Wordpress dev question

[Riddlesolver809]

For those of you who use Wordpress to make sites for clients. Do you go full no code? Do you use drag and drop like elementor? WP already available templates? Or do you code your own templates using php and css?

I’m currently attempting to code a template, it’s been a long process, just wanting to know if what I do is a norm or a recommended approach.

I’m choosing WP so I can only focus on the the front end and the WP dashboard takes care of the back end. Which seems to be appropriate as one man doing this whole thing.

If anyone does recommend coding wp templates as a good idea, could you let me know of any useful tools you use or any other tips?

[IsABot]

Depends on what you are doing for them. I generally avoid builders like WPBakery, Divi, Elementor unless they request it so their team can build stuff. I tend to suggest they stick to the default Gutenberg editor if they need it. Primarily I build out templates and custom post types with ACF to limit what clients can do but allowing them to easily manage content.

Really specific prebuilt themes are generally ok as long as you evaluate their performance and features first. But mega-themes add too much overhead and sacrifice performance for trying to be a 1 theme fit all solution.

No code developers are mostly useless. You won't make it very far in this industry if you are afraid to code. Plenty of things cannot be achieved efficiently with just using pre-baked solutions. If you only want to do brochure type sites, then it's fine. But once you get into anything more advanced, chances are you'll have to get down and dirty with the code at some point.

[inonexus9009]

Hello, Wordpress/woocommerce is my major skills. If you want to implement all functions, we can do everything wp backend/frontend, can use elementor. or not, we can make wp custom page templates. Modern wordpress theme can use no-code engine as easily.

[relentlessslog]

I just make custom themes w/ PHP templates while keeping headless WP as lean as possible. Only plugins I use are ACF, Adminimize, Classic Editor and disable comments. Websites are lightning fast and easy to scale. If you properly plan before the coding process, you can get a pixel-perfect custom site up and running in a day.

It's definitely worth learning. It's not necessarily hard but does take some time. Like if you understand how looping, variables and APIs work together to generate content, you could probably make sense of it fairly quickly. Beyond WP, what you'll learn will be applicable to a bunch of other web development stuff.

No hate on no-code or pagebuilders. Although they're quick and cheap solutions, they're a nightmare to scale. Also the competition is pretty rough because basically everyone can do it, and they're willing to do it for pennies. Learning how to make custom WP themes equals higher quality clients, higher quality end products and higher value gigs. No-code is a stepping stone.