Best WordPress Gutenberg Blocks Plugins Compared 2023
Table of Contents
In this post, we’re taking a closer look at some popular WordPress Gutenberg blocks plugins. So if you think it’s high time (it is!) to switch to a more native WordPress page builder that extends the functionality of the Gutenberg frontend editor, we are here to help you find the right match for your needs. It all boils down to your particular type of website after all.
Please note: we’re going to list only those Gutenberg blocks plugins for WordPress that are bundles of extra blocks for different content creation purposes, similar to WordPress page builders like Elementor, but more WordPress-native.
So we’re not going to look into a one plugin=one block sort of functionality or adapted ones from popular WordPress companies like WooCommerce blocks. We’ll test the ultimate addons and plugins that will help you create a complete Gutenberg website.
By the way, if Elementor is one of the page builders that you’re actively using for website editing, read more on the 10 free Addons for Elementor recommended by us at MotoPress.
Top 10+ Gutenberg Blocks Collections
In the next round-up, we’ve given a brief test-run to each Gutenberg plugin to get some hands-on experience and share it with you and create the best Gutenberg tutorials.
We’ll also highlight the pros and cons of these Gutenberg blocks plugins as well as organize some paramount features in the checklist so you can compare the most essential things.
Let’s get going.
Getwid Gutenberg Blocks
The blocks that come with the Getwid Gutenberg WordPress plugin are a perfect match for different kinds of websites – from portfolios and business websites to aspiring blogs. Comparing the number of available free blocks with other block libraries, you’ll notice that Getwid is among those that offer the biggest choice of content elements.
Probably the best thing about this WordPress block plugin is that it’s able to play smoothly with the styles of any WordPress theme helping you keep a better visual consistency and do less work.
Pros:
- One of the major advantages of this WordPress Gutenberg plugin is the library of pre-made templates you can insert in one click:
- Very lightweight blocks to keep your performance metrics high.
- A powerful Section block that allows you to create complex layouts with any elements thanks to WordPress block filter that widens the settings.
- Integrated Instagram block (quite a rare thing; no need for extra plugins).
- A few third-party integration blocks, such as for Google Map blocks and Mailchimp.
- Draggable block borders for custom alignments and sizing (margins and paddings).
- Support for full-width and wide layouts.
- Adjustable spacing for different devices.
- Awesome tab block.
- Team block.
- Animated content timeline block.
A great Stack Gallery block with different styles for creative image presentation:
- Easy inline editing with tons of settings within each block in the WordPress block library.
- Quite a unique Image Hotspost block to place animated markers over images to make them more informative.
- Pre-set color gradients for background.
- A multipurpose Banner block for promotion purposes.
- Four post dedicated blocks to showcase your posts or custom post types in a slider, grid, list, archive, or a custom layout.
- The content Divider block to add fancy separators:
- You can turn off WordPress custom blocks you don’t need in this plugin.
- Integration with Advanced Custom Fields since version 1.6.12.
- Table of Contents and Anchor blocks suitable for blogging sites.
- The ability to embed any content blocks inside the tabs and accordion blocks.
- YouTube video support for video backgrounds.
- Interplays well with default WordPress themes: Twenty Twenty and Twenty Twenty-One.
- Getwid Style Kit for developers.
Cons:
- Limited styling options for some blocks.
Getwid Checklist The number of free blocks: 40 Powerful blocks: Section, Advanced Heading, Banner, Price Box, Slider-focused blocks, Custom Post Type Blocks demo: Getwid Demo Custom starter theme for this WordPress Gutenberg plugin/ recommended theme: Getwid Base theme Customization: advanced Pro version: no Ongoing development: actively developed; focus on both releasing new blocks and improving existing blocks. |
WordPress Themes Built with Gutenebrg
CoBlocks
CoBlocks is quite a popular library of ultimate addons for Gutenberg for any sort of website since its collection is very diverse. Initially built by ThemeBeans, the plugin (together with ThemeBeans) was later acquired by GoDaddy, which means you can have a piece of mind that the product won’t die away any time soon.
