Additional menu

Freelance Wordpress developer Melbourne | Sydney | Gold Coast | Brisbane |

Wordpress developer servicing Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra

Why Gutenberg is a better choice than Wp Bakery, Beaver Builder or Elementor

posted on

re posted from Jane James on JULY 30, 2021

alpha omega digital gutenberg editor

Since Gutenberg’s release with WordPress 5.0, Gutenberg has improved markedly. I love Gutenberg because it gives you out of the box elements. Not only that, compared to the old way of building out template files, you can build a standard website quickly and easily.

When replacing Beaver Builder, WP Bakery, or Elementor with Gutenberg, you will initially find it has less options out of the box- but what you lose in immediate functionality, you gain in site speed and SEO.

Technically Gutenberg is not a page builder- it is a block based content editor. What this means is that, instead of using markup in your php files, blocks are built in javascript and can drag and drop into the back end of your site.

Gutenberg lacks the huge navigation menu with infinite items, and infinite styling abilities out of the box. This means that yes, initially a lot of CSS customisations

Six reasons I prefer to build websites with Gutenberg

  1. Low barrier to entry. Bloggers, marketers and non coders can quickly and easily build pages with ease.
  2. Site Speed. Gutenberg is part of WordPress core, which means Gutenbergs structure is built into the WordPress framework itself. When you install a page builder, you are installing a software on top of a software, and the out of the box features significantly slow down your site.
  3. Custom blocks. Built in React JS, Gutenberg blocks can be built by a developer custom to your business needs. Need a tabs element that scrolls horizontally? Custom blocks can be built to achieve design features that any business owner can drag and drop onto the page.
  4. Hooked blocks. In Genesis development where you can hook sections of code into any section of the website, Hooked blocks in Gutenberg allow you hook blocks into the same registered hook areas of your site.
  5. SEO. Going back to point 2, site speed is one of the highest value metrics google uses to rank your site. Site speed affects your domain authority, user experience, and bounce rate. Not only that, when you use page builders you end up with excessive DOM size- that is, a high markup to content ratio, which is ranked poorly as an SEO metric.
  6. Less unforced errors. I use page builders only when client’s request them, and I have never had a smooth web build. Elementor, Beaver Builder, and the worst of all WP Bakery often malfunction- elements disappear, are suddenly deprecated, and the page builder itself freezes slowing down development time. It’s really nice making changes to a page, saving them and having those changes stay that way. Page builders often mysteriously revert back to previous versions, even after deleting your cache. Its frustrating and in the end it costs the client more money.

Control of page layouts

Gutenberg gives you a fair degree of control over content editing, but you couldn’t call it a true drag and drop editor. With the release of WordPress 5.3, columns are much more customisable, down the percentage width of each column.

creating columns in gutenberg
COLUMNS IN GUTENBERG

Errors and speed

Gutenberg block content is saved in your SQL database, under the post_content database field. Page builder plugins either use short codes or save the content in custom fields, which can lead to other plugins causing errors displaying the content correctly.

When I build a client website in Gutenberg, I would say I average 5 plugins for a business website and 10 plugins including several Woocommerce plugins for an ecommerce store. In the grand scheme of things, these are low numbers. When I inherit a page builder based website, they usually have 20,30,40 or even 50 plugins installed.

Page builders have high Plugin dependencies, and non coders buy and use them because it achieves a certain design/function they want for a low-ish cost. The payoff is poor site speed. Not only that, but websites with high numbers of plugins as dependencies, are a down right nightmare to debug.

Downsides of Gutenberg

Although I am a Gutenberg developer, and use it on most web project builds, it would be remiss of me not to mention the use cases of where Gutenberg may not be appropriate so here we go:

  • Because it is a block based content editor and not a page builder, there is no front end editing. This means a marketing or non technical person would not be able to build their site visually.
  • Gutenberg has less responsiveness built into it, and a lot of CSS and particularly media queries are required to achieve the desire look on all devices. This won’t suit a non technical person building a website, or they will have to build what they can themselves and engage a developer to finish off the CSS.
  • Out of the box, the amount of blocks available are much less than a page builder. This can usually be remedied with many of the Gutenberg extension plugins such as the ultimate addons for Gutenberg, or atomic blocks to add elements that are desired but no standard.
  • Reduced control over page layouts. Gutenberg has improved in flexibility, but page builders do allow greater control down to the pixel, without any custom css.

