Hey guys, so I would say I am a mid-level developer so far with WordPress, been making sites for a year now at my job and I am used to making themes the classic WordPress way with writing up the page templates from blank canvas. I like how this works honestly since I can control everything, but it is slower than page builders for sure.
I also have been using this with a mixture of Elementor to build websites quickly and I loved the templating options there too. But I have found it sometimes buggy and annoying that I can’t do exactly what I want sometimes and end up writing CSS to combat it.
I understand blocks is a lightweight option which is really appealing to me since Elementor I’ve found is quite heavy. I wonder is it easier to use than Elementor. However I still really hate the Gutenberg editor look and always find myself removing the editor or making it the old one again haha.
Has anyone had a similar journey and experienced transition to blocks and really loved it? Pros & Cons? I will give it a try out myself with a few test sites but would love some fellow dev opinions! Thank you kindly!!
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I’ve been playing with different setups over the last few days and the spectra container blocks make a huge difference.
It supports flexbox and gives you control over all the CSS properties I want.
I’ve heard good things about cwicly but they don’t have a free trial without money up front so I’ve not given it a try yet.
So far I really enjoy it. I deplore page builders and all the extra CSS crap they inject everywhere. Our agency does 100% custom website designs so it’s always a battle trying to recreate these amazing designs with Divi or Elementor.
Instead we use core Gutenberg and ACF (Advanced Custom Fields). We still use php templates for your main structural layouts and then core blocks (updated to match our theme) or custom blocks to layout all the content. Extend you post types for any unique taxonomies and you’ve got a stew brewing! It’s been successful for us.
I like blocks very much but there is an adjustment.
i use it at my job now, but not for my freelance work or personal sites. i love the speed of gberg, but that’s still about all i have to praise of it.
i hate the UI. at my job, i have to train people to use it that are already confused enough using our custom ACF modules. most settings being buried doesn’t help these already editing challenged folks. they don’t intuitively go to hidden menus/settings the we we devs do… my marketers also never think to click on a block to select it or outside of a block to deselect it, so they’re often confused on how to do things or “get back to” things.
the animation in the list view being the only place to drag n drop blocks (i think?) is highly annoying – something always ends up in the wrong spot. the joke of a bottom border indication line while dragging and placing blocks is ridiculous.
i could go on and on, but its not productive. while i’ve become accustomed to it at work and hate it a little bit less, i’m still not implementing it on my sites. i’ll stick with classic as long as possible and i mainly use Pods/ACF for repetitive or specific content.
Blocks and acf will revolutionize how you build without a page builder
Yes. I love it. No cons yet for me. You can do so much more with it than the old Classic Editor. If you like the Classic then there’s the Classic block.
What is blocks?
I say this often but Blocks are an ideal solution for programmers who would otherwise be forced to write or work with custom page and partials templates, widgets, shortcodes, and custom fields. Blocks give you a much more unified coding environment. So it’s a very friendly environment for professional programmers.
As you’ve noticed, the blocks interface is a lot less friendly for non-programmers for 99% ordinary-user tasks like blogging, product descriptions, and simple content edits on pages.
Whether or not you use blocks you’re still going to have to write a lot of CSS if you want page elements to look exactly how you want. The blocks UI is vaguely aware of page layout and media queries, but as a developer-driven replacement for widgets and custom fields there’s little or no consideration in core for page layout. The general impression one gets is “that’s up to the theme developers.”
A few block developers work hard to retrofit layout, Kadence being the most popular example. But even with Kadence users are stuck with a 2014-era-style backend-only interface. Unlike Elementor and most modern page builders, but like the old Classic Editor, the Block Editor still forces you to cycle between the backend and preview to see how your pages are actually going to display.
So in general, if you’re used to writing your own themes from scratch then you’ll still ~~have to~~ get to do all that, including most of the CSS. To the extent you’re customizing content then instead of writing and formatting custom fields, widgets, etc., you can either use out-of-the-box blocks or write your own.
I went from Elementor to gutenberg blocks. Took a couple weeks to get to the point where i was comfortable with it, but now its nicer to use a built-in option with 1 block addon to add more blocks, and that’s enough for me.
I’m a big fan of blocks at this point. Yeah, there’s an adjustment period. But so it is with any change in life.
I have been remaking my site using Gutenberg, GeneratePress Premium with GenerateBlocks free. The last version of my site was with the same theme using Elementor Pro. There has been a learning curve but not a difficult one. The main difference for me is fewer interface fine controls over the different design elements compared to Elementor but easily fixed using CSS. It is usable but I am looking forward to Gutenberg getting more fine controls and I would really like a dark theme for the UI without needing plugins.
bricks
I had the classic editor plugin installed on all of my sites for two years. Blocks looked confusing and clunky. But I finally bit the bullet and uninstalled the old editor six months ago or so, watched a half-day’s worth of YT vids about Gutenberg, and off to the races. No more Divi, Elementor, or Beaver Builder for me. Just Kadence blocks pro and away I go.
I kinda use everything depending on the budget. Low budget? Elementor, lately also more gutenberg blocks as an alternative to elementor.
Mid range… Kinda depends on the project, what I feel will work best.
Good budget? Custom code and gutenberg, often including custom gutenberg blocks to make things easier for the client.
ACF, PHP, CSS, templates does it for me
I love G-blocks over templates. However, a template still has its purpose. Use the tool that’s best for the job.
Depends on the content and were you like to put them. I like to have a clean simple homepage, so always using blocks withing widgets for example. For pages with a lot of text I like to use classic. TinyMCE is great, also Otter and Loomisoft.
Carbon Fields all day long. There’s nothing I can’t configure/build.
Try breakdance.com it’s the Best builder by far or oxygen For avances users