It also probably offers more unique blocks than any other competitor: for example, Click to tweet block, Gif block, Contact form block with the built-in reCaptcha, etc. All of them are packed with the CoBlocks Gutenberg blocks plugins for free. The plugin promotes the focus on rare and unique blocks at the same time offering a range of commodity blocks.
The CoBlocks WordPress gutenberg plugin is also a cool solution to assist you in styling up your blocks and sections and managing layouts in a flexible way.
Pros:
- Good layout controls with a pre-set column width.
- Gutenberg wp plugin with the integrated Contact form.
- Integrated Google Map block
- A unique Media Card block that allows you to showcase a combo of media and text content in a fancy format. It also offers great alignment controls and plays well with other core and custom Gutenberg blocks. It can be performed owning to WordPress block filter that extends the settings within the block.
- A fully customizable Masonry gallery.
- A good level of typography control for many blocks.
- Useful guides.
- Very lightweight (the plugin folder size is less than 1 MB).
- A block manager that allows you to turn off the blocks you don’t need.
Cons:
- No proper demo.
- No pre-made layouts.
CoBlocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 31 Powerful blocks: Media Card, Stacked, Masonry Gallery, Row. Blocks demo: no Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: Go theme Customization: advanced Pro version: no Ongoing development: actively developed; focus on both releasing new blocks and improving existing blocks. |
Kadence Blocks
Kadence Blocks was one of the first add-on libraries for Gutenberg, so naturally it’s grown to one of the most popular block plugins so far; for a reason.
Unlike many other Gutenberg blocks plugins, Kadence Blocks allows for starting with a pre-made layout structure of your choice (pretty much Elementor’s approach, if you are familiar with it). This flexible row/layout approach will help you start quicker.
Another unique thing is that the free plugin comes packaged with the library of pre-made layouts, so if you need to build a professional page quickly with Gutenberg, this is the opportunity. So there are entire site sections, which is obviously a huge time-saver.
It takes care of all the hard work of creating and managing layouts. All this makes this plugin one of the best choices for building and controlling flexible and diverse layouts created either from scratch or with a template.
They have a very handy and explicit blocks demo, where you can not only preview demo examples but also immediately get the idea of the settings of each block.
Pros:
- No-registration backend demo to perform quick tests in the wild.
- Colored Kadence Blocks icons, which allow you to visually separate them from other core and custom blocks.
- One of the most feature-rich Advanced heading blocks, which allows you to optionally load Google Fonts on the front end to improve performance.
- Custom layout choice for the Testimonials block with the ability to go really deep into customization.
Compare: with some other Gutenberg block plugins you’ll need to at first add columns and only after that insert testimonials.
- Handy inline text editing.
- Draggable column borders for two-column layouts.
- An ability to change the layout of the already created content sections in clicks.
- They provide a settings panel to apply default configuration for each block as well as enable or disable any block.
- Dashboard tutorials.
- Despite a huge number of features, the plugin is surprisingly lightweight.
Keeping in mind all these free blocks and their types, it’s clear that the free version of the Kadence blocks plugin is just perfect as a layout and column manager, with tons of styling and adjustments settings you won’t find in any other plugin.
Cons:
- Overwhelming design settings for some blocks, which, if misused, may lead to design inconsistency.
- You may experience some issues with the pre-made library layouts in Twenty Nineteen (especially complex ones with multiple columns) since their backend version doesn’t always match the frontend.
- A small number of free blocks.
Kadence Blocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 12 Powerful blocks: Row Layout, Advanced Button, Advanced Heading, Testimonials Blocks demo: Kadence demo Custom starter theme for this WP Gutenberg plugin / recommended theme: Kadence Customization: advanced Pro version: Pro version covers more blocks and premium support Ongoing development: regularly updated; focus on enhancing current blocks. |
ZeGuten Gutenberg Blocks
ZeGuten is primarily advertised as simple Gutenberg blocks, aiming to give you a bunch of lightweight professional blocks for constructing the most common website content sections and giving a fancier look to your blog or portfolio.
