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I stopped WordPress development about 5 years ago as Gutenberg seemed too unstable to use on client projects and just focused on frontend react jobs instead… Recently I was looking at doing some warmup projects again for a friend who wants a new site and thought WordPress would be most non-tech friendly for them. I was anticipating that Gutenberg would be mature by now but it still seems like a mess/ people still using classic editor etc? What’s happening here? Has anyone got any opinions on how the clients like to use WordPress? Are people fine with using Gutenberg (from a UX point of view)? Apologies if there is already a thread for this.
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I will use classic editor till i die, Gutenberg is, and forever will be, a giant heap of garbage.
It’s always the people who aren’t really devs who advocate hard for anything guetenburg cause it allows them to fool non tech people into thinking they’re actual web devs, ACF and classic editor is the most solid option for custom WP builds
What is exactly the problem with Gutenberg in your opinion?
I have been using it for years now and it’s been useful to me so far.
> What’s wrong with Gutenberg?
Nothing.
Both gutenberg and classic have some pros and cons.
With gutenberg its far easier to work with images and other items in the text.
But for some post types you really dont want that, maybe you’ll use acf or something similar to make sure the right content will be in the right place and in the right format, and so on.
For most pages I’d say gutenberg works fine now, its still a bit more clumsy than things like elementor, but it makes up for that in speed.
All for its purpose really.
Switched to Gutenberg 4 years ago and I’m reaping the benefits of the switch personally speaking (eg workflow, performance, output).
Some will have valid issues and reasons but I think there’s a massive effort required for change, which many won’t want hence those hanging onto the classic editor. Gutenberg has been on a long development road and I waited for what I felt was the right time of maturity, with supporting and improved block options making it much better (eg GenerateBlocks / Kadence Blocks)
My clients find the block editor an improvement over the classic editor and various page builder interfaces but there’s still some issues that crop up with their usage. A mass choice for blocks and overconfidence, takes some learning.
I’ve used Gutenberg, and I think it’s just fine. It was clumsy at first but it’s matured and continues to mature.
Is it perfect, no. Is it the best solution for all websites, no.
It is a solution that is becoming more ubiquitous when you compare it to other website platforms.
Squarespace, is that you(r AI generic criticism bots again)?
At my agency we only use our own blocks made for Gutenberg, we control how they are rendered, how they look in the admin, how assets are enqueued, how dependencies are managed and so on. Using it we give our clients control over their pages while still being able to maintain the general look and feel, and while still maintaining a high level of performance.
I have no experience using it out of the box as a non-dev person, so I can’t speak to that, but as a dev building with gutenberg, I love it so much more than classic editor.
Not much at all, really.
In all honesty, I’ve worked as a developer on over 300 WordPress websites and haven’t come across a single one that actually uses Gutenberg.
I personally have found that clients don’t handle wysiwyg in the style of gutenberg too well and classic fields + occasional preview works much better. On top of that there are some questionable design choices within gutenberg, some things are just not intuitive compared to more “classic” page builders.
You’ll notice by most of the replies to your question, OP, that most people here have no understanding of how core WordPress works. The reason it’s all a mess is these people have spent the last 5 years not learning it, and now have no idea how to use it.
Gutenberg is and will be horrible to use, it should be stopped
Gutenberg is a dream come true for full-stack programmers. And a real boon for ThemeForest-style “shovelware” vendors who’s themes are larded up with pre-build “demo” content.
And as many others have Gutenberg is “intuitive once you get the hang of it.” Which is also true of reverse Polish notation, organic chemistry, Latin, and vim.
What most people *don’t* understand is that a site is only 25% complete when it’s launched. After that it’s the owner’s or owner’s staff’s job to continue adding and editing content: events, blog posts, gallery updates, product updates, membership content, rental or real-estate properties, and other custom post types.
For all that Gutenberg is setup almost exclusively for *new* content there’s a reason that major plugins like Gutenberg, The Events Calendar, etc. stick with the Classic editor for managing their content. For all it’s very real, indisputable faults for building pages, the Classic Editor is idea for filling out custom post types. The odds of needing to drop a navigation, category list, poetry, or Wolfram(?!?!) block in a blog post or product description are approximately zero. The need instead to quickly type or edit a column of simply-formatted text, immediately choose a post or product category, set a start and end date or update a price, *and then return to the dashboard* approach 100% in day-to-day use.
Meanwhile Gutenberg is so optimized for new site and new main-page creation they completely hide the dashboard, push any CPT metaboxes to the bottom of the page, and hide things like category controls behind various sidebar tabs and accordions.
The end result is much more complex job aids for staff. Including “don’t forget to be in the right sidebar context so you can find and set the category and tags, then click the “About WordPress” icon to view your finished work or return to the dashboard.
