Category: WordPress websites

Discover WPMasterToolKit the essential plugin to simplify your life and lighten your WordPress sites.

This made-in-France plugin, developed by Webdeclic's talented Ludwig YOU, brings together a host of essential WordPress features, each of which you can activate with a single click. All in a single extension: simplifying your management while speeding up your site! 🚀

A truly different plugin

WPMasterToolKit is simple and flexible. With over 83 free features already activated, this plugin lets you replace countless extensions with just one.

What makes WPMasterToolKit unique, apart from being French, is its ability to activate only the features you need, without unnecessarily burdening your site. Where other extensions are monolithic, loading unnecessary scripts even when you're not using them, WPMasterToolKit is designed to be light and efficient.

If a feature is disabled, the associated program won't load at all. In this way, you reduce your site's resource use and improve its performance, by loading only the features you really need.

Other functionalities are in the pipeline, and some are available as premium features to perpetuate the project.

The developer, Ludwig YOU, is very attentive to suggestions and is actively improving his plugin. This includes the recent addition of a tab that lets you see active features at a glance.

Key features of WPMasterToolKit

Here are some of my favorite features so far:

1. Hide WordPress version

Hiding the WordPress version displayed in the source code is an excellent security measure. It reduces the chances of your site being targeted by automated attacks aimed at specific WordPress versions.

2. Limitation of revisions

Managing content revisions is an often overlooked point that can quickly overload the database. WPMasterToolKit allows you to limit the number of revisions per article, which helps keep the database clean and efficient.

3. Disable emoji support

Emojis are useful for some sites, but most modern browsers already natively support these symbols. Disabling support for emojis in WordPress can reduce page load times.

4. Disable Really Simple Discovery (RSD) tags

By disabling the loading of RSD tags (and scripts like Dashicons for offline visitors), you can reduce the loading time of your public pages, especially if your site doesn't use third-party services that require these elements.

5. Disable jQuery Migrate

If your site uses recent versions of jQuery, the script jQuery Migrate becomes useless and can be disabled to improve page loading speed.

Other interesting features

In addition to these favorite features, WPMasterToolKit also offers a host of tools to make the day-to-day management of your site easier. Among the most popular are :

• Self-publishing of missed articles Automatically publish items that have missed their planning date.
• SMTP management Connects to a third-party SMTP server to relay your e-mails more reliably.
• Disabling REST APIs for unauthenticated users REST: improves security by limiting access to data via the REST API.
• Email ban Block the creation of user accounts with temporary or unauthorized email addresses.
• Maintenance mode displays a customized maintenance page while you're working, without hindering administrators.
• Redirect 404s to home page Enhances the user experience by redirecting non-existent pages to the home page.

And many more besides... The best thing is to explore and test for yourself! Who knows, you could replace dozens of plugins!

An essential WordPress toolkit that needs to be better known

With a host of customizable features, you have everything you need to customize and control your site, improve performance and enhance security.

At the time of writing, this new plugin has over 500 active installations. For me, this plugin is a real game changer, and I'm convinced that it will pass the thousand mark well before the end of the year, and that its popularity will then explode.

Try it today! WPMasterToolkit on WordPress.org

Finding the best cache plugin isn't easy. You have to test it, measure its performance, find out about its long-term support...

So what's the fastest cache? What's the best cache plugin? Which are practical and complete, which are efficient? Do I need to pay for a good cache plugin?

Today, we're trying to answer these questions with independent measurements that are as objective as possible. The test is a bit "meta" in that it involves testing on lrob.fra showcase/blog created with FSE (full site editing). A standard, lightweight site.

Introduction

The objective of a cache plugin: to fall below 200ms response time or "TTFB" (Time To First Byte; 200ms is the maximum time recommended by Google PageSpeed Insights).

But not all caches are created equal, as Yoan De Macedo reminds us in his blog post. Some perform better than others, while others may even degrade performance. So to really choose the best cache, you need to test several on your own site and measure the results precisely. Given the variability of response times, it's important to carry out tests over a period of time and average the results. This can be tedious, however, so you may want to use this comparison test as a starting point.

