WordPress rolled out their block editor update a.k.a. Gutenberg update. Many top plugin developers have already developed some great plugins for WordPress Gutenberg editor.
As of reading this post, you may be still using the classic editor. In fact, WordPress has promised to support classic editor until December 31st, 2021.
But yes, you eventually need to get used to the new block editor.
It’s for good.
You’ll not realize the full potential and versatility of the new block editor, unless you use some plugins to compliment it.
Why Gutenberg plugins? The new WordPress Block Editor has some great blocks to create content with. But it lacks flexibility and some of the features that make it more awesome. The Gutenberg plugins bring in much more power to the block editor.
So.
In this post, I’ll introduce you some of the great plugins to supercharge your block editor experience. These plugins add new blocks and functionality to the Gutenberg editor.
Best Gutenberg Block Editor Plugins Reviewed
Choosing a good plugin with good and light codebase and good maintenance is very important. You need to be sure that the developer of the plugin supports the plugin effectively at least in the next 5 years inspite of the complications that may arise.
So, what do you need to consider before choosing?
- Background of the developers
- Features and customization
- Performance of the plugin
By keeping these 3 factors in mind combined with my WordPress experience, I’ve compiled a list of Gutenberg plugins to power up your block editor experience.
1. Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg
This is the best Gutenberg plugin I use and recommend.
This plugin is brought to you by the well-known WordPress developers at Brainstorm Force, who are the people behind popular products like Astra theme, Schema Pro, Convert Pro, Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, and the list goes on.
They have a very good track record of developing good plugins keeping versatility, scalability, and performance in mind.
If you ask me, this is the best future-proof Gutenberg plugin as of now.
Here are some of the modules it comes with.
- Section
- Multi Buttons
- Advanced Heading
- Post Grid
- Post
Carousal - Post Masonry
- Info Box
- Google Map
- Team
- Content Timeline
- Social Share
- Testimonial
- Icon List
- Post Timeline
- Call to Action
- Much more in their roadmap!
Once you install and activate the plugin, you can see the “UAGB Blocks” section inside your WordPress Block Editor.
Want to know the best part?
You can selectively activate or deactivate the modules this plugin offers.
Don’t use Google Maps block? Just deactivate it.
As I told you, I’m using this plugin after extensive research.
The developers also have developed the fastest yet extremely versatile Astra theme, so their experience helped them to develop UAGB keeping performance and especially the reduction of server requests in mind.
It’s recommended for you to use this plugin with Gutenberg compatible themes (like Astra) to unlock options like full-width alignment and more.
The Brainstorm Force developers have also included one-click import Gutenberg sites in their Astra Starter Sites plugin.
These are not pages, they are entire websites made purely with Gutenberg plugin that can be imported in a click of the button.
For this plugin to work, you need to have Astra Theme and also Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg installed on your site.
2. Stackable – Gutenberg Blocks
Stackable plugin is my second favorite when it comes to enriching the Gutenberg editing experience.
This plugin is developed and maintained by Benjamin at Gambitph. They are the ones behind The Titan Framework, one of the WordPress Options Frameworks.
- Container
- Posts
- Feature Grid
- Accordion
- Image Box
- Feature
- Icon List
- Call to Action
- Card
- Header
- Count Up
- Video Popup
- Pricing Box
- Testimonial
- Team Members
- Notification
- Number Box
- Expand / Show More
- Button
- Blockquote
- Pullquote
- Divider
- Spacer
To be honest, as of now this plugin has more features and blocks compared to any other plugins mentioned here.
As of writing this blog post, they also have released an option to selectively enable or disable the blocks.
They also have a theme called Stackable that they’ve designed to be 100% compatible with their plugin.
You will find all the blocks under ‘Ultimate Blocks’ section. You can also search for a specific block by using the search box.
3. Ultimate Blocks
Ultimate Blocks is another Gutenberg Blocks plugin which is specially built for bloggers and marketers. It is developed by the same folks who created WP Coupons and Deals plugin.
This plugin makes it easier to create better and engaging content with Gutenberg. Let’s check the blocks that the plugin is offering:
- Table Of Contents
- Content Toggle (Accordion)
- Tabbed Content
- Call To Action
- Button (Improved)
- Divider
- Review Box (Schema Markup Enabled)
- Star Rating
- Feature Box
- Notification Box
- Countdown
- Progress Bar
- Testimonial
- Click To Tweet
- Social Share
Once you’ve activated the plugin, you can enable or disable individual blocks to keep your site faster and smoother.
You will find all the blocks under ‘Ultimate Blocks’ section. You can also search for a specific block by using the search box.
The most unique blocks of the plugin are Table Of Contents and Review Box. If you are a blogger or a content marketer, this is the right choice for you.
4. Atomic Blocks
This plugin is one of the most popular plugins during the launch of Gutenberg.
