I don’t have an answer to this.
I haven’t yet dared to build an online shop for paying clients based on a Block Theme.
Here and there you hear people say that Block Themes have advantages. But that you do have to work around the quirks and limitations.
Well, what if I don’t want to?
Why would I impose quirks and limitations on myself that clients are paying for?
I don’t have those same quirks and limitations in a classic theme like Shoptimer. I can enjoy all the hooks, all the conditional logic, overriding templates, etc.
Does Automattic itself believe in Block Themes?
Practice what you preach” is a great motto, isn’t it?
And it’s fair to assume that Automattic is the primary driving force behind Block Themes.
So it’s reasonable to ask a few questions:
- Why doesn’t Matt Mullenweg himself have a website running on a Block Theme? Honestly, a personal blog is probably one of the easiest types of sites to migrate.
- Why does WooCommerce have so few official Block Theme showcases on its website? I looked through the last 30 showcases and found only two using Block Themes. As far as I can tell, those showcases don’t seem to be maintained very actively either, because I came across several stores that have since migrated to Shopify. That’s rather surprising.
I’m not opposed to Block Themes.
Don’t get me wrong—I have nothing against Block Themes. For simple websites and projects, they can be an excellent solution.
However, for sophisticated eCommerce stores, Block Themes are still far from production-ready. And it’s debatable whether they will ever become the mainstream choice for complex online stores.
For those who claim otherwise, I’d simply say: show your showcases.
Here are some of the main reasons why, at this stage, I would never use or recommend Block Themes for professional online shops.
Oversimplified responsiveness
Today, 70–80% of online shoppers are on mobile devices. Yet Block Themes are still largely designed with a desktop-first mindset. Simply stacking the right column underneath the left column may technically be “responsive,” but that doesn’t automatically result in a mobile-friendly shopping experience.
An overly simplistic header system
In my opinion, the header is the single most important part of an online store. This becomes even more critical as a store grows in catalog size, especially on mobile.
The current Block Theme header system is simply too limited for professional eCommerce stores, unless you’re selling only a handful of products in a few categories.
Without a robust, core navigation UI designed for Block Themes, this limitation will remain. Ironically, WordPress already has an excellent navigation management interface—the classic menu system. It seems strange that navigation is now managed directly inside templates instead.
Limited hooks
Quite a few familiar hooks have disappeared or become much harder to work with, including hooks on single product pages, product archives, and category pages.
The usual response is that you can customize templates in the Site Editor—even on a per-category basis. That may sound good in theory, but it’s hardly practical when you’re managing a catalog with 30 or 50 product categories.
The same applies if you need conditional logic based on product tags or other dynamic criteria. Hooks remain a far more scalable and maintainable solution.
User permissions and client safety
I’m speaking from experience. I’ve been building websites for paying clients for almost 20 years. Clients need protection from accidentally breaking things. Most clients don’t want unrestricted access to every aspect of their website, and giving them access to the Site Editor often creates unnecessary risks.
I’ve heard fellow developers proudly say they give clients full Site Editor access—because fixing the resulting mistakes generates additional billable work.
Personally, I don’t think that’s something to be proud of.
There is nothing wrong with using a classic theme for WooCommerce stores.
People call them “classic themes,” while themes like Ollie are often referred to as “modern themes.” (Nothing against Ollie, by the way—this very website is built with it.)
But in this context, “classic” doesn’t mean bad. Nor does it mean inferior to “modern.”
I often joke about Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen. It’s a classic too—and in my opinion, it’s still far better and more enduring than a lot of the music released today that gets labeled as “modern.”
Maybe I’m just getting old and starting to sound like my father.
Or perhaps my father was right all along, and wisdom really does come with age. 🙂
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with building WooCommerce stores using classic themes.
Until Automattic truly starts leading by example and fully embraces Block Themes across its own products and showcases, there’s absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed about using classic themes.
Side note:
I’m not going to name the agency.
However, I know of a well-known agency that fully embraced Block Themes after moving away from Elementor. They eventually sold off all of their WooCommerce projects.
Of course, every business has its own reasons for making strategic decisions, so I can’t say Block Themes were the sole cause. But it does illustrate an important point: building and maintaining truly complex WooCommerce stores with Block Themes is far from straightforward.
It’s one thing to build a beautiful demo. It’s something entirely different to support large, feature-rich eCommerce projects over the long term.
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