How To Design Black Websites: Examples + Tips

Most websites are built with dark text on a light canvas—after all, it’s how humans were used to interacting with words and images before the internet. But flipping the script—building your website on a black background—can help your offerings stand out and capture your unique brand identity. 

A good portion of customers might even prefer it. The rise of dark mode is one of the most powerful web design trends of recent years: In a 2024 study published in the journal Ergonomics, more than 50% of respondents (and more than 65% of men) either found light and dark modes equally comfortable to use or preferred dark mode outright. 

If you want to build a website with a black background, you need to make sure it complements your brand identity and that it’s easy to read and navigate. This guide walks you through the pros and cons of black websites, shows you real-world examples from Shopify stores, and delivers practical tips for designing with a dark theme.

What are black websites? 

Black websites flip the traditional color scheme to create bold, modern experiences that make products pop—especially in categories like luxury, tech, and streetwear. These websites feature a black background with light or brightly colored text, logos, and visual elements, often conveying sophistication, elegance, and mystery.

When designing a website with a dark theme, some web developers might go with a pure black background, but it’s possible to achieve a similar effect with another dark shade, like charcoal gray or deep navy. 

Pros of black websites

Beyond helping your brand stand out from the crowd, black websites may be a strong choice for your brand if you’re looking to spotlight certain characteristics. Common connotations include sophistication, elegance, and mystery; seriousness, toughness, and masculinity; and sleek, modern, cutting-edge style. 

In a 2025 study in the Journal of Marketing & Social Research, respondents identified black as highly appropriate for categories like luxury goods, financial services, and tech. Additionally, black website backgrounds are also a common choice for streetwear, fitness, and automotive brands and products traditionally marketed to men. 

A dark background can make videos and images stand out, almost as though visitors have stepped into a dark gallery or theater with a spotlight trained on what you want them to see. This makes it a suitable choice for a portfolio of artwork or photography. 

Finally, there is some evidence that dark mode may help reduce eye strain and fatigue when a user is working or scrolling in a low-light environment. Darker websites might even use less battery for certain kinds of screen displays.

Cons of black websites

There are reasons that a white background is the default for most websites, especially those that contain a lot of text. Lighter text on a dark background tends to be more difficult to read, in part because it can cause a “halation” effect for some readers, making letters appear fuzzy or blurred around the edges and potentially fatiguing the eyes. 

According to the Ergonomics study, some research indicates that information retrieval is easier in lighter modes and that dark modes may increase a user’s cognitive load.

A black background can limit your aesthetic options, too: It may appear less neutral than white, which can contain more colors without feeling busy. And some techniques for creating textures and depth cannot be applied to black backgrounds. Without the option to use shadows, you may need to get creative with highlights, gradients, or other tools like parallax effects, which is when different layers of the page move at different rates as you scroll, creating a three-dimensional look. 

A predominantly black website also may not be the right fit for every brand. In the Journal of Marketing & Social Research study, respondents said that black was less appropriate for categories like health care and food, and didn’t associate it with the concept of comfort. If your brand tone is playful, uplifting, hopeful, whimsical, or cozy, black might not make sense for you.

Before committing to black, weigh the implications for your category, brand identity, existing visual language, and target audience.

Tips for designing a black website

For a user-friendly, visually engaging site, follow these best practices to make sure the black background enhances—rather than detracts from—the visitor experience.

• Simplicity is key. Minimize the number of words, colors, images, and visual elements on the page, and keep graphics and illustrations uncomplicated. Focus on a few vibrant accents to create visual interest and leave plenty of negative space to make your site less cluttered and overwhelming. 

• Prioritize legibility. Select fonts that are adequately weighted and have high contrast with the black background. To further increase accessibility, consider adding an option to toggle between dark and light themes.

• Be consistent. Your choice of black background need not extend to every page, but it should contribute to a unified site experience. Consider how the different page elements work together: If someone clicks from a black homepage to a bright white inventory page, it may feel jarring or disjointed. 

