Gutenberg is still in its beginning stages but already plugins are coming out to make users and developers lives easier. Over time plugins will more than likely gain and loose popularity until eventually there are a set up plugins and tools that people just use as their trusted go to.

In this post I want to look at a few of the plugins that appear to be getting an early lead in the block arena. A few of these I mention because of the blocks they provide, and a couple I mention because of the hand they lend to developers to generate custom blocks.

Atomic Blocks

Atomic Blocks provides blocks that would be useful across a range of sites. It is mentioned in several other posts on Gutenberg Blocks, has been installed over 10,000 times and has some 5 and 4 star ratings. There are no 3-1 star ratings but it should be noted that for the number of downloads there are only 22 reviews at the time of this writing.

Gutenberg Blocks – Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg

With 50,000 installs and 70 all 5 star ratings UG is taking an early lead in the Gutenberg game. Of all the blocks it provides, one of the best has to be fixing a shortcoming of Gutenberg and that’s the ability to make custom row and column layouts. Gutenberg does have a default column block, but it lacks in customization features that one would expect in a page builder. UG picks up that slack. Hopefully a future update to Gutenberg will adopt this builder like feature but until it does this is a good plugin to have.

Kadence Blocks – Gutenberg Page Builder Toolkit

Kadence Blocks is a plugin that I’ve used that I really enjoy. It doesn’t quite as many custom blocks as Atomic Blocks or UG, but the blocks it does have work very well. While UG has a great block for making custom row and column layouts, at the time of this writing I do like Kadence’s better. To be honest that may only be because I’ve used it more, either way both plugins aid in feeling the gap of a needed Gutenberg feature.

ACF Pro

Advanced Custom Fields has saved developers countless hours of work of the years. Since its release ACF’s primary focus has been helping generate custom meta fields. Just before the release of Gutenberg, ACF announced that developers will now be able to create custom Gutenberg blocks with its framework.

Carbon Fields

Carbon Fields is much like ACF Pro in that it helps developers create meta fields. It also has a great API for creating custom gutenberg blocks. The main differences between ACF Pro and Carbon Fields though is ACF Pro gives an interface for creating custom fields and blocks while with Carbon Fields you have to write php to set up fields and blocks. Where Carbon Fields has an advantage is its totally free where ACF Pro has varying license costs. Both are good choices and I don’t think one would be better over the other.