Some prominent features of the ZeGuten Gutenberg addon include well-organized settings panels for blocks, decent styling options for the vast majority of blocks, a really cool marketing-focused Blurb block, a unique Image Comparison block, advanced layout control for posts, to name just a few advantages.
I believe this awesome Gutenberg addon toolchain is ready to foremost bring unique content designs to portfolios, landing pages, and blogs. For example, employing the dedicated Blurb, Animated Box and Banner blocks by ZeGuten, you’ll manage to create dynamic, good-looking promo content sections that are impossible to reach in the current version of Gutenberg (and even with some other Gutenberg addons).
ZeGuten is a premium Gutenberg plugin offered at a humble cost that covers the blocks and tech support.
Pros:
- Easy columns management with the Section block (including spacing adjustment between columns).
- Multipurpose Section backgrounds, including background videos, gradient, and image.
- A good bunch of settings in the Posts block, including advanced layouts (grid, chess, masonry, carousel, listing), sorting, comments count, typography, column gap, to name a few.
- Google Maps integration with support for location markers and map styles, custom text blocks, and the ability to hide Google branding.
- Advanced Countdown timer block with the tunable typography, spacing, and sizing.
- Support for the text shadow in the Heading block.
- A multipurpose Blurb block to promote your offerings (products, services, events, posts, etc.) in an inspiring manner.
- The Image Comparison block to aid designers, photographers, and marketers in creating comparison-based content (quite a unique thing among the Gutenberg blocks plugins).
- The Animated Box block with awesome animated layouts to promote your products or services.
Cons:
- No out-of-the-box design templates styled for ZeGuten.
- No free version.
ZeGuten Checklist The number of blocks: 14 (8 more blocks coming soon) Powerful blocks: Section, Blurbs, Posts, Animated box Blocks demo: ZeGuten Blocks demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: Gutenix theme Customization: advanced Pro version: ZeGuten is a premium plugin ($37) Ongoing development: actively developed; focus on releasing new blocks. |
Gutenberg Blocks – Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg
So far this is one of the most popular Gutenberg addon plugins by the creators of the Astra theme. The UAG plugin comes with a really generous library of traditional and unique blocks, each with an extensive customization panel. It offers a great range with media blocks.
To familiarize yourself with the plugin, you’ll be able to preview live demo examples or download a free version to play up with the blocks.
The free plugin ships with a huge library of ready-to-use, professionally-designed website pages for any purpose, but they’re tied to the Astra theme, which is one of the most popular WordPress theme known for great compatibility with different WordPress page builders.
Pros:
- The list of WordPress Gutenberg custom blocks is really huge.
- Great gutenberg posts block
- In an attempt to improve the UX and performance, you can deactivate blocks you are not going to use.
- Extensive knowledge base.
- Pre-made design patters (page sections)
- Useful Advanced Column block for managing layouts.
- Lots of blocks to enhance your posts (Post timeline, Post grid, etc.), which is awesome for bloggers.
- Unique blocks for a deep Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms styling.
- All blocks come with advanced typography options (Font family, Font weight, etc.)
- Distinctive block icons.
- The plugin allows you to opt for the default plugin styling for some blocks or inherit styling from the active WordPress theme in one click.
- Many SEO-focused blocks (How-to Schema, FAQ-Schema, Inline Notice, Review Schema, Taxonomy List).
- Lottie Animations for Gutenberg block.
- Deep spacing customization for the Section block.
Read also: In-depth comparison of Getwid vs Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg
Cons:
- Pre-made full Gutenberg page templates designs are tied to the Astra theme.
Ultimate Addons for Gutenerg Checklist The number of free blocks: 31 Powerful blocks: Info box, Milti buttons, Contact Form 7 Styler, Testimonials, Marketing Button Blocks demo: Ultimate Addons Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: Astra unlocks access to pre-made designs via free Astra starter sites plugin Customization: advanced Pro version: no, but you may consider Pro Astra designs Ongoing development: regularly updated; focus on releasing new blocks and enhancing current blocks. |
Stackable
The Stackable Gutenberg WordPress plugin is so far among the Gutenberg block addon leaders with more than 20 thousand active installations; it also offers one of the biggest numbers of the free Gutenberg blocks.
