General Question - Wordpress/Blocs pros and cons

General Discussion
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First off i do not mean to ask a loaded question, but i have looked at Wordpress a long time ago and decided to use RapidWeaver, and then Blocs. I do not do much work on website, more of a hobby. But, it looks like Wordpress and some of the “designers” (Elementor, etc) have made Wordpress much more than it used to be.

That being said, of coarse blocs is great and easy to use, but it sounds like Blocs will have some native support in the next version for Wordpress. As well as other new, cool things…

Has Wordpress just gained so much market share that it has just taken over the market? Why use tools like Blocs and others? I am asking on this forum because i want to know from folks much smarter than i what are the advantages Blocs?

I ask this honestly - i have been Googling HTML/CSS vs Wordpress to just understand the differences, of coarse the only articles that come up seem to be slanted to Wordpress with some advertising in them!

thanks!

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Wordpress is essentially a Content Managed System (CMS) which means the site can be fully developed and updated online by designated users. It can be developed off-line if you have a server environment installed on your computer.

One of the principal reasons for its popularity is that WordPress is free and open-source - most web hosts offer it as a one-click install option. Beyond the basic features, you would typically pay for third party widgets and bolt-ons that can turn Wordpress into a full online application, such as a real-estate listing site, or an e-commerce site.

The downside of Wordpress centres around the very fact that it is free and open source. It’s often the target of hackers who can get into vulnerable systems and create all sorts of havoc. The reason hackers do this is simply because if they can find an exploit in one installation, there are literally millions of other websites just waiting to be exploited also. That said, there are regular updates to Wordpress that aim to plug any security vulnerabilities, but you must be vigilant and install all updates as and when they are released.

Wordpress sites are great if you have a site that must be continually updated, maybe by a number of different people. News sites are a prime example, so too are blogs (the original purpose of Wordpress). However, if this is not an essential need, there is very little reason to install a 30mb application on your server if all you need to do is make the occasional content change to your website.

Blocs, on the other hand is a web design application, allowing you the freedom to design your pages how you wish without the bloat of a mass of PHP scripts and databases on your server. If you need some blogging or news functionality, these can be easily incorporated with third party add-ons. The big advantage of this is that your add-ons are not likely to be exploited by hackers because they often don’t know which system you’ve used and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t spend too much time hacking something with a limited user-base.

There are some that would like Blocs to be able to create Wordpress themes and it has been mooted that a future version of Blocs will be able to do that. Personally, I don’t see the logic of that. If you want a Wordpress site, then use Wordpress and get a theme builder add-on for your Wordpress installation. There is very little point in buying another application to do something that can be accommodated within Wordpress itself.

I think your choice really depends on the site or sites you wish to build. If it’s a one-off site for a specific purpose and there is a need for regular updating, then Wordpress may be the way to go. However, if you are wanting to develop several websites for yourself or others, then a web design app such as Blocs may be a better option. So, I think you have to decide what it is you’re trying to achieve and how well versed you are in dealing with the Wordpress back-end and the associated security vulnerabilities. Whichever route you take, there will be a learning curve (Wordpress is not as easy to master as some will have you believe) Yes, you can easily create a functional and nice looking site, but the more “bells and whistles” you add the more complicated things can get, especially for others who may be updating the site.

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Thanks for the detailed answer!

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You’re welcome.

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Hi Hendon,
Thanks for your informations (again) :slight_smile: , however i just want to comment a bit when you say that “open source & free” mean a target for the hackers. I don’t agree with that.
The fact that WP is constantly hacked is because of PHP vulnerabilities particularly when people use plugins that are not well securised, often bad codded. That’s why security patches are endless on WP.

An open source tool like “Django” on Python (what i’m using in backend) is by design secured & can be a fortress with additional code.
Another exemple, Blockchains usually have an open source code, this does not prevent them from being secure as well.

cheers

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I wasn’t really targeting Wordpress as such, the same is true of all open source applications that rely on PHP and mySQL, these include Joomla and many of the open source shopping cart solutions. I accept entirely what you’re saying about security and the need to protect vulnerable sites, but I firmly believe the incentive for hackers is the fact that once they find a backdoor into these web sites (or web applications) they know they can use it on many more sites.

I had an example earlier on in the year of someone who put up a well known (and very good) open source shopping cart and within a week, all his product images had been changed to less favourable images. Clearly, this was a fault of the web developer who clearly didn’t consider the additional security that would be required. Since redeveloping the site using a third-party PHP and mySQL web application within a normal HTML website, not a single piece of tampering with the site after several months. My opinion is based on the fact that there is no incentive for a hacker to even try to compromise a single site, because the mischief isn’t easily repeatable unless the hacker knows what app has been used and can easily find other sites that use the same app.

As you correctly point out, if an open source solution is to be deployed, then there has to be an added layer of security to ensure that the content isn’t compromised, Sadly, not everyone, including some website developers, appears to be aware of that.

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I’d even go as far as stating that this applies to any dynamic code, open source or proprietary, since no such is 100% hackingproof. So basically if you’d include a PHP script into your Blocs website, you are at risk. The only exception are pure static sites, like we love to build with Blocs.

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I would also think it is in the same realm for hackers like Windows vs Mac. If WordPress truly has 35% of all websites as they claim - it is a bigger target for hackers, vs other open source or static websites…

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There are some smart people on this site… I think you’re one of them. Super post. :+1:

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I think one of the major drawbacks of Wordpress is… to create a “real” custom theme, the creator has almost always required a knowledge of coding.

Because of this, WP themes began to become bloated in order to make them flexible and suit multiple needs.

