I’m curious about what members here do?
My standard process begins with a custom built, barebones theme, which I then expand upon based-on the designs I’m given. So it’s all PHP, HTML, JS, etc. written from scratch.
I’m currently building my first site using Astra/Elementor (the client’s requirement) and it’s a real challenge. I’m trying to keep an open mind, thinking that it’s just a matter of knowing where everything is, but at times I want to throw my monitor across the room.
The thing that really drives me nuts is how some modules will include every option under the sun, except the ONE I need (e.g. the core WordPress Search module doesn’t let you change the input field’s placeholder or the submit button’s value) so I have to resort to JavaScript or CSS in a child theme to tweak it. (Note: I’m only using the free versions of Astra/Elementor.)
Does this get better?
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Avoid Elementor, you can try Bricks or Oxygen when clients care about performance.
If you know how to develop themes from scratch, no, it does not get better.
I use themes from Themeforest for all my projects and my customers are aware of it, I give them a selection of a few theme that seem to be a good start for their needs. I end up modifying the themes quite a lot to get a unique result, but I save a lot of time (therefore money for my customer) by doing it this way.
Blank starter theme and a custom build. Everything gets hand-coded. The only things I’m doing via UI are like… registering custom post types and menus. Otherwise the only thing I’m adding to a page via editor is a Gutenberg html block.
If a client wants a page builder build I turn that project down.
If a custom design is specifically derived from an existing theme I’m fine making a child theme of that one instead of a blank starter, but 99% of the time it would be more work to re-do an existing theme’s elements than to just create my own.
I build bespoke themes.
I too want to murder people/project managers some days because of the requests placed on me to achieve in the CMS.
No. It does not get better.
I use existing block themes because you can export the customized versions as your own theme. Any one of the default themes will work well for this.
>I’m trying to keep an open mind
Keep doing that.
The best advice I can give is to embrace it. You have a new tool – how can you leverage it?
I just worked on my first Elementor site. Creating a custom module seemed pretty straight forward. So, do that.
Just because it’s a builder doesn’t mean you can’t create anything custom. Once I got over that I just embraced it. It actually turned out to be really enjoyable. Turns out theme development is pretty tedious and I don’t miss it. I could spend more of my time focusing on features and functionality. Not making a bunch of templates and widgets or whatever.
Depends on client budget
If you’re a developer, a good builder for you to try is Oxygen Builder.
WordPress sucks for design implementation jobs. Best is if you also provide the design and manage your own fate this way.
Custom themes from a starter theme I built every time. Builders are always more trouble than they’re worth when it comes to building client sites, because I’ve always found that they get you like 90% of the way there but that last 10% requires hacky work, or an extra plugin or two.But then, client changes their mind – and now you’re hacking hack work, or installing another plugin to accentuate a plugin you installed to extend the theme in the first place. And then two months later, another request. It’s just tech debt waiting to getcha!
If I am not building out using elementor, I like to create a child theme, particularly based on Genesis. It’s an excellent base and extremely affordable if you are building a lot of web sites.
Custom, since 12 years
I am using Flatsome theme (and using the included UX blocks) with a child theme from themeforest for a few websites and I enjoy it so much better than Elementor.
I would code a theme myself but I have too much going on in my life to deal with codes. I want something easy but enjoyable.