Building a Site Using Only Gutenberg (No Page Builders)

For years, "professional" WordPress development meant installing a heavy page builder like Elementor, Divi, or Beaver Builder.

The native editor was just for blog posts.

That changed with Full Site Editing (FSE).

Today, you can build complex, headers, footers, and grid layouts using only Gutenberg. And the performance difference is shocking.

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1. Performance: The "Zero Bloat" Advantage

Page builders load massive CSS and JavaScript libraries on every page, whether you use them or not.

• Elementor Hello Theme: ~500KB - 1MB of assets.
• Gutenberg (Twenty Twenty-Four): ~50KB.

Gutenberg is part of the core. It uses the browser's native capabilities. Sites built with purely blocks consistently score 95-100 on Google PageSpeed Insights without caching plugins.

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2. No Lock-In Effect

If you deactivate Elementor, your site becomes a broken mess of shortcodes ([elementor-section]...).

If you disable a block plugin, Gutenberg gracefully degrades into HTML. You own your content, not the plugin developer.

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3. The "Block Theme" Revolution

Themes like Twenty Twenty-Four or Ollie are "Block Themes."

They don't have PHP files for headers or footers. You edit the entire site visually in the Site Editor (Appearance > Editor).

• Want to change the header background? Do it in the editor.
• Want a different footer for blog posts? Create a template part.

No code required.

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4. Patterns > Templates

Page builders sell you "Templates." Gutenberg uses "Patterns."

A pattern is a pre-designed group of blocks (e.g., a "Pricing Table" pattern). You can copy-paste patterns from the purely visual WordPress Pattern Directory directly into your editor.

It's like LEGO. You just snap the pieces together.

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5. Synced Patterns (Reusable Blocks)

Imagine you build a "Call to Action" block. You want to use it on 50 different pages. In the past, you'd copy-paste. But if you needed to change the text, you had to edit 50 pages.

Synced Patterns solve this.

1. Build it once.
2. Save as a "Synced Pattern."
3. Edit the "Master" pattern, and it updates everywhere instantly.

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6. theme.json: The Global Controller

You no longer need a 3,000-line style.css file. Gutenberg themes use a file called theme.json. It controls:

• Color palette
• Typography sizes
• Layout widths
• Block defaults (e.g., "All buttons are round")

It streamlines design consistency and prevents clients from "getting creative" with comic sans.

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7. The "Group" Block is Your Best Friend

The Group Block is the most powerful container in Gutenberg. It allows you to:

• Set a background color for a whole section.
• Control inner width (e.g., "Wide" vs "Full").
• Apply sticky positioning.

Master the Group block, and you master layout.

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Summary

The learning curve for Gutenberg is steeper than Elementor, but the payoff is a site that is:

1. Faster.
2. More Secure.
3. Future-Proof.

Stop fighting WordPress. Start using it the way it was designed to be used.