Yes, very nice, RW and stacks still have at least 80 % more functions they can do than the Blocs app. But I agree that it is a lovely app, very nicely done. But still, the possibilities with Stacks and RW are lightyears ahead.
80%? Iām genuinely fascinated as to what RW+Stacks can do that Blocs canāt. This is a genuine question and not a challenge :-)
The best thing to do is download the demo. Nearly all the main features are enabled. It is best to come to your own conclusions.
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Itās not really a question of what Blocs or RW+Stacks can or canāt do ā in principle everything that can be done on the web should be possible in some way for a web-building application. The question is, really, in what way. For instance, Blocs has the ability to build modals, there appear to be a couple of slider brics (one from Archetypon which is also available for Stacks) etc. RW+Stacks offers numerous kinds of modals, from different providers, each with a different twist. Likewise with sliders. Thatās because RW+Stacks is a more mature environment ā developers have had years to produce all this stuff ā but itās also because Stacks is simple and straightforward to develop for. If I look at some of the stuff Iāve built demos of, particularly replicating some of the 1LD and Weavium stacks using Source Grid and Splider, I doubt I could have done that in Blocs (Iām happy to be proved wrong). RW+Stacks is a great environment for making things the way you want them. Thatās not everyoneās thing. But for those of us who want to be able to do it, itās pretty amazing.
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I have Blocs 4. Someone made a statement claiming that RW/Stacks could do 80% more than Blocs. Thatās a pretty bold claim and I wanted to see what I was missing. Lots of people on here are cleverer than I am, so I like to see what their views are.
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I tried Blocs 4 because I was interested, unfortunately the GDPR is very strict here and with Blocs you have to rely on third party payment plans, so I havenāt even tested it.
With Stacks there are excellent, truly effective solutions.
When in Blocs 5 or 6 there will be solutions for the GDPR I will try it seriously.
As probably Sourceās biggest fan, and actually the only reason I continue to use Stacks, I would say that Blocs5 will not only allow you to build those layouts, but it will allow you to see those grids and flex positioning take shape as they are being built, within the Blocs edit mode. True WYSIWYG grid and flexbox building is quite a revelation and makes designing and debugging a visual experience without having to preview to see the effects of any setting change.
I say this based on various layouts I have buit with Blocs5. BTW none of this is a critisism of Source, but it is just how Stacks works.
Blocs5 is just weeks old and still being fine tuned, but you should really try it soon.
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That statement is nonsense and probably a statement of hope and expectation from another RW developer unwilling to be honest about what Blocs can do. Blocs4 is very capable and full featured and the recent release of Blocs5 has moved the game much further on.
Put it this way, if you went out and bought RW Classic + Stacks + the most expensive framework with all addons and all stacks, then you will still not be able to build what Blocs5 can do, such as create a complex layout CSS Grid 2023 web site that also achieves a high GooglePage Speed score. Checkout the PageSpeed scores you get if you run the RealMac or the other main Stacks Devs sites through PageSpeed and then compare with the Blocs site built with just Blocs5. Itās always good way to assess how good a web builder is by checking out real sites built with those web builders. These are real world metrics to see how good a web builder can build a site.
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But, Gary, werenāt you saying just a little while back that Source could do exactly that? Iām also not exactly clear what Blocs5 can do with CSS Grid that Source Grid canāt.
And currently:
Blocs 5 + Blocs Plus = US $179.99
RW Classic + Stacks 5 + Source + Source Addon Pack = US $166.85
I have not explored Blocs at all yet. But I am wondering if it, or any Brics, can do a nice blog such as the excellent Poster stack? Or is there any photo gallery options that are comparable to what is available in stacks?
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Look for a product called Volt, same maker as Poster @Jannis
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Thanks for the nice feedback š
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Both of those Blocs addons appear to be great possibilities Jannis.
Looks like the blog posts URLs generated by Volt are the same format as the Poster stack, is that correct? That would be very important for anyone who decides to re-create a Poster blog in Blocs/Volt.
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Exactly š
At the moment it appears that way. StacksPro may be developing extremely fast. We just donāt see it because it isnāt public yet. Third party canāt develop yet because there isnāt a release to develop for. YETā¦
Blocs5 = $99.99.
Blocs Plus = $49.99 and adds five incredibly powerful and time saving features that empower Blocs users to build Wordpress themes, extract site resources, edit images, store class styles for re-use and perfect SEO.
When I refer to Blocs I just mean the core Blocs5 App.
To put that in RW perspective, the best apples to apples comparrison would be RW Foundry.
Foundry (based on Bootstrap 4 alpha 6) Foundry $89 + Potion Pack $35 + Thunder Pack=$35 = $159 + RW Classic =$71.99/every year + Stacks5 $59.99 = $290
Blocs5 (based on Bootstrap 5.2.2) = $99.99 total with no additional packs required.
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Yes, Source can do that. My point was that using the most expensive RW frameworks which seems to be what many Weavers do, i.e. F6 or Foundry, you canāt built the type of layouts that Blocs5 can build, because those frameworks donāt support CSS Grid or include other features that come built into Blocs5.
I wasnāt saying that Blocs5 could build CSS Grid layouts that Source can.
I was highlighting the fact that as Blocs5 is a true WYSIWYG Editor, that you can actually see the CSS Grid and Flexbox layouts take shape inside Blocs5 and donāt need to Preview to see them. I find this is a significant speed and design advantage to building layouts using a tool like Blocs5. Unfortunately, Stacks does not work this way. Maybe StacksPro wil do, but we donāt know.
Where Source excels though, is the varierty of CSS Grid stacks with Source, how cleverly they have been implemented and how they can be further enhanced with the Utillity classes. That maturity really shows now, but as Blocs5 has only been released, I am confident, based on Normās speed of development, that Blocs5 will mature, just as Source did.
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You can run Foundry without RW classic or even Stacks 5? It runs in older versions of RW and stacks. So those costs are irrelevant to the equation because you would need some version of RW and stacks for any stacks based framework.
Blocs Plus appears to be necessary to store reusable classes, so I included it because it was equivalent to the combination of RWās code panels and Stacksā ability to add classes to stacks (or libraries of classes, like F6ās swatches or Sourceās utility classes or the OpenType class library I included with LockUp). This would seem to be a mainstream and important feature now for RW/Stacks users, so the inclusion seemed relevant.