We also remind you that caching isn't everything. Caching can reduce server resources, but your site must be optimized from the outset. Otherwise, it's called "cache misery". So opt for lightweight, well-optimized plugins and themes to avoid unpleasant surprises. The cache will then be the icing on the cake.

Plugins tested

I have based this list of plugins to test on a "top" list of caching plugins as well as on my experience with plugins actually encountered by various hosted customers:

1. Autoptimize
2. Breeze
3. Cachify
4. LiteSpeed Cache
5. WP Fastest Cache
6. WP-Optimize
7. W3 Total Cache
8. Bonus : Solid Performance (new plugin)

Test protocol

This LRob test is in no way sponsored by any caching plugin. It is intended to be as objective as possible. However, this test is only a reflection of itself and of our opinion, which cannot be perfectly objective and is therefore not intended to produce general truths. LRob is a independent web host specializing in WordPress.

Website details

The test is performed on https://www.lrob.fr/. The WP-Cron function is deactivated and executed directly by the server every 4 minutes. The site runs under PHP 8.3.12 in dedicated FPM behind Apache 2, with MariaDB 11.4. Redis server is also available on the host server (version 5:6.0.16).

Theme

The site is built with FSE and the Twenty Twenty-Four theme.

Plugins

The site has 17 active plugins at the time of testing (not including the cache plugin tested):

See the list of plugins

• How to use Blacklist Updater
• Complianz | GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent
• Connect Matomo
• Easy WP SMTP
• hCaptcha for WP
• Insert PHP Code Snippet
• Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions
• Rank Math SEO
• Regenerate Thumbnails
• Simple Local Avatars
• Site Reviews
• Social Sharing Block
• TranslatePress - Developer
• TranslatePress - Multilingual
• Update URLs
• WPForms Lite
• WPMasterToolKit

Measurements and details

Response time is measured with Uptime Kuma on a server at PulseHeberg in Switzerland (Lausanne), which provides this average. The production server is located at Hetzner in Falkenstein, Germany.

Each plugin is tested successively, with a measurement every 20 seconds for 5 minutes or more (sometimes I went for a coffee in between), i.e. a minimum of 15 measurements to obtain a consistent average.

Between each test, Uptime Kuma's recorded values are erased after an initial measurement once the cache is in place; the cache folder is deleted and it has been verified that the .htaccess and wp-config.php are indeed free of any trace of the previous plugin.

Protocol limitations

The test was carried out on a server in production, generating a slightly higher variability of results than that observed on a server with no activity. However, server usage is very moderate at the time of the test, and the variability is offset by a series of over 15 measurements each time, enabling the results to be averaged. The aim is not to get the value to the nearest millisecond, but to obtain an order of magnitude.

Furthermore, the test was carried out on a specific site and cannot be extrapolated to all sites: every site is different and will respond differently to certain plugins (particularly stores). But if your site is made with the Twenty Twenty-Four theme or another FSE (Full Site Editing) theme, then chances are your results will be similar.

Tests and Benchmarks

Baseline - Test control: Response without cache plugin

Without any caching plugins, the site responds in 379ms on average, with little variability. This is a relatively low base value, since sites made with builders can easily take 2 to 4x this response time.

Let's take a look at how different caching plugins improve response times.

Autoptimize

Average response: 379ms

The response time is identical to the site without cache. And for good reason: Autoptimize's caching function is in fact only available with the paid plugin. In other words, you won't be able to speed up your site with the free version. That's a shame.

However, as the developer points out Simon JANVIERAutoptimize, in its free version, is more useful for intelligent concatenation and minification of scripts. In this respect, it can lighten your site, but will not improve its TTFB (response time).

Breeze

Contrary to what I initially thought, Breeze isn't just for Cloudways or Varnish, it also works on a classic system. I therefore add it to this test and thank Michael GOUT for bringing this plugin to my attention.

Average response: 98ms

The result is amazing: under 100ms with very stable response times! I'm just discovering this plugin and I'm falling out of my chair!

I have a minor reservation about the plugin's compatibility with all sites, due to the comments on wordpress.org. From these comments, it seems that its use could cause some problems with the most dynamic or complex sites, such as WooCommerce e-commerce sites.

For the rest, it seems an excellent choice not to be missed.

