---
title: "Twenty Twenty-One"
description: "Twenty Twenty-One theme: strengths, limitations, recommended settings (colors, Dark Mode, excerpts, menus, widgets) and security, to help you decide."
language: "en"
locale: "en-US"
type: "plugin-sheet"
canonical: "https://www.wp-masquerade.com/features/camouflaged-plugins/twenty-twenty-one/"
published: "2026-11-05T08:00:00+00:00"
modified: "2026-11-05T21:28:28+00:00"
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---

# Twenty Twenty-One

Twenty Twenty-One is the free classic theme the WordPress team shipped with WordPress 5.6, configured in the Customizer and still maintained. Our take on its single-column layout, its Dark Mode, its limitations, the settings to change and its security.

## The essentials

- Best for a clean, accessible blog or author site managed from the Customizer.
- Main caveat: a single column with no sidebar, and very few layout options.
- Free and GPL-licensed, with no paid version and no upsell banners in the dashboard.

## What Twenty Twenty-One does on your site

Twenty Twenty-One is the default theme the WordPress team shipped with WordPress 5.6 in late 2020, built on Automattic’s Seedlet theme. It is a classic PHP theme: instead of the Site Editor, you configure it in the Customizer (Appearance > Customize), Menus and Widgets. You write posts and pages in the block editor, whose styles closely match what visitors see.

The layout is a single column with no sidebar. At the top sits a primary menu that supports dropdowns and menu item descriptions; at the bottom, a widget area laid out in three columns, then a one-level secondary menu that turns links to social networks into icons. The theme has only a handful of its own settings: background color (text colors are calculated to keep enough contrast), Dark Mode support, showing the site title, and summary or full text on archive pages.

It adds eight block patterns (large text, contact information, overlapping images, portfolio list and more), border styles and an “overlap” style for the Columns block, plus a ten-color palette and eight gradients. It relies on the visitor’s system fonts, with no font files and no calls to an outside server. It is free, GPL-licensed, with no paid version and no upsell notices in the dashboard.

![Diagram: Twenty Twenty-One works on visitors and bots, wordpress, database and files. Public traces: folder name (hidden with Pro); tag IDs (hidden with Pro).](https://www.wp-masquerade.com/media/wpm-sheets/twentytwentyone/diagram-en.svg?v=f9b442a0)

## Which sites Twenty Twenty-One still suits

Twenty Twenty-One works well for sites that put reading and easy upkeep first:

- **Personal blogs and author sites**: the single column keeps the text front and center.
- **Existing sites built with the Customizer**: menus, widgets and Additional CSS stay where you are used to finding them.
- **Sites that need to be accessible**: the theme carries the wordpress.org “accessibility-ready” tag and offers an optional Dark Mode.
- **Small portfolios**: the overlapping image patterns and the portfolio list are enough for a handful of projects.

It is the wrong pick if you need a sidebar, a configurable header or templates you can change without writing PHP. For a new block-based site, [Twenty Twenty-Five](https://www.wp-masquerade.com/features/camouflaged-plugins/twenty-twenty-five/) is configured entirely in the Site Editor; if you want lots of Customizer options, GeneratePress or Astra offer far more.

## Twenty Twenty-One strengths and limitations

### Strengths

- **Still maintained.** New versions shipped with WordPress 6.9, 7.0 and 7.1: Internet Explorer code removed, search terms consistently escaped, inline scripts compatible with a CSP nonce.
- **Careful accessibility.** Contrast calculated automatically from the background color, keyboard navigation, High Contrast mode support.
- **Lightweight, no outside calls.** System fonts, few scripts, and the menu script only loads when a primary menu is assigned.
- **Easy to pick up.** A few settings, plus classic menus and widgets.

### Limitations

- **Single column only.** No sidebar: widgets only appear at the bottom of the page.
- **Few layout options.** No header choice, no font choice, no adjustable content width: any change takes CSS or a child theme.
- **PHP templates.** As a classic theme, it does not let you edit templates in the Site Editor the way a block theme does.
- **Fixed footer credit.** “Proudly powered by WordPress” is written into the footer file, with no setting to remove it.
- **Few patterns.** Only eight, against dozens in recent block themes.

