Easy Guide and Industry Insights

You undoubtedly have a lot of queries regarding the best approach to developing your website. This is indeed reasonable considering the variety of possibilities available in the market. In general, WordPress has three options: use a page builder, customize a WordPress theme, or hire a professional to create the website for them.

WordPress themes are considered faster and easier to work with, while WordPress page builders are more personalized and adaptable. Reading this article, you will understand the advantages and disadvantages of using WordPress Themes vs. Page Builder. Additionally, you'll know in depth which approach is best for you at the end of the discussion, depending on your level of expertise and website prerequisites.

What is a WordPress Theme? 

WordPress theme is a website's pre-encrypted style, layout, and display settings. To add some flair and a unified design to your website, you must install and activate a WordPress theme. Meanwhile, the pleasant thing about this CMS is that it's an open-source platform, which means that any developer may make a theme and make it available for download to other WordPress users for free or paid. Before jumping into the pros and cons discussion of WordPress themes, you need to know the following basic elements:

• Layout

• Color Scheme

• Menu

• Typography

• Logo & Headline

• Selection of Widgets

If you are comfortable with all of the above points, choose the WordPress theme to develop your website initially. However, your chosen theme developer will have full control of the design and will not let you modify the theme completely. As a result, you can only change or modify a few things based on your brand identity. Check out the following aspects before making your final decision.

Benefits of WordPress Themes 

If you are looking for a handy and stress-free option for your WordPress website modification, then you might enjoy the following points:

Numerous Design Options 

WordPress themes offer plenty of options from dedicated stores to decorate your website.

Ready-Made 

Most of the WordPress themes are off-the-shelf in nature and are easily accessible, which will allow you to focus only on ‘installation’.

Mobile-friendly 

If you want to use fresh and updated themes, you will find them responsive to mobile devices.

Live Previewing 

It is always possible to preview the WordPress theme in real time, allowing you to make modification decisions easily.

Primary Modification 

WordPress will allow you to access the themes for primary customization purposes.

Editing Option - CSS 

In the WordPress theme editor, you can perform custom CSS revisions.

Less Time Consuming 

With a WordPress theme, it is possible to make your website operative with a single day’s effort.

Budget-friendly 

If you want to build your website cost-effectively, then choosing WordPress themes will be the best decision as it offers a ton of free features for its users.  

Drawbacks of WordPress Themes 

Even with all the above advantages, you may find a lot of negative aspects of WordPress themes, including:

Common Design 

You might end up choosing themes similar to others for your website while using WordPress.

Less flexibility 

In WordPress themes, you have limited flexibility since many features are already installed.

Lack of Customization 

This problem arises if you want to update your theme by not saving the previous actions.

Limited Control 

Since you don't own the design and code, any errors on the theme developer's end can mess up your site.

What is a WordPress Page Builder? 

A WordPress Page Builder is a WordPress plugin that will provide you access to many additional customization options on a page-to-page basis without requiring you to change the theme settings or write custom code whatsoever.

More precisely, it's a detailed approach to giving your WordPress website a distinctive appearance and feel. Additionally, with this plugin, you can go deeper and alter specific posts and pages within your WP theme instead of choosing a theme and then making minor adjustments to your theme as a whole.

Despite Page Builder’s WYSIWYG nature that might attract you to use it, we recommend you check out the following pros and cons for a greater resolution:

Benefits of WordPress Page Builder 

You should consider the following points if you want to get better results using WordPress page builders:

Flexibility of Themes 

WordPress page builders can be utilized with any compatible WordPress theme, offering users the freedom to design their websites according to their preferences.

Ease of Customization 

Using page builders is often the optimal approach to customize your WordPress site page-by-page. Moreover, it provides numerous personalization options for posts as well.

Unique Design 

This feature lets you craft a fresh design within your selected theme, providing your visitors with a unique experience.

Layout Modification 

Besides modifying the background, you can also change the overall layout of your theme with a page builder plugin.

