If there is one major question surrounding the upcoming November 19th release of WordPress 5.0, it’s this:
Will my website break if I upgrade to WordPress 5.0?
It’s a valid and fundamental question. WordPress 5.0 stands to fundamentally change many aspects of the WordPress experience and its underlying architecture. One of the most significant changes will be to the visual editor you use to create web pages and blog posts.
The new WordPress editor is called Gutenberg. It uses a block-based interface to make creating media-rich web pages as easy as writing text. Predefined blocks describe different types of media (like text, images, HTML, etc.), offering unique editing options for each.
For the WordPress team, enabling this kind of functionality requires serious changes to the platform’s internal architecture. If you hire dedicated WordPress developer, they already know that certain functionalities will likely stop working, and specific plugins may start to behave erratically.
Fortunately, the recent release of the WordPress 5.0 beta makes independent testing possible. Web developers can now start testing the plugins they rely on most and start planning for ways to accommodate the 5.0 update when it comes.
This is what our engineers at UnlimitedWP have been up to, and we have a few critical insights to share with you.
Will Upgrading to WordPress 5.0 Break My Website?
According to our preliminary tests with the WordPress 5.0 beta, the answer is no. Upgrading from WordPress 4.9.x to 5.0 beta will not break your website.
Although the Gutenberg block editor is the new default, the WordPress 5 classic editor has been bundled inside Gutenberg as one of its many blocks. Your existing website content is automatically transferred to the Classic Editor block, allowing you to experiment with other blocks without affecting your content.
Users may also notice that Appearance Widgets have disappeared in WordPress Gutenberg. Like the classic editor, they have been encapsulated in a block and retain the same functionality.
Originally, web developers expected that users who wish to keep content in its classic form would need to install a standalone “Classic Editor Plugin” for the purpose. It appears WordPress made sure to address our concerns appropriately from the start.
The WordPress 5.0 database structure is exactly the same as 4.9.x. Post and page content stored in database tables remains almost the same – WordPress added comments along with the block content.
Plugin Compatibility in WordPress 5.0: ACF Pro
As part of our test, we want to ensure that some of the web development industry’s most popular plugins work in WordPress 5.0. Our first test was with ACF Pro. Since over 1 million websites use this plugin instead of the classic editor or page builders, our team felt it was essential to verify ACF Pro’s compatibility with the Gutenberg editor.
According to our tests, ACF Pro works the same in WordPress 5.0 as it did in the previous version. As always, advanced custom fields are located underneath the new default content editor, and all core functionalities appear stable.
ACF Pro users don’t have anything to worry about so far. But what about those of you who use WordPress page builders? Our next post will put some of the most popular page builders to the Gutenberg test – stay tuned for the results from our work with Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, and more.
UnlimitedWP offers WordPress development services to help you manage your WordPress 5.0 transition project. To get the process started, schedule a call with us or check out our WordPress Monthly Maintenance plans!