The main concept of the plugin upon release was to provide you with a maximum straightforward toolkit, not overloaded with excessive features. Over time, however, the developers extended the customization abilities of the plugin in response to user feedback.
So far you can enjoy deeper customization capabilities, including typography and style choice, for each block. Starting from version 2.3.0, they included a design library, offering 73 free designs and pre-set sections, which solves design limitations we experienced in the first releases.
Pros:
- Design library.
- Several predefined styles for every block, including a good choice of buttons designs.
- You can use video backgrounds in a free version.
- No-registration free backend demo to test all premium features.
- Depending on your needs, you may consider the following features either as advantage or disadvantage: plain and simple designs, typography settings for each block.
- You can enable/disable blocks selectively.
- A good intro walkthrough upon WordPress blocks installation.
- Tabs and other functional blocks.
- Hover Animations and Image Box effects.
- Integrates with ACF, WPML, Blocksy, Toolset, Font Awesome, and Google Fonts.
- Affordable premium version.
Cons:
- Some features are available only in a premium version (e.g. advanced column spacing, image hover effects).
- The free blocks library plugin package is close to 7 MB in size.
Stackable Checklist The number of free blocks: 27 Powerful blocks / Unique blocks: Header block, Video popup, Separator, Container Blocks demo: Stackable Blocks Demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: free Stackable theme Customization: advanced Pro version: $49 for one website; the same number of blocks as in the Pro version but also covers premium layouts, advanced styling, guided custom CSS for individual blocks, one year of support and updates. Ongoing development: actively updated; focus on enhancing current capabilities. |
Atomic Blocks / Genesis Blocks
The Atomic Blocks WordPress content block plugin has been around for some time now, so it’s quite popular.
Since version 2.9.0, Atomic Blocks moved to Genesis Blocks, so the wp.org version and its compation theme are no longer updated, so you should look for the plugin here – it should work well with the StudioPress framework in the first place.
Since Atomic Blocks was acquired by WP Engine, it’s clear that the now Genesis blocks plugin will unlikely face the destiny of those ones that were created hastily just to jump on the bandwagon.
The following review was initially written about Atomic Blocks, but again, if you need an active new version of the plugin, refer to the Genesis Blocks.
The collection of WP blocks is very similar to the rest of the plugins in this collection but also has such rare blocks as Email Newsletter and Pricing Column.
Pros:
- A handy columnized layouts block – it lets you easily start with the needed number of columns and a preferable layout for this column.
- Support for wide and full-width layouts.
- Inline block editing.
- Several button styles.
- Explicit articles and tutorials.
- Compared to other similar blocks, it has many more styles for social sharing buttons (but it didn’t inherit styles from my test Twenty Nineteen theme and applied its own ones).
- Unique opt-in Mailchimp Newsletter features.
- Gutenberg post blocks
- The Revolution Pro Theme built with Atomic & Gutenberg in cooperation with the StudioPress team.
Cons:
- Relatively small library of blocks so you may lack some essential blocks.
- Limited typography settings.
Atomic Blocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 15 Powerful blocks / Unique blocks: Section and Layout, AB Sharing, AB Advanced Columns, Email Newsletter, AB Post and Page Grid, AB Container Blocks demo: Atomic Blocks Demo Custom starter theme made for this plugin: free Atomic Blocks heme Customization: middle Pro version: no, refer to the Genesis Blocks Pro Ongoing development: actively updated; focus on enhancing current blocks. |
Ultimate Blocks
This is a relatively fresh WordPress blocks library for Gutenebrg, but it is being actively developed so it looks quite attractive. The list of free blocks is rather unique since you can add such blocks as a table of content, review, content filter, star rating and others that are not standard in the other Gutenberg addons.