Having just mentioned the downsides, I really must make a point: what you lose in initial functionality, you gain 100 times over in site speed and SEM. When trying to improve a page builder based website, I have only ever been able to get the site speed on GTmetrix to a D at Best. And thats using tools like Wp Rocket, Cloudflare, Imagify and so on.

Using Gutenberg, I can almost always get an A score, and considering this is considered the most important metric of Googles 200+ SERP rankings, I think this is the primary reason you should consider Gutenberg for your next web project.

Have you switched from WP Bakery or a page builder to Gutenberg? Comment below , I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Alpha Omega Digital is a WordPress web development agency based in Melbourne, Australia but also services clients from Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Bachelor of Medicine says

    An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague who was conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me dinner due to the fact that I found it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this matter here on your internet site.

  3. prodronessupply says

    I was more than happy to uncover this page. I want to to thank you for your time just for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new information in your website.

  6. Backpage Washington DC says

    I seriously love your blog.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you develop this web site yourself? Please reply back as I’m planning to create my own personal site and would like to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Kudos.

  8. Destination says

    I want to to thank you for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every bit of it. I have you saved as a favorite to check out new things you post…

  17. Tpower Login says

    Having read this I thought it was rather informative. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this short article together. I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both reading and leaving comments. But so what, it was still worth it.

  19. 카지노사이트 says

    You are so cool! I do not suppose I’ve truly read through anything like this before. So nice to discover somebody with a few unique thoughts on this topic. Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This website is something that is needed on the web, someone with some originality.

  22. winbox88 says

    You should be a part of a contest for one of the greatest sites on the internet. I most certainly will highly recommend this blog!

  29. คลิปหลุดน้องเมีย says

    An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been conducting a little research on this. And he actually bought me lunch because I discovered it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending some time to talk about this matter here on your website.

  35. Ounce of Weed in Bag says

    You are so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve read through something like this before. So nice to find another person with some original thoughts on this topic. Really.. many thanks for starting this up. This website is one thing that is required on the web, someone with some originality.

  41. sunwin says

    After I initially commented I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on whenever a comment is added I get four emails with the exact same comment. Perhaps there is an easy method you are able to remove me from that service? Many thanks.

  42. Charles says

    Hey! I’m Charles, and if you’re tired of the 9-to-5 grind and believe workplace coffee tastes like misery, I’ve got good news for you. Invite to the 1K a Day System, where we swap coffee for capital and desks for financial independence. Are you all set to sell your tie for a ticket to liberty? Let’s turbocharge your profits and have some enjoyable along the method!

  44. 에볼루션 게이밍 says

    Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. It’s always helpful to read content from other authors and use a little something from other websites.

  45. C.Lewis says

    Hey! I’m Charles, and if you’re tired of the 9-to-5 grind and believe workplace coffee tastes like anguish, I’ve got great news for you. Invite to the 1K a Day System, where we switch coffee for money flow and desks for monetary self-reliance. Are you all set to sell your tie for a ticket to flexibility? Let’s turbocharge your revenues and have some enjoyable along the method!

  46. KingGame says

    Everything is very open with a really clear clarification of the issues. It was really informative. Your site is extremely helpful. Thank you for sharing!

  47. Online Marketing Social Media Post says

    Hey there! Just popping in to praise your amazing blog. Your expertise on making money online are truly priceless. Making money from home has never been more achievable with affiliate promotion. It’s a wonderful way to earn passive income by promoting goods you stand behind. Your blog is a wealth of information for emerging online entrepreneurs. Keep up the good work!

  48. Affiliate Marketing On Pinterest No Blog says

    Hey there! Just swinging by to commend your amazing blog. Your expertise on making money online are really tremendous. Earning an income from home has never been more achievable with affiliate marketing. It’s a fantastic way to earn passive income by promoting goods you trust. Your blog is a goldmine of knowledge for emerging online entrepreneurs. Keep up the fantastic work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *