As you may already know, Visual Composer has been going through some changes lately.
Weāve launched a new plugin, which compelled us to change the name of our first plugin, which in turn confused a lot of our users. If you havenāt heard the full story yet, you can check it out here:
For the past 6 months, weāve been working hard on clearing up the confusion around our brand and our two plugins.
Weāve published articles, created videos, answered commentsā¦ and slowly, but steadily, the fog started lifting.
But hereās the curious thing:
The more the confusion cleared up, the more follow-up questions we got. It was almost impossible to follow every thread and answer each and every question.
So we thought of a way to centralize these questions and answer them all at once.
āLetās do a Reddit AMA!ā
Iāve got to admitā¦ Iām not an active Reddit user.
But I do love talking to the Visual Composer community and I knew a huge part of it was hanging out on Reddit.
Now, looking back, Iām blown away by how much Iāve learned from this live conversation.
And I wanted to share with you the top 5 things that I took away from it.
Top 5 Things Iāve Learned About Visual Composer
From the Reddit Community
1: The only way to clear up the confusion was to dig beyond the surface and get to the REAL questions
For almost half a year now weāve been actively explaining the differences between our first plugin, WPBakery Page Builder, and our new one, Visual Composer Website Builder.
Judging by the comments and questions people were posting about Visual Composer, we were convinced the root of the problem was this confusion around our products.
But after talking to the community on Reddit and digging deeper into their questions, I realized there was another confusion hidden beneath the surface:
Whatās going to happen with Visual Composer? Whatās the future of the plugins?
Reading between the lines and understanding what our users were thinking about Visual Composer triggered a whole new conversation with my team:
How do we prepare our plugins for the future?
Where do we go from here? Where should we focus our efforts in the next few months?
Weāre still in the testing stage, but what I can say for sure is that weāre planning exciting things for our user community in the near future.
2: When you create disruptive products like our plugins, youāll be equally loved and hated.
This struck me the minute the questions started rolling in.
There was a fine balance between comments from people criticizing my work and comments from users who loved it.
There were people who congratulated me & my team for creating one of the most disruptive products in the WordPress space back in 2011. Others hated the fact that we changed the rules of the game.
And I understood both sides. They were all right in their own way.
On the one hand, we created something innovative. On the other hand, we made mistakes on the way. But who doesn't?
Which leads me to the next thing on my listā¦
3: Learning from my experience with the first plugin (WPBakery Page Builder) was essential to evolving to a whole new level.
When we developed WPBakery Page Builder, we wanted to redefine the way we build WordPress websites. And thatās exactly what we did.
But, like with any other new tech product, two things happened:
- There are always mistakes, bugs, and glitches that can mess things up (especially when the plugin integrates within other products).
That can be highly frustrating for the users and almost impossible for us to track each one down and fix it in due time, despite our best efforts.
- New technology becomes available and sets a brand new standard (and different expectations from the user community).
We see amazing new technology making its way to the market year by year. Which is why weāve developed our new plugin, Visual Composer Website Builder using React.js
4: Competition is fiercer than ever and thatās good newsāsuch a great way to push your own limits.
Weāve got a lot of comments about some new products that are in direct competition with our plugins.
The general āvibeā of the questions was Arenāt you scared?
And my genuine answerāand, please believe me, not at all arrogant or self-sufficientāwas No, not scared at all.
And thatās because weāve learned from our past mistakes and wrapped up our experience and the knowledge weāve gained into a new & better product.
Thatās how Visual Composer Website Builder came to life.
When we built WP Bakery Page Builder, we wanted to change the way we used to build websites in WordPress at the time. And we did.
Now, we wanted to meet our usersā current standards and build a complete website builder that covers all they need. And we did.
Because thatās in the Visual Composer DNA: we push our own limits to evolve and create better experiences for our users.
Sure, we make mistakes along the way. But we learn from them and do better work, time and time again.
5: The best way to come up with the next big thing is to listen c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y to your usersā wishes.
I left this one for the end, not because itās the least important. Just the contrary.
After my AMA, I felt like I discovered a secret treasure of brilliant ideas, well-thought opinions, and rock-solid arguments.
Things that my team and I had been thinking about, individually and together, for months. But until the AMA, it all felt like walking on a water bed. If youāve ever tried to pull that off, you know you canāt walk with confidence on one of those.
But when I talked to the community, saw their concerns about Visual Composer and their on-point questions about our pluginsā¦ it was like someone was reading our minds.
But hereās where the AMA made a huge differenceā¦
The community not only voiced concerns and asked questions.
They gave advice, made suggestions, told us what they wanted and expected from us, and planted the seed of new outcomes.
Right now, weāre working on improving Visual Composer Website Builder, taking all that input into consideration.
And to make sure we make the plugin exactly as our users want it, I want to offer you something in exchange for your honest opinion:
Iām giving you free access to the premium version of Visual Composer Website Builder.
Iām giving away 30 free licenses to the premium version of Visual Composer Website Builder. (UPDATE: We are out of free licenses in this giveaway - thanks for the massive interest). Would you like to try it out and let me know what you think? Leave a comment below and, if there are any free licenses still available, my team will give you access. The giveaway will be active for a whole month until May 31, 2019.
Why am I doing this?
Any feedback from our users will help us make the plugin even better (and youāll have access to all the updates, of course).
All in all, I hope youāve enjoyed these little nuggets of wisdom from the Reddit community. If you want to read the thread, youāll find it hereāitās pretty entertaining, I must say.
And I hope youāll take me on my offer to give Visual Composer Website Builder a free trial. Leave a comment if youāre in!
Thanks for reading,
Michael
Thank you for your honesty and transparency. It’s the hard things we do in life that grow us the most. Despite having seen it in action on several occasions, I have never had the pleasure of using the premium version of VC (old form or new). I would love to give it a shot. Thanks for the hard work and diligence in creating a better web.
Hi Zach, the whole AMA thing turned out to be very fun and interesting activity š I’m thrilled to see such a good response from the community. Thanks for chiming in!
I haven’t been in the WP scene recently, but like, this post makes me WANT to use your product. I appreciate your character and the way that you and the company have listened to your users. I would be super excited to try this out.
Annie, I’m very glad that you find this interesting. I’m also enjoying it! We all work “in the Internet” but rarely have an opportunity to talk to each other. This post and AMA session is a bridge š
Have a great day and I hope you will love the new Visual Composer Website Builder (coupon sent to your email).
I’d love to give Visual Composer a try. I’ve used the old version and other page builders, but haven’t tried the new one yet. Our biggest challenge right now is finding plugins that are WCAG 2.1 compliant.
Hi Geoff, Thanks for the interest! Please give it a shot. We have plans to address WCAG in the future but haven’t focused on it just yet… But we understand how important it is.
To be frank I hated WP Bakery at first. As a hand coder, I hated the code generated by plugin. I felts the same as you have pointed. The code was messy, uncontrolled & it’s very difficult to rollback. But one thing I never considered was the end users. You guys made it easy for end users to control website in a friendly manner which one could provide. Definitely a game changer in the WordPress Theme development. I would love to test your new plugin.
Thanks for sharing. It gives one courage to read about how you dared to do what we usually say is the best but few of us do for various reasons. I would live to test the new visual composer
Thank you for the comment! It means a lot. And I hope you will love the new Visual Composer Website Builder. Have a great day!
Thank for the feedback. Without a doubt our main focus is the end users – without them, we all will be out of the business š Frankly, our developers also striving for the clean code and best tools, as a result, we introduce a lot of exciting and new technology under the hood. For example, now as a developer, you can easily create react elements that will work with Visual Composer Website Builder – check our docs if you are interested š
I’d love to try the newest version of Visual Composer. In the past, I’ve found drag and drop editors to be clunky and as a software developer there is usually a disconnect between what I want to be generated and what actually gets generated. I’m glad you’re focusing on the performance of the editor since that’s usually one of the most frustrating aspects.
Hey Aaron, thanks for the input. I believe that learning is a never-ending process and I and my team are always doing experiments and learn from them. The new Visual Composer Website Builder adds almost zero loading time to WordPress page load. Content is already pre-cached – the moment you have built it.
I used previous plugin and I do use the actual version either. I love them both. I go deeply inside and love it more and more. There are tons of extensions. Page Builder is the real comfort and freedom to make page awesome. Thank you for permanent development. I don’t even consider your competition! I do plan to use Page Builder in all my new projects.
Thanks, Dmitry! Comments like this keep us going I will make sure to pass it to our team. I’m glad you like the architecture of the Visual Composer Website Builder it’s a very interesting project to work with.
Visual composer is an excellent editor to quickly create websites. I have used it on several websites. But it always feel heavy and slow. I believe you should highly focus on performance.
One of your feature says “Tested on the best WordPress hostings” why not test on worst of the hosting. If it works there, it would work everywhere.
Best of luck
Hi, We do test on all kind of hostings but we will never recommend a bad hosting to our clients. The new Visual Composer Website Builder is focused on performance and with every version we push it even further.
I have always been a fan of Visual Composer for two reasons:
1) Makes it easy for clients to perform changes on their own
2) Allows me as a developer to speed up the building process, especially for simple websites
Therefore I would love to try out the newest version
Thanks, Kalus! Straight to the point. You basically defined to of our main goals. I hope you will love the new Visual Composer Website Builder!
Being a long time user of Visual Comoser.. Sorry the WPBakery page builder. Few days back I was heckling your website and wanted to purchase it but couldnāt purchase at that time. Now it would be great if I can try the full version before I make my final purchase. Thank you!
I guess this blog post arrived in perfect timing š Thanks for checking it out, I hope you will love it!
Visual Composer was the first pagebuilder I tried out back in the day. Hooked on it from day 1 as it freed me from the drudgery of typing out raw html for page layouts, despite the messy code it used to (it still does, which can be an issue with page optimization, but that’s another story) generate on the frontend. Clients loved it though, as it freed them from bondage with their website developer/designer (lol).
Concerns, some echoed by previous comments: WCAG compliance, clean (and mean?) code output, but I guess you guys have those things in your sights already.
I haven’t tried out the website builder yet, but it sounds like a solution I’d find invaluable in my work. Would just be a matter of finding (or writing) a stable wp theme that I can use as a foundation for all the sites my bosses throw at me for building up on a weekly basis. You mentioned a premium version. Where can I find the free version to try out?
Thanks, Fernando for the input! All our development is focused on the feedback that we receive. I hope you will like the new Visual Composer Website Builder. And make sure to look under the hood – it is interesting from the developers’ point of view.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and what you learn from this AMA. I have to say that, as a user of VC on some client websites, I loved it and in the end, it became part of my workflow creating new ones. I stopped to use WP since a few months, but reading that you are using React on your Visual Composer Website Builder tempts me to try it!
Wow, just wow! I really hope that you will like it. React is amazing and we brought that beauty to the WordPress world. And now, only forward š We update our product with a very steady pace and it literally becoming only better and better.
First of thanks for a great tool.
Reading your posts here and the AMA I’m amazed by how many people still don’t know the difference between VC and WPB. I think you should focus on this website more. Explain the difference and show the possibilities. Right now I can only read about them. The one thing that makes the Envato sites great is seeing/trying all the features. Maybe you should let us the users showcase our work and talk about our experience with VC? I’ve been using VC for couple of years (before that WPB). And I’m still not sure why I should use premium is the difference worth it. And this is what you need to show as well in the best possible way. I would happily try premium and give you my feedback. As a designer, I don’t like programming but speed and simplicity is key. And this is why I like VC. It’s easy you use, great UX/UI this without making to much of a mess behind the scenes.
Hi, Christian, thanks for the input. It turned out that switching peoples’ mindset is extremely difficult. Please give Premium a try and I hope you will enjoy all the extra benefits it has to offer.
Hi, I haven’t been in WP scene recently, but started with WP Bakery. I apreciated the tool’s ease of use but didn’t like the code generated.
I do appreciate your way to process/progresss and positive way to construct from your mistakes ā only people who do nothing don’t make any. It proves you work hard for us, thanks and weldone! I’d be delighted to use your new plugin.
Thank you for the inspiring words! I couldn’t agree more with you. Have a great day and enjoy your free license.
Hi Michael M
I truly appreciate your hard work and dedication that you brought into WordPress Page builder and started a new era of WordPress. I have been using the WP Bakery Products since 6 years. You created a new era for WordPress.
However when you rebranded the product and made the new one( and left WP bakery VC ) , the field was wide open for competitors to take a piece of pie which was earlier crated and dominated by WP Bakery VC.
And Regarding the new product , sorry to say but it comes no where near the new age page builders like Divi, elementor and even the new ones like Brizy.
So why not update/ modify the WP Bakery page builder with a simple and novice friendly builder like the WIX front end builder in order to reclaim your past Glory.
I have used all the page builders so far and feel the most versatile one is yours WP bakery Visual Composer rather the new VC. So I still believe with this( smart Front end Editing ) New feature additions WP Bakery Page builder can once again reclaim Glory.
WP bakery VC has already won hearts and is more trusted and a robust solution for page building.
Think about it !
Saroj P
Hi, Saroj, thanks for the message. Would love to hear what features you are missing in the Visual Composer Website Builder?
I ended up adding WP Bakery (along with some custom elements, etc) to a WP Multisite client of mine, and it has enabled them to build all sorts of layouts that they had only dreamed of doing before, hiring developers to do each one. Now they’re almost entirely self-sufficient. It has been incredible for them, so thanks for all of your work on that. Looking forward to seeing what the new one will bring to the table.
I’ve used Visual Composer on some client sites. It was a great tool for layouts. Although at my day job we code the block ourselves, I’d see potential for it as a tool in my own company’s projects, as the clients are smaller, and they need a cost efficient way to create different layouts by themselves.
Thank you for the great plugin, and I’m eager to see what you come up with it now that Gutenberg is here.
I’ve been using WPBakery Page Builder for some time and it has been very useful to me. Having read this, I’m only now aware that Visual Composer Website Builder exists so I would definitely like to try it out.
Hi Dexter, a great day to learn something new? š Please check your email I just shared with you instructions how to get you license.
If still available, I would like a trial account to test it against other front end builders in the marketplace! Would also love to be on the list for any beta features. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the interest I hope you will like it. Please check your email for further details.
I’ve would like to get free trial for your Visual Composer Website Builder
Sure! Please check your email!
Hello. I have been using Visual Composer and WP Bakery, since I am a customer of ThemeForest and it is always bundled with themes. I had a lot of problems with early days with Visual Composer, then it changed to WP Bakery and it worked more or less, then there was a post regarding the changes of VC and WPBakery and I was more confused than I was.
I am glad to know that the team is sorting things out and I would love to try the new experience, with the, hopefully only, Visual Composer. I have been using other page builders as well and I always found Visual Composer to be more complex and resource consuming than the others. So I would love to give it a try in some projects, like our heavy news site and lightweight institutional ones, and now that you have a feedback direct line, I would be glad to provide my feedback and help as I can.
I can also help with localization. It is one thing that is requested a lot from our end users, if there is a Portuguese Brazillian translation available, and so far there is none.
Another complaint that always comes up is that it is difficult for the end user to create new posts and pages, using VC. So it would be interesting to have 2 types of interface: The full builder experience, for us developers, and a lightweight, almost like Gutenberg, but more easy, for content creators. Then it would be the top notch for everyone! Those are my 2 cents and I am glad to have the opportunity to help.
Hi Eduardo, thanks for the explicit comment. I’ll start with easy stuff š
1) For the localization, we do have a service translate.visualcomposer.com where we collaborate in terms of localization. We already have versions in Portuguese, Swedish, and few other languages. If you are up for localization, we will be more than happy to see you joining.
2) I totally get you in terms of issues and we do our best to address them. Sometimes it’s related to the compatibility or release of the new version of WordPress. Whatever the reason is, it shouldn’t bother our users. So, I can just promise that we will address issues related to WPBakery more in the nearest future.
3) We would be more than happy to receive your feedback related to the Visual Composer Website Builder.
4) The lightweight interface, this is something we have in mind for Visual Composer Website Builder. We just need to finalize a few things in our current roadmap and then we can jump into what I like to call “agency-specific” stuff.
Thanks,
Raitis
P.S. Michael just went on a small vacation so don’t be surprised seeing me answering š He actually pointed out your comment and asked to jump in.
Hi Michael
Thanks for the clarifying post.
I have been using page builders for a couple of years now whenever I could find application.
This is a fact that Visual composer changed the way of WordPress design and brought a wide range of capabilities to the platform that was only available to developers. And this is also a true that others have followed fast. Beaver Builder, Divi, Elementor, Site origin builder, Oxygen …(the famous Apple/Samsung story)
One thing though, Other page builders above have had different approaches in marketing of many features that were already present in VC. VC probably intentionally or unintentionally was not marketed the way other page builders were. It is a worthy product that marketers did not show it’s worth.
For example if we look at Divi, we see a big bloated style sheets & .js files with a lot of unnecessary animations which is heavy on everything. But the design experience is very user friendly. Elementor on the other hand is cleaner and more intuitive but still heavy on some elements. Beaver builder is almost at the same level as Elementor. VC has parts of both worlds and with a little bit of marketing and leaner code can be at the top again due to the fact that it was VC who pioneered the filed.
If you can solve the problem of increased DOM elements on the page which happens in every page builder, minimize shortcodes usage, add a bit of fancy Fancy Schmancy stuff (with on/off ability) then VC has the upper hand. If a lean theme joins with VC it will be a great advantage, look at Astra+Elementor or Astra+ Beaver Builder. Same case with GeneratePress and Elementor or Beaver Builder. Look at other features they have added: Pop ups, Site libraries, positioning options… These are not complicated features and are mostly borrowed from third party partners. It is a piece of cake for VC team to develop such features and so I am wondering VC team can Start a campaign with bloggers and communities to emphasis on light-weight elements that VC has. Nowadays Light-Wieght and SEO are very big on sales. Last but not least, Please do not add any new feature as plugin to the builder because many users hate the name plugin. make it built-in. Ah, and the last thing is to make some of your premium elements available for free to kill the competition.
Sorry for the blunt comment, but I felt Visual composer is still a worthy product.
Cheers,
Alex Demi
Hey Alex, thanks for the heads up.
We saw how page builders get bloated with tons of features which makes things heavy. This is why we took a different approach with Visual Composer Website Builder. We keep the plugin clean and lightweight. Also, users can get some extra features from the Visual Composer Hub by simply downloading them – that way you get the things you really need.
Also, we now implemented the practice of constant performance checks and optimizations to ensure that the plugin doesn’t get slow over time.
Of course, worth to mention that Visual Composer Website Builder is shortcode free š
Thanks.
Great post. Very inspiring. I would please like to take the free trial of visual composer website builder. Thank you.
I’m glad to know you find out it interesting to read. Please check your email I just sent you instructions on how to get your free license.
I would love to try Visual Composer premium. Let me license details if available.
Thanks.
Thanks for the interest! I just share a coupon with you please check your email. And make sure to share your feedback with us. Have a great day!
I’ve created countless websites for clients with Visual Composer, but honestly never dived into the website builder. I’ve been reading up on it now and I might have been missing out… Speed is one of the downsides to the page builder and it good to read that the website builder is being optimized more and more. Would love to give it a try.
Thank you! Please check your email and I hope you will enjoy using it!
Thank you for this! I’m very interested in getting down and dirty with Visual Composer, as I’ve been using WP Bakery Page Builder for the majority of client sites for many years and would like to explore the differences and improvements.
I hope I get selected š
Thanks, Sean! You got it! š Please share your thoughts with us we are very open for the feedback.
Are any of those licenses still available. I would love to be able to test the new and improved plugin. Seems like a lot of people have been talking good and bad things about Elementor, but I’ve been so used to Visual Composer or the WP Bakery Page Builder that I’m hesitant to give it a try. Would hate to risk something breaking like I’ve heard updates to Elementor have been trashing some eCommerce sites. The only thing standing in my way now is PageSpeed really, which I’ve also heard your competitor has been cutting down on the requests and blowing VC out of the water. One day I’ll give it a try, I’m sure, but until then it would be awesome to know Visual Composer is getting ready to take back over control. Love you guys!
