Kadence WP, Breakdance, or Full-site Editing with Gutenberg Blocks? Choosing the Right Stack for Speed, Flexibility, and Maintainability
WordPress has come a long way from its blog roots. Today, it powers everything from high-performance marketing sites to complex e-commerce stores and even fully decoupled headless applications. But with so many ways to build in WordPress—Kadence theme, visual builders like Breakdance, or full custom builds using tools like Blockstudio—the real challenge isn’t whether to use WordPress. It’s how you build it right.
Whether you’re a developer, an agency, or a DIY site owner, the tools you choose directly affect speed, flexibility, maintainability, and how enjoyable your workflow is. This post breaks down three of the best ways to build WordPress sites in 2025 and when to use each one.
Kadence Theme: Fast, Lightweight, and Client-Friendly
Kadence has become a favorite among developers who want clean performance without giving up flexibility. It’s a lightweight theme built for speed but packed with design controls that don’t get in the way of development.
Why We Like It
Kadence isn’t trying to be a full site builder. Instead, it gives you just enough layout control through its theme customizer and global design settings while letting you use native Gutenberg or Kadence Blocks for content editing.
Best Use Cases
- Fast brochure sites
- Sites with WooCommerce that still need to be lean
- Projects where you want to stay mostly within the WordPress ecosystem, but without bloat
Standout Features
- Global color and typography settings
- Smart loading for better Core Web Vitals
- Deep WooCommerce support and built-in schema
- Clean markup and developer-friendly hooks
Things to Consider
- Some advanced layouts still require custom CSS or blocks
- You’ll want to pair it with Kadence Blocks or custom Gutenberg blocks for flexibility
- Theme updates can occasionally overwrite certain customizations if not handled properly
- Editing Access Can Be Too Broad for Some Teams
Kadence gives Editors and Admins full control over layout, design settings, and content structure via the block editor and customizer. While this flexibility is great for power users, it can lead to issues if multiple users are editing without a clear design system in place. Complex layouts or nested block structures may require developer assistance to maintain consistency or fix layout breaks caused by less experienced users. - Maintaining a Cohesive Design Requires Discipline
Because Kadence allows for a high degree of design customization at the page level—especially when combined with Kadence Blocks—it’s easy for the site’s visual style to drift over time. Unless you’re enforcing global settings and reusable patterns, editors might apply different font sizes, colors, or spacing across pages. Without a strong system or training in place, keeping the site looking unified becomes a manual and ongoing effort.
Kadence is a solid middle ground for most builds—quick to spin up, clean under the hood, and friendly enough for clients to update content without breaking layouts.
Breakdance Builder: Visual Control Without the Mess
Breakdance is newer on the scene but growing fast. It’s designed as a full site builder and visual interface alternative to Elementor or Divi—without the performance baggage.
Why We Like It
If you want complete visual control, Breakdance is impressive. You can build headers, footers, loops, custom post layouts, and entire pages all inside the interface. And unlike older page builders, Breakdance actually outputs cleaner HTML and has better defaults for SEO and speed.
Breakdance approaches layout building in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who has used Webflow. Its visual interface, structure panel, and styling controls closely mirror the Webflow experience—down to how elements are positioned, nested, and styled. If you're comfortable in Webflow but need to work within the WordPress ecosystem, Breakdance offers the closest alternative. It's an ideal choice for designers who want visual precision without diving into PHP or Gutenberg's quirks.
Best Use Cases
- Sites that need frequent content updates by non-technical users
- Small business sites where speed-to-launch is key
- Rebuilding older WordPress sites with a more modern workflow
Standout Features
- Visual loop builder for dynamic content
- Form builder, menu builder, and animation tools included
- Style controls down to the component level
- Native integration with ACF and WooCommerce
Things to Consider
- The interface can be overwhelming for clients unless carefully locked down using the editor role.
- Breakdance Doesn’t Use a Traditional Theme Structure
Breakdance completely replaces the need for a WordPress theme. While it includes the optional Breakdance Zero Theme for adding custom PHP or styles, it doesn’t offer native support for Gutenberg blocks or the block editor. This can be limiting if you’re used to mixing theme templates with Gutenberg content, or if you want to use WordPress’s native block-based features alongside Breakdance’s builder. - Header Builder Can Be Overwhelming
The header builder in Breakdance is powerful but can be unintuitive for some users. With a wide range of settings and nested controls, even simple header layouts can feel overly complex. Achieving precise spacing, alignment, or sticky behavior often requires additional CSS or custom tweaks—especially when aiming for pixel-perfect designs.