Page builders came along and allowed users to hack themes to look the way they want.

After you have completed adjusting your Wordpress site with a page builder, the page builder plugin can’t be switched off, it needs to be run constantly.

This adds unnecessary overhead to your site immediately, even if you change one thing you need to load the entire plugin usually on ever page of the site.

Not to mention it bloats the database with data that would typically be static.

The solution is to install more plugins. It just starts to get messy and that’s just to get the look you want.

Even with all the hacks and plugins, unless you have great hosting, the site will be pretty slow at loading.

Now compare this to a custom built, made to measure, Wordpress theme. Few can afford them as they are build from scratch to the spec of the user and typically cost thousands.

They do not require any extras to get the style you want. You install, enable the theme and it’s the design you want with no extra plugins required.

It’s super fast because the layout and styling is mostly static and it contains no bloat In the code or the database and it’s potentially more secure because it requires less plugins.

Now imagine being able to build an unlimited number of these custom themes in a tool that lets you do it visually without writing code.

Imagine how much more professional a custom built, made to measure WP theme looks and sounds to a client, instead of hacking a theme together in a page builder.

I think if you want to use Wordpress, or your client does and you could create the theme you want without having to use plugins to get the visual look then Blocs v4 might be of interest to you.

But I should also state this is just one of many new features coming :nerd_face:

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Well said @Norm :smile:
I’ve got myself into working with Nationwide WordPress site as of a month ago. If it were up to me I would stay with Blocs. The Client needs to collect information (BIO, address, phone, email, weblinks, pictures, video, text, personal goal…) from Members and have that go into a searchable database for all other members of that group to use. We use RegistrationMagic and ProfileGrid for that purpose. As of now, Blocs does not have that feature. So I’m stuck with WordPress.

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Actual footage of me, right now, as I am reading this. This is exactly how I was hoping that you’d implement WordPress support, @Norm . So looking forward to getting started with v4!

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PHP is originally “Personal Home Page” :grinning:

teasing… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Looking forward to see the implementation and workflow.

I remember seeing the comments below in another thread and got the slight impression that some users might think or be concerned that Blocs + Wordpress means they will need to migrate towards Wordpress with Blocs 4. I think people need to understand that this will just be an optional feature within Blocs. That they can remain building the same static non-Wordpress sites as they always have with Blocs. Blocs will still be Blocs just with optional Wordpress theme creation abilities.

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Not the impression I got at all. If you re-read my post, you will see I ask what ADVANTAGE does such functionality have for me. That was never really answered by anyone and that’s why I still think there is no advantage for me personally. Even if someone could tell my why Wordpress would make my web design life better, I would be opening myself up to hackers by merely using it. And when that is considered, is any advantage really any advantage anymore? For now, I don’t think so.

The only reason I see Wordpress functionality being added to Blocs is for folks who have no choice but to use it. And that’s fine. I have no opposition to it being added to Blocs at all, really. If my old post gave anyone that impression, then I truly do apologize. That wasn’t what I was trying to convey. I’m not one of those types who dislikes a potentially new feature only because I won’t use it. I’m not that selfish. In fact, I’ve been frustrated at times in the past when I proposed something new and a voice of dissent came along and hated it merely because they wouldn’t gain an advantage from it or because they think other features are more important and my proposed feature would take away Norm’s development time.

So again, I am not opposing any new functionality in Blocs. Bring it on! Just be aware that Wordpress hackers are out there, and they are still hitting my server daily searching for anything that pertains to Wordpress. That’s it in a nutshell.

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It was nothing specific to you, I simply referenced those last three comments that I remembered from that thread. Similar sentiment has been around since it was first made public on the forum that Blocs 4 would support Wordpress. It has always been a strongly divided topical matter across the web. There will always be those both for and against Wordpress in any form for various reasons.

I would venture to guess the fact that 35+% of the web uses Wordpress played a slight factor that Blocs 4
will offer WP theme creation. There are not many native perpetual dektop Mac apps that offer that. So it will no doubt bring revenue to the app and thus all users will benefit going forward.

The fact that those sites deal with security related items is more than likely largely part of the cause.

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If I plan to have a shopping cart site, should I need to have advanced coding if I use WordPress as the backend and Blocs as the frontend? As we all know a shopping cart basically contains a product list page, product page, add-to-cart page, checkout page, etc, does Blocs have all basic pages rather than I have to design them from scratch and also code with WordPress API?

Some of the themes are too heavy in code and frequently need to be updated. This is the reason I want to study the Blocs.

Best regards,

Kelvin.

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@yckelvin There are others here who are far better qualified than I am to answer this but on the only e-commerce site I have built to date using WordPress it was fairly straightforward using ECWID with the plugin.

Most of the work was done at the ECWID site selecting preferences through their panel and the plugin just feeds off that. I couldn’t tell you how that compares to other billing companies but in terms of the theme produced in Blocs I do not recall any major coding.

For me the biggest point of frustration was using Gutenberg. Perhaps I just need more practice.

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Hi Kelvin

Actually, Blocs Plus generates a bunch of pages for a default theme. This does not include the product page and such, as these are usually generated from within WooCommerce (which uses the single.php, that Blocs Plus does generate, as a template for these pages).

Of course there are themes that do have specific page templates for these WooCommerce functionalities, but it really isn’t necessary to build a webshop using WordPress and WooCommerce.

These are the pages that Blocs Plus will generate for you when building a WordPress theme:

  • single.php
  • page.php
  • author.php
  • category.php
  • search.php
  • tag.php
  • archive.php
  • 404.php

All the best,

Brecht