Introduction to Content Management Systems
Web development has been simplified over the years through WordPress and other Content Manage Systems (CMS). These systems has streamlined the web building process without needing extensive knowedge and coding. Through Elementor, an extension for WordPress offers a dag and drop page builder that allows you to design websites like any other.
Through these systems, programmers have created various plugins which can be installed free of charge or through subscriptions. These plugins allow your website to have additional features, which would be updated and fixed on the programmers end.
Although the wide range of plugins are eye-catching, and it sounds tempting to install an infinite amount of them to create the fanciest website, it can be an issue. Too many plugins can lead to your website becoming unstable or increase the load time. There is a solution to that: Crocoblock for Elementor. Before we dive into Crocoblock, we’ll need to discuss what Custom Post Types (CPT) and Advacned Custom Fields (ACF) are.
Disclaimer: This blog is written from our own experiences. We are not paid or affiliated with Crocoblock in any way.
What are CPT and ACF?
One of the common plugins websites opt to include are Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom Filters.
These are great tools to help users filter through your posts and listings. Think of a time you searched to make a purchase online for a new laptop. You filtered through the brands you want, the processor, the graphics card, and the price. This was achieved through Advanced Custom Fields.
Now, you may notice that a product’s specs and information are included several times on a website. This can be on the product page itself, the product listing, and maybe featured on the main page. Instead of manually updating each instance, this can be updated all at once through Custom Post Types.
Custom Post Types, as the name implies, allow you to create custom posts, which can be queried throughout a site. This allows you to edit the custom post type, and the website will update the products information. For example, a laptop increases the price from $799 to $899. Instead of updating on 10 pages, you would update the CPT for the laptop, and the price listing would be updated throughout the site. You wouldn’t need to worry if you missed a page that still required to be updated.
Why Use Crocoblock?
Now, remember how we discussed too many plugins can be bad for your performance? CPT and ACF are not native features to WordPress or Elementor. Traditionally, they were implemented through plugins such as CPT UI and Advanced Custom Fields. Crocoblock offers the JetEngine plugin, which offers various features including CPT, ACF, and Custom Content Types (CCT). This allows you to streamline your website development by having multiple features in a single plugin.
But I Can Get CPT UI and ACF for free!
Compared to Crocoblock, which offers the following:
The biggest eye catching difference is Crocoblock’s lifetime options. While ACF only provides yearly subscription models. If you’re in website development for the long-run, Crocoblock options will quickly pay itself off, while you’d continue paying annually for ACF as long as you’re building websites.
Conclusion
Crocoblock helps reduce the plugins you’d need to help optimize your set performance. While CPT UI and ACF can be free, there are limitations which may compel you to pay for the premium version. In the long-run, you’d save money through Crocoblock with a one-time payment model instead of an annual subscription.
While Crocoblock offers various plugins, it’s important to not install all available, and only use which plug-ins you will need.