Gutenberg vs Brizy: Which Page Builder Should You Use To Build Websites in 2024?

Gutenberg and Brizy are both great tools for building any kind of website. Both are relatively new, easy to use and offer tons of cool features.

Are you building a website and wondering which is best? There’s a strong case for each one.

We’ll walk you through both, and by the end of this article, you’ll have a good idea which is better for you.

We’ll discuss their key features, differences, capabilities, and a lot more. To make sure we are on the same page, we begin by getting a few basics out of the way.

What Is WordPress Gutenberg?

Gutenberg is the new default editor in WordPress. It allows you to build web pages using blocks – which is why it is called a block editor. Just like individual bricks can be put together to build a home, these blocks are individual elements that you can put together to build your website.

There are title blocks, content blocks, image blocks, and all kinds of blocks, allowing you to add all sorts of important components to your site.

And, the best part is, there is no need for coding. All you have to do is drag and drop the blocks to put them in place on a page.

Before Gutenberg was introduced in 2018, the WordPress editor was essentially a text editor that allowed you to add images, text, change its color, and little else.

If you wanted to design other parts of your site using the editor, you were limited by your theme’s design options. To make further changes, you had to use PHP, HTML, or CSS code.

Enter the Gutenberg block editor.

Although blocks were available long before Gutenberg, its coming featured the first time block-based WordPress design was made available by default.

It has been developed since its release in 2018, and today, Gutenberg offers many features that can rival even the best page builders in some respects.

Which leads us to Brizy, one of the best page builders available today.

What Is Brizy?

Just like Gutenberg, Brizy was released in 2018. It has already gained a massive user base with more than 80, 000 active installs. It is considered an excellent alternative to older, more popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder.

There are several reasons for its rapidly growing popularity.

For starters, Brizy focuses on ease-of-use, especially for beginners with little technical knowledge.

With its drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly add elements to pages and build a beautiful website within a matter of minutes. Brizy also offers lots of pre-built templates that allow you to quickly kick off the design process.

It has tons of other features. But before we discuss them, let’s walk through the differences between page builders and the block editor.

Page Builders vs Block Editor

So far, page builders – like Brizy – and the Gutenberg block editor might seem like the same thing. They are both tools that give you access to elements you can use to build your site.

But there are a few key differences between the Gutenberg block editor and a fully-featured WordPress page builder.

Here are the major ones:

1. Default vs third-party: As the default editor, Gutenberg is fully integrated with WordPress core. Page builders, on the other hand, are plugins created by third-party developers. This has a few implications which we will discuss later in the article.
2. Editor vs builder: The WordPress team calls Gutenberg a block editor instead of a page builder for a reason. While it is definitely a major update from the previous WordPress editor, the focus of Gutenberg is still text. In other words, the main purpose of Gutenberg is to make editing content in WordPress easier. Page builders, on the other hand, generally have a broader focus and will include everything you need to build entire web pages.
3. Backend vs frontend editing: Gutenberg offers only backend editing. While this gives you a pretty good idea of what your page will look like, you still have to preview it to be sure of how the page will look to visitors. Conversely, most page builders offer a frontend editor and live preview. This allows you to see the results of any changes you make in real-time.

Compare Gutenberg to Elementor here or Gutenberg with Beaver Builder.

Pages Builders and the Future of Web Design

Back in the day, the WordPress Editor was essentially a text editor, and making further changes to your site required coding knowledge.

To bridge the gap, developers created page builders. Users with little technical knowledge could perform advanced design actions like adjusting page layouts, creating custom headers and footers, and so much more.

With the introduction of Gutenberg, many of the features offered by page builders are now present in WordPress by default.

Naturally, the question most WordPress developers debate over is whether the Gutenberg editor has, or will, replace page builders. Today the answer is no, as most page builders are still significantly more sophisticated.

While the Gutenberg editor provides an intuitive and user-friendly way to build websites, it is still largely a content editor with a few limitations.

As more upgrades roll out, however, Gutenberg will eventually match and then surpass every other page builder.

Gutenberg and Brizy Compared

Now that you understand the differences between the block editor and page builders, we can discuss how Gutenberg compares to Brizy specifically.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Capabilities

The Gutenberg editor lets you edit all content on the pages you create but you are limited to the constraints of your theme’s core layout. This is because Gutenberg cannot override your theme’s settings or styles. Instead, it takes on most of these settings.

As such, when you use Gutenberg, your page layouts depend on your theme.

Brizy, on the other hand, is a full page builder with all that entails. It offers a lot more flexibility and gives you the freedom to break away from your theme’s layout and settings to create unique designs.

You can add content to pages, edit the content and change a page’s entire layout including the header, footer, and sidebars.

There are more styling and design options with Brizy that give you full control of your site’s design.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Ease of Use

Both Gutenberg and Brizy have a drag and drop interface that makes them very easy to use. But there are a few differences between the two.