Hi, Jeffrey, thanks for using our product. The licenses are still available so I’ve just mailed you. The page speed is a good point, for Visual Composer Website Builder we have the practice to work on performance related features every month. This is our way to ensure that the plugin and the output are always fast and optimized. Love to hear your thoughts after you’ll give it a try.
Thanks.
I’m relatively new to developing with WordPress, and have been experimenting with many different tools to most effectively build compelling sites, Elementor and WPBakery being those that I’ve been using the most. As a relative newcomer, how each tool threads the balance between treating it’s users as experienced web developers vs people with no experience has been quite interesting – would love to try out Visual Composer and see how it fares if there’s still one available!
Hi Jake, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’ve sent you an e-mail with info about the license – would love to hear your feedback later on. š Cheers!
I’m too late to get a licence? Had to ask!
No, you got there just in time š Check your inbox please and happy Friday!
P.S. Michael is on vacation so I am taking care of it for him
Hi
Is there any license available to check out the new features?
Thanks
Done! Please check your email to find more details.
If it’s possible i love to check the last version. I love Visual Composer and the freedom to make complex designs in WordPress sites.
Sure! please check your email and make sure to provide us with feedback š
I would love to try Visual Composer
Done! Please check your email for further details.
I think this booboo may have given you more exposure which in the long-term might prove really valuable.
I’d love to try out your website builder.
Thanks for the support! I’m also interested to see how it will go. I just sent you an email with more details on your free license.
I’m quite interested to test the new VC. Is there any test licenses left?
Considering this whole new WordPress phase with blocks, React plugins and modern ways to build products for the platform, the competition will surely be fierce.
Glad to see a product the will help us through this new era of site building with WordPress.
Thanks! Indeed, it was an absolute joy working on the new Visual Composer Website Builder. Our developers a lucky that they work with such a modern stack š Please check your email for more details on how to get your free license.
A lot of valuable information here in the post, thank you!
If there are any licenses left, Iād be more than happy to try it out!
Jussi, I’m glad that you liked our open and transparent position. Please see your email to get your free license.
I am interested in seeing the improvements and how this plugin evolves. Currently, I am sticking with Elementor, but am open to VC is page speed can be improved.
Would love to try VC Premium. Thanks!
Sure! Please check your email for more details on how to get your license. The new Visual Composer Website Builder is really fast and adds almost zero footprints to WordPress loading.
Thanks for all of this great information, Michael. It’s great to hear about WPBakery’s ongoing efforts and transparency to make its products even better.
I’d love one of those premium licenses to give Visual Composer Website Builder a shot. Thanks guys for everything you do!
Thanks Scott, you got it! Please check your inbox for further info how to get your license. I hope you will love it and use for the next million projects of yours š
I love when a company has the guts to say ‘ we made a mistake’ and tried to make it better for all of us.
We love WP Bakery but would love to try VC Website Builder if you still have any licenses left.
Thank you Enrique! Here at Visual Composer, we are transparent and honest. Please check your email for more details on how to get your free license.
If the licences are not done I’d love to try one. Thanks.
Thanks! And congrats you manage to secure a free license from the last batch! Please check your email for more details.
It’s been a long while since I’ve use WordPress (Last I used was wordpress v2?) and I’m right now in the market for a blog revamp and gutenberg intrigued me. Would totally love to have a license to try out Visual Composer and learn about how much WordPress has changed over the years.
Thanks! And congrats you manage to secure a free license from the last batch! Please check your email for more details. Visual Composer Website Builder came a long way – I’m sure you will find it interesting.
Hello!
I have been an avid user for the past couple of years, frankly I do not consider buying themes of any kind if they don’t integrate with VC :). Although there are some challenges with VC it has gotten much better over the years and I would love to try the improvement.
Thanks! And congrats you manage to secure a free license from the last batch! Please check your email for more details. Thank you for your long support I’m sure you will find Visual Composer Website Builder really powerful!
Great write-up, very informative, Thank you for being there for us.