- Occasional Stability Issues with Server-Side Rendering and Updates: Breakdance has been known to experience occasional hiccups related to server-side rendering (SSR), PHP compatibility, or version updates. In some cases, these issues can temporarily prevent content from displaying or even disable editing functionality in the builder. While these situations are typically resolved quickly with patches, they can be disruptive—especially on live client sites—so caution is advised when performing updates or working in complex hosting environments.
Breakdance is ideal when speed of build and client friendliness are top priorities. Just be aware that it’s an all-in approach—you’re committing to its ecosystem.
Custom Gutenberg Blocks with Blockstudio: Developer-First WordPress
If you want full control over structure, design, and scalability—but still need an editing experience inside WordPress—Blockstudio is a game-changer.
Why We Like It
Blockstudio lets you create your own native Gutenberg blocks using a structured block.json file and custom markup. You define the fields and logic, and WordPress handles the editing interface. It’s like ACF Blocks, but more performant and less reliant on third-party plugins.
Best Use Cases
- Custom marketing sites that need pixel-perfect design
- Projects with a long lifecycle and clear content structure
- Sites where design systems and brand consistency are critical
Standout Features
- You build the editing experience, so clients can’t break things
- Works seamlessly with WordPress FSE and global styles
- Clean separation between content and layout logic
- Easily extendable with PHP or JavaScript-based logic
Things to Consider
- Requires more setup and development knowledge
- Best paired with a clean base theme or custom FSE setup
For agencies and developers who want a modern, structured, and maintainable workflow, Blockstudio is hands-down the best option. It’s what WordPress should’ve had from the start.
How to Choose the Right Build Stack
Here’s a quick cheat sheet for when to use each method:
No single approach is “best.” The right answer depends on who’s building, who’s editing, and how long the site needs to last.
What About Full Site Editing?
Full Site Editing (FSE) is evolving fast—but it’s not always ideal on its own. For now, we’ve found the best results come from hybrid builds:
- FSE + Blockstudio + Kadence Blocks : for custom blocks with the flexibility of a bloks plugin.
- FSE + Blockstudio : for full control over markup and reusability
Until FSE has stronger design controls and more stable UX for clients, pairing it with structured tools like Blockstudio still makes the most sense.
What About Custom React Gutenberg Blocks?
If you’ve spent time in the WordPress developer community, you’ve likely seen the debate: should you build custom React-based Gutenberg blocks.
Yes, it's powerful. Yes, it gives you deep control. But let’s be honest—it’s often a lot more work than it’s worth.
Building React-based blocks in WordPress means you’re usually writing everything twice: once in JavaScript for the editor view, and again in PHP for the front-end render. Even with render_callback, you’re duplicating logic, syncing markup, and managing two versions of your UI. You’re also locked into the Gutenberg build tooling, which adds another layer of complexity, especially if you're working in a custom theme or trying to keep things lightweight.
The Upside
- Great for interactive components or dynamic content
- Deep Gutenberg integration
- Leverages modern React skills (kind of)
The Downside
- Steep learning curve
- Tons of boilerplate just to get started
- Often slower to build and harder to maintain
- Breaks if WordPress updates editor APIs or packages
For most client projects, it’s overkill. Unless you’re building a product or a highly interactive editor component, the effort doesn’t match the payoff.
A Better Alternative?
If you’re reaching for this level of control and customization, it’s usually a sign you’re outgrowing WordPress as a traditional CMS. That’s when it makes sense to look at headless CMS platforms like Contentful, Sanity, or Storyblok. These tools give you structured content, modern dev workflows, and complete frontend freedom—without dragging along Gutenberg’s legacy complexities.
We’ve built with both, and while custom React Gutenberg blocks have their place, we don’t recommend them for most client-facing work. There are more efficient, more scalable ways to build modern content experiences today.
Final Thoughts
Building in WordPress today is less about which theme or plugin you use—and more about making intentional choices for performance, scalability, and editing workflows.
- Kadence is your lightweight workhorse.
- Breakdance is your visual speed builder.
- Blockstudio is your long-game power tool.
Know your client. Know your project goals. And build the way that sets you (and your site) up for success.
