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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.
It's the WP minute.
Let's talk about learning more about
WordPress from the software around us.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting
Sam Harrison, a professional Webflow
consultant and content creator.
He was open to co host a WordPress vs.
Webflow debate with me, while
also unpacking how business is
going for his services company.
Heading into the debate, I spent a few
hours watching his content and really
enjoyed his Webflow components basics and
his how to start a web design business.
So, why did I invite Sam on?
Page Builders, especially
Bricks, are the best.
Has been the topic du jour of late.
That crowd really wants WordPress
to have a much more, have much
more power inside the editor.
And I totally get it.
These powerful third party
tools can be really attractive.
And if you haven't been in the
WordPress space for the last 20
years, you start to wonder why our
favorite CMS is lacking these features.
Bricks is often framed as the tool that
brings Webflow experience into WordPress.
All powerful design and page building
tools you could ever want, surely.
I've had some conversations with prominent
WordPress agencies now offering Webflow
as an alternative solution to WordPress.
It all makes sense, but the choice
shouldn't start at which tool to use,
but whether or not you want open source
software or a commercial solution.
For your project to simplify.
Do you care that you have the
benefits of open source WordPress
along with the baggage or does
having a single turnkey app?
Provide the best solution for you.
Now, how does that play out for
selling your services to clients?
Sam and I played a little game
where we placed the winning cards of
particular features of the competing
platforms in their respective columns.
You should check out
the video linked above.
It's, it's pretty fun.
I'll admit the odds were stacked
against Sam and Webflow seeing that
he was on my podcast, but WordPress
comes out the winner in most areas.
So long as you're siding with the
advantages of open source, for example,
the ecosystem, the community, the
ability to customize the platform.
It's a hard sell to get me to use Webflow.
That doesn't mean we can't learn
from Webflow and their users.
Let's face it, it's not a fluke that
they've been successful for this long.
Having a comprehensive tool set to
design pages makes a lot of sense.
Also, not having to worry about updates,
hosting, third party software conflicts.
Sounds like a dream that Webflow
users get to live every day.
Though I noticed that in the short
time of exploring Webflow, WordPress
isn't massively behind pound for pound.
And I'm talking specifically just core,
not even when you decide to bring in third
party tools like ACF or Gravity Forms.
If you like the design tools and
the interface of Webflow, mixed with
their new components library, the
gap in WordPress isn't all that wide.
However, when you look at something like
the writing experience, specifically
blogging or posts in general, Webflow
isn't even competing in the same league.
Sorry, Sam.
I guess what I'm saying is, as much
as we can learn from the UI, UX, and
passionate community of Webflow, their
team could also learn from WordPress.
Heck, Gutenberg is an open source project.
Even Drupal has a fork.
Maybe Webflow can improve their
content editor with Gutenberg?
Go open source.
Let me know what you think.
No news links today.
I do apologize.
Running out of time.
Heading out on vacation next week.
And just so much to do with all the stuff
happening at Gravity Forms this week.
Busy day.
Busy week.
I'll talk to you in the next episode.