Free version 

WordPress page builders come with many popular versions that are completely free for their users.

Widget Modification 

You can easily adjust the placement of your widgets and add customized widgets to various pages of your website.

Modify Theme Settings 

With WordPress page builders, you can customize theme settings and choose specific page templates for selective modifications.

A/B Testing 

A lot of third-party WordPress Page Builders are regularly offering A/B testing options for their users which is somewhat of a tangible benefit in optimizing website performance and user experience.

Drawbacks of WordPress Page Builder 

Despite offering a sound amount of advantages, we suggest you check the below problems you might face while using page builders:

Time Consuming 

One of the significant drawbacks of using WordPress page builders is their time-consuming nature, as they require a substantial amount of time for final execution.

Needs Mature Attention 

WordPress page builders are not suitable for beginners. While they offer unique design capabilities, individuals lacking an eye for design may find them challenging.

Bigger Learning Curve 

Compared to customizing a WordPress theme, using page builders involves a steeper learning curve for users at all levels of experience.

Expensive 

Many advanced WordPress page builders offer premium features available only in paid versions, making them a costly investment.

Which One You Should Choose: WordPress Themes vs. Page Builder 

If you are a beginner or want to minimize complications, you should consider WordPress themes. They are popular and flexible options for quickly setting up your site with an elegant design. However, themes may lack customization compared to highly customized plugins.

On the other hand, WordPress page builders offer versatility but require more time, awareness, and attention to detail. They can also be cost-sensitive.

Therefore, we recommend carefully considering your options before choosing between WordPress themes or page builders. Seeking guidance and assistance from experts in this field can benefit your business's future growth.

How Glossy IT Can Help You Select the Best: WordPress Themes vs. Page Builder 

If you are still confused about choosing between themes and page builders, we recommend you seek skilled, professional, and experienced assistance. At Glossy IT, our team of WordPress experts has been working relentlessly to serve customers globally on this aspect. In addition, you will also get extra services related to your CMS selection or customization process from us at a reasonable price with guaranteed satisfaction.

Feel free to contact us if you want to know more about our WordPress Themes and Page Building Services.

Final Verdict 

It is always wise to learn in-depth about the relevant usage options while choosing WordPage themes or page builders for your website. Meanwhile, you should also consider that both offer many technical issues that must be evaluated with proper knowledge and perseverance. However, we recommend getting professional help if you don’t feel comfortable jumping into the theoretical aspects of themes and page buildings.

Did you know why WordPress is the most popular CMS software in the world? It's not only due to its easy access but also because of its wide range of plugins. So, what are WordPress plugins? They are the backbone that helps WordPress maintain its top position in the market. From sidebars to membership sites, you can find a plugin for almost any need, with customizable options to suit your specific requirements.

What are WordPress plugins capable of? They excel in three key areas: performance optimization, adding new features, and enhancing security. By using the right plugins, you can improve your site’s ranking and overall content performance on search engine result pages.

Now, let’s explore what are WordPress plugins and how they can assist you in developing a stunning WordPress website

WordPress can offer a huge potential for an enthusiast who loves self-customization, modification, and overall sustainable performance with a standard feature. To begin with how you can achieve these things in a single shot, we need to focus on the following aspects:

Usage of Conventional WordPress Plugins

Customization and proper functionality are key factors in optimizing your WordPress website. But what are WordPress plugins, and how do they help? Today, numerous plugins are available online, widely used by professionals to maintain these crucial elements. Conventional plugins play a vital role in enhancing website optimization and achieving accurate functionalities. They can be categorized into three main types: features, security, and performance. By adding the right plugins, you can improve overall site performance and experience faster page loading times, making website management more efficient.

If you are still confused about how to deal with it, then we are here to clear the air.

Features

You can add a specialized plugin like a contact form which will enable you to give easy access to your visitors to complete their queries without having to put a lot of personal information on your pages. By doing so, they will be less security concerned and retain a good impression about your site. With proper utilization of this ‘Feature’ you can expect a good amount of traffic and higher ranking as well.

