Visual Compser (feedback Please)

[universal4]

Ok after seeing this mentioned in another thread I started looking into it and would like someone that knows the in's and Out's of this to clear up a little confusion.

I found this site
https://vc.wpbakery.com/visual-composer-license/

First, is the above the Official site and licensing for what a few have spoken of as "Visual Composer"?

Second, using the above, is it installed directly in to a specific site, so any theme currently used could then be manipulated by this?



And looking at the license structure I am confused how some themes such as
https://blog.visualcomposer.io/visua...starter-theme/
could include this.


I have not read the fine print of the license terms but are the themes sold at theme forest contain the same framework?
https://themeforest.net/collections/2840452-powered-by-visual-composer?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sort_by=cost&type_id=28404 52


I am intrigued by the recommendation of this "visual composer" and will have to throw one up on an ip to have a play with it.

i appreciate any insight a few of you guys that might have used this to give some thoughts.

Rick
Universal4

[DanHorvat]

Yes, wpbakery is the official site, and you buy Visual Composer and install it like a plugin into any site/theme.

There are themes which you buy and which already have VC installed, with a licence:
https://themeforest.net/tags/visual%20composer

Not my favorite page builder though. Slow, produces ugly pages and lacks certain features, most notably displaying posts from a certain category, which is a constant problem in Wordpress.

I personally use Page Builder by Siteorigin because it just allows me to create a page structure. I think Divi and Themify are the best builders but choosing a theme that fits the job is usually a better way to go and then you don't need a builder.

[universal4]

Thanks Dan, that certainly cleared up the majority of licensing questions I had as I had not ever looked at this before.

I will look into this siteorigin...got a link?

The problem I have always personally had, is that when purchasing a theme, you are sold on a finished product which then normally you have to customize etc after you put it up, and often fat times if I have to go through that process anyway, I usually want some more customizable then what many themes allow "off the shelf".

That is what I liked about Artistseer or something like suffusion as I could sit on the phone with someone and ask, "do you want 2 columns or 3?" "Navigation on the left or right?" and fairly quickly have the groundwork and basic layout started and something to present very quickly and have been looking for a suitable replacement ever since.

Rick
Universal4

[DanHorvat]

https://siteorigin.com/page-builder/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/siteorigin-panels/

https://www.elegantthemes.com/plugins/divi-builder/
https://themify.me/builder

But all these page builders don't actually give you any core functionality which you normally need in a theme. They are just ways of moving pieces of content to an appropriate location in a given post, which is very useful when you want to develop a homepage or a landing page that needs to be designed to convert. Or if you're developing a one-page website.

It's not very practical to develop layouts using page builders. It's better to just get a good theme that already lets you choose a layout. You don't want to have to move everything manually, but to have a pull-down menu where you choose the number of sidebars, their location, where navigation goes etc. In a theme you can do it like that, and with a page builder you got to take something and place is somewhere manually.

And this is something you don't want to do, because then you're doing the work which is the equivalent of developing your own theme. Not worth it for one project, it's only worth it if you'll resell that work and let people create 100s of websites.

If you need any extra stuff such as Related Posts widget appearing automatically under a post, or different colors for each category, or anything else you can think of - page builder won't help you, you need a good theme as the base for the design. It's worth spending some time to find a theme that's ideal for a given project. I will normally spend a lot of time on this until I find the perfect one, as I know it's easier to spend time searching than it is to tinker with an imperfect theme later.

I will drop a theme and start over if I see it's no good after I install it.

Here are some themes I tend to use frequently:
https://themeforest.net/item/multine...gazine/8103494
https://themeforest.net/item/newsmag...spaper/9512331
http://demo.mekshq.com/?theme=herald

Herald is my favorite at the moment. You could even strip everything and replace inner content with a Divi page, retaining the header/footer/sidebar and the other functionalities that this theme has.

So many themes - even the premium ones - look good but then you find out they're missing some core functionality which you need, and that it's impossible to do something you wanted. For example, it doesn't have a mega menu, there are no ad spaces, the fonts are no good, or there's no related posts functionality, or it's just bad UX.

One thing Herald is lacking is the ability to add two sidebars. It's just one sidebar (or none), and it can be right or left, that's it. So if you're building a site that needs two or three sidebars, you'll choose some other theme or you'll open Herald up and change the core framework to include another sidebar and the biggest problem here is making it mobile responsive on all devices. A page builder could provide a quasi-sidebar inside a post, so that's another solution.

Complex stuff. But in most cases, choosing the right theme is half the work.

[universal4]

I agree that I do not want to use more than 90% of any page builder I have ever tried, and I do understand and actually do not always mind the fact that I might be creating a complete custom theme for any given project,I was hoping that something as easy to use as I always felt Artistseer had come along and just worked better with a little less system and memory overhead.

Of the themes I created using it, adding widgets and menus was not a difficult task, although I did have to use a work around to add one to the header of a few I did. (I added a text widget and then made changes so the text widget would function like any other widget)

The themes I would normally build never needed more functionality then what the limitations would allow, and if s I would at least have the framework of a site up and would investigate a theme purchase to cover those missing needs.

But I now have more places to look and things to consider, and I may consider a renewal of artistseer even though it has not been updated in a very long time.

Rick
Universal4

[universal4]

How about Template Toaster? Anyone have experience with it?

I also took a brief look at Template Creator CK, it looks like a plug-in or add-in to manipulate current themes, and I am leaning toward wanting something stand alone...and Toaster might fit the prescription.

Rick
Universal4