The Dirty Little Secret of Drag and Drop Page Builder?
Say what?
Over a month ago, when I was enjoying my time surfing around and feeding my curiosity for WordPress knowledge, I bumped into a quite interesting article written by Chris Lema. Firstly, I have to say that Chris is one of my blogging idols, with his rocking WordPress blog as well as his eagerness to share valuable WordPress knowledge with readers like me.
The blog I stumbled on is about — as he called it — “the dirty little secret of drag and drop page builders”. The title aroused my curiosity because I myself have tried many WordPress page builders, both free and paid-for, so I couldn’t stop wondering “Wow, what’s the secret here?” Plus, the fact that we, the InnoGears Team, also have IG PageBuilder, which we are very proud of, and which is loved and praised by many of its users. This encouraged me to click on the article and read it.
His points are clear and reasonable, I must say. But before re-phrasing his opinions, I would like to walk you through the common drawbacks of WordPress page builders that are usually talked about. And then, I will tell you why I don’t think they are secret shortcomings of page builders — at least not all page builders.
The “Dirty Little Secrets” of WordPress Page Builders — They said
Secret #1
You can’t create beautiful websites with page builders. Many bloggers and reviewers as well as developers express the concern that when mixing up designing a web page with coding as well as creating content for it, and putting them all in the hands of non-savvy WordPress users, there is high chance that they will mess things up. Also, the popular opinion is that, we are not all designers. I see that some argue that page builder providers are luring people with the idea that “anyone can be a designer”.
Secret #2
For building a website in general, and making a WordPress website in particular, creating content should be separated from design. It is said that you will be easily distracted when trying to do both things at the same time and that you won’t get the best out of these two things.
Well, we all know that WordPress is called the easiest CMS thanks to its clear separation of design and creating content. Bloggers who have no or little knowledge in coding or design can still produce content without any difficulty. However, with the combination of these two things into one interface, some people complain that page builders are going against what WordPress does.
Secret #3
WordPress page builder plugins in general slow down your website’s loading speed. With too many widgets and elements, taking charge of many functions at the same time, websites built with page builder can’t run faster than a tortoise.
Secret #4
This opinion is brought up in not on Chris’s blog, but in quite a few other blogs:
“Putting a powerful tool in the hands of a non-designer will only make more ugly websites that look out of control.”
This one is quite similar to the #1, but I wonder, is there really no page builder for WordPress beginners?
Secret #5
Or, as it’s called by Chris, “shortcode hell”. He explained that when a nifty page created with a page builder plugin has that plugin turned off, then all the beauty is gone, and only a shortcode hell remains.
It’s true for many page builders, even the successful big-hit Visual Composer (and then he recommended Velocity page builder).
Ewww, how inconvenient and soul-destroying?
But They Aren’t Always True!
If WordPress page builders are that ugly to use, then why do they exist and continue to grow with such impressive downloads anyway?
Let me take a stand for page builder plugins — It’s time to clear all the secrets.
Resolve secret #1
It’s overstating the case to accuse page builder providers of creating the perception that “anyone can be a designer”. No page builder provider said that. Can page builders replace the job of a designer? No, the fact that page builders allow you to create layouts for your page and add page elements or widgets into it doesn’t mean it’s about “design”. It’s something different because a page builders’ value doesn’t lie in the column or layout but the content creation power — what you are going to build WITHIN your page. I will not call it “designing” but rather “building”.
Who says you can’t create beautiful WordPress websites with page builders? The evidence is our IG PageBuilder demo here.
Resolve secret #2
I agree that WordPress now is the easiest and quickest CMS for helping users build their website’s content. But page builders don’t stand in the way at all. Have you ever seen front-page improvements each time WordPress releases an update? No.
With the latest WordPress 3.9, you can see that the developers at WordPress are making a better tool for creating content/blogging only. So when people need to quickly create a simple page for their website, they’ll need to hire designers and developers to help. Who has got the money for that, especially small businesses? Like I mentioned above, the value that page builders bring to their users lies in their page creation power, which does not interfere with WordPress’s awesomeness in having a distraction-free interface. No problem.
Resolve secret #3
Somehow I agree with this opinion because there are many page builder plugin providers who haven’t paid enough attention to their plugin’s performance. And it’s the truth that many page builders make a website run slowly.
But you can say goodbye to that with IG PageBuilder.
As the team here seriously takes into account user experience and listens to users wishes, we made our first performance revolution and the loading speed in latest version 2.3.x of IG PageBuilder can’t be compared with other page builder plugins. You can read more on how we made our performance improvements here.
Resolve secret #4
Give too much editing power to an amateur and he’ll surely screw up.
Oh, don’t be sad my friends. If you are not that great with “powerful and lots of super amazing features built-in” page builders, then come here and switch to IG PageBuilder. This plugin lets you build a great web page and requires no documentation reading or coding skill. You’re free to ride with it.
Seeing is believing. I will spend no more words on this.
Resolve secret #5
Velocity page builder — as recommended by Chris in his blog — doesn’t leave users alone with a shortcode mess after deactivating the plugin.
It’s not the only one can do that. And cheer up, IG PageBuilder gives you something a little better. When you want to switch theme or turn off IG PageBuilder, your content and styles won’t be lost. No horrors or nightmares here when you change your mind. There are two options for you:
You can choose to keep the styles and content and then continue with deactivating our plugin or re-dressing your website. No problem. Or, you can choose to revert everything into codes and then you use IG PageBuilder again; everything will be the way it was.
So, you can stop calling them the “little dirty secrets” because there’s no such thing, at least, in IG PageBuilder.
That’s Why You’ll Love IG PageBuilder
I won’t say that IG PageBuilder is the winner among all currently existing WordPress page builders; both front-end and back-end page builders. Because, although IG PageBuilder has its outstanding features and superior user experience in comparison to others, other page builder plugins still have their characteristics that suit a WordPress user’s needs in one way or another.
However, defeating those drawbacks and limitations that are usually seen in others, IG PageBuilder is worth your choice. In case you haven’t tried it:
Feel free to comment below. We always welcome your opinions.