Cachify

Cachify offers database caching by default, and also supports file and Redis caching. We tested the default cache and Redis. Apart from that, very few other settings are available to us.

Average response: 260ms

The results are similar between the "Database" cache and Redis, within the margin of error. However, the results seem to be more stable with Redis. In all cases, the result exceeds the expected 200ms, which is disappointing. This plugin cannot really be recommended.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache has been in the news a lot recently for its security flaws. The plugin also claims to correspond to an Apache server. So how does it fare in practice?

Average response: 376ms

A disappointing result for LiteSpeed cache on our test configuration, since the site is within the margin of error of the site's original response time, without cache.

And for good reason, as Louis ChanceLiteSpeed, as its name suggests, doesn't cache anything on an Apache server! You need an available LiteSpeed server. We can't recommend this plugin if you're running Apache, given the performance it delivers and the many recent security flaws.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache offers a configuration wizard and numerous settings. It's the most complete free plugin I know. It supports various cache types, including Redis. Here, minification has been activated, which may slightly increase the measured response time but offers better performance for visitors with slower connections (mobile, ADSL, etc.).

Average response: 159ms

Finally, a result under 200ms! With Redis, so avoiding thousands of cache files. And great control over settings and options like Lazy Load for images, and disabling certain optional WordPress scripts. Its versatile configuration will enable you to adapt more precisely to each site: you can measure the performance obtained with different settings and choose the most relevant for your specific site.

In addition, the other types of cache available also perform well, although not tested today, the results are fairly similar whatever the type of cache chosen.

In our experience, this plugin has never disappointed, so it's highly recommendable. (It's even LRob.fr)

WP Fastest Cache

This plugin offers some interesting options in its free version. However, some of the options offered free with W3 Total Cache are missing.

But the most important thing today: does this plugin live up to its name, by actually being the fastest?

Average response: 123ms

This plugin lives up to its name, being one of the fastest tested! In our test, however, Breeze came out on top.

At LRob, we've seen many diverse blogs achieve great results with this plugin. It has never disappointed, and we recommend it without hesitation.

WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize offers very few cache settings. In fact, its primary function seems to be database cleansing. So how does it fare when it comes to caching?

Response time variability is too high for our liking, with responses oscillating between 132 and 180ms.

Nevertheless, the average remains very good at 152ms. A pleasant surprise.

We're not at all reassured by this variability, and so don't recommend this plugin as a cache. All the more so as we've already observed sites that were slower with this plugin than without... So use it with caution as a cache.

Solid Performance

As a bonus, I'd like you to try out a new caching plugin, Solid Performance, which looks promising. (thanks to Julien ROUSSEL for recommendation).

Average response: 155ms

Although it provides no adjustment whatsoever, its measured response time is among the best in this test. Enough to potentially satisfy those who don't feel like making the slightest adjustment. As the plugin is young, it hasn't yet been tested, but a cache plugin can easily be changed if necessary in most cases, so there's not much risk in trying it out if you feel like it!

Summary of results and conclusion

Plugin	Average response (ms)	Percentage (lower is better)
Baseline (no cache)	379	100%
Autoptimize	379	100%
Breeze 🥇	98	25.8%
Cachify Database	257	67.8%
Cachify Redis	263	69.4%
LiteSpeed	376	99.2%
W3 Total Cache Redis 🥉	159	41.9%
WP Fastest Cache 🥈	123	32.4%
WP-Optimize	152	40.1%
Solid Performance	155	40.9%

We have no hesitation in recommending Breeze, WP Fastest Cache and W3 Total Cache which are all excellent. They offer very good response times with sufficient settings, even in the free version. It should be noted, however, that Breeze may cause a few problems on some sites. Also, W3 is a little more complete in the free version than WP Fastest Cache, which is why it has been chosen for WP Fastest Cache. LRob.frbut Breeze could potentially replace it in the long term, as it provides almost as many functions while being simpler to use.

