Before I start this blog and go deep into both Gutenberg WordPress and Elementor, I am going to explain what Gutenberg and Elementor is. This intro is mainly for newbies who just started to blog with WordPress, who are not sure which editor to use to post their blogs. Then after that I am going to explain which one you should based on my experience being a blogger for almost two years.
What is Gutenberg?
Gutenberg is the new WordPress editor which replaced the original classic editor in the latest WordPress 5.0 update. Gutenberg is much more improved than the previous class editor. There are more options in Gutenberg, such as the ability to add columns, block editor, easier to insert HTML codes and so on. Here is a video below of me using the new Gutenberg Editor for the first time.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is the most WordPress front-end page builder plugin as of now in 2019. It comes with both the free and paid version. The free version is more than good enough to post a well designed blog. Elementor is not preinstalled with WordPress, you simply just have to install it by going to plugins, then “add new”, then search for “Elementor”. You will see that there are over 3 million active installs of Elementor. It might be more by the time you read this blog. Here is an intro video of Elementor below:
WHy use elementor instead of gutenberg wordpress?
So now the main question is that why you shouldn’t use Gutenberg, the default WordPress editor and instead use Elementor. Here are the reasons below.
Gutenberg is not “What You See What You Get”
It doesn’t matter what the developers of WordPress say, at the end of the day Gutenberg is a glorified backend editor. The content you create with Gutenberg in the backend looks completely different in the front-end. The font family looks different in the front-end, the spacing between paragraph and titles are not consistent. Overall, the contents you create with Gutenberg looks like an ugly mess in the front-end. Whereas in Elementor, it is100% what you see what you get, it is like you are editing the live site from the front-end. This blog post you are reading is made with Elementor. I regret the fact of not posting all of my blogs with Elementor.
Lack of Design options
Gutenberg lacks a ton of design options, its default editor doesn’t go deep to customize each of the blocks. Also it would waste a lot of your time switching between backend and front-end trying to get the results
Gutenberg is difficult to use
Even though Gutenberg is better than the previous classic editor, still Elementor is far superior than Gutenberg. Gutenberg will make your life hell when you try to post a really long blog post between 1500-200 words. It is so difficult to navigate and figure out how everything looks in the front-end. At the end of the day, it will waste a lot of your time. If you post the same blog with Elementor, it will save a ton of your time because basically you are editing the contents from the front-end.
Lots of bugs in Gutenberg
Gutenberg is still new and is full of bugs. There was a time when it produced completely blank white pages whenever I tried to create new posts or pages. In the end, I ended up completely deactivating Gutenberg using a plugin called “Deactivate Gutenberg” and everything was back to normal.
Conclusion
At the end of the day it is your choice whether you want to go with Gutenberg or Elementor for creating your contents. I hope my blog helped you out. Please also have a look at the other blogs in my website.