It's the WP minute. Let's talk about learning more about WordPress from the software around us. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sam Harrison, a professional Webflow consultant and content creator. He was open to co host a WordPress vs. Webflow debate with me, while also unpacking how business is going for his services company. Heading into the debate, I spent a few hours watching his content and really enjoyed his Webflow components basics and his how to start a web design business.
So, why did I invite Sam on? Page Builders, especially Bricks, are the best. Has been the topic du jour of late. That crowd really wants WordPress to have a much more, have much more power inside the editor. And I totally get it. These powerful third party tools can be really attractive. And if you haven't been in the WordPress space for the last 20 years, you start to wonder why our favorite CMS is lacking these features.
Bricks is often framed as the tool that brings Webflow experience into WordPress. All powerful design and page building tools you could ever want, surely. I've had some conversations with prominent WordPress agencies now offering Webflow as an alternative solution to WordPress. It all makes sense, but the choice shouldn't start at which tool to use, but whether or not you want open source software or a commercial solution. For your project to simplify.
Do you care that you have the benefits of open source WordPress along with the baggage or does having a single turnkey app? Provide the best solution for you. Now, how does that play out for selling your services to clients? Sam and I played a little game where we placed the winning cards of particular features of the competing platforms in their respective columns. You should check out the video linked above. It's, it's pretty fun.
I'll admit the odds were stacked against Sam and Webflow seeing that he was on my podcast, but WordPress comes out the winner in most areas. So long as you're siding with the advantages of open source, for example, the ecosystem, the community, the ability to customize the platform. It's a hard sell to get me to use Webflow. That doesn't mean we can't learn from Webflow and their users. Let's face it, it's not a fluke that they've been successful for this long.
Having a comprehensive tool set to design pages makes a lot of sense. Also, not having to worry about updates, hosting, third party software conflicts. Sounds like a dream that Webflow users get to live every day. Though I noticed that in the short time of exploring Webflow, WordPress isn't massively behind pound for pound. And I'm talking specifically just core, not even when you decide to bring in third party tools like ACF or Gravity Forms.
If you like the design tools and the interface of Webflow, mixed with their new components library, the gap in WordPress isn't all that wide. However, when you look at something like the writing experience, specifically blogging or posts in general, Webflow isn't even competing in the same league. Sorry, Sam. I guess what I'm saying is, as much as we can learn from the UI, UX, and passionate community of Webflow, their team could also learn from WordPress.
Heck, Gutenberg is an open source project. Even Drupal has a fork. Maybe Webflow can improve their content editor with Gutenberg? Go open source. Let me know what you think. No news links today. I do apologize. Running out of time. Heading out on vacation next week. And just so much to do with all the stuff happening at Gravity Forms this week. Busy day. Busy week. I'll talk to you in the next episode.