Kevin Muldoon The Switch Back to GeneratePress & The WordPress Block Editor

GeneratePress is an efficient WordPress theme that loads quickly on desktops and mobile devices. This blog has been using the premium version of GeneratePress since early 2020 and it's by far the fastest WordPress theme I have used.

Despite the speed of GeneratePress, for a couple of weeks in July 2021, I opted to use the Hello WordPress theme with Elementor Pro instead. This allowed me to build complex layouts using Elementor and its theme builder feature, but after a few weeks, I decided to switch back to using GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor.

In this article, I would like to talk about why I switched back to GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg).

The WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg)

WordPress launched as a fork of a blogging script called B2/Cafelog in 2003. Like all content management systems of the time, WordPress used a What You See Is What You Get visual editor.

The editor was functional but it was also restrictive. It was therefore common for WordPress users to install syntax and shortcode plugins to add more styling, design and formatting options. Drag and drop page builders became popular in the 2010s, yet the core version of WordPress continued to use its old editor until the WordPress block editor was officially introduced to WordPress in December 2018 (of course, the Gutenberg plugin had been available for a little longer).

The WordPress block editor was a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it was still incredibly buggy at launch and there was limited support for it in WordPress themes and plugins. Like many WordPress users, I activated the Classic Editor WordPress plugin so I could continue using the editor I knew and loved, but I took a leap of faith in April 2020 and started using the block editor on this blog.

I haven't looked back. The WordPress block editor is now one of my favourite features of WordPress. It's a pleasure to write articles with and I've found its blocks to be essential in bringing articles to life.

My Experience With Elementor & Elementor Pro

The WordPress block editor has been refined and improved since its launch and now has great support from WordPress developers too. In 2021, I was using the block editor alongside GeneratePress to create and style all pages on this website, however, it still didn't offer many styling options so it was difficult to style pages how I wanted.

This encouraged me to install the page builder Elementor on my website. I was delighted with all the additional design and styling options that were now available to me, so I opted to upgrade to Elementor Pro as it unlocked many additional pre-made page templates and blocks.

Elementor allowed me to create stylish pages with ease, but it also created other website issues for me to tackle.

Page loading times increased slightly on this website after activating Elementor. The developers have made major improvements in performance, but it is nowhere as fast as using the WordPress block editor alone (Check out RapidLoad if you use a WordPress page builder such as Elementor as it can greatly improve loading times).

As noted in my article “Three Reasons to Use Elementor (And Three Reasons Not To)“, my biggest concerns were that Elementor did not integrate well with the WordPress block editor and the compatibility issues that arose with other WordPress plugins I used on this website. It felt like one step forward, two steps back.

Another major concern I had about Elementor was support. Despite paying to upgrade to the pro version, none of the tickets I had opened had been answered over the course of a week, despite the fact I had raised legitimate concerns about the limitations of one of their features. I only got a response in the end after posting a long complaint on their support forum.

Out of protest and disappointment, I asked for a refund as Elementor Pro comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Despite only using Elementor for a week or two, their support refused my refund request and I was only able to get a refund after posting a complaint on Twitter.

It was time to return to GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor.

Removing Elementor (It's Not as Easy as You Think)

All you have to do to remove Elementor from your website is click to deactivate the plugin and then uninstall it.

Simple…. right?

Well, no. You see, neither the settings nor tools pages of Elementor have options to remove Elementor properly.

Even when you deactivate and delete Elementor, it leaves many leftover rows in the WordPress database. The WordPress plugin Plugins Garbage Collector (Database Cleanup) is useful in detecting this leftover data, though I also recommend reading Mike Andreasen's article “Clean WordPress Database After Removing Elementor Page Builder” as that lists everything that needs to be removed.

The Elementor directory should also be removed from the WordPress Uploads directory.

Switching Back to GeneratePress

Once Elementor had been completely removed from my website, I turned my attention to switching back to GeneratePress.