Security

Making the users feel secure is a challenging task for any web developer. However, it is now becoming increasingly popular to do so by using different types of antivirus plugins on your sites.

With these plugins, your site’s overall security attributes will be regularly investigated and you will receive continuous updates on harmful activities happening inside your website from time to time. 

Performance 

Thirdly, the page loading time of your site might make your users get annoyed which is also very crucial for search engine ranking. To avoid this, you need to use a variety of optimization plugins like WP Rocket or NitroPack to decrease database loading time and thus improve the total site performance.

What Are WordPress Plugins? The Types: Free and Paid

As of now, you may have understood how WordPress plugins can be helpful and their nature of actions. But do you know that you can use plenty of free and paid plugins to choose from? 

Free Plugins 

WordPress is widely popular for its wide amount of countless free plugins. Bloggers, developers, business people, and even celebrities have been relying on this platform for more than decades as a result of this offering.

Sometimes you might be cautious about your budget which lets you think of installing a free version of your favorite plugins from your WP dashboard. Experts also recommend that beginners should decorate their sites with free plugins because they are more prone to fall into risks while developing their websites initially. 

Paid Plugins

If you are an experienced developer or have no budget constraints, it’s wiser and more sustainable to use the paid version of your preferred plugins. So, what are WordPress plugins in this context? They offer a wide range of options, especially in the paid versions, providing users with greater flexibility and advanced features. With paid plugins, you can create a visually appealing website that delivers both stunning content and an exceptional user experience.

The real power of WordPress plugins lies in their ability to provide endless solutions to any challenges you face, enhancing your site's performance and functionality.

Social Media and E-commerce Integration 

You can get the best out of your WordPress site by installing bona fide social media and e-commerce-related plugins. With this integration, you and your users will enjoy a lot of facilities in no time. 

Social Media Plugins 

Decorate your website with your popular and trending social media posts by simply installing relevant plugins like Juicer, Jetpack, or Buffer. By doing so, users will get the sweet taste of integration and you will be rewarded with greater value for your posts. 

Engaging web users through social media content will also power the visibility and provide more traffic to your site.

As a website owner, you can create a hassle-free user experience with the addition of these plugins or social media buttons.

E-commerce Plugins 

E-commerce plugins are becoming increasingly popular in WordPress nowadays. But what are WordPress plugins in the e-commerce world? Specialized commercial plugins like WooCommerce can enhance your website’s functionality and credibility. WooCommerce plugins allow you to easily add essential features such as shopping carts, wish lists, product suggestions, reviews, payment gateways, delivery options, discount offers, and product search tabs, turning your site into a fully functional online store with greater value and user experience.

Methods for Installing Your Favorite Plugins 

The Power of WordPress Plugins lies in their ability to be installed in easier ways. One way is using the WordPress dashboard, which can provide you with the required support and features to drag and drop the plugins during the installation phase for free and paid versions. 

Another spectacular way for you might be the use of an FTP transfer system. With this feature, you can simply extract the plugin zip file and upload it to the FTP server. Then activate it in your WordPress site easily. 

Make Your Plugins Super Responsive: What Are WordPress Plugins by GlossyIT 

Now you know that installing and activating different plugins isn't a complex task. But, what are WordPress plugins without proper optimization? There are still many tips and tricks to ensure your installed plugins perform at their best. At GlossyIT, our expert WordPress developers work with clients across Europe and North America to optimize and enhance their site’s plugin performance for better responsiveness.

Quality over quantity is our motto, bringing us where we are today. You can sit back and relax, giving us the charge to develop your WordPress site. We use a range of the latest and most secure plugins to safeguard you from any security breach and rank higher on search engines. Contact us to learn more about our WordPress & Plugin Development services.

Final Verdict

Now you understand the Power of WordPress Plugins from this article and how they are influencing the overall performance of any WordPress site globally. Instead of using free plugins, we recommend you to use the paid versions which would resolve issues regarding compatibility. Last but not least, with proper development and use of the right plugins, you can fly above the rest online which will bring you popularity and profit at the same time.

