Expand free starter templates library in Neve free tier

Impact: 60 · Confidence: 85 · Complexity: 50

Description

Problem: Users deactivating the theme shortly after installation report that the free starter sites catalog feels too limited, making it difficult to find a suitable starting design without upgrading to Neve Pro.

Desired behavior: Expand the selection of free Gutenberg and Elementor starter templates in Neve's Starter Sites library across common site categories (e.g. portfolio, business, blog, landing page).

Acceptance criteria:

• Add 3-5 new free Gutenberg/Otter-based starter templates targeting popular site niches.
• Add 3-5 new free Elementor starter templates.
• Ensure all new free starter templates display clearly under the Free filter in the dashboard Starter Sites library.

Customer Context

1 feedback entry from a user who deactivated Neve after 1 day citing 'It lacks options' and requesting free starter templates ('starter template free').

Root Cause Analysis

Users evaluating Neve during their initial setup (day 1) hit friction during site launch: (1) free tier users find the catalog of free pre-built starter templates insufficient for their specific site niche, leading to quick abandonment, and (2) users setting up new sites want an integrated way to display a 'Coming Soon' page to visitors while building out their website, without needing to install additional separate plugins.

Reasoning

Across the 2 uninstall feedback entries, 2 distinct filable feature requests were identified:

1. Entry 1 requests more free starter templates ("starter template free"). Users deactivating after 1 day feel the selection of free starter sites in the free theme tier is too limited to get started quickly.
2. Entry 2 requests a built-in coming soon / maintenance mode page capability ("I want a coming soon page"). While Themeisle offers LightStart as a standalone plugin, users expect basic coming soon / under-construction functionality built directly into Neve or easily selectable during site setup/starter import.

Neither request matches an existing GitHub issue or documentation indicating the feature already exists natively in Neve as requested.

Source: automated uninstall feedback — neve, 2026-09-02
Generated by feature-request-triage workflow (ID: feature-request-triage_6a98ff3f600288.01022229)

Start from the dashboard Starter Sites library and inspect how the Free filter identifies Gutenberg/Otter and Elementor templates. Add the requested free starter sites across the listed niches, then verify that 3–5 of each type appear clearly under the Free filter.