5+ Practical Plugins for Gutenberg
The biggest change in WordPress since its launch day has definitely been the release of Gutenberg. In December 2018 it became the default editor, much to the dismay of a large portion of the WordPress community. Many users were quite perplexed by the newly introduced world of blocks, and even developers were a bit unsure at first as to how to create blocks in Gutenberg. In order to make your editor more powerful we’ve singled out 5 practical plugins for Gutenberg you should consider installing. Get them and add more cool features to your website in just a few moments.
Here is our list of the 5 practical plugins for Gutenberg:
Gutenberg Blocks Design Library is an assortment of readymade designs comprised of various default WordPress blocks. This plugin doesn’t use any custom blocks at all. It builds complex layouts by adding different styles to already-existing core blocks. That’s why it works really fast and why it’s fully compatible with other Gutenberg themes and plugins. You can combine multiple sections, which surely facilitates the page creation process.
Once you install the plugin, a carrot-shaped icon appears in the top right corner of the menu. To import 50 free designs, simply click the icon. If you also subscribe to the developer’s website, you’ll get another 50 layouts for free. The layout collection is constantly updated and the authors usually release new designs every two weeks. Their aim is to have 1000 templates in the collection by the end of 2019.
After you choose a design to your liking, a combination of blocks that the design consists of will appear in your backend. You can modify images, texts, etc. as per your requirements, without even having to bother with blocks. Simply edit the layout you’ve imported and style it as per your taste. If, for some reason, you decide to remove the plugin at some point, don’t worry about losing the content. It’ll remain intact in the core block design.
GutenBee at the moment bundles 27 custom blocks with new blocks and updated features added regularly. Some of the more notable ones are the Food Menu block, the Google Maps block with SnazzyMaps styles support, the review block with multiple rating categories and automatic review score calculation, the Post Types block for easy post listings & grids creation with support for category filtering and more.
With the Container block, you can create flexible and responsive layouts with variable column numbers, zoom & parallax effects, background videos and more.
GutenBee blocks offer extensive appearance options with customizable colors, backgrounds, borders, shadows and more. Additionally, their visibility options allow you to show or hide blocks based on the type of device they are being viewed on or show/hide blocks for logged-in or logged-out users.
Unlike the first plugin on our list, Premium Blocks for Gutenberg uses custom blocks only. Some of the blocks that come with plugin are: Gutenberg Banner Block, Gutenberg Button Block, Gutenberg Counter Block, Gutenberg Testimonials Block, Gutenberg Video Box Block, and many more. Updates are released usually every week and the block list is ever-growing. There’s no premium version yet.
When you wish to add a block, you’ll find them all that come with the plugin under the Premium Blocks option. Edit them just like any other block. Simply click on the gear icon in the upper-right side of the screen. Switch to the Block tab once the sidebar opens.
So far, 12 custom blocks have been published. I especially liked the Gutenberg Banner Block, because it’s beautifully animated and it includes some pretty awesome options.
This plugin already packs a great set of blocks, and the collection gets regularly updated. It’s fully compatible with Gutenberg, and definitely worth the try!
The Atomic Blocks plugin includes a set of 12 custom blocks that you can add to the ones that come with Gutenberg by default. There are all sorts of blocks, such as the Pricing Block, the Post Grid Block, the Container Block, the Inline Notice Block, to name a few. This list will surely continue to grow as authors work on regularly updating the plugin. Each block can be modified to fit the overall style of your website.
All blocks are really useful, but I especially liked the Inline Notice Block and the Author Profile Block. You can use the former to display important info on your website, and the latter to add author details to any of the pages.
Gutenberg Blocks – Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg is another great plugin that includes a collection of custom blocks that help you build a terrific website. It features blocks like the Post Masonry block, the Info Box block, the Google Map block, and many more. Once you install the plugin you’ll notice the Ultimate Blocks Library Blocks in your backend editor. Here you can choose which blocks to activate and also to deactivate.
For me, the Content Timeline block stood out, because it enables you to create gorgeous timelines and add them to your website.
Stackable – Gutenberg Blocks is another amazing plugin that makes website building easier. Currently, there are +20 block in total and these are just some of the blocks that come with it: Pricing Box, Video Popup, Testimonials, etc. Upon plugin activation, you’ll see a Stackable area in your editor. The blocks that you can add to your posts and pages are listed here.
The most interesting block to me is the Card Block. You can use it to create stylish showcases of your works, provide all sorts of information to your crowd, and much more.
Conclusion
We’ve come to the end of our list of 5 practical plugins for Gutenberg. Regardless of which one you choose to add to your WordPress website, each will without a doubt extend the overall functionality of the new editor. You’ll have more control over your content and you’ll be able to style it to perfection. Make sure to regularly update the plugin of your choice though, as developers constantly work on ironing out the problems that have occurred. Furthermore, they keep adding new block types all the time, and you wouldn’t want to miss out on that!
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
Valerie Way
Hello Dusica! Thanks a lot for your work. There’s one more functional Gutenberg plugin with a great number of blocks available (19+) – Getwid by MotoPress. It’d be amazing to hear your thoughts on it. Thanks in advance!
Dusica Popovic
Hi Valerie! Thanks a bunch for your comment and for your interest on this matter!
I’ve just tried the Getwid plugin as per your suggestion, and I must say, I really enjoyed its simplicity! There’s a lot of additional blocks to choose from, and I especially liked the Image Slider Block and the Banner Block. The former is super elegant, and the latter comes with some stunning animations! All in all, this plugin has huge potential, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the updates will bring!
Thank you for reading WPKlik, take care & have a lovely one!
Valerie Way
Hello again Dusica, and thanks sincerely for sharing your feedback. Reading your posts is a huge inspiration and your opinion is truly valuable for me. Best of the luck with all of your projects and keep up the great work. Thanks once more for sharing your knowledge with us, readers!