• Adapt key elements as necessary. Brand consistency is critical, but if you’re creating a black website, you may need to update other visual assets to complement it. For example, create versions of your logo in lighter colors that won’t get lost. If you already have a palette of brand colors, play with the ones that work best with the dark background and adjust the tint and intensity as needed.

• Use templates to eliminate guesswork. Many Shopify themes have presets with black website templates created by professional designers—complete with contrast optimization, recommended colorways and fonts, and features for specific products or services. Explore the Shopify Theme Store and use filtered search to find black themes for categories such as art (Darkroom, Exposure); sports (Velocite, Terrain); electronics (Electro, Harmony); and auto (Maranello, Fleet).

Examples of black websites

1. Doc’s Diesel
2. Hero
3. Thrive Protein
4. Midnight Hour
5. Clarisys Audio
6. Fountainhead New York
7. Ben Day
8. ChubbyCable
9. American Metal Whiskey

A black website can be unique, engaging, and visually interesting—and convey your brand’s one-of-a-kind personality. Here are nine examples to inspire your design process.

1. Doc’s Diesel

The website of Doc’s Diesel, a maker of commercial fuel filters, uses a black background that not only reflects diesel’s powerful, heavy-duty image, but also differentiates Doc’s Diesel from its sister site, Doc’s Filters, which focuses on products for gasoline-powered vehicles. Simple outlines and red accents make certain lines of marketing text and navigational buttons stand out. 

2. Hero

For athleticwear brand Hero, a website with a black theme and minimal text suggests focus and drive—especially when paired with the image on the homepage, which shows a determined athlete on the field after dark. The website also echoes the neutral palette and minimal aesthetic of Hero apparel; products are mostly available in black, white, tan, or charcoal, and are shot on a light background that stands out against the black.

3. Thrive Protein

Black is a compelling choice for the website of Thrive Protein, a fitness product that styles itself as high-performance and no-nonsense. The site matches the packaging of Thrive’s protein powder, which comes in black bottles with white text and the same orange logo; using orange as the accent color creates further continuity while drawing the eye to elements like the logo and the “10% off” sticker.

4. Midnight Hour

Black is a natural fit for the clothing brand Midnight Hour, which has a witchy, gothic aesthetic. The site is shadowy and mysterious, appropriately spooky, and compatible with the company’s apparel—much of which is, indeed, black. 

5. Clarisys Audio

Clarisys speakers stand out for their thin and sleek silhouettes, and its website’s black background emphasizes the shape and form of the art-like pieces. The minimal site design conveys functionality and quality, major assets in audio equipment. 

6. Fountainhead New York

A black website is a good fit for Fountainhead New York, a tattoo parlor that seeks to highlight the art form. The black background helps put the intricate, colorful backpiece featured on the homepage at center stage. On the artists’ page, serious black-and-white photography appears professional, helping to inspire trust in the staff.

7. Ben Day

A minimalist black website highlights jeweler Ben Day’s luxurious, richly colored, sometimes maximalist creations. The jewel-toned pieces look especially striking when silhouetted on the black background, and the metals and stones seem to shine more brightly. The rest of the design is simple, displaying the brand name, logo, and a subtle hamburger menu.

8. ChubbyCable

A dark website theme conveys the functionality and no-frills approach that customers might look for in a tech company like ChubbyCable, which sells power cords, adapters, power banks, screen protectors, and other electronics accessories. The dark theme also helps showcase the brand’s wide range of colorful cables, which look especially striking against the black background.

9. American Metal Whiskey

Whiskey is often marketed with gritty, moody, masculine visuals, as is the case for American Metal, which draws inspiration from motorcycle and hot-rod culture. The gunmetal-gray backdrop with metallic-toned accents echoes the labels on the bottles themselves, bringing to mind custom car detailing and metalwork.