The starter theme uses npm, rollup, renovate etc, while Casper & Headline use yarn, gulp etc.

On one hand, Casper & Headline seem to have better comments and more optimized code, but in other ways, they seem to be less structured. e.g. It has one large css files and less partials overall. I also couldn’t get livereload to work properly.

Since I’m just starting off, would you recommend building from Casper or from the Starter theme?

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**Author:** ![RyanF](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/ryanf/32/17448_2.png) [@RyanF](https://forum.ghost.org/u/RyanF)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/starter-theme-on-github/39040/2 "2023-06-08T18:29:10Z")

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The Starter theme actually uses a more modern stack than the other themes, opting for Rollup instead of Gulp. Since it’s expected that the styling will be modified by the developer making the custom theme, the styling hasn’t been drastically updated.

The Starter theme is a better candidate for creating a custom theme. It includes more conveniences out of the box. We have a tutorial and video on how to use it to get set up for custom theme dev here:

> **[Download and upload a Ghost theme](https://ghost.org/tutorials/download-and-upload-a-theme/#use-the-terminal)**
>
> With a few clicks in Ghost Admin, you can download a local copy of a theme or upload an entirely new one. Follow our tutorial to learn the steps to take.