What is the Gutenberg Editor in WordPress in 3 Helpful Parts

What is the Gutenberg Editor in WordPress logo

Knowing what is the Gutenberg editor in WordPress is important when 455 million websites are currently using WordPress (about 40% of the entire Web and 62% of content management system built websites).

Gutenberg is WordPress’s page builder and block editor and has been since 2018. Gutenberg is the software used by web designers, content creators, and other digital gurus to make pages, posts, sidebars, and other parts of the website. It does not require any knowledge or skill of coding and is easy to learn how to use. There are three parts of understanding what is Gutenberg editor in WordPress:

  • Using Gutenberg.
  • What Gutenberg is not.
  • Benefits of Gutenberg.

What is WordPress

To understand what is the Gutenberg editor in WordPress, we need to start with understanding what WordPress is.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different things. WordPress.org is a free and open-source (anyone can add to or alter the code) website building software while WordPress.com is a hosting company that has a version of WordPress website building software. I find WordPress.com websites finicky, slow, and with few options to customize, so I don’t recommend them.

WordPress logo on a Rocket taking off

WordPress.org is a type of software called a ‘content management system’. Content management systems simplify managing critical elements of a site such as making content, creating product pages, etc. eliminating the requirement of understanding or having skills for programming, software, code, or other technical elements. The best part about WordPress is that it is free to download and use and available to alter to your and your website’s specifications.

WordPress software works well on different platforms and devices while allowing designers to customize their website and its design to their heart’s content. WordPress software and plugins are a combination of privately and open-source developed, so users have a spectrum of options of theme, style, what kind of website to run, which plugins to use, etc. Users can even run multiple sites through one back-end (called a multisite) so they can have multiple companies and/or gigs on different sites running all at once.

Benefits of WordPress

Benefits of building with WordPress software include:

  • Can be as simple or complicated as desired.
  • Requires very little tech skills, but easily customizable with self-written code.
  • Download and move entire WordPress websites easily.
  • Having many great (and some are free) plugins (Woocommerce for Ecommerce, MailChimp for email marketing, WordFence for security, bbPress for forums, etc).
  • Allows multiple sites to be connected to each other (also known as multi-site).
  • Is free to download!

What is the Gutenberg Editor in WordPress?

To understand what is the Gutenberg editor in WordPress, we’ll go through how to use it, what it is not, and the benefits of it.

Using Gutenberg

Gutenberg gives users a clean and modern slate for designing pages, writing content, fashioning custom sidebars, and configuring friendly third-party plugins. It allows organization of posts into categories and/or tags. 

It helps the user with placement of titles, headings, paragraphs, images, covers, lists, galleries, videos, backgrounds, and other media. Users can hide titles, headers, and footers as well. Just write the content and/or add the images and videos; then, using the drag and drop feature, place each element where it is desired.

There are advanced Gutenberg blocks and templates in a separate plugin for users that want a bit extra or special elements for their pages or posts. These blocks are more fancy than the normal Gutenberg blocks and look a bit better. On the other hand, they don’t always work right and can slow down a page’s load time, so test thoroughly when you use them.

Gutenberg sidebar example

What Gutenberg is not

The next step of understanding what is the Gutenberg editor in WordPress to understand what it is not. While Gutenberg is an easy to use block editor, it does have some drawbacks. Gutenberg does not work with all WordPress themes or plugins; there are a few that will be wonky, off, or just not work. Thankfully, the most common themes and plugins do work with it, so it is unlikely to be an issue unless you are very picky about your design or specific plugin you want.

Gutenberg is not Elementor, Oxygen, or Devi; it will make pages and posts but you have limited control over the design. Specifically, while you can make things in a specific order vertically, your choices for customizing blocks and where exactly on the page to put them are limited. In other words, the editor is not for building very pretty sites. It keeps its head down and gets the job done, but it is not an ultra-designer. If you want jaw dropping pages, you will have to use plugins or your own code to make it.

Benefits of Gutenberg

The benefits of the Gutenburg block editor are:

  • Basic Gutenberg comes with WordPress software, no installation required.
  • Easy to learn and intuitive to use.
  • Connects and simplifies some third party plugins.
  • Works with most WordPress themes.

Summary

Gutenberg is WordPress’s page builder and block editor and has been since 2018. Gutenberg is the software used by web designers, content creators, and other digital gurus to make pages, posts, sidebars, and other parts of the website. It does not require any knowledge or skill of coding and is easy to learn how to use. The three parts of understanding what is Gutenberg editor in WordPress are:

  • Using Gutenberg.
  • What Gutenberg is not.
  • Benefits of Gutenberg.

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