--- title: "Nexter vs Bricks Builder: Native Blocks vs Visual Builder for WordPress" url: https://nexterwp.com/blog/nexter-vs-bricks-builder/ date: 2026-09-22 modified: 2026-09-22 lang: en author: "Aditya Sharma" description: "[nexter-builder id=\"28467\"] I rebuilt a client site twice last year because I picked the wrong page-building approach on the first pass. The client wanted full design control, so I reached..." image: https://nexterwp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nexter-vs-bricks-builder-featured-1024x538.jpg word_count: 1801 --- # Nexter vs Bricks Builder: Native Blocks vs Visual Builder for WordPress ## Key Takeaways - Bricks Builder se presenta como un “Visual Site Builder for WordPress” que reemplaza el editor de bloques de WordPress con su propio lienzo de arrastrar y soltar, su biblioteca de elementos, sus controles de puntos de ruptura y su sistema de datos dinámicos tipo query loop. - Nexter Theme funciona como un tema de bloques completo y Nexter Blocks añade más de 90 bloques Gutenberg dentro del editor nativo, sin una segunda interfaz que aprender. - Nexter Theme permite editar cabeceras, pies de página y plantillas en el WordPress Site Editor con las mismas herramientas de bloques que usa el contenido. - Bricks Builder usa un entorno propio para construir páginas, mientras que Nexter Blocks genera marcado estándar de Gutenberg, lo que mantiene el contenido más portable si después cambia el tema. - Bricks Builder vende cuatro licencias directas desde bricksbuilder.io: Starter a 79 dólares al año para 1 sitio, Business a 149 dólares al año para 3 sitios, Agency a 249 dólares al año para sitios ilimitados y Ultimate a 599 dólares como compra única vitalicia para sitios ilimitados. Table of Contents I rebuilt a client site twice last year because I picked the wrong page-building approach on the first pass. The client wanted full design control, so I reached for a standalone visual builder, and six months later they were paying a per-site license just to keep the site running and had to relearn a second editor on top of WordPress itself. The second time, I asked a more basic question first: do I actually need a separate builder, or does WordPress’s own block editor already get me there. That question is exactly what comes up whenever Nexter and Bricks Builder get compared, so here is an honest look at both. ![Bricks Builder visual site builder homepage](https://nexterwp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/bricks-builder-homepage-scaled.png)Bricks markets itself directly as a “Visual Site Builder for WordPress,” a standalone canvas that replaces the block editor. ## What Bricks Builder Is Bricks describes itself, in its own words, as a “Visual Site Builder for WordPress.” It replaces the WordPress block editor with its own drag-and-drop canvas, complete with its own element library, its own responsive breakpoint controls, and its own query-loop-style dynamic data system. Once you install it, you are designing inside Bricks’s interface rather than the native Gutenberg editor, on every page and post. That is a deliberate trade-off. You get a single, consistent design environment across the entire site, with fine-grained control over spacing, breakpoints, and custom CSS variables that some visual builders do not expose. The cost is that Bricks is a paid, standalone product with its own learning curve, and it is not free. Because everything is built inside one canvas, Bricks also tends to attract agencies and freelancers who standardize their entire client workflow on a single tool. Once a team has learned Bricks’s panel layout, its class-based styling system, and its dynamic data query builder, they can move fast across many client sites without relearning a new theme’s quirks each time. That consistency is the actual selling point, more than any single feature. ## What Nexter Is Nexter takes the opposite starting point. Nexter Theme is a full WordPress block theme, and Nexter Blocks is a free plugin with more than 90 additional Gutenberg blocks, so the whole stack works inside WordPress’s own native block editor rather than replacing it with a separate canvas. There is no second interface to learn: the container, grid, advanced heading, image carousel, pricing table, and form builder blocks all sit in the same block inserter as core WordPress blocks like Paragraph and Image. Because Nexter Theme is a block theme, it also plugs into WordPress’s Site Editor for full-site editing: headers, footers, and page templates are all editable the same way, with the same block tools you already use for content. This matters most for anyone who works across multiple sites that do not all share the same theme. A Gutenberg-native block like Nexter’s Container or Advanced Heading behaves the same way whether it sits inside Nexter Theme or a different block theme entirely, because the underlying block markup is the same WordPress block format every other block-based theme also reads. Nothing about the layout is locked to one specific plugin’s proprietary renderer. ![Nexter Blocks library of native Gutenberg blocks](https://nexterwp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/nexter-blocks-library-scaled.png)Nexter Blocks adds its element library directly into the native WordPress block editor instead of a separate builder canvas. ## Building the Same Page in Both Take something concrete, a pricing page with a three-column comparison table and a sticky header. In Bricks, you would open its