Greenshift builder

Introduction Greenshift builder

Greenshift is a miracle. I come from Divi (2014), one day I switched to Elementor and since the beginning of 2023 I worked exclusively with Kadence Blocks and the Kadence theme. Yet, I sometimes lacked something, in particular in the field of interactive elements, and I was curious about FSE themes in general.

Incidentally, I regularly test other builders, themes and plug-ins. I always came across one builder; Greenshift. I was a bit reluctant because I didn’t know the company; They are more concerned with their product, which in itself is not bad, than promoting the company. After some hesitation, I installed the free version of their builder on a test website. That went so well and made me so curious that I quickly purchased the Pro version, with all the extra plug-ins they have. I immediately tested the builder on its own theme, but for this review I keep Builder and theme separate as much as possible.

Market Share

Greenshift Builder has a market share of more than 30,000. That is not bad for a fairly new builder. They grow fast. This is partly because their free basic product, Greenshift – Animation and Page Builder Blocks, is so complete. The plug-in shows so much about their working method, that many are ‘caught’ by Greenshift. Many web designers use Greenshift as their new all-in-one builder, just like before Elementor, but there are also designers that use Greenshift as an addition to their standard builder.

First impression Greenshift builder

My first impression was “wow this is a wonderful builder”. My second impression was “Oh, this takes some getting used to”.

Less than an hour after that, I decided to set up some test websites because Greenshift turned out to have a lot to offer, and intrigued me. Greenshift is a bit addictive. In the first place, Greenshift is superfast. At first, I thought it was fast because of their blocks, but it turned out the combination with a FSE theme made it so fast.

Okay, what do I mean, with getting used to?

The cause of their speed is getting used to. Many builders try to make their blocks, their elements, ‘dummy-proof’. Whatever you do, what is not possible at all; The block continues to work, usually. If you place a text block or an illustration with a width that is larger than there is room in a column, most builders do not show the ‘too large’ part. Even if that extra width is consciously chosen! In Greenshift you see everything, but can hide it again with one click, as you might be used to from other builders. The blocks are actually free of bloating. Instead, there are several effects and possibilities that almost all work with classes, so no slow scripts, so that your website works at lightning speed. The speed I experienced, I still experience every day and is delicious. That speed is not only for the visitor to the site, but also for the builder. Waiting various seconds after a few changes until it is saved? It takes a second with Greenshift.

Costs

The basic builder plugin of Greenshift blocks builder is free. The plugin can simply be installed via WordPress.org. In addition, there are various Pro Plug-ins that you can or cannot purchase. Honesty: the all-in package is considerably cheaper than a few plug-ins separately, so that is recommended.

• Greenshift – Animation and Page Builder Blocks is completely free.
• Query Add-on And Listings is an extra add-on, price from 19.99 per year
• Chart Add-on is also an extra add-on, price from 9.49 per year
• WooCommerce add-on is available from 27.99 per year
• Marketing and SEO Add-on from 29.99 per year=

The all-in-one package:

• 1 website 59,99 a year
• 5 sites 89.99 per year
• Unlimited sites 129.99 a year

Greenshift also offers a Lifetime deal

• The LTD’s are 109.99 to 399.99 for an unlimited number of websites.

That’s including:

• All the mentioned add-ons
• Figma Converter
• Shop FSE template
• Animated Section Library
• Premium Support
• Link rewriter

Greenshift also offers a Lifetime deal. This starts at 109.99 and ends at 399.99 for an unlimited number of websites.

• Prices are in dollars, so for Europeans, on average, it’s 8-10% lower.

Functions

It has all the standard functions you may expect from a builder. In addition, all blocks and elements (with the query add-on) work with Dynamic Fields, such as ACF. What is special is that with Greenshift Builder you can easily make your own template. With other builders, you usually need the pro version of the theme in combination with the builder. Greenshift tackles this differently.

The Builder (with the query add-on) is enough to create a template (for example, with Kadence it’s named Elements, with Divi a template). Not only for their FSE theme, but for every theme! Not only that: the way Greenshift does this is flawless; the user interface is a joy to work with.

