Elementor ( & other page builders ) days are numbered, well if you don’t believe me. Following is my attempt to convince you to make the switch from Elementor to Gutenberg.
Full Site Editing Experience
The WP 5.9 releases in January 25, 2022, this will mark the closing chapter for Elementor. As WordPress adds the Full site editing experience, Elementor stands as an odd one out. Not only the Gutenberg FSE looks more polished, but Gutenberg controls are more elegant than Elementors, whether it is the duotone images or block controls. The “TwentyTwentyTwo” theme is really an icing on the cake as it “almost” makes themes and commercial theme shops irrlevant. You are able to design menus, change colors, create headers, create footers and the content.
Technology
In my previous post I explained how Elementor is using a “dead” technology which is no longer used in modern web projects. Elementor is at its zenith there is no more controls or features that can be added as it is limited by the technology used. Whereas Gutenberg uses the cutting edge technology and it is just the beginning of what more to come. Newer technologies like AI with find easier integration in Gutenberg and might never be included in Elementor.
Deprecation of The Classic Editor
The Classic editor will be removed from WordPress core in December 2022. Once the classic editor is removed Elementor users will be required to add another plugin to use it. WordPress would officially stop supporting the classic TinyMCE editor and in case some WP updates break the classic editor plugin, the users will not be able to upgrade their WP versions. That fear will always remain, even if this never happens in the near future.
Dependence on jQuery
WordPress has openly stated how jQuery has a worse impact on DOM rendering. This impact is actually not measured by the Site speed tools but in the actual browser during rendering of HTML. The search engines are designed to acknowledge the end user experience and are aware of jQuery. It is possible that sites using jQuery be penalised in future by search engines. In Elementor entire page appears as 1 unit, in Gutenberg entire page appears as blocks and each block can render in its own time, making the loading & user experience much faster than Elementor.
Compatibility with REST API
This for me as a developer is the most important point. Previously, developers have cried to Elementor on making their content REST API compliant, even Visual composer’s content is compatible with REST API and dynamic rendering. But Elementor’s content is incompatible with rest APIs. With modern technologies like ServerLess apps, HeadLess CMS this becomes a major turning point. Using Elementor is just not an option for such sites and they would resort to Gutenberg which renders perfectly inside any REST API content.
Based on this article we want to avoid Elementor completely. Where are your Gutenberg templates and why does Gutenberg not work inside units? Which demo is built entirely in Gutenberg?
See our recent post. Gutenberg works inside units.