Title: Maintain a classic child theme, or move to FSE theme?
Last modified: October 23, 2024

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# Maintain a classic child theme, or move to FSE theme?

 *  [T4ng](https://wordpress.org/support/users/schwipps/)
 * (@schwipps)
 * [1 year, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/maintain-a-classic-child-theme-or-move-to-fse-theme/)
 * Hi there,
 * We maintain a StoreFront child theme for over 7 years now, and were pretty happy
   with it until now.
 * Over the years, we’ve added a lot of content to our website : new designs, new
   pages, products, and translated it in several different languages.
 * While we started with custom CSS and template parts, much of the new content 
   was built with a page Builder (Elementor, not to name it).
   That was a very convenient
   shortcut at that time, since we had a huge freedom in terms of content design,
   without the need to call upon a developer.
 * Now that our design identity is mature, but the page builder becomes an obtacle:
    - Compatibility issues
    - Caching errors
    - Performance (huge DOM, too much unnecessary assets loaded)
    - Styling harmonization
    - Content maintenance
    - Bugs
    - …
 * Long story short, we want to get rid of this page builder, and structure our 
   content on long term development tools: custom blocks.
 * Here is our plan:
    - Move away from a single style.css files (fed from well strutured .scss files),
      to Gutenberg custom blocks.
    - Instead of moving to a FSE theme / theme.json, keep our classic theme, and
      build custom logic to load what’s needed only where needed (what FSE does 
      natively, as far as I understand).
 * In your opinion, is it the right strategy?
 * Or building, and maintainting that custom logic is so much work on the long run,
   so that we should rather already migrate to an FSE theme?
 * Thank you

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [1 year, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/maintain-a-classic-child-theme-or-move-to-fse-theme/#post-18091806)
 * I recommend using a block theme, these are all free: [https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/](https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/)
 * You might not even need to build any custom logic.
 * Block themes use the new Site Editor, meaning that how you can modify a theme
   is now almost limitless without even having to touch CSS or other theme code:
   [https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/site-editor/](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/site-editor/)
 * There’s also a video tutorial if you prefer that style: [https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/](https://learn.wordpress.org/tutorial/intro-to-the-site-editor-and-template-editor/)
 * In particular, the new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Four, ships with a ton of
   pre-done templates to get you even closer to what you want before you start customizing
   it: [https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/twenty-twenty-four/](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/twenty-twenty-four/)
 *  Thread Starter [T4ng](https://wordpress.org/support/users/schwipps/)
 * (@schwipps)
 * [1 year, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/maintain-a-classic-child-theme-or-move-to-fse-theme/#post-18106723)
 * Hi [@macmanx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/),
 * Thanks for your reply. We already started that custom block job, so will keep
   on this track.
 * However, I’d like to explore the possibilities to switch to a new theme, like
   twenty twenty four.
 * One precision though: when you say: “Twenty Twenty-Four ships with a ton of pre-
   done templates”, you are really talking about _[templates](https://codex.wordpress.org/Templates)_,
   and not [_blocks_](https://wordpress.org/blocks/), right? Meaning templates are
   theme specific, while blocks are theme-agnostic?
 * Thanks
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [1 year, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/maintain-a-classic-child-theme-or-move-to-fse-theme/#post-18106738)
 * Block Theme templates are different from Classic Theme templates.
 * In this case, they are pre-arranged sets of blocks that you can apply to any 
   page: [https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/template-editor/](https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/template-editor/)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Maintain a classic child theme, or move to FSE theme?’ is closed to new
replies.

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * Last activity: [1 year, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/maintain-a-classic-child-theme-or-move-to-fse-theme/#post-18106738)
 * Status: not resolved

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