Why I Almost Gave Up on Using Gutenberg Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks vs Page Builders vs Kadence Blocks

If you’ve ever wanted to throw your laptop out the window while building a WordPress page, you’re not alone. At one point, I nearly gave up on Gutenberg blocks and used a page builder instead. But something changed my mind—and it all started with a block plugin called Kadence.

📌In a Nutshell: Gutenberg Blocks vs Page Builders vs Kadence Blocks

If you’re frustrated with WordPress design, here’s the short version:
Gutenberg Blocks → Fast, clean, built into WordPress, but limited for creative layouts.
Page Builders (Divi, Elementor) → Powerful and flexible, but often heavy, slow, and prone to conflicts.
Kadence Blocks → The sweet spot. Lightweight like Gutenberg, but with the design control of a builder—without the bloat.
Bottom line:
If Gutenberg feels too basic and page builders feel too bloated, Kadence Blocks offers speed, flexibility, and smooth workflows without overwhelming your site or your sanity.

Kadence blocks vs all of the builders that I used and didn't like

Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase. Please note that I only get affiliate links for products that I use.

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From HTML to WordPress

The Early Days of Manual Coding

Back when I started coding websites, in 1999, creating a site meant hours of typing HTML and CSS. I would pore over HTML for Dummies books, looking for information. Every change took forever, and every small error could break the whole page. It was slow work, to say the least.

Enter WordPress

In 2002, I discovered WordPress. Suddenly, I could build websites faster, but I still needed to use some custom HTML and CSS coding to get a site looking the way I wanted. That worked fine for a while, but WordPress was initially made for blogging and I wanted to do something more creative, more customized.

Website Creation Programs

I started a brief love affair with Adobe GoLive, then Macromedia Dreamweaver, where I could have a lot more control over the design of a website, but as WordPress evolved, I always went back to it.

I took a course in PHP coding and built my own WordPress theme – I was hooked. After seeing what was “under the hood”, I realized that WordPress was the platform that I would use from then on.

woman staring at computer in frustration

Page Builder Promises (and Pitfalls)

The Dream

The Classic version of WordPress was a little clunky, but with my coding background, I could make it work.

But then came the WordPress page builders. They promised easy design, fast updates, and beautiful pages – just drag and drop your content.

The Divi theme and builder came out around 2013. This visual page builder was awesome to use, and I quickly became a life-time subscriber and an affiliate. I used Divi for years, and loved the custom sites that I could put together with very little code.

The Reality Check

But, Divi – and a lot of other page builders, including Elementor – started to turn into a bloated builder that had too many bells and whistles. Every update included more and more options that really weren't needed on the average website, and all of that added code would slow a site to a crawl.

Suddenly, simple changes became difficult. I spent hours fixing layout issues, only to break something else. Instead of saving time, I was losing it. My frustration grew with every update.

Then, in 2018, WordPress introduced Gutenberg blocks.

My First Impressions of Gutenberg Blocks

At first glance, Gutenberg blocks felt familiar. A row layout was used like a <div> in HTML. It was easy to adjust image alignment and size. And Gutenberg blocks were responsive right out of the box.

The basic blocks worked for headlines, paragraphs and images. But the problems started right away:

Pros:

  • Part of the WordPress core
  • Faster than most big page builders

Cons:

  • Layout options were limited
  • Custom designs just didn’t look right
  • Plugins were needed to add some basic functions

After months of this, I was ready to go back to old-school builders.

Discovering Kadence Blocks

I started to discover block plugins in forums and on Facebook. I tried Stackable, Ultimate Blocks and several more. They gave some good customization options, but they sometimes had conflicts with my theme or with other plugins.

While searching for better block plugins, I found Kadence blocks, built to go with the Kadence theme. I like to call Kadence a “skeleton theme”, because it is minimal, clean and fast. Since the plugin is built by the same people who built the theme, they work together seamlessly.

a happynwoman sitting at a desk with a laptop

How Kadence Helped Me Fall in Love with Building Websites Again

Kadence theme and Kadence blocks gave me more block options, better control over columns, margins, and padding, and didn't come with stuff I didn't need.

I could style pages any way I wanted, without having to add more plugins. My sites became faster and leaner.

Gutenberg blocks vs Page Builders If I didn't have Kadence blocks, I probably would still be building sites with Divi, and dealing with the bloat. Building a fancy site with Divi, with animations and sliders and all sorts of fancy stuff is too easy and too tempting. But all of that fancy stuff comes with a price: a slow site that tends to have plugin conflicts.

Page Builders vs Kadence blocks While Gutenberg blocks are fine for simple pages, they leave you wanting more control. Kadence blocks give me flexibility and creative options. There are enough animation styles and other fancy stuff without loading tons of code that I'll never use.

Helpful Links

Final Thoughts
Don’t let frustration win. If Gutenberg blocks have left you stuck, or site builders have slowed you down, give Kadence a try. It changed everything for me—and it might do the same for you.

Gutenberg is fast, stable, and perfect for simple pages or blog posts. But for creative layouts or advanced design control, most users quickly run into limitations. That’s where block plugins like Kadence Blocks fill the gaps.

They can. Page builders add extra scripts, styles, and layout engines, which often increase load time. This isn’t always a deal-breaker, but on shared hosting or large sites, the slowdown becomes noticeable.

Not automatically. Page builder layouts won’t convert into Gutenberg layouts. You can rebuild pages section-by-section using Kadence Blocks, which usually results in faster and cleaner pages.

Yes—because it works inside the normal Gutenberg editor. You get more control (spacing, columns, design options) without needing a separate interface or drag-and-drop canvas.

You don’t need Pro, but it adds helpful features like advanced sliders, animations, and dynamic content. The free version is powerful enough for most bloggers and service-based sites.

Kadence loads only the CSS/JS you actually use. Page builders load large libraries whether you use them or not, which creates bloat. Leaner code = faster sites.

Yes. Every WordPress update adds new block controls, patterns, and design tools. It’s still catching up to page builders—but improving quickly.

Hey there!

I'm Diane Houghton and I've been working with WordPress for 20 years. I can code a website using HTML, CSS and PHP, but I'd rather drag and drop designs from my own custom Kadence Library.

I have built websites for dozens of small businesses, and now my focus is on teaching. I have taught 1000+ WordPress beginners to build, design and optimize their blogs.

Diane Houghton, owner at WP Basics Guide

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