WordPress is a complete magic package for bloggers, web developers, business owners, or even celebrities who love to create their websites. Since 2003, it has remained the mecca for open-source web developers to build their customizable websites. Today, the Evolution of WordPress is still in the active evolving stage like other legendary software tools. Due to its global popularity, it has emerged as a brand like Drupal, Joomla, or Squarespace. Not long ago, the emergence of other competitors like Shopify or Joomla threatened WordPress by grasping a challenging market portion. However, this magic tool still holds a staggering 43% market share through its simplified unique selling propositions.

 From b2/cafelog to WordPress: The Full Story

WordPress 1.1 

The remarkable birth of WordPress came into the hands of Matt Mullenweg on May 27, 2003, after he created this modern open-sourced website based on b2/cafelog with the help of Mike Little. 

This inaugural version of WordPress illustrated the generation of XHTML 1.1 templates with the addition of a post templates facility.

WordPress 1.2 

Plugin Architecture was published publicly by Matt and Mike with the view to make WordPress more usable and functional in May 2004. 

WordPress 1.5 

The year 2005 revolutionized the presence of WordPress with the introduction of the Kubrick theme; additional page support; and a first-time comment approval system.

Matt also founded Automattic which eventually transformed this platform into a global entity.

WordPress 2.0 

The Evolution of WordPress in 2006 came into the shape of brand identity as Automattic helped this platform to get officially registered with its famous blue logo. 

As a result, the trademark of WordPress became official with other new features like a theme directory, WYSIWYG editor, and an inaugural WordCamp session.

WordPress 2.1 

In 2007, WordPress continued its self-expansion by introducing spell-checking and auto-save features to ease bloggers from having stress while saving their writing. 

However, this was also the first challenging year for WordPress since its inception as it faced a few major system breaches, which instigated the developers to make it safer with the introduction of various security updates

WordPress 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 

WordPress development team welcomed Happy Cog in 2008 to develop a collaborative effort on introducing its latest admin interface (2.5) which instantly removed various glitches from the dashboard and modernized the user experience.

In versions 2.6 and 2.7, the post revision, “press this” feature, comment replies, sticky posts, and customizable admin tools were introduced for better usability. 

WordPress 2.8, 2.9 

The addition of social media features was included in WordPress in 2009 with the introduction of various plugins like BuddyPress to facilitate users with using SEO actions and internal image editors.

This year was also known as the stepping stone for developing bulk updates, external widgets, and so on.

WordPress 3.0 

2010 was famous not only for the ‘Twenty Ten’ built-in theme but also for the completion of Automattic’s transfer of trademark to the WordPress foundation to make it work as an open-source software till today.

Taxonomies, headers, backgrounds, menus, and multisite were also got the foundation with this 3.0 version which triggered a new era for this magnificent platform. 

WordPress 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 

With the introduction of version 3.1 in 2011, special features like an admin bar and post types were included. Then, the 'Twenty Eleven' was included with WordPress 3.2 as the default theme. 

Later that year, a drag-and-drop file-uploading system was introduced with version 3.3.

WordPress 3.4 and 3.5 

In 2012, a comprehensive media management tool was added with version 3.4 to make more customizable image dimensions with WordPress. 

Version 3.5, on the other hand, sheds light on Twitter embeds and image captions later that year.

WordPress 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 

In 2013, the release of version 3.6 came in the first quarter of that year with improved file support for multimedia files to help users with more options.

Version 3.7 also carried the legacy of 3.6 with significant updates on languages and password modifications within the software.

The WordPress version 3.8, introduced a whole lot of fresh features from its predecessors with the customizable admin panel, interactive widget section, and fresh color schemes. Also, the introduction of this version played a vital role in materializing the Twenty Fourteen theme with updated dashboard features and MP6 adoption.

Another notable event was the first WordCamp, WordPress’s signature global event in Europe, which was held in the Netherlands in late 2013.