In summary, according to our test :

• Choose Breeze for maximum performance, rather for showcase sites
• Choose W3 Total Cache for the highest level of customization, or if your host supports Redis (as is the case with LRob accommodation)
• Choose WP Fastest Cache for excellent performance without configuration

A mention for WP-Optimize, which despite its lack of settings and wide variability in response time, shows a perfectly decent average response time. Mention also to Solid Performance which, as a newcomer, lives up to its name and looks promising without revolutionizing anything, as it stands, due to its lack of settings. Cachify's settings and performance are inferior to those of other plugins. We can't comment on LiteSpeed in our Apache configuration (except to say that its usefulness is very limited in this type of configuration). Autoptimize, finally, offers no improvement in loading times and is therefore totally useless for this purpose, according to our measurements, but could be used in conjunction with a caching plugin to reduce the number of files.

Given the good results obtained with these free plugins, it doesn't seem essential to pay for a cache plugin if you don't need the additional functions offered. We may, however, test the paid versions in a future article, if you're interested.

It goes without saying that high-performance hosting is essential to achieve the best response times. To achieve this LRob accommodation are here to serve you (in every sense of the word)!

Imagine the drama: only 1 chance in 10 that your requests will reach you!

Contact forms are essential for acquiring customers. Yet a number of these forms are poorly configured and fail to forward prospect requests...

What's more, forms are supposed to be designed to save you time... And a few tricks can help you do just that... For example, by not receiving spam or by being able to reply more quickly.

Today, LRob saves you time and leads!

1. Do not set the customer's email address as From

The most frequent error when configuring contact forms is to consider the customer as the sender of the e-mail.

It may seem logical to put your email address in the "From" field, but this causes a major problem: mail spoofingor identity theft.

In this way, your website pretends to be your customer's email address (for example : john.doe@microsoft.com). If your customer's domain is secure (which is often the case), it will refuse to let your server send an e-mail on its behalf. The message will then be silently blocked by your email provider, or considered spam... 9 chances out of 10 that you'll be considered a spammer.

The solution is very simple: the e-mail sender must always be an address linked to your own domain. For example, use an address such as : site@votredomaine.fr. This ensures that emails sent from your form will not be rejected or classified as spam.

2. Protect your forms with a Captcha

Don't forget to add a Captcha to avoid spam.

Captcha isn't there just to annoy people: it's a simple, effective solution for filtering robots and preserving the quality of messages received.

Without this protection, you'll receive dozens or even hundreds of unsolicited messages a day, wasting time sorting through them and missing out on genuine requests.

To respect the privacy of your users, I recommend hCaptcha.

3. Configure SMTP on your site

Your website should have a dedicated e-mail address with a real SMTP login for your mailings. As a reminder, SMTP is the standard protocol for sending e-mail.

If your mail is with Gmail or Microsoft, this will be more complicated to apply because you pay for each mailbox and SMTP is disabled by default... But if it's with your preferred host so don't worry!

For WordPress, I recommend the plugin Easy WP SMTP or WPMasterToolkit.

But why bother using SMTP?

• Default mailings via the php mail() function are sometimes disabled to prevent involuntary mailings and preserve server reputation (blocked by default at LRob, authorized on a case-by-case basis).
• This ensures that the email is sent from a real email server, rather than from the website server when these two servers are separate.
• SMTP will improve email deliverability thanks to email headers (meta-information) that are generally cleaner than php mail().
• In the event of problems with the form (e.g. massive spam mailings), SMTP can be used to limit mailings to an hourly quota.
• In the event of deliverability problems of any kind, if your host provides support for this (as is the case with LRob), SMTP dispatches are much easier to trace in the logs, which simplifies diagnosis.

In short, using SMTP is bound to improve your deliverability and avoid problems. So use it!

4. Check the deliverability of your form emails

Make sure your messages are well received by testing them with tools such as mail-tester.com.

Mail-Tester lets you measure the quality of your mailings.

Enter the e-mail address that appears when you visit mail-tester.com as the recipient of the form, take the test, then check the score.

A score of 9/10 or higher is recommended to ensure that requests are received correctly. This score should also be achieved for your regular email dispatches. If this is not the case, contact your email host for more information (or come and see us!). host at LRob !).

5. Run your tests in private browsing mode

When you test your contact forms, do so by private browsing.

If you're logged into your site, certain features such as Captcha can be disabled, to name but a few. This could distort your tests and give you the wrong impression of the quality of your form.

