
I heard that Optimizepress 3.0 (OP3) has just been released via an email from it’s creators. I have two websites built with OP2 and while it does the job just fine as a WordPress theme I did find it quite tricky to use. Some of the site and page builders that have come along since are a lot easier to use. They don’t for example require the custom coding OP2 does to achieve the same results. It looks like OP3 is a whole different ball game and that is great news.
Lets be clear, I’m talking as an amateur website builder here with little or no coding knowledge (or desire to learn it). I’ve seen some awesome OP sites but they have been built by pros’ rather than entrepreneurs on a tight budget. Reading the email the guys recently sent to users it looks like they have been doing their homework as regards the competition.
In the email the guys explained that while at an industry convention in the US they’d had some conversations with a long time OP users. The consensus was that OP is amazing, but…..
That “but” opened a longer conversation about some shortcomings and had the OP guys talking all the way home. The result of that “but” and the 10 hour chat it prompted is a complete revision of Otimizepress.
I’m about to start putting together a couple of new websites so this news was of interest. I’ve been working with Elegant Theme’s Divi and Convertri’s lightning fast funnel builder recently. Both I have to say are much more intuitive and drag and drop simple(ish) than OP2. I was therefore considering buying Divi (I already have Convertri as part of my SFM membership)
From Blocks To Elements
But looking over OP3 it really seems like a very close – possibly even better – option. It’s pretty clear that lessons have been learned from user feedback on its predecessor and from both Divi and Convertri’s way of doing things.
The all-new platform bears more than a passing similarity. What swung it for me was the price. I bought OP2’s 3-licence option originally for $99 with an annual support fee of $39. Otimizepress 3.0 is on offer to existing users for the same annual price. This includes 3 licences over and above the original 3 that came with OP2. For a limited period that price covers support for both.
After looking over Otimizepress’s excellent tutorials, screenshots and new features I decided to jump in to OP3. I haven’t yet decided whether or not to migrate my old OP2 sites over to the new version. As this is effectively an entirely new platform it’s not just a simple update but a completely new theme.
I’ll do a more detailed review when I start building my new sites and get stuck in to OP3 but here’s what I’m hoping for.
OptimizePress 3.0 – A Complete Reworking
The way Op2 worked within Worpdress was – for me at least – a bit confusing at times. I added it as a theme to my main blog website which had been built on WP’s 2018 theme. I ended up with a sort of OP/2019 hybrid. I could use some of the Optimizepress features but not all of them. To be able to use the full functionality would have entailed a total rebuild of all pages (including 300+ blog posts)
I created another website from scratch with OP2 but actually found it quite frustrating. The theme uses feature blocks rather than elements. How much of this you could use depended a lot on the initial choices you made when setting the site up. This would be less of a problem for sites comprised of just static pages i.e. no blog.
The feature blocks for me were a little limiting. Say for example you wanted an image or video with some side text. You were forced to using a template block to do it rather than being able to move both around independently. Getting pages looking the way you had in mind was just a little clunky. You could use CSS if you knew what you were doing or contact support but that takes time.
From Techie To Creative
When Divi and Convertri came along they offered a much more intuitive playground for the more creative and less technical among us. Both of those offer a much more fluid workflow. You simply pick the elements you want (text, images, video, html etc) and literally drag them to where you want them on the page. Optimizepress 3.0 has embraced very much the same approach.
It’ll be interesting to see how it compares ‘In the trenches”. Great though Divi and Convertri both are they are not without their frustrations. To be fair too Convertri is geared toward funnel building rather than full website building. One of it’s USP’s is extremely fast page loads. This is essential it a time where your site has seconds to engage a visitor before they go elsewhere. Op3 allegedly boasts similarly fast load times.
Optimizepress 3.0 also boasts some other time and hassle saving features. There are a number of templates for websites, landing pages and funnels, which offer great starting points. A feature called Collections offers matched landing and thank you page styles – another time saving idea. Basic site-wide elements like fonts can be set and forgotten
If like me you are not a professional website builder but need to create a few great looking websites with the minimum of fuss Optimizepress 3.0 might be worth a look. These kind of site builders are designed to take a lot of the complexity out of the job.
What is sometimes confusing is the way they integrate with the basic WordPress foundation. While you’ll work with the theme most of the time some functions like menus remain in the WP domain. In most cases swapping from a theme you’ve already been working with to OP3 (or Divi) can be problematic. If you are starting a new site from scratch however, they definitely help to get the job done fast.