In fact, as of writing this blog post, this is one of the most installed WordPress Gutenberg plugins.
- Post Grid
- Container
- Testimonial
- Inline Notice
- Accordion
- Share Icons
- Call-To-Action
- Customizable Button
- Spacer & Divider
- Author Profile
- Drop Cap
They also have the Atomic Block theme, which works great with this plugin. The theme is 100% Gutenberg compatible.
However, I won’t recommend you switch entirely to a new theme just for adding more features (like more styles) to the plugin.
5. Advanced Gutenberg
This plugin is from JoomUnited, they have great Joomla and also WordPress products that they have developed.
The USP of this plugin is that it comes with the option to create edition profiles and assign it to specific WordPress users or groups. You can activate/deactivate specific blocks on per-user basis, which is unique.
They have various blocks like:
- Advanced Button
- Contact Form
- Advanced List
- Map
- Advanced Table
- Accordion
- Tabs
- Testimonial
- Counter
- Advanced Image
- Advanced Image
- Advanced Video
Along with these blocks, they also have WooCommerce blocks like WooCommerce Product Slider that requires you to have WooCommerce plugin installed on your WordPress site.
6. Kadence Block
Kadence Blocks plugin is the most installed WordPress Gutenberg plugin at least as of writing this blog post.
This plugin is developed by the team behind the Kadence Themes. They have some good WordPress themes and plugins. Their popular WordPress themes include Ascend WordPress theme.
Here are the blocks that this plugin offers:
- Row Layout
- Advanced Heading
- Advanced Button
- Tabs
- Icon
- Spacer / Divider
This plugin currently has one of the most versatile row container blocks.
However, other plugins are also catching up fast.
7. Otter Blocks
Otter Blocks is a Gutenberg blocks plugin by Themeisle. They are very well-known theme developers. They are the people behind a popular WordPress theme – Zerif Pro.
The plugin has the following blocks available:
- Our Services
- Pricing
- Testimonials
- Post Grid
- Plugin Card
- Google Map
- Font Awesome Icon
- Sharing Icons
- About Author
- Accordion
- Pie Chart
- Notice
- Click to Tweet
All the blocks will be listed under the Orbit Fox section in your block editor.
The most unique blocks here are Plugin Card and Click to Tweet blocks.
8. Caxton Gutenberg Layouts Plugin
This plugin is one of the most versatile layouts plugins for Gutenberg. It enables you to insert layouts in any grid configurations in your WordPress content and put any other blocks in it.
It also includes a great library of blocks like Posts Grid, Slider, Button, Hero, Social Icons and Shape Divider.
It is the best plugin for adding advanced layout customization options to the WordPress Gutenberg plugin as of writing this blog post.
9. GhostKit – Gutenberg Blocks Collection
GhostKit is essentially a collection of blocks and extensions for the Gutenberg editor.
It comes with blocks like:
- Grid (fully responsive)
- Divider
- Progress Bar
- Button
- Accordion
- Tabs
- Carousel
- Alert
- Icon Box
- Number Box
- Icon Box
- Number Box
- Video
- Testimonial
- GitHub Gist
- Changelog
- Pricing Table
- Google Maps
- Widgetized Area (output registered sidebars)
Along with these blocks, this plugin also comes with extensions to implement some of the functionalities.
- Spacings (paddings, margins)
- Display (show/hide block)
- Animate on Scroll (show block in the viewport)
- Custom CSS (add custom CSS on the pages)
- Customizer (overwrite customizer options on the pages)
The plugin is designed keeping developers in mind.
10. Block Gallery – Photo Gallery Gutenberg Blocks
Block Gallery is a plugin developed keeping photographers, architects and other creative people in mind.
It is a suite of gallery blocks for photo-rich websites.
- Masonry Gallery
- Fullscreen Stacked Gallery
- Carousel Slider
This plugin was selected as year’s winner in the Best Solution category of the Automattic Design Awards at WordCamp US 2018.
If you have photographs or a website with lots of images in it, and are looking to build pages solely using Gutenberg Block Editor, then you need to give this plugin a try for sure.
11. Editor Blocks for Gutenberg
This free plugin is great with dozens of blocks to choose from.
Below are the blocks this plugin has got to offer you.
- Hero
- Pricing table
- Author profile
- Team members
- Testimonial
- Callout
- Brands
- Features
- Horizontal feature
- Vertical feature
This plugin works with any theme and looks better on themes that have full-width layout options.
Do Gutenberg blocks replace page builders?
As of now, there’s really a long way to go for Gutenberg editor to completely replace page builder plugins.
Page builder plugins like Elementor and Beaver Builder, Thrive Architect, Brizy, etc. have gone too far for WordPress to catch up.
However, in the coming months, the usage of the page builders will certainly be reduced.
