Gutenberg Completely Changed My Perspective on WordPress Development

As a web developer with over 12 years of experience, I have worked extensively with builders like Elementor and WPBakery. For a long time, I honestly believed Gutenberg was inferior and overly limited compared to traditional page builders.

That perspective completely changed once a client specifically requested a WordPress website without Elementor or WPBakery. Because of that requirement, I finally gave Gutenberg a serious chance and started building with a custom theme and modern block-based workflows.

Today, I can confidently say that Gutenberg is by far the most thoughtful and well-architected builder WordPress has ever had. Once you truly understand how it is intended to work — especially together with custom themes, patterns, theme.json, and custom blocks — it becomes incredibly powerful, clean, scalable, and future-proof.

Yes, development can initially take longer compared to visual page builders, especially when building things properly with a custom setup. But after getting used to the workflow, it honestly feels like the best long-term approach for professional WordPress development.

I also understand many of the negative reviews now, because I used to share the same opinion before I actually learned and understood Gutenberg properly. In my opinion, most criticism comes from comparing it to page builders without fully embracing the modern block-based development approach.

Excellent work by the Gutenberg team. The direction WordPress is taking with blocks and full site editing is genuinely impressive.