Gutenberg vs Page Builders: The Fight Nobody Wins

The Page Builder Wars Are Stupid

Everyone’s fighting about the wrong thing.

“Should I use Elementor or Gutenberg?” “Is Divi better than Beaver Builder?” “What about Oxygen?”

Wrong questions. All of them.

The Real Question

“How can I build fast, maintainable sites that don’t suck?”

That’s it. That’s what matters.

The Brutal Truth About Page Builders

Elementor

• Pros: Pretty UI, clients love it
• Cons: 500KB+ of CSS/JS, DOM pollution, slow as hell
• Verdict: Good for prototypes, terrible for production

Divi

• Pros: Lifetime license, huge community
• Cons: Bloated AF, shortcode nightmare, impossible to migrate
• Verdict: Legacy tech masquerading as modern

Beaver Builder

• Pros: Clean code output, developer-friendly
• Cons: Dated UI, limited ecosystem
• Verdict: The least bad option (still bad)

Enter Gutenberg

Here’s what nobody tells you: Gutenberg doesn’t suck anymore.

Version 17+ is actually good:

• Native to WordPress (no bloat)
• Block patterns are powerful
• Full Site Editing works
• Performance is acceptable

Our Approach: Hybrid

We don’t pick sides. We pick solutions:

// Custom Gutenberg blocks for developers
registerBlockType('agency/hero', {
  title: 'Hero Section',
  category: 'design',
  supports: {
    align: ['wide', 'full']
  },
  // Clean, performant, maintainable
});

For clients who need control:

• Custom blocks for brand elements
• Locked templates for consistency
• ACF blocks for complex layouts
• Zero page builders

Performance Comparison

Real data from real sites:

Builder	Page Size	Load Time	DOM Nodes
Hand-coded	250KB	0.8s	400
Gutenberg	380KB	1.2s	600
Beaver	620KB	2.1s	1200
Elementor	980KB	3.4s	2000+
Divi	1.2MB	4.2s	2500+

The Migration Nightmare

Ever tried moving from Divi to anything else? It’s hell.

Page builders create vendor lock-in through:

• Proprietary shortcodes
• Custom database structures
• Builder-specific CSS
• JavaScript dependencies

Gutenberg content? It’s just HTML comments. Portable everywhere.

When to Use What

Use Gutenberg when:

• Building for the long term
• Performance matters
• You need portability
• Developers maintain it

Use Page Builders when:

• Quick prototypes
• Client needs full control
• Budget is tight
• You hate yourself

The Future Is Block-Based

Page builders are dying. Slowly, but surely.

WordPress is going all-in on blocks:

• Theme.json for global styles
• Block patterns for layouts
• Full Site Editing
• Interactivity API

Get on board or get left behind.

Our Block Development Stack

// Clean, fast, maintainable
add_action('init', function() {
  register_block_type(__DIR__ . '/blocks/hero');
  register_block_type(__DIR__ . '/blocks/features');
  register_block_type(__DIR__ . '/blocks/testimonials');
});

No bloat. No vendor lock-in. Just clean WordPress.

Bottom Line

Stop asking which page builder to use. Start asking how to build without one.

Your sites will be faster. Your clients will be happier. Your future self will thank you.