In October Alex Miller gave an introduction to page builders. These are plugins that can drastically change how you manage content in your WordPress site. From drag-and-drop layout options, easy galleries and more.

I took down a few notes, which try to cover some of the larger points Alex made through the evening. Feel free to drop a note below if you have any questions or feedback.

1. Why use page builders?
   1. One reason is that it keep folks from messing up things they shouldn’t be messing with!
   2. It also makes it easy to update content without out having to be a design/layout genius.
2. Only going to cover WordPress.org page builders – ones that are freely available
3. Live Composer – https://wordpress.org/plugins/live-composer-page-builder/
   1. Cons
      1. bunch of clutter in the sidebar you can’t remove
      2. navigating tools in live view are a little cumbersome
      3. pre-populates text fields
      4. lots of toolbars, confusing
   2. Pros
      1. lots of tools
      2. can bring up standard WP editor in visual mode
4. Site origin – https://wordpress.org/plugins/siteorigin-panels
   1. Cons
      1. limited layout options for ‘rows’ (like only bottom margin for each row)
   2. Pros
      1. no clutter in sidebar
      2. easy-to-use visual editor
      3. import/export layouts
   3. Beaver builder – https://wordpress.org/plugins/beaver-builder-lite-version/
      1. Cons
         1. no prebuilt templates for free version
         2. limited media ‘modules’ (called widgets in other page builders)
         3. no gradient support in column/row settings for backgrounds
         4. some default padding/margin are a little weird
      2. Pros
         1. limited modules are really easy to use
         2. responsive design break points can be set per module
5. General notes on page builders
   1. Once you commit to a visual editor, switching (or going without) will be work – there’s not a lot of cross-migration between these competing tools.
   2. Uninstall might not keep your content!
   3. Beaver builder and site origin does add html and thankfully no shortcodes! Live editor is all inside their plugin – hard to salvage underlying content
   4. Think about what you need. Do you need a page builder (landing page) or just custom post types and ACF?
6. Beaver builder is #1 pick
   1. good usability, flexibility, and support