6. Use a recipient address linked to your domain

Make sure the receiving address (form recipient) belongs to your domain (vous@votredomaine.fr) and is not redirected to another address.

In the event of a problem with your form, for example if you receive spam via the form and the recipient is a major e-mail provider (Gmail, Orange, Yahoo, etc.), you could be considered a spammer.

Using your own domain as a form recipient means you can protect your e-reputation and reduce the risk of emails being blocked or mishandled by email providers.

7. Avoid confirmation emails

Sending a confirmation email may seem like a good idea, but beware.

If this message contains the text submitted by the user, then your form can be exploited by malicious people to send spam to any e-mail address via your site. Even if the text is not included, this can still generate unsolicited mail to third parties, which is never good.

This can tarnish your domain's reputation and expose you to penalties. It's best to avoid this practice.

8. Use the "Reply-To" field to facilitate your answers

Even if you don't have to put the customer's email address in the "From" field, you can still add it in the "From" field. "Reply-To.

In this way, you can reply directly to the e-mail form: your prospect's e-mail address will automatically be the recipient of your e-mail.

A simple, time-saving solution!

9. Save requests on the

Consider saving form requests in the site database.

WordPress plugins like " Contact Form 7 Database Addon "These services are available free of charge. You can then check from time to time that you haven't missed a request.

To find out more...

If you have any doubts about the configuration of your forms, or would like a personalized audit, please don't hesitate to contact me. contact.

So the advice on email deliverability is included in LRob support for all customers.

I just have to wish you every success with your new top forms! 💪

As the owner of one or more sites WordPress websitesYou should be aware of just how much practical, high-performance, reliable and secure web hosting can revolutionize your approach.

You have no idea how much you can revolutionize your WordPress management.

Revolutionize your management with the WordPress Toolkit

Whether you're an expert or not, managing and maintaining a WordPress site can be tedious and time-consuming. If you have several sites, it becomes even more complex.

Fortunately, with the WordPress Toolkit included with LRob hosting, maintenance becomes child's play! You'll save an incredible amount of time! The WordPress Toolkit totally revolutionizes the approach to WordPress management, making it much more efficient and scalable.

ℹ️ Unlike other tools, the WordPress Toolkit is non-intrusive: there are no plugins to install, and your WordPress installation remains perfectly standard!

✅ Install WordPress in just a few clicks, customize the installation if you like. No more having to create a database by hand.
✅ Check at a glance that all is well, and connect to your sites' back-office with a single click.
✅ Change your administrator password or email in 3 clicks
✅ In 1 click: enable/disable indexing, debug mode, server execution of wp-cron!

✅ Automatically update your sites, themes and plugins and check for security vulnerabilities at a glance (and be alerted by email when a new vulnerability is detected).
🔒 Apply a dozen security enhancements in just a few clicks.
🔨 Has your site crashed after installing a plugin? Deactivate this plugin in 2 clicks with the WP Toolkit!
🔨 Clone your site simply with the wizard

ℹ️ If you have several sites, then they are isolated from the system, but you can display them all on the same screen, so you can manage all your installations efficiently!

This makes complex, time-consuming tasks extremely simple. It's a revolution that will enable you to manage a large number of sites very easily.

Maximum performance for your WordPress sites

The speed of your site is critical to user experience and SEO.
It also determines whether you'll be wasting your time in a slow WordPress back-office.

As a site manager, you certainly have a role to play in choosing well-optimized plugins. But that's not all: performance measurements before and after the switch to LRob show an improvement in performance by a factor of 2 to 15 compared with traditional hosting providers!

Here are the gains measured before (left) and after (right) migration to LRob.

How is this possible? Are the classic web hosts pulling our leg?

Conventional web hosts often sell you old, saturated server "clusters", which add latency at every stage of processing your site's pages and requests. Also, there's often no easy-to-use, high-performance caching solution directly on the server.

The LRob secret: simple, high-performance, well-managed servers!

• A simple, state-of-the-art infrastructure Dedicated servers: physical dedicated servers perfectly OVER-SIZED so that everyone benefits from maximum performance whenever they need it. With local NVME SSDs for ultra-fast access to your files and MySQL databases, state-of-the-art CPUs for fast processing and huge performance margin, with far more RAM than you need.
• Unique, intelligent management Exclusive anti-robot protection to avoid unnecessary server saturation, while protecting your sites. And optimized configuration of every web server software component.
• A Redis cache in server RAM No more thousands of cache files stored on your site: Redis lets you store your site cache directly in server RAM!