canvas, drop in a section, nest its structure elements to create the three columns, and style each one with its own class-based settings panel, all inside Bricks’s interface. The sticky header is a global element you configure once in Bricks and reuse across templates. In Nexter, you would build the same page in the regular WordPress editor: add a Nexter Blocks Container for the row, drop in three Pricing Table blocks (which already include the monthly and yearly toggle feature through the Switcher block), and set the header once in the Site Editor’s template part, where it applies sitewide because Nexter Theme is a block theme. The end result looks similar. The difference is which interface you spent your time in, and whether that skill transfers to other WordPress sites you touch later. ## Native Blocks vs. Visual Builder: The Real Trade-offs This is less about which tool has more features and more about which working style fits your site. - **Learning curve.** If you or your client already know the WordPress block editor, Nexter adds new blocks to a familiar interface. Bricks asks everyone touching the site to learn its own canvas, panels, and shortcuts first. - **Theme lock-in.** Bricks is the site’s design environment: your layouts live in its data structure, and moving away from it later means rebuilding pages. Nexter Blocks output is standard Gutenberg block markup, so content stays portable even if you later switch themes. - **Performance surface.** A native block approach only loads the specific blocks used on a given page, the same way core WordPress blocks work. A full visual builder framework, by design, ships more of its own runtime to support the flexibility of a standalone canvas. - **Future-proofing.** Gutenberg is WordPress’s own long-term direction (full-site editing, patterns, block bindings). Building natively on it means new core features tend to show up automatically. A separate builder framework depends on its own team to keep pace with core WordPress changes. - **Team onboarding.** Bringing a new editor, writer, or client onto a Bricks-built site means training them on Bricks specifically. A site built with native blocks only requires knowing the standard WordPress editor, which most people who have touched WordPress at all already recognize. - **Community and support.** Bricks has an active paid-user community and its own support channels tied to your license. Nexter Blocks, being free and Gutenberg-native, benefits from the much larger pool of general WordPress and block-editor documentation, tutorials, and Stack Exchange answers that already exist for the core editor. None of this makes one approach universally “better.” A studio that has standardized its entire workflow around Bricks gets real speed from that consistency. A site owner who just wants WordPress to feel like WordPress, with more building blocks, gets that from Nexter instead. The right call depends on who else touches the site after launch, not just who builds it first. ## Pricing Compared Bricks sells four license tiers directly from bricksbuilder.io: Starter at $79 a year for one site, Business at $149 a year for three sites, Agency at $249 a year for unlimited sites, and an Ultimate tier at $599 as a one-time lifetime purchase for unlimited sites. Local and staging installs do not count against the site limit on any tier. Nexter Blocks is free on WordPress.org with more than 90 blocks included at no cost. Nexter Theme and the paid Nexter bundle (Theme, Blocks, and the Extension add-on together) are sold on a similar per-site structure, 1 Site, 5 Sites, or Unlimited Sites, with a yearly or lifetime option. ***Also read:** [Nexter vs Astra: Which Should You Build On?](https://nexterwp.com/blog/nexter-vs-astra/) for a full breakdown of what is bundled at each tier, since the exact figures change with active promotions and are worth checking live at nexterwp.com/pricing before you buy either product.* ## Which Should You Choose? - **Choose Bricks** if you are running a design-heavy agency workflow, want a single consistent builder across every client site regardless of theme, and are comfortable with a paid, standalone canvas as the cost of that control. - **Choose Nexter** if you want to stay inside WordPress’s native block editor, keep your content portable, start free with Nexter Blocks, and only pay once you need the full theme and extension bundle. There is also a middle case worth naming honestly: a site that is currently running on Bricks and works fine for its owner has no urgent reason to switch. Rebuilding a working site just to change page-building philosophy is rarely worth the hours it costs, unless the actual pain point is cost, portability, or onboarding a non-technical client, in which case migrating to a native block approach solves a real problem rather than a preference. The more common decision point is a new site, or a rebuild that was already scheduled for other reasons anyway. That is when it is genuinely worth testing both properly: install Nexter Blocks for free on a staging site, build the one page you personally care most about, and compare that hands-on experience directly against a Bricks trial before committing a full year of licensing to either one. If you are still weighing Nexter against other block-based themes rather than a standalone builder, the comparison looks different again. ***Also read:** [Nexter Blocks vs Spectra: Feature-by-Feature](https://nexterwp.com/blog/nexter-blocks-vs-spectra/) for how Nexter stacks up against another native Gutenberg block library.* ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is Bricks Builder a theme or a plugin? Bricks markets itself as a visual site builder for WordPress and functions as your site’s design environment, replacing the standard block editor with its own canvas across your pages. ### Is Nexter Blocks really free? Yes. Nexter Blocks is free on WordPress.org with more than 90 blocks included. The Nexter Theme and the full Extension bundle are paid products sold separately, with their own per-site license tiers. ### Can I move my content if I switch away from Bricks later? Moving off a standalone visual builder generally means rebuilding your layouts in the new environment, since the page structure lives in that builder’s own data format. Content built with native Gutenberg blocks, like Nexter Blocks, stays as standard WordPress block markup and is easier to carry into a different theme. ### Does Nexter work with the WordPress Site Editor? Yes. Nexter Theme is a full block theme, so headers, footers, and templates are all editable through WordPress’s native Site Editor, using the same block tools as your page content. ### Do local and staging sites count toward a Bricks license? No. Per Bricks’s own pricing page, local and staging installations do not count against the site limit on any of its license tiers. ### Can I use Bricks and Nexter Blocks on the same site? Technically you can have both plugins active, but there is little practical reason to. Bricks replaces the editing experience for the pages it controls, so mixing it with a native block library on the same pages mostly adds confusion about which system is rendering what, rather than adding real capability. ### Which one is faster to build a full site with? It depends entirely on which interface you already know. A team fluent in Bricks will build faster in Bricks. Someone already comfortable with the standard WordPress block editor will usually build faster with Nexter Blocks, since there is no second interface to context-switch into. ## Suggested Reading - [Nexter Blocks vs Greenshift: Which Wins for Dynamic Content?](https://nexterwp.com/blog/nexter-blocks-vs-greenshift/) - [How to Migrate from Elementor to Gutenberg (A Practical Guide)](https://nexterwp.com/blog/elementor-to-gutenberg/) - [Do You Still Need a Gutenberg Blocks Plugin?](https://nexterwp.com/blog/do-you-still-need-a-gutenberg-blocks-plugin/) #### Stay updated with Helpful WordPress Tips, Insider Insights, and Exclusive Updates – Subscribe now to keep up with Everything Happening on WordPress! Subscribe ## Frequently Asked Questions **Q: ¿Qué conviene más para una agencia: Bricks o un enfoque nativo con Nexter?** A: Bricks encaja mejor si tu equipo quiere un entorno visual único para todos los clientes y acepta pagar por ese control. Nexter, en cambio, mantiene el trabajo dentro del editor de bloques de WordPress, así que la curva de aprendizaje es menor para quien ya conoce Gutenberg. La diferencia práctica es el onboarding: Bricks exige aprender su canvas y sus paneles, mientras que Nexter aprovecha una interfaz que muchos usuarios de WordPress ya reconocen. **Q: ¿Puedo migrar contenido de Bricks a otro tema sin rehacer todo?** A: Moverse fuera de un constructor visual independiente suele implicar reconstruir los diseños, porque la estructura de la página vive en el formato propio de ese builder. El punto fuerte de Nexter Blocks es justo lo contrario: genera marcado estándar de Gutenberg, así que el contenido es más portable si cambias de tema después. Si la portabilidad importa, ese detalle pesa más que cualquier ajuste visual puntual. **Q: ¿Nexter funciona con el WordPress Site Editor?** A: Nexter Theme está pensado para el Site Editor porque es un tema de bloques completo. Eso significa que cabeceras, pies y plantillas se editan con las mismas herramientas de bloques que usas en el contenido normal. En la práctica, eso reduce fricción cuando quieres mantener todo dentro del flujo nativo de WordPress en vez de saltar a una interfaz separada. **Q: ¿Bricks ralentiza el flujo si solo quiero hacer sitios rápidos en WordPress?** A: La velocidad depende mucho del equipo, pero Bricks añade otra interfaz completa que todos tienen que aprender antes de producir con soltura. Nexter suele ser más rápido para quien ya domina Gutenberg porque no hay cambio de contexto entre editor y builder. Si tu prioridad es sacar sitios sin entrenar a nadie en un sistema nuevo, esa diferencia se nota desde el primer proyecto. **Q: ¿Se pueden usar Bricks y Nexter Blocks en el mismo sitio?** A: Poder, se puede tener ambos activos, pero la mezcla aporta poco valor real. Bricks reemplaza la experiencia de edición en las páginas que controla, mientras que Nexter Blocks trabaja dentro del editor nativo. Cuando ambos conviven en las mismas páginas, lo normal es añadir confusión sobre qué sistema está renderizando cada cosa en lugar de ganar capacidad extra. **Q: ¿Bricks o Nexter: cuál elegir para un sitio nuevo?** A: Bricks tiene sentido si necesitas control visual fino y vas a estandarizar todo tu flujo alrededor de su canvas. Nexter encaja mejor si quieres seguir dentro del editor nativo, empezar gratis con Nexter Blocks y mantener el contenido portable a futuro. Para decidir bien, prueba ambos en staging: instala [Nexter Blocks](https://nexterwp.com/blog/do-you-still-need-a-gutenberg-blocks-plugin/) gratis y compáralo con una prueba de Bricks antes de pagar una licencia anual.