With the Gutenberg editor, you can drag blocks and drop them anywhere you want on a page. However, you can’t adjust the height or width of these blocks, add one element to another or create complex layouts. Compared with most page builders, the options are pretty basic.

The drag and drop feature of Brizy, on the other hand, allows you to go way beyond just moving elements around. You can adjust height and width, create complex layouts and place certain elements within other elements. This gives you much more control over the design of your web pages.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Key features

As an upgrade from the TinyMCE editor, Gutenberg has a lot of cool features that were long anticipated by WordPress users.

Here are some of them:

• It uses a block-based approach to page design and offers a wide range of block types. These include paragraph, heading, cover image, video, and much more.
• Gutenberg has a Reusable Blocks Library that allows you to save blocks you’ve edited and use them later.
• The backend editor is a WYSIWYG editor that lets you see content in a format close to the way it will appear on the front end of your site.
• It offers a ‘Document Outline’ feature that gives you a quick overview of a page’s content structure. From the Document Outline, you can see the overall word count, along with the number and hierarchy of headings, paragraphs, and blocks on a page. You can also use it to easily navigate to and edit an individual block.
• Gutenberg allows full-width alignment when you use a theme that supports this feature. With this, you can create stunning designs by stretching your content to the full width of a page.
• The Block Editor offers anchor support, a feature that lets you link blocks to other areas on a page.
• Gutenberg is an open-source project which is constantly getting upgraded by some of the best WordPress developers around the world. This means that it can only get better with time!

You can expand Gutenberg further with block plugins.

Brizy, on the other hand, has quickly become one of the most popular page builders, easily competing with older page builders like Divi and Beaver Page Builder. This is because of its impressive collection of innovative features:

• Brizy has over 500 content blocks that you can select from to build your site.
• In addition, it has more than 60 pre-designed website templates that cover a wide variety of categories. These include blogs, businesses, personal, and one-page websites.
• Brizy offers a library of over 4000 vector icons that you can use for added style and uniqueness across your website.
• There are over 40 attractive pop-ups available in the builder that you can use to boost conversions.
• It gives you access to several advanced marketing tools and is compatible with a range of popular third-party marketing tools.
• Brizy offers both a WordPress page builder plugin and a cloud-based website builder platform.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Key Differences

In addition to the differences in the drag and drop interface, and the level of flexibility offered, there are some other key differences to keep in mind.

Because Gutenberg is part of the WordPress core, it is compatible with all WordPress plugins on the market. This means you are free to use basically any plugin you want without worrying about the editor getting in the way.

On the other hand, while Brizy offers support for well-coded plugins, it’s still a third party plugin and that brings with it a certain degree of risk when combined with other plugins.

Gutenberg also doesn’t offer pre-designed templates that allow you to quickly build your site. That said, there are quite a few third party plugins that provide these features. Brizy, on the other hand, has more than 60 that you can choose from.

This might make Brizy a better choice for people who are new to WordPress or just don’t have the time to invest in making custom websites.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Live Editing Experience

As already mentioned, Gutenberg only offers backend editing so it’s still necessary to preview your site’s frontend to be sure exactly how it will appear to visitors.

Like most other modern page builders, Brizy offers a more intuitive experience. The front-end editor allows you to see exactly how your website will appear to visitors in real time, whether you are building for desktop or for mobile, or other screen sizes. You can also preview your web pages, as with Gutenberg, by simply clicking on the preview icon.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Responsive Features

Gutenberg by itself does not offer features that boost your site’s responsiveness. However, since it relies heavily on your theme’s settings, you can simply pair it with any of the best responsive WordPress themes.

Conversely, Brizy has several features which allow you to design highly responsive sites. These include the option to see how your design will look on mobile devices, and the ability to hide certain elements on mobile devices.

You’ll still want to use a properly responsive theme for the best results though.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Advanced Features

Gutenberg, on its own, does not offer a lot of advanced features. But since it can be used with basically any WordPress plugin, there are thousands of tools available to extend its functionality.

In fact, many developers have created third-party blocks that you can add to Gutenberg’s default collection of blocks.

Our Spectra, for instance, gives you access to blocks like info box, advanced heading, price lists, social share, star rating, and more.

Brizy offers several advanced features for free. These include built-in visual contact forms, the option to turn any block into a slider, and global blocks. Even compared with other third party page builders, these features are impressive.

The premium version gives you access to even more features such as a WooCommerce builder, sticky header functionality, white-label options, A/B split testing, and much more. It also supports a wide range of plugins that can be used to further enhance its functionality.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Impact on Page Speed

In terms of speed, Gutenberg is always the clear winner when compared to third party page builders. That’s because it is now an integral part of the WordPress core. When you use it, you are not installing additional software that could slow down your site.

