Page building showdown: Paragraphs vs. Layout builder

Site builders have heard the story a hundred times: “Our website is too inflexible. We do not want to rely on a developer every time we need to create a new landing page.” 

As Drupal developers, we proudly proclaim, “We have a module for that!” (and it’s true). For years, the Drupal community has excelled in providing tools that make page-building easy and most importantly: flexible. The challenge, however, is that today’s Drupal developer must choose from a myriad of ever-evolving tools.

We now have Layout builder in Drupal core. Acquia recently acquired a layout tool called Cohesion DX8 that is grabbing attention. The Paragraphs module is a favorite in our organization. Let’s also not forget Panels and Blocks and many other tools that have been around for many years. The choices are virtually endless.

Topics Covered

This session will present an honest comparison of the current champ in Drupal 8 contrib, Paragraphs (93k+ D8 usage), against the relatively new challenger: Layout builder. 

To kick off the discussion we will first start off with a run-through of some of the page-building modules that have come and gone over the years. 

After that, we will walk through some Paragraphs examples and talk about both what it does well and where it falls short. We will look at some contributed modules and other ways we can make it better.

Next, we are going to look at Layout builder in core and discuss the pros and cons. We will zero in on ways it can be improved. Then we can walk through scenarios where you would use one over the other or *gasp* even together.

Finally, we will take a peek at some other layout/editing tools that are gaining steam to see what these tools can offer to Drupal’s editing experience.

Agenda

• History of Layout building in Drupal
  • You name it, I’ve done it - Blocks, Context, Display Suite, Panels, Panelizer, Panopoly, Panels Everywhere
• Paragraphs
  • What’s good
  • What’s not
  • Making it better
• Layout Builder
  • What’s good
  • What’s not
  • Making it better
• Other Layout / editor tools
  • Acquia DX8
  • Gutenberg, HAX