I mean, sure, again, after only five years of forcing myself to use Gutenberg for blogging on my own site I’ve figured out how to turn off distraction-free mode, turn off the out-of-context block options, unhide the control sidebar in FSE mode, how to spelunk to the right context before clicking on a complex block, how not to make arbitrary selections across multiple links in menu blocks, etc., etc., etc.
But anyone who says that’s an improved workflow for anyone who has to update a dozen products a day, manage an active events calendar, write multiple recipes, engage with commenters, etc. or, especially *train the owner’s or non-profit’s office staff to do it” has basically never really used a production website after they handed it off to a client.
I say this not because Gutenberg is a bad idea. I think it’s a genuinely great idea. But after five years, and with legitimate piece-of-s##t page builders like Elementor being adopted by the tens of millions, it’s legitimate to ask why Gutenberg for 90% of all WordPress tasks is still harder to learn and use than InDesign?
Seriously! Writing blog posts and product descriptions with the block editor is like writing email with InDesign: total overkill if not an actual anti-pattern.
If I was a full-stack programmer I’d be overjoyed by Gutenberg — it’s a great development platform! But as a trainer and end-user support specialist it’s a demoralizing mess.
Gutenberg is very controversial and shows no sign of improvement about it (“any year now”).
It was designed to serve two purposes: content editor and page builder. People can argue the degree to which it succeeded (failed) at that, but clearly it hadn’t won everyone over whatsoever. That also fed into a circular defensiveness when it’s “not fair” to criticize it’s as either of the two, because also the other thing.
On a technical side decision to go with React was controversial, suffered from non-existent synergy and continuity with normal WP development. Gutenberg also somehow managed to implement React in a way that React devs don’t seem to like much either.
As I see it, the community got fractured into three loose tiers about it:
1. Heavily invested: major WP agencies, WP super fans, users who happen to just like Gutenberg for their needs. The former two are the only ones who go for full-on pure Gutenberg blocks development, they either have money and devs to throw at it and/or are very reputationally and personally invested.
2. Practically invested: developers and users who can’t justify/afford pure Gutenberg development and go with middle ground solutions, such as ACF, to keep it practically close to normal and affordable WP development.
3. Against to some degree: everyone who actively dodges the use of Gutenberg in favor of Classic Editor and normal WP development practices.
Where things stand for the moment is that Gutenberg hardly made progress at winning everyone over and aligning community again, but neither had it been detrimental enough to decrease a monumental hold on the web that WP accumulated. It is hard to predict where is it going long term, but given the constraints and (non) acceptance of the project I doubt it ever claws its way to be universally accepted. What will that do to the WP long term – we’ll have to wait and see.
Gutenberg wants to be a builder but builders are way better.
1. “Headless” approach – more coding focused, cleaner, simpler, no WYSIWIG Most of the time, and when the client would not be regularly uploading and managing posts, I’d recommend to use wordpress headless – or rather almost headless with the usual admin panel, classic editor, and either a totally custom theme or a 3rd party theme + child theme and de-register a whole bunch of unnecessary junk in functions.php (eg. Gutenberg stuff, OEmbed, etc) and a few plugins, or custom built ones. Edit2: Based on another comment, I also can recommend classic editor with eg. advanced custom fields for content management for clients. Gutenberg LOOKS easier to use, but is actually harder to use well.
2. WYSIWIG editor mode If the client would manage the site after it’s finished, and wants to create visual content (not just eg. upload products into a webshop), then I’d choose some kind of editor, even maybe Gutenberg. There are a multitude of other editors however with much more powerful and diverse features, eg. Breakdance, SeedProd, and I heard about Divi and Elementor too, but haven’t tried them, and opinions are divided about them. No matter which one you choose, they’d have to learn how to use it. Be aware though, that adding any custom code with those is more painful than the first option.
3. Edit: Based on a comment below, there’s another option, that you develop custom Gutenberg blocks. I did not get into that, so I have no info about how good of a solution that is.
The choice is yours. You either try to disable any “junk” and go the coding way, with mostly contents that can be changed in a non-visual editor (eg. post title, additional meta fields, etc) or select a fully no-code visual solution.
PS: They were well aware of how controversial it was to incorporate it into WP core, but they did it anyway, because money.
If you’re starting fresh, Gutenberg is okay
If you’ve already got a site up and running with a workflow you know like the back of your hand, then stick to Classic editor.
We build sites using a custom block theme, core blocks, and full site editing. Occasionally we’ll add in a few plugins for a specific block (not a large block library) or max mega menu if that’s needed.
I like Gutenberg but FSE still sucks. What is Blog Home? Such a crappy design structure.
Every time I watch a video of someone building a site using Gutenberg, they make it seem like you have to be a full stack dev just to get the thing to behave like a regular site builder such as Elementor, Bricks, or Divi. Not very user friendly, and provides a very poor UI/UX experience for anyone who is new to WP.