Since this WordPress content block plugin is mainly focused on the post enhancements, it has it all to build good-looking, multipurpose blog posts and website pages.
Pros:
- You can enable / disable the blocks.
- Useful hints for some blocks that are going to help you control design better.
- Easy inline editing.
- Quite a holistic call-to-action block.
- A built-in Click-to-tweet block.
- The Button block comes with a good bunch of options.
- The Countdown block, which is quite a rare thing, lets you add simple timers, but the styles are very limited.
- A free backend demo with some slick examples you can customize right away.
- Colored block icons to be distinguished from other Gutenberg blocks.
Cons:
- Limited layout options.
- No rich media support.
- No powerful top-level blocks, such as containers or sections.
- No font choice for text-related content.
Ultimate Blocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 20 Powerful blocks: Call to action, Button, Tabbed Content, Content Filter, Table of contents, Star rating (manually managed). Blocks demo: Ultimate Blocks Demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: no Customization: middle Pro version: no Ongoing development: actively updated, focus on improvements. |
Gutenberg Blocks and Page Builder – Qubely
The Qubely block plugin is a relatively fresh WordPress blocks addon that is slowly but surely growing its fan base. I believe the best features about this plugin are the focus on outstanding modern design solutions, advanced layout builder opportunities, and a user-oriented, intuitive UI.
The collection of Qubely blocks is rather a commodity yet with a few really eye-catching things, such as Table Builder, Image Comparison, Video Popup, Timeline and WooCommerce integration (the last one is available in PRO). Owning to its incredible focus on design and customization flexibility, I’m sure the Qubely Gutenberg blocks library is making its way to the league table of the best.
Pros:
- Many free pre-designed page sections.
- You can import designs with or without the styling.
- Loads of styling options for blocks, including an advanced typography panel, box shadows, animations, alignment adjustments and more.
- Design choice for a block.
- Visualized shape dividers.
- Global plugin settings and preset that allow you to keep design consistency with all the Qubely blocks you use.
Cons:
- Many cool designs and blocks are PRO.
Qubely Blocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 28 Powerful blocks: Table Builder, Image Comparison, Video Popup, Timeline Blocks demo: Qubely Blocks Demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: no, but there are many starter packs in a PRO version Customization: advanced Pro version: yes, $39 for one website Ongoing development: actively updated, focus on improvements and new blocks |
WordPress Themes Built with Gutenebrg
Otter Blocks
The Otter Blocks library enables you to go really deep into the layout and style customization for almost every block, so if you need an advanced WordPress design toolkit, Otter was made for you. Although the number of available blocks is smaller compared to others, the customization capabilities and overall design approach are one of the most prominent things.
Otter meets you with a step-by-step guide that helps you get started faster and easier with the Block Editor and Otter Blocks by configuring major settings.
Pros:
- Prebuilt layouts for a professional website structure.
- A library of several pre-designed pages for different purposes.
- A structured configuration panel for the layout, styles and advanced styles.
- A fully customizible Font Awesome icon block.
- A good set of animation options for all blocks.
- Great typography settings.
- Integrated Google Maps.
Cons:
- Limited number of blocks.
- No dedicated starter theme.
Otter Blocks Checklist The number of free blocks: 23 Powerful blocks: Section, Service, About Author, Product Review Blocks demo: Otter Blocks Demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: Neve Customization: advanced Pro version: no Ongoing development: actively updated, focus on improvements and new blocks |
PostX WordPress content blocks
The PostX WordPress content blocks plugin focuses on the needs of blogs, magazines and other similar websites that work with posts and dynamic content a lot. That’s why it mostly provides only post-related blocks, with a great deal of custom selection options, but which makes it limited to niche-specific industries at the same time.
This blocks plugin for posts ships with tons of ready-made design blocks and complete starter packs to significantly simplify big amounts of work and development. So we might consider it a must-have for content-focused websites and a powerful utility for multipurpose business websites.
