{"id":639,"slug":"bricks-builder-cleanest-output-2026","title":"Bricks Builder produces the cleanest output of the WordPress visual builders; recommend it only when client absolutely cannot work in Gutenberg","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","candid-team"],"topics":["wordpress","page-builders"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Among WordPress visual page builders, Bricks Builder produces the cleanest HTML/CSS/JS output — comparable to Gutenberg on simple pages, with 95+ PageSpeed Insights typical (PageBuildLab, PureThemes 2026 testing).\n\n**Why this matters:** if a client truly cannot work in Gutenberg after onboarding, Bricks is the right escape hatch — *not* Elementor/Divi/WPBakery. Bricks is a theme replacement; clean DOM; storage in JSON in `postmeta._bricks_page_content_2`.\n\n**Lock-in note:** Bricks stores content as JSON in postmeta — still locked to the builder, but cleaner than Divi's shortcode-in-post_content (see [[divi-4-shortcode-lockin-et-pb]]) or Elementor's JSON blob.\n\n**Migration implication:** Bricks→markdown/Portable Text is still essentially impossible. Plan to rebuild pages on migration.\n\n**Confidence:** Directional. Bricks does not publish install counts; performance claims are from independent agency testing.\n\n**Position in the Candid recommendation hierarchy:** Gutenberg > Bricks > Beaver Builder > Elementor > Divi > WPBakery.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"page-builder-market-share-2025-elementor-43pct","title":"WordPress page-builder market share, 2025 Web Almanac: Elementor 43% (down from 56% in 2024); Gutenberg 18% (up from ~12%); WPBakery 13%; Divi 10%","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-22T21:23:33.799Z","updated_at":"2026-05-22T21:23:33.799Z"}