There were a number of pages I had to adjust as I hadn't just changed my home page, I had also revamped dozens of articles and resource pages using Elementor. So I had to copy all layouts created in Elementor and recreate them in the WordPress block editor so they looked the same (or as close to the same as possible).

I was able to recreate layouts using:

• GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor
• The grid WordPress plugin Content Views
• The GeneratePress-friendly block solution GenerateBlocks

I have since modified my home page slightly, but you can see from the screenshots I captured at the time, I was able to recreate my home page effectively.

Once GeneratePress was active on my website again, I started questioning why I stopped using the theme. The free version of GeneratePress is a great little design in its own right, but when you upgrade to the pro version, you gain access to premium website templates, a theme builder, an advanced hook system, styling options and more. It's incredibly lightweight and fast too, which is something I place a high priority on.

I need to acknowledge the importance of using BlogVault for the switch back to GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor.

BlogVault is a hosted WordPress backup and security service that is run by my friend Akshat Choudhary. I had previously used VaultPress to backup all of my WordPress websites, but after they failed to restore my website in 2019, I switched to BlogVault and I've been a happy customer since then.

One of the coolest features that BlogVault provides is website staging. This is something that is also offered by my host Wetopi, however, I prefer the way BlogVault handles website staging and I have found it to be quicker too.

Using BlogVault, I created a staging area and started the switch back to GeneratePress. This allowed me to reactivate GeneratePress as my WordPress theme without messing up my live website.

When I had made all necessary changes, all I had to do was enter my website's FTP connection information and then make my staging website go live.

I am sure most WordPress users can attest to how much of a pain it can be to switch WordPress themes and page builders on a live WordPress website. Although it did take a few days to complete, I did not run into any problems because I made all changes initially in a website staging area.

Final Thoughts

I hope you have enjoyed this look back at why I started using Elementor and why I ultimately returned to using GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor.

Elementor remains a powerful drag and drop website building solution, yet I love the simplicity, speed and usability of using GeneratePress with the default WordPress editor. It's a fantastic WordPress theme and one that I continue to recommend.

The introduction of block themes in WordPress 5.9 will influence WordPress design over the next few years so I may be modifying my website design again in the future. At the time of writing, GeneratePress has not added support for the new theme styling options available in WordPress, though I am confident support will be added in the future.

Be sure to check out my article “Twenty Twenty-Two WordPress Theme Review – Full Site Editing Has Arrived!” on WinningWP for a better understanding of the new features that WordPress 5.9 has introduced.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin

The post The Switch Back to GeneratePress & The WordPress Block Editor was written by Kevin Muldoon and appeared first on Kevin Muldoon.

Kevin Muldoon Three Reasons to Use Elementor (And Three Reasons Not To)

For many years, this website used the popular WordPress theme Genesis by StudioPress. It remains one of my favourite WordPress frameworks, but in early 2020 I wanted to try something different and opted for the lightweight WordPress design GeneratePress.

I can't speak highly enough about GeneratePress. It's one of the easiest WordPress themes to optimise and features many useful administration options, a website builder and an advanced hook system. It also comes packaged with many professional pre-made designs, all of which were created using the WordPress block editor, Elementor or Beaver Builder.

Bored with the standard blog-style layout I was using, I purchased Elementor Pro at the end of June 2021 to help me improve the look of my home page and other key pages of this website. It was an easy decision to make as the GeneratePress WordPress theme has fantastic support for the Elementor page builder.

In just a few days, I was able to transform the look of my home page and significantly improve the look of my webmaster resources area. Elementor worked in harmony with GeneratePress, though I soon switched to Elementor's canvas theme Hello as I was no longer using any mahorGeneratePress features (Check out my full review of Hello on WPMarmalade!).

All in all, I was delighted with the results I got from Elementor, but around three weeks later, I completely removed Elementor from my website and switched back to GeneratePress.

