You’re about to build your first page. This one decision will determine your site’s speed and future. As someone who’s been burned, here’s my advice.
You’re here. You’ve got your clean WordPress install on your fast Cloudfivo server. You’ve followed my “First 5 Clicks” guide. You’re ready to build your “Home” page.
You click Pages -> Add New… and you stop.
You’re staring at the new WordPress Block Editor (aka “Gutenberg“). It looks… simple. But you’ve heard about “Elementor.” You’ve seen ads for “Divi.” Your new “lean theme” says it’s “Page Builder Ready.”
You are at your first, and most important, fork in the road.
As someone who has built dozens of sites, I’ve been down both roads. I’m going to tell you about the “Page Builder Hangover”—the painful, expensive lesson I learned—and why the “boring” choice is now the professional choice.
The “Good Old Days” & The Page Builder Trap
Let’s be clear: I loved Page Builders. Back in 2017, the default WordPress editor was a joke. It was just a blank white box, like a Word document. It was impossible to build a beautiful, modern layout.
Plugins like Elementor and Divi were heroes. They gave us drag-and-drop, visual columns, and fancy animations. I built client site after client site with them. They looked amazing.
Then, about a year later, the problems started. The sites were slow. I’d run a speed test and get a ‘D’ grade. I’d look at the code, and it was a nightmare of nested <div> tags—a mess we call “div-ception.” The code was 10 times heavier than it needed to be, putting a needless strain on my server.
The “Page Builder Hangover” (The Real Nightmare)
But the speed was only half the problem. The real nightmare came when I tried to leave.
I thought, “This site is too slow, I’ll just deactivate the page builder and rebuild it cleanly.”
I deactivated the plugin. And my entire site collapsed.
Every page, every post—gone. It was replaced by a jumbled, unreadable pile of [shortcodes].
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I was locked in. The only way to fix it was to keep using the slow, bloated plugin… or manually rebuild every single page from scratch. I had to tell my clients that our “easy-to-use” builder had just taken their entire website content hostage. I had built their beautiful houses on quicksand.
The New King: The Native Block Editor (“Gutenberg”)
Around this time, WordPress released its own new editor, codenamed “Gutenberg.” And honestly? At first, I hated it. It was clunky and confusing. Many of us old-school developers did.
But today, in 2025, it’s a different story. The native Block Editor is phenomenal. It’s fast, it’s powerful, and it’s built-in. It does 95% of what those heavy page builders do, but it outputs clean, simple, incredibly fast code.
The fast “lean themes” I told you to install (like Kadence or Astra) aren’t just ‘Page Builder Ready.’ They are Block Editor Supercharged. They add a few simple, extra blocks that give you all the layout power you need (like advanced columns, button styles, and spacers) without any of the bloat.
The Honest Showdown: Blocks vs. Builders
This is the choice you’re making:
Native Block Editor (Gutenberg):
- Pros: Blazing fast. Creates clean, minimal code. 100% future-proof. You will never be locked in. Your content is yours forever.
- Cons: A slight learning curve. It’s not quite as “drag-and-drop” as Elementor. (But it’s very close).
Page Builders (Elementor, Divi, etc.):
- Pros: Very visual. Lots of pre-made templates. Seems “easier” for the first 10 minutes.
- Cons: SLOW. Adds massive code bloat that bogs down your server. And worst of all, FATAL LOCK-IN. If you ever want to leave, it will break your site.
My Professional Recommendation (The Cloudfivo Connection)
So, what’s my $10,000/month advice?
Start with the native Block Editor. Period.
A fast-loading site is the single most important technical factor for success. It keeps users happy, and Google ranks it higher. By using a heavy page builder, you are canceling out the performance of your fast Cloudfivo hosting. You’re putting a governor on a sports car.
Learning the Block Editor is the professional path. It respects your content, it respects your visitors, and it respects the resources of your server. A fast site is a healthy site. When your site is fast, our hosting looks good, you get more traffic, and everybody wins.
Conclusion: Build a House of Brick, Not Straw
A Page Builder gives you a beautiful-looking house of straw in 10 minutes. The Block Editor helps you build a solid house of brick. It takes a little longer to learn, but it will withstand any storm and last you a lifetime.
Trust me on this. I’ve lived the nightmare. Open your new WordPress dashboard, go to Pages -> Add New, and start learning the blocks. In two hours, you’ll be a pro.
And a year from now, you’ll thank me.
