WordPress is developing guides and tools to help publishers transition to their block-based editor, Gutenberg, moving away from commercial WordPress page builders and closed source content management systems.
While it’s understandable that WordPress might want to assist publishers and businesses in their migration away from other platforms, some view this as a controversial move that could undermine other software publishers within the WordPress ecosystem.
WordPress Page Builders
WordPress has long aimed to make creating beautiful websites easy for publishers and business people, although this goal has been elusive over the years. Software developers, like Elegant Themes (makers of Divi page builder) and Elementor, have provided point-and-click solutions that allow users to build webpage templates using visual interfaces. These tools enable users to select rows with pre-made styles for different sections of a page and customize these sections using menus for colors, widths, and other variables.
These page builders let users drag and drop elements like text boxes, forms, and images, and apply global formatting styles without needing any coding skills. This ease of use has helped popularize WordPress.
WordPress Gutenberg Website Builder
Over several years, WordPress released the Gutenberg Full Site Editor, replicating the visual block-based page builder experience. Although users initially continued to use third-party website builders due to Gutenberg’s less polished interface, WordPress has continually improved Gutenberg, making it increasingly user-friendly and a strong contender against third-party builders.
As Gutenberg evolves, some developers and publishers believe that commercial page builders like Divi and Elementor will lose relevance in the WordPress ecosystem.
WordPress appears to be expediting this shift by creating Data Liberation guides and tools to help users transition away from commercial page builders to the Gutenberg full site editor.
WordPress Data Liberation Project
WordPress is developing a series of guides and tools to help users migrate to the now mature Gutenberg site builder. Although not as polished as third-party builders, Gutenberg is functional and relatively easy to use compared to its previous versions.
WordPress describes the project:
“This project imagines a more open web where users can seamlessly switch between platforms of their choosing, eradicating the concept of being locked into a system and keeping openness at the forefront.
Moving to and within WordPress should be a one-click easy process as much as possible whether moving from social networks, moving from a page builder to core blocks, or shifting from the classic editor to the block editor.
Rather than each person or organization needing to figure out a migration pathway, the WordPress community is coming together to provide scripts, plugins, and guides for us all to use to bring folks to WordPress.”
A post by the admin of the Dynamic WordPress Facebook Group stated:
“The “data-liberation” initiative is apparently preparing guides on how to move from various page builders to core Gutenberg. If Elementor wrote a guide on how to move from core Gutenberg to Elementor, people would likely call foul.”
Some group members welcomed the migration guides as useful.
The official WordPress Data Liberation page contains the following guides:
- Squarespace to WordPress
- Tumblr to WordPress
- HTML to WordPress
- RSS to WordPress
- Wix to WordPress
- Drupal to WordPress
- Blogger to WordPress
- WordPress Site to Another WordPress Site
The official GitHub page for the guides contains the following migration tools:
- Figma to Blocks
- Divi to Blocks
- Classic Editor to Blocks
Additional migration guides under development include:
- avada-to-core-blocks.md
- contentful-to-wordpress.md
- divi-to-core-blocks.md
- elementor-to-core-blocks.md
- kadence-to-core-blocks.md
- wpbakery-to-core-blocks.md
Is Gutenberg The Future Of The WordPress Ecosystem?
The future of website creation seems to be leaning towards Gutenberg as the default method, with the Data Liberation project accelerating this transition. Third-party website builders have started adapting by releasing Gutenberg-compatible layouts and blocks. For example, GeneratePress has released a plugin called GenerateBlocks that works within the Gutenberg ecosystem.
Is it right for WordPress to facilitate users’ migration away from commercial page builders? It might be inevitable as Gutenberg continues to develop and challenge commercial solutions.
Some builders, like Breakdance, continue to offer popular alternatives to Gutenberg, while others, like Divi and GeneratePress, are aligning their products with Gutenberg compatibility.
The question remains: will Gutenberg ultimately become the cornerstone of the WordPress website-building ecosystem?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/alekseiveprev