It’s probably the best Guteberg block library if you are looking for powerful content sliders, post carousels, and all types of content-based blocks (recent, popular, and other posts).
Pros:
- A detailed starting guide right in your WordPress dashboard, including video tutorials.
- An advanced Query builder, which in simple language means you get powerful and flexible post filtering options. Plus, they offer AJAX-powered post filtering, which will add even more motion to your posts (but note that these options are limited within a free version).
- Starter pack library with pre-made designs to help you quicker embrace the plugin’s possibilities and save time on design routines.
- Powerful and customizable post pagination.
- The ability to pinpoint posts taxonomically in a beautiful way.
- A good bunch of blank design layouts if you want to get creative yourself.
- Global settings for styling: colors, breakpoints, etc., which means you don’t need to do a lot of manual tweaking for common blocks.
- Handy block previews in the editor.
- Simple integration of design templates with Elementor.
- Easily turn off the blocks you don’t need.
- The ability to easily save and reuse templates.
Cons:
- It will serve as a rather additional tool for the website building needs.
- Most powerful Query filtering options are available in PRO.
- Some essential settings, such as pagination, are available in some post blocks while not in others.
PostX Checklist The number of free blocks: 19 Powerful blocks: All Post blocks (Post Lists, Post Grids, Post Modules), News Ticker, Table of Contents Blocks demo: PostX Demo Custom starter theme for this plugin / recommended theme: no Customization: advanced Pro version: yes, with the accent on SEO plugins Ongoing development: actively developed |
Final word on the Best Free Gutenberg Blocks Plugins for WordPress
So let’s briefly summarize our observations by highlighting the key differences of the WordPress block addons and help you choose the best Gutenberg plugin.
Getwid, Qubely, Kadence Blocks, Atomic Blocks and the Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg Gutenberg blocks plugins are ideal for a deep layout control and agile customization; they come with many essential options of proprietary page builders like Elementor. Getwid also offers one of the biggest collections of the lightweight blocks and a perfect interplay with any WordPress theme.
Stackable is bundled with a big number of blocks and, furthermore, offers one of the most affordable and feature-rich premium versions.
CoBlocks offers the biggest number of unique blocks and a very though-out customization panel.
Ultimate Blocks is a great solutions for bloggers who want to make their posts more visually appealing.
Otter Blocks is a neat and feature-rich solution for all types of websites. It’s supplied with both perfect layout controls, a collection of pre-made layouts and an extensive customization panel.
The PostX plugin is obviously perfect for post-related needs, on both content-rich and all types of business websites.
Now you can WordPress even without the Classic Editor. And here comes the best part – the new block editor allows for a smooth interplay between all these and any other Gutenberg blocks plugins, so you can combine custom blocks with the core blocks to get the most out of each of them. If you can share your experience of working with any of these plugins, we’ll be happy!
Disclosure: this article may contain affiliate links for third party products. If you click a link and later make a purchase, we may earn an affiliate commission that doesn’t result in additional charges to you.
Hi Ann,
I really like to want use Getwid for my second project (we already using it on our company site, awesome stuff) but this time it will be an affiliate blog, not a SaaS company site. I need to choose between Elementor and Getwid because the only thing I really miss from Getwid blocks is the ones that Elementor (not officially) already has: https://foxmaya.com/amazon-affiliate-blocks-demo/ I even want to pay for it if you guys do these blocks and I don’t need to go with Elementor. Is there any chance to add these types of blocks? Then Getwid would be the N.1 option to choose for affiliate blogs too! Thanks
Hello Gabor!
Thanks for using Getwid! We haven’t thought about adding this feature since it’s a very specific type of block, but we’ve added your idea to our feature requests lists so that our developers can assess the task. Also, as we know, there are many amazon affiliate plugins you can use independently from Elementor or the block editor.
Hi,
Can you check this new block plugin?
https://wordpress.org/plugins/powerful-blocks
Gutenberg Blocks – Powerful Blocks for Gutenberg
I hope you will love it! It has unique features! If you love please add it to your post. Show a little support!