I love the Block Editor and Full Site Editing for new projects. I always thought the Classic Editor was a bit of a turnoff in general. I got back into WordPress work a few years ago right when the Block Editor started to become usable, and I never missed the “old way of doing things.” If you’re starting a new project and you’re willing to use tools that do a good job of supporting the new feature set, it’s a beautiful workflow. I personally don’t see any reason to consider a builder like Elementor or even Bricks now that there’s a robust option built in.
That said, change is not always easy. For existing projects, it may not be feasible to migrate. I’ve seen a lot of sites, even ones built recently, that inexplicably (to me) are using the Classic Editor. I can’t fault people for not wanting to switch, or not wanting to upgrade tools that haven’t yet been rebuilt to use the Block Editor.
The one thing that the Classic Editor did well is force users to remember the separation between content and design. The Block Editor blurs the two, which is great when you want to add an image or “Media & Text” or some other fancier look to a post. But it opens the door for clients (i.e. copywriters) to think that they should be able to work like they’re graphic designers all the time. That may or may not be appropriate or useful i a particular context. If you want to maintain a workflow where you have one group of people writing copy and a completely different group of people designing the look and UX, then maybe there’s an argument to stick with Classic just to avoid giving the wrong people too much power.
Gutenberg takes a bit getting used to, but the full site editing is clumsy and poorly thought-out in my opinion, so I avoid it by using GeneratePress.
The spelling?
It’s such a long-standing debate now. Perhaps it is time to agree that it’s for some but not for all.
It’s really horses for courses. For me, Gutenberg is simply too much hassle and interference. But for those who want to design and perfect, I’m sure it’s a great tool.
I’m a writer, so text is the most important element for me.
With Gutenberg, text is a hassle. Every sentence, paragraph, and heading is a new block, making formatting a nightmare.
All I need to do is write (or paste) a text and occasionally add an image or two.
With the classic editor, this is easy with no hassles.
But with Gutenberg, I get so many options (and distractions) I simply don’t need or will never use.
Sure, if you like Gutenberg, go for it.
But don’t knock those who prefer the Classic editor. It works just fine and still suits many WordPress users’ needs.
By the way, I’ve tried Gutenberg many, many times, so it’s not for lack of trying. But it is simply way more than I need or want to publish my articles.
Technical aspects aside — development, code weight, etc — the user editing experience in Gutenberg is confusing to pedestrian users and will easily result in design drift.
I’d rather use a more-structured layout of ACF Pro or similar. It doesn’t overwhelm the editors with a blank canvas with thousands of options — which can go wrong really fast in the wrong hands.
It’s like when desktop publishing became popular in 1984, you could easily design a flyer, brochure, magazine, or book using every font on your system….. but good design dictated to limit it to 2-3 fonts so it didn’t look like a ransom note.
To all the Gutenberg fans/downvoters, I’m addressing the client reactions and actions to Gutenberg, not in anyway disputing the code value or code structure it has to developers. I’m saying it fails at HCI/UX/UI to the clients that are paying for it.
Clients don’t know how to code, so they hire you. Clients don’t have a design eye, so they hire you. handing them back a site that requires both those skills for upkeep the site is bad business.
Shockingly bad isn’t it…
React is the problem.
Fanboys are trying to hijack WordPress and forgetting about core.
The way Gutenberg stores everything is the content post is absolutely retarded.
Are devs still using ACF with Gutenberg? And our build custom themes still the way to go but you code out the blocks for development rather than other pieces of the theme ?
Not sure who is unstable in the equation.
Newbie question. Just starting out with my own blog site. If I make some pages with classic and some with Gutenberg will it break?
You’re correct it was pretty unstable in the early days. It’s gotten a lot better.
Highly recommend extending the types of blocks with plugins and the free version gets you about 95% of what you need
* [Otter Blocks](https://wordpress.org/plugins/otter-blocks/) – Their Section Plugin is unbeatable IMHO
* [CoBlocks](https://wordpress.org/plugins/coblocks/) – Has some good blocks like a better accordion, carousel, etc
* [Kadence](https://www.kadencewp.com/kadence-blocks/) – I’m less familiar with these but lots of people recommend them
Anything that’s missing or needs extra styling I just do at the section block level in the CSS or if it’s overall in Appearance > Customize > CSS
its still not that firendly
u cant do many things
It’s just not that useful to the average website editor, who just needs to add content.
Often, an editer will have to memorize some pretty complex operations in order to do some very simple things.
And as a site-building tool, the user experience is way crappier than pretty much all other site-buiding tools.
Also, trying to making custom blocks is like trying to move through a maze flooded with jelly. It just feels way more complex than it should be.
Sure, an editor or builder could figure all of this stuff out. But why would you, when you have better tools at your disposal?
N.tt
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