TL;DR:
Not quite sure the wording I should use here: I have bought so many premium plugins (based on thorough research) that no longer serve us. How can I avoid that in the future? For instance, our website is a web application. I'm new at WordPress design for high-traffic sites with multiple related custom post types. So, like many others, I learned from watching a lot of tutorials and taking LinkedIn / Udemy courses.
After a few tutorials, Elementor looked like a great option. And it was, at first — and Gutenberg was still insufficient, in its infancy. So, I rebuilt the custom codebase in WordPress (which was a learning experience) and everything seemed fine – the design was perfect, and ACF Pro gave us all the custom meta data features we needed. We were on a roll and I was able to complete and launch the new site last September.
However, we really hit a snag when it came to adding front-end search filtering like on a real estate page or Craigslist. So, I watched more videos and did some more research. It seemed like all the creators were saying Crocoblock was the bees-knees, so I advised my company to buy the whole suite of plugins (because they'd rather do that then have to incrementally deal with new purchases). But, while Jet SmartFilters has a lot of filtering capability, the one thing it doesn't seem to do is filter and sort by related custom post type meta data.
And that's what we need!
So now it seems we don't have a "website", we have a complex directory-like data-driven WordPress-based web app. In the same way, we don't need filter and search features, but more specifically, we need faceted search. So, I've been searching the wrong thing this whole time and getting the wrong answers because I didn't know the correct terminology! (How do you know if you don't know??). My search thus far has identified WPGridBuilder as the best option for us, with instant/automatic relationship meta data filters. But others are swearing by FacetWP.
My employer is getting leery of purchasing any more plugins, but I think we need one of the two.
Ugggh. Hoping others out there have had similar experiences and can give me a little guidance and clarity.
Maybe you shouldn’t rely on plugins for everything this project needs and find a developer who can do the advanced stuff. In the end, you’ll probably spend too much time and money and end up with a bunch of plugins that are either insufficient or will cause problems in the long run. Also, ChatGPT has come in handy for some small adjustments (and got my blood boiling many times).
Tbh, you’ll get burned and buy the wrong ones sometimes but that’s okay. It happens to everyone.
When looking at plugins, look for ones that work well together.
For example, I use bricks builder and it works well with Metabox and WP grid build. So I know when there are updates, nothing should beak.
Personality, I look for LTDs but some plugins like gravity forms, flying press cache plugin, and some others I’ll pay yearly for because in my mind they are worth it.
ACF is the only extra plugin you might need in most cases. If you can’t build project with bare minimum plugins it’s time to invest in skills rather in plugins.
Yes, plugins can save a lot of time, but you need to know why you need plugin to fulfil project requirements and why writing custom code would be less useful.
Search filter, why plugin for that? It’s a simple text input for string to query your database to fetch results based on params?
Let me clarify. If you provide services with available plugins your services will be limited to plugins. If you have knowledge how to write custom code, you can provide much wider solutions for your clients.
I never had an issue with thinking if I need another plugin – I purchase bare minimum only what makes sense for multiple projects and is definitely repetitive so it will save my time.