Thanks ❤️
Hi Mahbub! So far I can’t see rather unique blocks in this plugin, except for the animated headline. We’ll check out the plugin one more time once there are more interesting blocks and design improvements. Thanks for letting us know about your solution, by the way.
What about Generateblocks? Very leightweight, but very powerful solution.
Looks like a good solution for the GeneratePress theme in the first place.
Did you get a chance to look the new plugin Qubely? I would love to hear your thoughts on that. They have about 165 pre-made templates and a wide range of blocks and sections. I wonder if it would slow down the site like stackable being 7mb in size.
Hi there! I’ve heard of Qubely, looks like a good alternative to the Gutenberg addons in this list. We’ll think about reviewing it for the next post update.
We have created a new Gutenberg blocks collection plugin Guteblock. Can you please include that plugin also in your next update?
Hi Ajay! We’ll check it out, thanks.
So with all of these Block library plugins, is it bad to have multiple on your site? As in does it start to weigh it down/make your site slower?
Also it seems many of these plugins have similar/repeat blocks, is there a way to disable blocks that are duplicate functionality?
Lastly, it seems that many of these plugins allow you to change font families and stuff for each individual block, which I would think would cause design inconsistencies. Shouldn’t font families/sizes, etc be controlled by the theme?
Hi Ronald! Yes, the plugins have repeat blocks so you can choose just a few ones that suit your needs. What makes your site slower in the first place is poor hosting and low-quality plugins/themes rather than the number of plugins. You can also disable unneeded blocks via the Block Manager in Gutenberg.
You are right, a theme must dictate styles to blocks to keep design consistency. But in the end, it all boils down to the user needs: people start complaining when they don’t have enough functionalities like access to fonts. So in the user-oriented scenario, developers give users the freedom of choice. The freedom and responsibility go hand in hand so users become responsible for what they do. Developers have to either adapt to the user needs (i.e. add a font/size selector) in order to stay competitive or rebel (to leave styles only up to the theme) and risk to lose their piece of the pie. Moreover, Getwid does both things – it inherits the theme fonts/sizes by default but at the same time some blocks give users an option to alter defaults if required.
Great review. I’m currently only using Elementor and OceanWP, but would like to try Brizy and some of the mentioned block plugins mentioned in this article. I do have a comment / question for anyone who can share their thoughts on…
My concern with using non popular plugins is the potential for them to become obsolete in a couple of years. What happens if that were to happen? Would this mean websites created using an obsolete plugin would no longer be updated and editable? When I say “obsolete” I mean, the company offering the plugin ends up shutting up shop because they’re not obtaining a strong enough user base to justify continuing.
I’ve used themes in the past that ended up becoming no longer supported by the authors. This is a common problem on sites like ThemeForest, where theme authors remove themes from their shop or stop updating them while they put all of their focus into their latest and top selling themes. This results in non advanced developers having to change up their entire website because they’re not able to maintain security and updates on their own.
This is a huge concern for me and makes me reluctant to try any themes or plugins that are not very popular. I’d love others thoughts on this. Thank you.
Great point! Sticking to popular solutions gives you more peace of mind, but nobody is immune to the cases you described. Even big players sometimes shut down their plugins and themes.
Kadence and Kioken are my preferred block sets.
Hi Aaron! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience! Would you share a few main reasons why you prefer these particular Gutenberg addons?
I would add Kioken Blocks to the list too. It’s sort of a combination of all various Gutenberg extension plugins and builder blocks in one.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/kioken-blocks
Worth mentioning!
Hi Onur, thanks for the suggestion! The plugin is very promising; I particularly liked the capabilities of the Wrapper block (although adding Gutenberg columns into it yet seems a bit buggy) and the advanced setting for buttons.
Nice review! Within a week of playing around with Gutenberg last fall, I narrowed down my favorites to Kadence, Atomic, and UAG. Looks like we’re in agreement here.
That said, I’m definitely going to try the others.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience! You should definitely try to play with the Section block by Getwid and give a try to Otter templates.