In this article, I will explain why I switched back to using GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor and share three reasons why I love Elementor and three reasons I don't.

Reason to Use Elementor #1: User Experience

WordPress page builders are not as clumsy and awkward as they used to be and Elementor provides website owners with one of the best design experiences.

Elementor's main control panel is displayed at the side of the page. The panel shows all content elements and a host of useful configuration settings. It works well as you can view content in the main canvas area at all times and it can be hidden if you want zero distractions.

When you choose to modify your content using a page builder such as Divi, a pop-up settings box will appear. In contrast, when you modify content in Elementor, its settings will load in the main panel so that no settings are displayed over your content.

I appreciate that user experience can be difficult to quantify, though I like Elementor's approach as it's quick to use and has fewer distractions than alternative solutions.

Reason to Use Elementor #2: Creative Design Features

Elementor simplifies the process of creating beautiful content and professional website designs. As someone with no design imagination, this has always been one of my favourite features of the plugin.

The free version of Elementor has over 40 content elements and Elementor Pro adds over 50 more. Each version of Elementor also comes with a great selection of pre-made content blocks and page templates and any modifications to designs can be saved and reused later through Elementor's fantastic template system. Elementor Pro users can also use the Elementor theme builder to create website headers, navigation menus, footers and more.

If that isn't enough for you, you'll find dozens of plugins in the official WordPress plugin directory that expand Elementor further. They can be used to add additional design features, content elements and pre-made designs.

Check out my article “The Top Eight Best Elementor Addons/Extensions” on WPMarmalade to read more about the plugin extensions that are available for Elementor.

Reason to Use Elementor #3: Pricing Model

Many WordPress page builders are released under a freemium model, though the developers of Elementor have been particularly generous with what is included in the core version of their plugin. It's a fantastic page building solution in its own right and does not restrict you in the way other solutions do.

The free version of Elementor could benefit from more templates, though you can easily add additional content elements and pre-made designs using third-party plugins.

The core version of Elementor will be enough for many website owners, but at only $49 per year, there's more than enough on the table to encourage you to upgrade to Elementor Pro. Upgrading unlocks Elementor's useful theme builder, 50 additional content elements, hundreds of additional pre-made page templates and more.

Overall, pricing is a great selling point of Elementor. The free version is solid and $49 per year is good value for Elementor Pro. Multi-license pro plans are also available at a fair price.

An Important Factor to Consider: Performance

Page builders are notorious for slowing down websites and for a long time, performance was a major downside to using Elementor. Performance is still a concern, though the developers of Elementor are moving things in the right direction by introducing experimental options to optimise Dom output, improve asset loading and improve CSS loading.

Using the caching plugin WP Fastest Cache and optimisation plugins such as Autoptimize and Async JavaScript, I was able to reduce page-loading times considerably and achieve a respectable website performance score on both Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. My website wasn't as fast as it was previously using GeneratePress and the WordPress block editor, but it wasn't a million miles away. Be aware, however, that some performance plugins will cause major compatibility issues with Elementor (more on this later).

To improve the speed of an Elementor website, I recommend reading their official guide “How To Speed up WordPress: In-Depth Guide“. I also encourage you to read Tom Dupuis' article “How To Speed Up A Slow Elementor Website“. It has everything you need to speed up an Elementor-powered website.

Why You Shouldn't Use Elementor #1: Poor Integration With the WordPress Editor

Many page builders use a shortcode system to integrate designs into WordPress. The downside to this setup is that when you deactivate the page builder, your blog posts and pages still include thousands of unused shortcodes. Elementor avoids this issue by separating its user interface from the WordPress block editor. This removes the risk of leftover shortcodes but raises other issues which are potentially more problematic.

If you choose to load the Elementor builder for an existing post or page, the content will be added to your layout using Elementor's Text Editor content element. The problem is that if you decide to go back to the WordPress editor, the layout you created in Elementor will be lost. This means that if you deactivate Elementor, all of the content and layouts you created using its page builder will be lost. On this blog, I discovered that there is no easy way to migrate content back to the WordPress editor, which meant that I had to manually copy articles back over and then re-create tables and other designs.