WordPress 3.9 and 4.1 

In 2014, the development team of WordPress made significant changes in the visual post editor section with version 3.9, which enabled the end users to drag and drop the images freely in the editing section for easier usability of the interface.

Version 4.1 in the same year was introduced to make non-English downloads more accessible and to make ways to introduce the fresh theme ‘Twenty Fifteen’.

WordPress 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 

Many experienced developers will remember 2015 as the integration year of WordPress and WooCommerce which happened with the help of Automattic. 

WooCommerce is notable for its relevance with WordPress and its vast amount of popularity to date. This introduction also opened the global e-commerce windows for this CMS software which has been used by countless small and large entrepreneurs since then. 

Other major changes also happened in the WordPress arena with the introduction of versions 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 to facilitate the end users with the easier accessibility of emojis, admin panels, Kicktarter, and Tumblr. 

WordPress 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7 

Version 4.5 enabled users to develop custom logos and then 4.6 introduced easier ways to use the previous version by letting the users upgrade themes and plugins more efficiently.

Later that year, version 4.7 introduced Rest API Endpoints which facilitated the developers to work with WordPress remotely.

The legacy of publishing a fresh default theme each year was also carried out by WordPress in 2016 with the introduction of ‘Twenty Seventeen’.

WordPress 4.7.2 and 4.9 

Protecting the sites from unethical hackers became a major concern for the WordPress management in 2017 which forced them to introduce version 4.7.2 with some security changes. 

Then version 4.9 was introduced which enabled the user to collaborate with other team members through various customizable internal tools.

WordPress 5.0 

In 2018, WordPress introduced one of the most remarkable chapters in its journey with the Gutenberg Editor. This editor changed the whole experience of WordPress with reusable blocks.

It enabled an internal editing option for the users to arrange, rearrange, or integrate any kind of blocks for developing fresh posts on blogs or to build a completely new website from scratch.

As a whole, Gutenberg Editor speeded up website design activities and changed the whole dynamics of WordPress ever since.  

WordPress 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3 

2019 was also another breakthrough year for the WordPress team as they introduced some major tools like Site Health tracker with version 5.1 and version 5.2 enabling users to check website health and improvements through recommendations.

Improved management of blocks and grouping was introduced with the updated Gutenberg Editor in version 5.3 that year.

WordPress 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6 

In 2020, WordPress released a more intuitive homepage for newbies with its 5.4 version. Then version 5.5 introduced the use of block layouts and block patterns.

Version 5.6 also captured much attention for introducing a block editor with the help of PHP 8. 

WordPress 5.7 and 5.8 

In 2021, WordPress fixed two major issues with its 5.7 and 5.8 versions. For example- it shifted its focus from HTTP to HTTPS in version 5.7 which helped the users to access the database by themselves. Also, it developed Template Editor which enabled beginners to develop websites with no coding knowledge at all. 

WordPress 5.9 and 6.0 

WordPress introduced an interactive FSE or Full Site Editing with its version 5.9 in 2022 which significantly helped the users to control flexible blocks and give more dynamics to the core appearance.

With the 6.0 version later that year, WordPress focused on improved writing experience with exotic layouts, borders, and global style switchers.

How Glossy IT can help you with WordPress? 

Although WordPress has come a long way, it remains a bit tricky for many. At Glossy IT, our expert WordPress developers can help anyone with updated knowledge about different plugins and other features to make anyone feel comfortable with this magical platform. Some of the notable services we have been providing regarding WordPress are custom theme development, custom plugin development, SEO optimization, web redesign, website migration, multilingual website development, website security and maintenance, social media integration, and so on.

Give us a shout to know more details about our WordPress services.

In conclusion, the Evolution of WordPress is still happening with the introduction of fresh features every year. It is an ever-changing platform to meet the demands of the millions of online authors that use it worldwide. As a result, it is reasonable to believe that it will keep enabling people to build amazing websites all around the world.