I am new to web development and I did watch a YouTube course on html and css and I got familiar with flexbox, css grid, semantic html and all of that. I am not an expert and am still in the learning phase.
I know that WordPress is the most popular CMS and everyone LOVES to use it to build websites because it’s “quick easy and no code” and it has an admin panel and all that so obviously it would be stupid to not take a look and see what it’s about. Seems like no one likes coding from scratch now a days and that “it’s just a waste of time and that the no code builders are the future.“
I am taking a WordPress course now and I can’t believe how boring it is to use these drag and drop builders and in some cases I feel like it would be faster to just code. I think drag and drop makes web development boring, not creative, and more tedious. I know I “have” to learn WordPress though and was wondering if anyone felt the same way? I am planning on mainly getting into custom web application development and pushing web site dev to the side and mainly doing the web apps, so I think it is very beneficial for me to learn coding from scratch vs those who just do websites.
I guess my main question is, does ANYONE prefer coding from scratch vs WordPress or is it just me? And those that do, do you have a library of reusable code to speed things up? I know it’s not about who can code a site the fastest, but efficiency is important.
Thanks
What makes WP so nice is there is a hybrid approach.
Elementor isn’t the best for someone who wants to code.
When I first trying bricks builder, I was not expecting it to be so code / dev friendly. I’m not the best at coding but it was nice to be able to do some custom work without having to bend backwards with elementor.
Here is a link: [https://bricksbuilder.io/](https://bricksbuilder.io/)
Check out the demo. I have been enjoying working with bricks alot and have bene loving the community and ecosystem. Addons like ACSS and Advanced Themer just take this page builder to another level.
If you perfer to code or the brag and drop, this could be something to look into, compared to building a custom theme per website
You can code WordPress themes from scratch but at the same time use the benefits like CMS editing of content, complex forms, caching, SEO settings, bulk editing, user accounts and permissions etc.
I prefer coding things from scratch (being it WordPress or PHP frameworks like Laravel), but it boils down to the fact, I deal with many super high traffic environments, where every millisecond counts – and quite often pagebuilders isn’t exactly known for being amazing when it comes to performance.
It means people get a solution that’s tailored to them, it usually takes a bit longer (in reality), but they also get something that absolutely works, and more important, performs well, without having to use a caching plugin to make the site snappy.
But I can understand why some people opt for them, and why there’s a (big) market for it. It’s relatively easy, and allows even super non-techies to make smaller changes without much hassle.
Let’s look at it like this: The client usually doesn’t understand how their website works and they don’t care how it’s built as long as it looks nice and performs well.
The point of using page builders is to speed up the development process, allowing you to build pages and layouts much quicker and efficiently that coding something from scratch. They do this very well. A whole site can be built in a few days, rather than a few weeks.
Sure, it would be lovely if every client was happy to pay for a completely custom, bespoke website but, in reality, they don’t care or even want to know. They just want their website to work.
I’ll turn the question around on you. Why would you not want to use a page builder to speed up development and make more money faster?
Having knowledge of PHP, HTML, CSS, JS will make working with WordPress and ANY page builder much easier as you will actually understand the code that the builder is producing and be able to customise the code if necessary. Unlike a lot of so called ‘developers’ out there that build websites but can’t code to save their life…
If you can find me some clients who are happy to pay for a bespoke website, I’ll certainly make them one, at a fee! 😀
Just use Underscore theme; all fun is there.