howdy.
as some background, about half a year ago i took over the website for the local shop i was working at. it’s a small business but has been running for a decade, so we’re talking roughly 1.5k products on the website. there’s technically a blog, but it’s secondary. the online orders are what we care about the most.
the website only started during covid and was made by people who (respectfully) had no business building a website. now, i’m no dev or html/css expert, but i’ve worked with WP and web design before, so when i say that this website is a disaster on the back-end, i mean it. half-functioning plugins, half-made pages, half a dozen abandoned menus, broken widgets everywhere, you name it. any time there was a problem, someone slapped a band-aid on it and called it a day.
my biggest issue is the mobile design. 75% of our shoppers are on their phones, and yeah Avada has the responsive feature, but because the back-end is so convoluted it no longer functions properly, and i can’t fix it for the life of me. (and there’s no way i can convince my boss to cough up 60 quid to get access to Avada’s support.)
SO i’m considering a fresh start. i’m thinking of ditching Avada for a more straight-forward theme, but i’m also open to plugins that allow more creativity on a more basic theme.
here are the priorities:
* free, if at all possible. the boss is stingy, and given that the website isn’t flourishing right now due to the issues, the budget is nonexistent. money made requires money spent, i know, but it is what it is.
* WooCommerce friendly. like i said, our online orders are what we care most about.
* mobile friendly. we aren’t doing anything crazy, but i’d prefer if the pictures on our home page didn’t twitch across the screen when i look at it on my phone. i’d also really love it if the mobile header didn’t look like absolute garbage, like it does now.
* less is more. i’m currently the only one working the website, and i only work part-time at that, so something simple and low maintenance would be heaven.
i already know and have done the usual suggestions of deactivating unused plugins, clearing caches, optimizing images, managing bloat, etc, but it’s hard to slim down a website that’s built like a jenga tower where every piece is from a different plugin or block that conflicts with something else. hence, the fresh start.
the reason i’m asking here is because i’ve seen recommendations on other posts, but i’m not sure if those would apply to our situation. i’ve heard good things about Astra and GeneratePress, as well as the default 2023/2024 themes combined with Elementor, but it’s a big move and i want to be smart about it.
any suggestions would be appreciated! thank you for reading 🙂
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Since you’re considering Elementor, I’d suggest using Hello Elementor theme. I can help provide support along the way if you need it, at no cost. Feel free to send a DM.
You get what you pay for. I get you are looking for free, but Elementor is bloated. Yes you can have an Elementor site “perform”, but it needs additional work.
Personally I like Bricks builder. However, I have never use it with Woo so I am not sure how deep the integration is. Maybe something to look up in your research. Price tag might be an issue.
Something lower cost than bricks, I would recommend FSE/block editor themes considering you can override some of Woo’s block. Astra comes to mind, Blocksy is another good option.
Good luck!