For some time now, I've been a massive fan of Oxygen Builder for WordPress. I've been using this consistently since purchasing it in 2018. I've built everything with it, from products to my own websites. I have built client sites using it and even used it as the basis to deliver my own products.
Almost since buying it, I had been wanting them to have an affiliate program, something which they seem to not to want to do. It's a great shame because I know a lot of marketers would have bought it and (with a bit of a learning curve) they would have got something truly incredible. Possibly the only website builder you will ever need...
Until recently, but more on that later.
Oxygen gives you complete control over the site's design and allows you to customize page layouts. It's not a theme, but it bypasses the theme and takes complete control of the site. You then use its in-built visual editor to construct whole websites, or you can install one of the pre-made sites for free and modify it to your needs.
It also integrates with RankMath, so you can ensure good indexation and fast loading time (and it is possibly the fastest page builder I've seen). If you are an advanced WordPress user, you can also take advantage of Oxygen's code blocks and structure pains to do more advanced web work.
Oxygen is a visual builder and is far superior to vanilla WordPress page editor (Gutenberg). This means that you won't need to worry about getting lost in a sea of templates. Oxygen's template-less approach is designed to give you maximum flexibility... And, it really works.
My last launch relied completely on Oxygen and what it could bring to the table. It gave me pages as fast as any page builder that was easy to maintain and modify and looked great.
but there is a little decent in the Oxygen camp right now...
This weekend, Breakdance was released by the same team. It's only in Alpha at the moment but has been written by the team behind Oxygen. Its "100+ elements and simple drag & drop UI are layered on top of a powerful, developer-friendly core"... Which was a lot like we were promised with Oxygen.
In fact, a lot of features the Oxygen community were asking for seem to be included with this new builder. It looks great. It looks new and easy to use... It feels like this is going to be the new flagship product and that Oxygen will be starved of air.
Obviously, that has those of us who bought Oxygen on a Lifetime Deal worried...
It's no exaggeration to say that people have been commenting on the Lifetime Deal and when that will become a subscription model for some time. That is largely supported by the community for new customers because that would honour their initial commitment whilst bringing in more revenue for development.
But, every time this subject has been brought up, Soflyy (the company behind the tool) have said it wasn't necessary and that there was no need to move on from the Lifetime deal.
But, Breakdance will be a yearly subscription and at least one of the statements by the company suggested that money from Breakdance would be used to keep Oxygen viable.
As you might imagine, that contradiction alone is enough to make people doubt the company's statement that they are going to keep Oxygen going.
Obviously, as someone who is now invested in the tool, I would love to see Oxygen keep going from strength to strength. But, it has some issues.
Some bugs have been in the tool for quite some time, for a start. And then there is the framework it's built on, which is being depreciated.
Early adopters are feeling like they have been ignored, that the product hasn't taken opportunities to expand and that it probably should. Those of us who wanted to recommend it were put off by a lack of an affiliate program (because that's part of our business model of course).
The PR and Marketing for Oxygen have been particularly shoddy, which is a shame because I still think it's the best WordPress builder out there at the moment. It's like Webflow for WordPress... And that's exactly what I need.
So, for the time being, I shall still build sites in Oxygen, because I don't have another solution...
But, I will be looking around for another tool to invest in that can give me most of what Oxygen does... Because with every business tool you use, if the air gets sucked out of the room, you still need to be able to breathe.
