Gutenberg is the default editor in WordPress since version 5.0 (December 2018). The editor is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. With Gutenberg you build content using “blocks” — reusable elements such as paragraphs, images, buttons and columns.
How does Gutenberg work?
Rather than a single text field (like the classic editor), Gutenberg offers a modular approach:
- Blocks: every piece of content is a block. There are blocks for text, media, layout, widgets and more.
- Drag and drop: blocks can be dragged and rearranged to create your desired layout.
- Reusable blocks: create a block once and use it across multiple pages.
- Block patterns: pre-designed combinations of blocks that you can insert straight away.
Gutenberg vs page builders
Although Gutenberg is becoming increasingly powerful, page builders such as Elementor still offer more advanced design capabilities. The difference:
- Gutenberg: free, built into WordPress, lighter and faster, but fewer visual design options.
- Elementor: greater design freedom, live preview, advanced widgets, but can make your WordPress website heavier.
Full Site Editing (FSE)
With Full Site Editing, Gutenberg extends beyond content alone to designing your entire website, including headers, footers and templates. Combined with the right plugins and CSS customisations, FSE offers a powerful alternative to traditional page builders.