Effects and animations

Of course, a website with too many effects or animations is often annoying and difficult to view, but some civilized effects or animations give a website a certain dynamic. Greenshift really offers a whole range of effects and animations. Think of parallax, background parallax, apple style parallax with video (image sequencer), video scroller, page transitions and much more. The possibilities are so endless, that after days of experimenting, we have only discovered 10% of what is possible.

Classes

Almost everything in Greenshift is focused on class. That does not mean that you have to use it, but each block has several ways to use classes, which is very handy. For animations, for example, Greenshift uses a selector. That means that by clicking on the right block, you can indicate on which block the effect or the animation is focused.

Maps

Every builder has a Map block. However, the Greenshift maps block also works with OpenStreetMap, so you don’t need a Google API (paid Google account). You can also add an unlimited number of markers, and you can give each marker a title and a description. The Map block is also suitable for dynamic data!

Breakpoints

Every builder has so-called ‘breakpoints’. That is the width of the Devices screens to switch to another layout; such as desktop to tablet and tablet to mobile. Greenshift has an extra breakpoint: mobile landscape. This offers advantages when it comes to the break points for columns and queries. On a mobile, you usually want it to be among each other, while that is not necessary and even ugly and unpracticable if the mobile is kept horizontal.

Cache and speed

With an average Greenshift website, a cache plug-in is actually superfluous. Of course, it depends on the theme you are using, but the combination Greenshift blocks and a good FSE theme doesn’t really need a cache plugin.

HMTL blocks

For the fanatic (‘everything is better if created in HTML’) web builder: Greenshift not only offers ‘normal’ Greenshift Blocks, but also Greenlight Elements. Greenlight Elements are smaller building blocks that have much cleaner HTML output. The elements have at least the same possibilities as the blocks, but indeed work at lightning speed with a very clean output.

Support

Support is excellent, but occasionally a bit slow. With slow, I mean around 2–4 days. The fastest is the Greenshift Facebook Group, with a response of sometimes just a few hours. Their official support board is a bit slower, but lends itself well to the more complicated questions and bug reports. Because we naturally wanted to do this review thoroughly, we really tested every function thoroughly. So thoroughly that we also found things that you would probably never encounter during normal use; so yes, some blocks have a few minor bugs.

Positive

Greenshift works wonderfully. The plug-ins work well with the most other Gutenberg Builders/Blocks such as Kadence, GeneratePress and the like because they have no disturbing interactions with other themes and builders; They work nice side by side. We even tested it on a Divi website, and they didn’t seem to disturb each other.

Negative

It is getting used to that almost everything is possible. The first Gutenberg Block Builders often learned the user to live with limitations, and to be able to create what you want within those limitations … Well, with Greenshift it is just about anything, so it is difficult to find really negative properties. It is of course strange to put something positive with negative properties, but it gives a feeling of ‘oops, this is difficult’, while in practice it does not bother you because effects and animations are really not needed everywhere. In short: some things are really complicated to use.

What I really don’t like, is the native Greenshift formbuilder. If you are used to creating forms with pure HTML, you will be fine. But most people like a formbuilder to work as a… formbuilder. On the other hand, I am not so fond of most integrated form builders (except the one in Kadence blocks pro), so that is not a real disadvantage. A decent replacement would be the free version of Jetformbuilder.

The documentation is a real disadvantage for some, including myself. They have some, but is often very short. The communication of certain options can also be better; I sometimes discovered them by chance. Documentation is the part where Greenshift lost half a point.

Conclusion of the Greenshift builder review

An absolute recommendation. It has ‘forced’ me to integrate Greenshift into my workflow, in addition to Kadence. Furthermore, Greenshift has fueled my love for FSE themes. Admittedly, there are not many good FSE themes yet, but the one from Greenshift (free, by the way) really works wonderfully. So nice, that I am going to combine multiple sites where I use Kadence Blocks with the Greenshift FSE theme.