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The WP Minute brings you news about WordPress in under 5 minutes -- every week! Follow The WP Minute for the WordPress headlines before you get lost in the headlines. Hosted by Matt Medeiros, host of The Matt Report podcast.
Coming up on the WP minutes is 2024,
the year of WordPress page builders.
Let's find out right after this.
Here on the WP minute, Eric asked, can
Gutenberg and WordPress page builders.
Co-exist.
His debate has been raging ever
since the Gutenberg project launched.
I used to fall into the page.
Builders will crush
Gutenberg in everything camp.
Ella mentor Devi beaver builder.
They were just so far ahead in
terms of features and flexibility.
Meanwhile, it felt like
Gutenberg was forced on us
with no shot to lead the pack.
I was just looking at my
YouTube channel and I saw that
I had actually made a video.
Once on how to disable Gutenberg when
we were in our disabled Gutenberg days.
A few years ago.
There's more advanced developer
plugins like bricks that has all
the same enthusiasm and momentum.
I've seen in the space for the
last 15 years, the best, most
advanced, powerful, efficient tool
you'll ever use for WordPress.
I saw it with the thesis theme.
I saw it with the page lions builder.
I saw it with the Genesis framework.
I saw it with Ella mentor.
But with the introduction of 2024
theme and bringing the block insight
editor together in a better paint job.
I'm excited for the future of
core WordPress experiences.
The editor has come a
long way to fall themes.
Like 20, 24 are built for block blocks and
they work great out of the box as well.
And you can absolutely build full websites
now without touching another page builder.
As much as I try to restrict myself from
posting hot takes on Twitter, I had to
take to the welcoming social platform.
To tweet out my current thinking about the
new, exciting builders, like brakes and
how this whole ecosystem comes together.
Thanks for Eric for jogging.
My memory around this stuff.
When the argument for which
page builder is better comes up.
I think it's important
to frame it like this.
Block editor plus site editor.
You call it Gutenberg just for
this argument because we need to
give it a product name is made
for tens of millions of users.
Maybe even hundreds.
It's shipped with WordPress
core after all, it's the
default experience of WordPress.
It needs to reach many, many,
many millions of people.
Elemental or divvy BeaverBuilder are
made for millions of users that want
more powerful building workflows.
And it also solves that
webmaster and user relationships.
In other words, I'm a freelancer
or an agency I'm going to build
this for you and then hand it over.
And if you want to customize it, use this
powerful plugin that's associated with it.
Bricks break dance are made for
hundreds of thousands of users.
Maybe even only tens
of thousands of users.
I don't know how big their
customer pool is yet.
But advanced developers and
designers that required, uh, to
build WordPress sites at scale.
You know, you're, you're
running an agency.
You just don't want to do custom coding
because that slows it down, but you
need something much more powerful
than element or BeaverBuilder and
Devi, certainly many, uh, leaps pop,
more powerful than core WordPress.
So while WordPress itself has
taken massive strides, we aren't.
Quite fully.
Uh, fully featured website builder
just yet the ecosystems extensibility.
It's still crucial.
Like we still need these plugins,
the debate of which one is better
and which one should I use?
It doesn't mean it's a zero sum game.
I also think that these are, that
these more advanced page builders
are taking hold because WordPress.
newbies from six years ago have
leveled up instead of learning code.
At the time they used Elementor
as they started to get more
familiar with WordPress and coding
started tackling larger projects.
They leveled out of a powerful builder
and into a more advanced builder, like
a breaks, or let's say break dance.
What will be interesting to see is
how much further advanced builders can
push the envelope before they forced
the user to go full circle and just
bust out an IDE coding environment.
Again, in other words, how much
more powerful can this coding be?
How much more time savings?
Can we get when we're just like,
at this point we might as well
was coded from scratch anyway.
Which brings me to the old
argument, that page builders.
Air quotes lock you in.
Well, it doesn't relying on any
on, uh, Gutenberg blocks patterns
or plugins present a similar risk.
Like I mentioned before, I've seen
page builders and their high promises
come and go in the WordPress space,
something better and faster hits
the mark market users flocked to it.
But at the end of the day, it comes down
to the user experience in meeting needs.
Power users with demanding requirements
will likely stick to their beaver
builders and Ella mentors of the world.
Average users will happily embrace
the core WordPress experience.
And the ecosystem that
comes along with it.
And then many advanced builders will
seek through the outer boundaries
to find the more advanced stuff.
Again, bricks or break dance
or whatever else comes along.
I know what that array of choice.
Perfectly represents the WordPress way.
We can extend the software to suit
our individual needs and preferences.
Diehard page builder fans shouldn't
feel pressured to give them up.
Nor should Gutenberg evangelists.
Need to compromise.
And again, I'm using
Gutenberg as a product name.
I understand it's site.
And block editor.
The takeaway.
WordPress by nature supports coexistence.
And we'll certainly see page
builders, usage, shrink a little bit.
But as we close out on nearly 60% of the
CMS market on the internet, according
to a recent w three techs article.
There's still remains enough room and
diversity for this project to thrive.
And now for some important links that
you don't want to miss this week.
Kevin, Gary tried building a
layout with the WordPress block
editor, but it didn't go so well.
I'll link up his video in the show notes.
Brian cords found the opportunity
in Kevin's video to educate us
on the block editor and what
its capabilities truly are.
The 2024 global sponsor ship has been
announced for WordPress community
programs, like word camps, new
events and chapter meetup groups.
The $145,000 top tier gold sponsors
are automatic Jetpack and wordpress.com
wherever they have to pay twice Bluehost,
GoDaddy woo and newcomer, WP beginner.
It seems like phase three collaboration
might hit a bit of a speed bump.
According to an update from Simon
Dixon, citing quote real-time content.
Collaboration is not a
current user priority.
Check out the make wordpress.org
link in the show notes.
And lastly, I interviewed Omni send
CEO Redis Loris on the WP minute
plus podcast about bootstrapping
is email automation, SAS company.
In the face of giant competition.
Check out the WP minute plus in your
favorite podcast app and be sure
to subscribe, to follow along all
of the great interviews over there.