To prove this, we ran a Pagespeed Insights test on a default WordPress installation (with Gutenberg) and another with Brizy. We tested the same webpage with a bit of content and an image, and found that the version with Brizy scored a decent 98 but the version with Gutenberg scored a perfect 100.

The Gutenberg page also outperformed the Brizy page in all other relevant metrics such as First Contentful Paint, Speed Index, Largest Contentful Paint, and Time to Interactive. These metrics are a crucial part of Google’s Core Web Vitals, which are now a ranking factor.

These differences may not seem like much–and to be fair both tools have performed very well in this test, but once you start adding lots of images and other bits of content, you’ll want to have every possible advantage, no matter how slight.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – Pricing

As WordPress’s default editor, Gutenberg is completely free to use. Brizy, on the other hand, has free and paid versions. Compared to Gutenberg and to most other page builders, the free version offers an impressive collection of features.

Paid options start at $34 per year and are generally quite affordable. Each plan is available in either a yearly or lifetime plan as follows:

• The Personal plan costs $34 yearly or $104 for the lifetime plan
• The Freelancer plan costs $69 yearly and $209 for the lifetime plan
• The Agency plan costs $139 yearly and $279 for the lifetime plan

How to Build a Page With Gutenberg

There is no need to install any software to start using the block editor. It was introduced with WordPress 5.0. So if you are using the latest version of WordPress, then you already have the Gutenberg Editor.

If not, you need to update WordPress and all your plugins to the latest version.

Most WordPress updates do not come with the latest version of the Gutenberg builder. More recent versions of the editor will usually be a beta release which means it is still being tested before getting incorporated into the WordPress core.

If you would like to use it, you can download it as a plugin from the WordPress plugin directory. You probably shouldn’t follow this approach if you are not an experienced user, as the plugin offers beta features that may cause complications with your live website.

To use Gutenberg, simply create a new post or page–or open an existing one. At the top left corner of your page, you’ll see a blue box with a plus sign. Clicking this opens up the block panel – where you’ll find all of your blocks.

To add a new block to your page, click on a block, drag it to the blank area and release it. Another option is to hover over a particular area on the page and a plus sign will appear.

Clicking it will open a list of popular blocks. You can select one from there or click ‘Browse all’ to see all your block options.

Once you’ve added a block, you might want to customize it. When you hover over a block, a small menu bar will appear with a few basic customization options.

`For more advanced options, check the sidebar on the right of the page. This sidebar is dynamic. When you select a block, it automatically shows you all the relevant editing options for that particular block.

If you want to remove a block, hover your mouse over it. In the menu bar that appears, you’ll see three dots on the right side. Click it and select Remove Block

To move a block around, you can hover your mouse over it and use the Up or Down arrows that appear in the menu bar to move it in those directions.

Another option is to select the six dots next to the Up and Down arrows. This activates the drag and drop functionality, allowing you to move the selected block around.

Learn more about building a site with Gutenberg in this extensive guide.

How to Build a Page With Brizy

Building a page with Brizy is easy but slightly less straightforward than using Gutenberg. The very first step is to install the Brizy Page Builder plugin. Once that is done, create a new page or post or open an existing one.

You’ll see a button labeled ‘Edit with Brizy’. Click on this to start designing your page in the resulting interface.

Once in, you can design your page from scratch, or can simply use a pre-designed template.

To add elements to your page, select the plus icon in the toolbar on the left side of the page. This will open up a library containing various elements.

Once you add an element to your page, you can simply click on it to reveal the customization options.

Moving elements around is also very easy. All you need to do is click, drag and then drop them into whichever block you want.

Gutenberg Is Best For…

Gutenberg focuses on giving web designers a modern content editing experience. It makes it easy for web designers to create great content. As such, it is especially great for content-focused individuals like bloggers, writers and photographers.

Brizy Is Best For…

While the block editor focuses on content, Brizy is more focused on helping you build well-designed and fully functional websites to boost conversions. This makes it great for businesses of all kinds.

With Brizy, it is easy to build professional landing pages, use pop-ups and add marketing tools such as MailChimp and ConvertKit to your site.

Gutenberg vs Brizy – The Verdict

At this point, we must state that the term “best” is relative. Both Gutenberg and Brizy are easy, intuitive, and affordable ways to build your website.

Each has pros and cons that make it better suited for certain situations. If speed and content are your priorities, Gutenberg is best. But if you need more creative freedom or you are looking to build a business site, Brizy might be a better choice.

Both tools are capable of building most types of web pages so when it comes down to it, the choice will be between spending more resources on designing your website when you use Gutenberg or spending more resources on optimizing your website’s performance when you use Brizy.

There are other great WordPress page builders to consider. And while you contemplate which one to use, remember that the best way to make the most of any WordPress page builder or block editor is to pair it with a powerful lightweight and responsive theme like Astra.

Have you built a website using Brizy or Gutenberg? What was your experience and which would you recommend? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!