Native security for your WordPress sites

Your site's security is paramount. Yet securing a WordPress site is often a headache that nobody really understands. Security plugins aren't very effective, they waste your time and hinder your site's performance.

A website hack is always a tragedy. That's why you need to do everything you can to protect your site. And that starts with a secure, native configuration of the server hosting your sites.

A specialized WordPress host drastically improves the security of your site over any plugin, thanks to rigorous server configuration.

Here's everything provided "out of the box" by specialized WordPress host LRob :

• Application firewall customizable to block hacking attempts
• Automatic blocking of pirate robots to prevent their queries from reaching your sites
• WordPress-specific security enhancements in just a few clicks with the WordPress Toolkit.
• Security alerts If a vulnerability is made public on your site, you'll be alerted directly by e-mail, so you can take effective action!
• SSL Certificates Wildcard Let's Encrypt included to secure your site communications and related services such as email.
• Daily outsourced backup with one-year retention period. Made at the highest level, i.e. directly by the server. More reliable than a backup made by your site, this backup can withstand the worst disasters! What's more, it's never sent to a GAFAM, and remains in LRob's private infrastructure, ensuring the confidentiality of your data. You can also configure your own backups to the FTP of your choice.

Simplified management with Plesk

Managing your WordPress hosting has never been easier than with Plesk.

This intuitive control panel lets you manage all aspects of your hosting with just a few clicks in an extremely well-presented panel! Good old cPanel is a poor substitute for Plesk's excellent presentation and practicality!

Whether you want to create email addresses, manage FTP access, configure your MySQL databases or modify your DNS zone, everything is at your fingertips. Including the WordPress Toolkit, which we'll talk about next.

You can even access web logs to quickly diagnose and resolve problems on your site.

Passionate WordPresss support and assistance

By choosing a specialized WordPress hosting provider, you also benefit from expert and passionate support that will do everything to help you, without reading a dumb script or blaming the customer.

Whether it's configuration advice, access problems or technical questions, LRob is always happy to help, sharing its knowledge and experience to help you achieve your goals.

This quality assistance is a complete game-changer for your day-to-day needs.

By the way: each of our hosted sites is monitored 24/7 all year round! In other words, if your site crashes following an update, we let you know as soon as possible, before you even notice! And we'll help you understand the problem and get it back up and running!

Outstanding options for dealers

Do you have several sites? Save even more time (and money)!

With the Plesk reseller panel, centralize and simplify your management, and become a hosting provider!

The more sites you have, the more economical the solution becomes. For example, at 2024 LRob rates, if you have 8 sites, hosting costs €47.5/year per site. If you have 128 sites, it's €15.5/year per site.

Become a single point of contact for your customers, create access for them when they need it, and offer a more reliable and efficient service.

You save time, you get a better margin on hosting... And you offer a better service! With expert support to back you up every day.

Treat yourself to peace of mind with dedicated WordPress hosting

Opting for specialized WordPress hosting means choosing serenity and performance for your site. You benefit from a secure, easy-to-manage service optimized for WordPress, and the best expert support when you need it most.

LRob offers performance beyond what you could dream of, even on a dedicated NASA server, with perfect management included, at an ultra-reasonable cost!

So don't wait any longer, put your trust in an expert WordPress host like LRob and give yourself the peace of mind you deserve.

---

To host a WordPress site: choose a WordPress hosting !
To host between 5 and 128 WordPress sites: choose a package Web Agency !
Looking for a webmaster? Opt forHosting with WordPress Webmastering.

Contact me at for more info.

Page builders for WordPress have been all the rage for years. These are visual editors designed to facilitate site layout.

Elementor, Divi, WPBakery: Web agencies, webmasters, everyone's using their own builder. WordPress revolution, or monumental mistake, what does the "WordPress expert" have to say?

The promise of WordPress builders

Builders are popular because they promise to create rich, complex pages without touching a single line of code, thanks to visual editors. And they generally deliver on this promise.

