Just to quickly preface this video, this “review” is highly specific in that it’s from a digital design agency perspective. I currently run a digital design agency, and have worked at a few design and/or marketing agencies in the past, so I can speak in that context.
So, if you operate as an agency, whether it’s freelance or a company, this video will help you understand some of the cool new features that Breakdance version 2 came out with that will specifically matter to you more as an agency.
One thing that agency owners I’ve worked with have commonly wanted was to have a library of layouts that the designer could easily use to make proofs for the client. Then population and deployment would be much quicker.
This works for clients that have a limited budget, or if the agency’s focus is elsewhere, you need this done at a reasonable cost and you can shift to your strong points quickly after that.
The issue with making websites like this is that the layouts can get boring real quick, and changing the branding to match the client can be annoying and not worth it.
Important note: This approach is very different from designing custom websites for the top tier clients. They get bespoke designs approved, and the developer is going to have to produce pixel perfect work. That means the developer is going to have to write a lot of css (and possibly php and js) to match the approved proof. That’s not the focus in this review. That tier is a whole other style of work, and I have a course about that. It starts from the branding and design phase all the way to writing code to tweak everything. Very different approach.
Video
Timestamps
0:05 Intro
0:54 Agency context
1:44 The Breakdance library – why it’s different
3:06 Importing layouts – on-brand importing
5:57 Copy pasting pages
6:40 Import / Export global settings
8:04 Migration mode
13:05 Conclusion
Pre-built Libraries
The Breakdance design library has grown a lot in the past year, and frankly, it’s got some really good looking stuff in there. The best part about it is that it has some truly unique looks. Some design libraries can start looking same-y real quick, but Breakdance has way less of that.
Because Breakdance uses a lot of easily transferable settings, it can keep things consistent and easy to make global edits after import. That means, better on-brand results.
This is a huge departure from the layout library boom from (almost) a decade ago with tons and tons of layouts made for Visual Composer (WP Bakery), Divi, and Elementor.
In the past, you imported the layouts, and because they were highly specific in their look, and how they’re built, it was very annoying redoing the styles to match the client’s brand. Which is why everyone I know who has tried the “load templates and change just a few things” method essentially gave up on it. It’s a terrible method, and ruined many people’s dreams of making complex layouts easily, and the churning and burning websites approach doesn’t work well.
Importing Breakdance library items are not like that. Even if you import two vastly different sections, they stay on-brand to the destination site.
Here’s an example:
Directly from the library, the fitness ‘meet our trainers’ layout, when imported, just becomes an on-brand section on the destination site. (Done with no extra change in any settings. It’s just a different site with different global settings.)
Great recommendation: Headspin UI has a huge library of section wireframes including figma files so you can do this with their library AND provide a figma design proof for your clients. This is almost exactly what those past agencies had tried to set up.
Copy Pasting multiple sections
Then you can copy paste sections from page to page, and even from site to site. If you have a cool section you built on one site, you can just copy paste it over.
You can even copy over a full page as one.
This comes in handy when you’re making new pages on local or any other staging site, and need to just copy over a few layouts without overwriting the whole thing. Or if you’d like to replicate a page from some other Breakdance site onto a new one, it’s just a copy paste.
Plus, it does the same thing, it keeps the branding of the destination site.
Global Settings
Whether it’s setting up a template global settings, or you just need to duplicate a brand, exporting and importing global settings have gotten easier. Before, it used to be done on the backend settings panel, but now you can do it directly from the builder, and it works really well.
Migration Mode
This is one of the best features I’ve seen come out from a page builder ever. This allows you to work on a website (especially a Woo site) while the site is still running! Users won’t see the Breakdance work you’re doing, and they’ll keep using the site until you flip the switch. You, on the other hand, will be working from some predetermined IP addresses and you will be able to work on Breakdance fully, and there’s no disruption, no issue with losing orders, nothing.
In the past, I’ve seen some plugins that do this, like test my theme, but no page builder has ever made an addon that made it easy to switch builders.
I LOVE THIS ONE.
I already have a client website (Elementor) in mind that I’m going to use this for. It’s amazing.
If you’re interested in getting Breakdance, get it here (affiliate link): https://breakdance.com/ref/19/