But the good news is that the popular page builder plugins like Elementor have come with Gutenberg Blocks that allow you to design Elementor blocks and use them within your block editor.
If you ask me, as of now I’m using Gutenberg editor for my blog posts. And, I’m only using page builders for designing my landing pages, homepage, and others.
In the coming days, we will be seeing more and more big developers transitioning from WordPress theme development to WordPress block development, further supercharging the WordPress site building experience.
Plugins for supercharging the Gutenberg blocks
There are some plugins that allow you to effectively manage the Gutenberg functionality and also the blocks.
With these plugins, you can add in more customization options when it comes to design, visibility and much more.
I recommend you to install any one of the above plugins I mentioned to add additional blocks and using any one of the below plugins to extend the functionality of all the blocks.
Extra Gutenberg Blocks Options
This plugin adds more design customization options to all the blocks present in your block editor.
I was initially shocked by looking at the sheer number of customization options it has to offer for every block in your editor.
When it comes to text styling:
- Font Size
- Font Weight
- Text Color
- Font Family
- Text Align
- Line Height
- Font Style
- Text Transform
- Letter Spacing
- Word Spacing
- Text Indent
- Text Decoration
- Word Wrap
It has +47 more design options as of writing this blog post.
If you are using any Form plugins on your WordPress site, this plugin also adds form styling options.
Are you a developer?
Well, there’s a custom CSS option for each and every block if you need more powerful design customization freedom.
If you are looking seriously to have more design customization options for your Gutenberg blocks, this plugin is a must-install.
Block Background
This plugin allows you to add background color, gradient or image to any Gutenberg blocks. Added to this, it also enables the option to add overlay color or gradient. You can also change the opacity of each of these for more dramatic effects.
For example, you can add a background image to the block, add a gradient overlay, and change the opacity to a number like 5 for a great effect.
By default, WordPress only allows background color to be added to some elements like paragraph block.
Advanced Rich Text Tools for Gutenberg
This plugin allows you to add some of the rich text functionalities to Gutenberg editor.
For example, in Gutenberg editor as of writing this post, you’ll not be able to change the color of inline text or add a background color to inline text easily.
But this plugin adds in these functionalities.
For example, you can make use of inline background color functionality to add a yellow highlight to some text rather than to the entire block.
Along with these inline color options, it also adds a button to clear the formatting of a block. It comes in quite handy when you want to get rid of the formattings without changing one by one.
This plugin will add the inline CSS right to the source code. So, if you decide to deactivate the plugin in the future, still the content will not lose formatting.
This is the most asked feature by the WordPress community. Hopefully, it should be added as a native feature in the default Gutenberg editor itself.
Block Options for Gutenberg Editor
This plugin allows you to toggle the visibility of any of the blocks in your Block editor based on:
- A device the user is using
- Whether the user is logged in or logged out
- Based on the value of Advanced Custom Fields
- Custom conditions can be set
- Much more
You can also add custom conditions in the display logic section of the block settings.
I really liked the way it integrates with all of your Gutenberg blocks and adds the visibility functionality to them.
If you want to have complete control over the visibility of the blocks, this plugin is a must-have.
Disable Gutenberg Blocks
Some of the Gutenberg Blocks plugins may not come up with the option to enable or disable the blocks.
This plugin helps you disable some of the Gutenberg blocks.
You may not want to use all of the blocks that your Gutenberg plugin has got to offer you. In that case, to cut the clutter, you may want to disable some of the blocks.
It only supports some of the plugins like Atomic blocks, Advanced Gutenberg Blocks, and others that don’t come with an inbuilt feature to disable the elements.
Don’t want Gutenberg for some posts?
Classic Editor
This is a plugin maintained by the WordPress Contributors team that enables you to restore the classic editing functionality on your WordPress site.
For any reason, if you are not yet ready to make a transition to WordPress Gutenberg, you can install and activate this plugin.
After that, in the Settings > Writing section you have the option to switch between the WordPress Classic Editor and Block Editor.
And also, while writing any blog post, if you wish to convert that particular post to Block Editor or vice versa, you can do that as well.
Wrapping up
Although there are dozens of other Gutenberg plugins for WordPress, I’ve listed only a handful of the best WordPress Gutenberg plugins – as of writing this blog post.
Obviously, by the time you’ll be reading this, there may be new products in the market and also the above products may have been updated with many more powerful features and blocks.
WordPress has created a section in their repo to search only the plugins that have Gutenberg functionalities. As more and more products are released and features are added, I will make sure to keep this post updated.
Install only one or two plugins that are most essential to you from the above list. Although you can use multiple plugins alongside with each other, I won’t recommend you as it may take a toll on your site speed or incompatibility issues may arise.
Hope you guys found this post helpful. Let me know your favorite WordPress Gutenberg plugins in the comments section.