Since yesterday (6 December), the new WordPress version 5.0 has been available. The most important thing about this update is the new editor Gutenberg.
Gutenberg had been available for download as a plugin for a while, but as of now it is the default editor in WordPress.
Gutenberg is an editor that allows you to divide content into blocks.
It is best compared to Avada's Fusion Builder or Visual Composer.
The update has some snags. So the question is: update after all, or wait a while anyway?
Benefits of Gutenberg
- Advantages of this editor are mainly for people using a website without such a pagebuilder. Unlike the classic editor, the user can create blocks with a property. These include a text block, an image block, an html block, quotes, galleries, buttons and more.
- Developers can also add their own block using a plugin or template.
- Gutenberg is a logical way of building a website, especially for users coming from platforms like Wix.
Disadvantages of Gutenberg
- With a template like Avada with its own pagebuilder, Gutenberg feels pretty redundant. On the other hand, the classic editor was already out of the picture.
- Despite the fact that dividing with blocks sounds simple at first glance, in reality it can be tricky.
- Creating a blog post will take a little longer with Gutenberg.
- You can no longer add shortcodes or images to a paragraph.
- Compared to pagebuilders like Fusion Builder and Visual Composer, Gutenberg still has some way to go in terms of features. But this, partly due to Gutenberg becoming the standard, will eventually straighten out.
What to consider?
- The plugins and template that will be on the website must be suitable for WordPress 5.0 / Gutenberg. Especially plugins that use functions of the classic editor should be tested for. Especially poorly maintained or abandoned plugins and template can cause quite a problem here. Check carefully whether the creator has tested the plugin or template with WordPress 5.0, or ask to do so.
- Pay attention to cache after updating. It may look like a plugin is doing fine on WordPress 5.0, but after flushing the cache, it may look very different.
- Are you using a different editor now? Then keep in mind that the code of these editors and Gutenberg are not interchangeable.
Precautions/solutions
- Make use of the plugin Classic Editor to keep the classic editor as default. You can give the choice at user level which editor is default, but you can also not give this choice. This can be very useful for websites with less well-maintained plugins and templates.
- As with any major update: back up the website, both files and database, beforehand.
To update or not to update?
Whether updating is a good idea at the moment depends very much on the plugin and template used. The well-known, well-maintained plugins (including Yoast, The Event Calendar) and template (ThemeFusion's Avada, many well-known free templates like Twenty Nineteen et al) indicate that they are suitable for WordPress 5.0. But this is usually only a subset of the plugins used on a website.
Since no other important features are attached to this update, we recommend waiting until January to update.
Have any questions following this piece or would you prefer to outsource the updating process? Get in touch via info@milcraft.nl or 0172-897789