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.