## The settings we recommend for Twenty Twenty-One

The theme’s settings are stored in the database and survive updates; edits to its files, on the other hand, would be overwritten.

| Setting | Recommended value | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Display Site Title & Tagline**  Appearance > Customize > Site Identity | On, unless your logo already includes the site name | When unchecked, the logo moves to the left of the menu; the recommended logo is at least 300 px wide or 100 px tall. |
| **Background color**  Appearance > Customize > Colors & Dark Mode | A color from the theme palette | The theme recalculates text colors to keep the contrast. |
| **Dark Mode support**  Appearance > Customize > Colors & Dark Mode | Off by default; turn it on only after testing your logo and images on a dark background | When on, it follows the visitor’s device setting and adds a button at the bottom of the page. It only appears with a light background. |
| **On Archive Pages, posts show**  Appearance > Customize > Excerpt Settings | Summary | Shorter blog pages; the summary shows text only, so pick Full text if your posts rely on images. |
| **Manage Locations**  Appearance > Menus | A menu in Primary menu, your social profiles in Secondary menu | The secondary menu shows an icon instead of the label for well-known networks. |
| **Footer widget area**  Appearance > Widgets | Three widgets at most, useful to visitors | Each widget takes a third of the width: past three, a new row starts. |
| **Privacy Policy page**  Settings > Privacy | Your chosen page, with the text the theme suggests if Dark Mode is on | The link shows in the footer; Dark Mode remembers the visitor’s choice in their browser (LocalStorage). |
| **Enable auto-updates**  Appearance > Themes > Twenty Twenty-One | On | Fixes arrive with WordPress releases, with no manual work. |

- If Dark Mode is on, switch your phone to dark mode and check the logo, images with transparent backgrounds and colored blocks.
- Make sure the footer shows the privacy link and your social icons.
- Put CSS in Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS, and any PHP template change in a child theme.

## Twenty Twenty-One security: a maintained theme with no published vulnerability

As of this review, neither WPScan nor Patchstack lists any vulnerability for Twenty Twenty-One. The theme handles no data beyond the search and the comments that WordPress itself manages, and recent versions have hardened the code: search terms consistently escaped in 2.8, inline scripts compatible with a CSP policy in 2.7. As with other [popular WordPress themes](https://www.wp-masquerade.com/popular-wordpress-themes-security-vulnerabilities/), the risk comes mostly from the plugins installed alongside it.

Keep the theme updated, even when inactive, or delete it if you no longer use it: Site Health recommends keeping only the active theme, its parent and one default theme as a fallback. The `twentytwentyone` folder in stylesheet and script URLs, along with the `twenty-twenty-one-*` IDs on their tags, lets [fingerprinting](https://www.wp-masquerade.com/glossary/fingerprinting/) tools recognize the theme. WP Masquerade Pro renames that folder in file URLs and those tag IDs, which makes the site harder for bots to spot, without replacing updates.

## Twenty Twenty-One FAQ

**Is Twenty Twenty-One a block theme?**

No. It is a classic theme: you configure it in the Customizer, with the Menus and Widgets screens, and its templates are PHP files. It is, however, designed for the block editor, with styles and patterns for your content.

**How do I remove “Proudly powered by WordPress”?**

There is no setting for it. The clean way is to create a child theme and copy `footer.php` into it without that line. A CSS rule on the `powered-by` class only hides it on screen.

**Does Dark Mode store data about visitors?**

It only remembers the choice made with the button, in the visitor’s browser (LocalStorage); nothing is saved in the database or sent anywhere. The theme suggests a paragraph to add to your privacy policy.

**Should I switch to a newer theme?**

Not necessarily, since it still gets updates. Switching makes sense if you want to edit templates without code or need a sidebar; test the new theme on a staging copy first, because menus and widgets do not always carry over.

## Key facts

- Category: Builders and themes
- Vendor: WordPress.org
- Price: Free (GPL license), no paid version
- Active installations (wordpress.org): 200 000+
- Version: 2.9
- Official page: https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentyone/

## What WP Masquerade hides

- Handled by WP Masquerade Pro only
- With Pro: folder name, tag IDs