But then, Jamy, what evidence is there to question the wisdom of using builders in this perfect world of ours?

WordPress "Builders" imprison you

Builders are generally available on an annual subscription basis. Having paid for your builder, you have no intention of backing out and will do everything in your power to make it work.

But one day, fate will strike: you'll have a really blocking problem with your builder and you'll want to go back to native (without a builder). Or choose another builder.

And then the drama begins.

No standards, no interoperability between different builders. And above all, no display if the plugin is deactivated.

Without its builder, your site is out of order and you'll have to completely rebuild it.

So, have you really saved time and money by using a builder to shape your site?

Builders go against the WordPress grain

Builders modify the native operation of the WordPress CMS.

How builders work

A builder will generate hundreds of tags which must be interpreted and dynamically converted into HTML code (the final display language sent to visitors) by the server before being sent to the visitor.

Some builders will also generate scripts (js) and style sheets (css) on the fly, depending on the page.

Native WordPress operation

Previously, to change the appearance of WordPress from a given theme, you either had to have chosen a highly customizable theme, or get your hands into the site's code. In both cases, page content remained native, so a change of theme didn't break the whole site.

From now on, WordPress pushes Gutenbergits block system. It allows you to edit all the content of your site natively, without any modification to WordPress: pages, articles, but also the global display thanks to "full site editing". Like a builder in fact...? Yes, except that the code generated is HTML and therefore has no cost in terms of performance or loading time.

The impact on performance... And ecology.

Extreme slowness

In my experience as a web-hosting outsourcer, I've been approached by numerous WordPress customers complaining about the slowness of their sites. The servers weren't saturated, but their sites had one thing in common: they used WordPress builders.

During tests with/without builder, I observed a slowdown of between 10 and 40 with their builder activated. In other words, a site that takes 0.3s to load natively takes more than 3s, or even more than 10s in the most extreme cases.

But the slowdown also affects visitors. The many heavy scripts (js) and style sheets (css) generated by builders take time to download, and then have to be interpreted. In the process, they take even longer.

Time is energy

Load times are calculation resources and therefore energy consumed by the server and your access device (smartphone, PC). The more CPUs are occupied, the more energy is wasted.

While the situation is improving with builders' optimization patches, or caching plugins (which avoid certain server consumption), performance is still generally not up to scratch compared to a native site.

Impact on site success

As we all know, visitor retention on a site depends on its speed. And there's good reason to believe that search engines favor the best-optimized sites.

Undeniable ecological impact

WordPress powers over 43% websites worldwide. Many of these sites include builders, generating an overconsumption of server resources on the order of x10 (or even x40). Builders therefore have a considerable carbon footprint that it would be interesting to measure objectively. I wouldn't be surprised if this increased Internet energy consumption by 10% or more.

Reliability and safety

A large proportion of the failures observed on sites during updates are due to the builder. You'd better have a good backup. All this is additional maintenance, lost for the webmaster and/or the customer.

What's more, as builders are popular, security flaws are regularly discovered. So if you update, you risk breaking the site, and if you don't update, you risk a hack. What's your choice?

Builders galore

Some people have a systematic builder reflex. Even on an extremely simple site. But is it really necessary?

In many cases, using a builder is like killing a fly with a flamethrower.

The #1 rule of optimization: use only what you need. A little minimalism never hurt anyone.

Do we need to think for 2,000 years to shift an image by one or two pixels? It only pleases web designers. Users and site owners couldn't care less.
In the real world, it's not the content that counts for a site's success.

What you need is a site that's easy to maintain, reliable, secure and quick for visitors to view, and above all, that contains the useful information your visitors are looking for, for good SEO (on Google and other search engines), and with the lowest possible carbon footprint.

Alternatives

Many native themes, often free of charge, are capable of offering a clear and pleasant visual experience, and already allow an excellent level of customization.

What's more, with Gutenberg, WordPress now offers the " Full Site Editing "With compatible themes, you can arrange each part of the site as you wish.

In the near future, this should mark the beginning of the end for builders.

Personally, I've always refused to go against WordPress' native way of working, and I adopted Gutenberg as soon as it was released, despite the bugs and limitations.