No Gutenberg? – Choose Where to Use the Block Editor or the Classic Editor

80 Quality Score

Active Installs

18/30

Popularity sits at a moderate 59 out of 30, reflecting a loyal but narrow user base of about 9,000 active installs who specifically need Classic Editor parity.

Update Freshness

25/25

Maintenance is perfect at 100 out of 25, with a very recent update on June 16, 2026 and a tested-against-WordPress 7.0 claim that shows active upkeep.

User Rating

15/15

Ratings are flawless at 100 out of 15, though the sample is tiny at only 15 reviews, which limits how meaningful that ceiling really is.

Support Health

8/15

Support health is middling at 50 out of 15 because there are zero public threads, meaning no track record of either fast fixes or unresolved complaints.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Compatibility scores full marks at 100 out of 15, thanks to a low PHP 7.4 floor, broad WordPress 4.9 minimum, and a tested-against-WordPress 7.0 stamp.

Scores higher than 81% of indexed plugins

About

Decide where the block editor stays and where the Classic Editor comes back. It also removes Global Styles, patterns, block widgets and block CSS.

Active Installs 9k+

Rating ★★★★★ 5/5

Last Updated 2026-08-25 1:18pm GMT

Requires WordPress 6.1+

Tested Up To 7.1

Requires PHP 7.4+

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

No Gutenberg strips the Block Editor, Full Site Editing Global Styles, block-based widgets, Patterns, and WooCommerce block features from WordPress, restoring the Classic Editor and the Classic Widgets screen site-wide. It also removes the Site Editor and related FSE interfaces that ship with modern WordPress releases. In practical terms, anyone editing posts or building widgets gets the old TinyMCE-based experience with no editor nag to switch.

Who It's For

This plugin fits sites that have a long history of Classic Editor workflows, including news publishers, small business sites with content-heavy custom post types, and WooCommerce stores whose teams rely on classic meta boxes rather than block-based product editing. It is also useful for agencies and developers maintaining legacy client builds where introducing block editor friction would risk breaking established editor customizations or shortcode-based layouts.

Who Should Skip It

If you actively use the Block Editor, block patterns, theme.json, or any modern block-based plugins like Spectra or Kadence, this plugin will fight your entire content workflow and should be avoided. New WordPress sites being built today are also poor candidates since FSE is now the default direction of the platform.

The Bottom Line

With an overall quality score of 80.21 and perfect 100/100 user ratings, No Gutenberg is a small, well-maintained plugin that does exactly one job and does it thoroughly, including stripping FSE, block widgets, and WooCommerce blocks. The real risk is not the plugin but the long-term cost of opting out of the WordPress editor roadmap, so treat it as a deliberate compatibility decision rather than a casual install. If Classic Editor workflows are core to how your team works, it is one of the cleanest ways to lock that in.

Pick Spectra if you want to keep the Block Editor but get a much richer library of blocks and starter patterns instead of removing Gutenberg.

Germanized for WooCommerce 91/100

Pick Germanized if your main reason to disable Gutenberg is WooCommerce-specific friction and you also need locale, legal, and invoicing tooling for the German market.

PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 90/100

Pick PDF Invoices if your store actually only needs document generation and you would rather adopt the Block Editor than fight it.

Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 89/100

Pick Kadence Blocks if you dislike the default Gutenberg experience but still want a modern block-based workflow with strong design controls.

Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 89/100

Pick Customer Reviews for WooCommerce if your real pain point is social proof on product pages and Gutenberg is not actually the problem.