Our design studio recently moved to WordPress from a custom CodeIgniter CMS. We focus on creating highly customized websites with unique designs, premium content, professional photography, and engaging storytelling.
Our projects often require video integration, smooth animations, and interactive components with non-standard layouts.
WordPress benefits we’ve discovered:
Reliable platform offering quick deployment (crucial for our small business clients)
WooCommerce provides comprehensive online store functionality with payment integrations
Extensive plugin library saves development time given our tight budgets
Challenges we’re facing:
Traditional custom themes feel outdated and require too much development time.
Elementor Pro with Advanced Custom Fields works well for speed but creates bloated code and slow loading times.
I’m exploring automated conversion tools that can transform Figma designs into WordPress (whether custom themes, block themes, page builders, or frameworks like GeneratePress). The options seem overwhelming and I can’t identify the best solutions.
What professional workflows do experienced developers recommend? I need something that minimizes custom coding, maintains quality standards, and delivers projects efficiently. Code optimization afterwards is acceptable.
i totally get the struggle with bloat from elementor. using figma to code plugins with GeneratePress is a game changer! it gets like 80% done automagically, then you can easily tweak the rest. way faster than building from scratch, plus GeneratePress is super lightweight.
Pinegrow Web Editor is exactly what you need. It’s a visual editor that imports Figma designs directly and converts them to WordPress block themes or custom themes without bloat. The workflow’s straightforward - export your Figma assets, import into Pinegrow, and it generates clean PHP/CSS that integrates with WordPress. You keep full control over code quality while cutting development time significantly. For animations and video, Pinegrow preserves your custom CSS and JavaScript, so GSAP animations transfer cleanly. There’s a learning curve but it’s worth it since you’re not locked into a page builder ecosystem. I’ve used it for complex layouts with custom post types and ACF integration - works way better than automated tools that force you into their structure. Performance stays solid because you’re working with actual theme files, not shortcode soup.
i’ve been using locofy for figma conversions - it’s solid. spits out clean react/html that drops right into custom themes. not perfect, but beats doing layouts by hand. i pair it with oxygen builder for wordpress dynamic content. you get automated structure with good performance.
I’ve dealt with this conversion nightmare for years. Cwicly actually works great for Figma-to-WordPress. It’s a visual builder that doesn’t create bloated code like Elementor does. Steeper learning curve, but totally worth it for custom designs. Breakdance combined with custom CSS from Figma’s inspect panel is another solid combo. You can knock out most layouts fast without compromising performance. Just avoid relying solely on automated tools; they’re great for structure, but you need to clean up animations and interactions yourself. For videos and complex animations, I hand-code those parts with GSAP or CSS transforms. This hybrid method manages the boring layout tasks while maintaining quality where it matters.
Had the same problems until I switched to Bricks Builder with Figma DevMode exports. Game changer for our agency. Skip the static approach - use Bricks’ dynamic data with ACF instead. You can grab spacing, colors, and fonts straight from Figma’s CSS exports. Bricks handles responsive way better than other builders and keeps performance clean since it outputs real CSS, not inline styles. For animations, I stick with Bricks’ built-in stuff for simple things and only write custom CSS when I need complex GSAP work. There’s a learning curve, but once you’ve got your templates and reusable classes down, projects fly by. 8 months in and we’re delivering better sites in half the time.