The WordPress web content management system (CMS) now underpins an incredible 43% of all websites – including some very big names like Sony Music, CNN and Time Magazine to name just a few.
A few years ago WordPress added the Gutenberg editor into their platform. Gutenberg allows you to drag and drop content and add pre-formatted blocks. Since 2019 they have been fleshing out the functionality and adding improvements.
What Gutenberg has brought to the equation as far as its concept and its potential is amazing, but its performance is not quite ‘amazing’ yet.
As Gutenberg has evolved, so has the workload of a front-end developer. Trying to custom build theme files to work in harmony with Gutenberg has been an ever-growing job.
I sought out a mature solution that would help to reduce that overhead and my journey brought me to Elementor.
Elementor is a platform for professional developers using WordPress and has rapidly become the leader in its field.
It powers close to 8% of websites worldwide and is the preferred platform used by many web agencies. Elementor is a commercial organisation with people spanning 23 countries.
Page builders used to get a bad rap (and justifiably some still do) – from me included.
As a front-end developer that codes underlying parts of a website, page builders were for people that couldn’t code. While this once was true, not anymore!
The advantages that Elementor brings to the table allow for faster, more cost-efficient development. This leaves more time for ever-increasing importance of other factors like site performance and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Not only does Elementor allow me to build websites more efficiently, it is a far better user experience for my clients.
Whilst complex projects can be supplemented with custom code, most small changes after launch can be done from the client’s frontend CMS, eliminating the need to revert back to the development environment to makes changes.
That saves me loads of time and saves my clients a load of money.
Elementor and Gutenberg perform very similar functions. For now Elementor is a mature, stable product while Gutenberg is an infant (or perhaps a disobedient teenager). This may change one day, but until then Elementor is the right choice for my clients.
Jenny Power
Owner,
Webtree Canberra