The WordPress plugin Elementor Blocks for Gutenberg can be used to insert saved blocks and templates into the WordPress block editor, though the WordPress editor and Elementor Builder do not work in harmony.

Why You Shouldn't Use Elementor #2: Compatibility

From the day Elementor was released, the plugin has had compatibility issues with WordPress themes and plugins. Popular WordPress plugins are supported well, but you may find that other activated plugins on your website will break Elementor and prevent the user interface from loading correctly.

On this website, the YouTube WordPress plugin I use to display my latest YouTube videos caused Elementor to break so I was forced to deactivate it. WordPress performance plugins will frequently stop the Elementor Builder from working correctly too. I guess it's no surprise that performance solutions that defer or async Javascript can cause problems with the user interface, though I found this frustrating as those additional performance plugins were only installed as Elementor was slowing my website down.

My biggest problem with compatibility issues is that the not loading message that Elementor displays does not advise you which plugin is causing the conflict. So you need to do your own detective work, deactivating and reactivating each plugin on your website until you find out which one is causing issues.

Why You Shouldn't Use Elementor #3: Support

Quality support can be the difference between a good service and a bad service. Unfortunately, I've found Elementor's support to be…well, terrible.

Here's what happened.

After purchasing Elementor Pro, I opened a support ticket about a query I had. No one ever replied.

A few days later, I raised concerns about Elementor's theme builder. The theme builder was the main reason I upgraded to Elementor Pro. It's a great feature, but it's also something that I found frustrating as display conditions are extremely limited. So limited that I was unable to use the theme builder on this website.

I raised a support ticket about the issue, but no one responded. I responded to the ticket myself over the following seven days, requesting help on the subject, but I still did not receive a response. Eventually, I posted a long detailed explanation of the issue on Elementor's Support Forum in a thread entitled “How Can I Address the Limitations of the Theme Builder's Display Conditions?“.

Their support team responded to my forum thread after I complained on Twitter, advising me to make a feature request as Elementor could not do what I was asking.

Many thanks to both Anne-Mieke and Don for responding. I’ve waited around a week for support to get back to me and asked them multiple times to respond. To date, they haven’t replied. Which, I have to admit, is incredibly discouraging as an Elementor Pro user. My opinion of Elementor has always been high, but the whole support system clearly needs reviewed.

Venting my frustration in the Elementor Support Forum.

Elementor's theme builder just wasn't able to do what I wanted on this website. I tried many workarounds to get it working, but I eventually threw in the towel and accepted that I'd have to stop using Elementor.

As I noted previously, I believe Elementor Pro offers good value at $49, however, after receiving no response from the support team for over a week, I requested a refund. In theory, this should not have been a problem as Elementor offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all purchases. Unfortunately, I was only able to receive a refund after several emails and publicly complaining on Twitter that Elementor wasn't processing my refund.

Final Thoughts

Elementor is rightfully ranked as one of the best WordPress page builders on the market alongside alternative solutions such as Divi, Beaver Builder and Oxygen Builder.

The page builder is easy to use, comes packaged with many pre-made designs and can be expanded easily through third-party plugin extensions. I've always found it easy to create beautiful designs with Elementor and I love the fact the free version is not too limited.

Like any page builder, Elementor does have some flaws. I've experienced more plugin compatibility issues with Elementor than other page building solutions and there is no easy way to migrate layouts back to the WordPress editor. It's also disappointing that a product as good as Elementor does not invest more into providing customers with better support.

Despite these issues, Elementor is still a product I can recommend. Just be sure to test it thoroughly before you use it on a live website.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin

The post Three Reasons to Use Elementor (And Three Reasons Not To) was written by Kevin Muldoon and appeared first on Kevin Muldoon.