Poster 2 or Alloy?

Mostly looking to blog, more designer here so looking for a high degree of visual customization. Not good at under the hood code stuff - I’ve done a few sites with Foundry but hope to be diving in deeply soon… I tend to do something once a year and often have to relearn some things. I’d like to get over that!

I know (I think I know) that Poster can do some different things beyond blogging, at this point I’m most interested in blogging though. Is one easier to manage? I’m ‘ok’ with Foundry. I’ll go through some hoops if something offers a lot of customization though.

Thanks in advance!

You are 😉

https://poster2.instacks.com/templates/foundry/

Jannis, as always, impeccable humor. I meant my skillset - I know it works with Foundry ;) I already own Poster 1 and had a hard time with it - more on me than you lol. I know more now than I did when I tried using it. I still remember having a hell of a time with RW 3 or 4 or something and templates. I used blocks instead of stacks (very early days) - it was like I was dropped off in a foreign country :) That was coming from iWeb I believe!

Anyway, I’m definitely better and the few sites I’ve made are a fine combination of decent visual design and lowered expectations.

Ultimately hoping for something that does blogging well and allows for a lot of customization.

I use both, I’d say extensively.

The obvious difference is Alloy allows posting outside of RW, via the browser. Whereas Poster is (for now) all within RW, unless you go the Markdown file route.

But, saying that, I have blogs with Poster that I alone maintain for the client (so could do everything inside RW) but use a Markdown folder instead. Plus others I maintain entirely so could again do it all within RW but use Alloy.

So, choosing one over the other isn’t as clearcut as it might seem.

Both are excellent, but each excels in slightly different directions, as such it’s really difficult to suggest one over thr other without knowing more about your requirements.

So, when you say you want a lot of customisation, can you elaborate?

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Mostly about how having a lot of control over how things look. If I wanted a little more air above or below the heading, or control over photos (rounded corners / shadows etc).

The examples are always put together pretty quickly and sometimes it’s hard to see what something is capable of. I’ve been burned enough times though, so I’m trying to find out more. Thanks for your help!

In terms of the main page, out of the box Alloy has about seven different layout options, some are pretty standard but some are really nice, and make the main page feel a lot less like a blog page but a regular content page.

Posters main page is a little less flexible in terms of layouts; as you mostly have stacked items or a grid layout.

In terms of spacing elements in each post on the main page, Alloy has a lot of options in settings: Margins, borders, shadows, and so on. What it lacks in the settings options you can handle with custom CSS.

Poster though gives you complete free-reign of the layout for each blog item on the main page. You can go with the standard image above, then header, then meta, then description etc. Or something else entirely. You design the main page item layouts yourself using a template.

This is a major boost for Poster as you get ultimate layout control. But, with that control comes the requirement that you learn to use templates, which is easy enough once you get your head around it, but can be a learning curve for those used to drag and drop and settings etc.

Once you open an item to view the main article/blog, Alloy is pretty standard but again does have some nice design and layout controls built into the settings. Poster once again gives you complete control here, as again you first build a template to layout the content as you want. So Poster: More control. Alloy: Easier deployment.

The big difference comes with the blog/article content though. With Poster anything goes. Almost all stacks will work inside a Poster item. Whereas with Alloy, the editor interface that allows you to actually create your blog posts isn’t inside RW but in the browser and creates a Markdown file, so you are a bit restricted as to what you can do. So it’s headers, text, images, video etc. which really is pretty much all you normally need in a blog post. But, sometimes it’s nice to be able to add more complex stuff, a la Poster and using stacks.

Bear in mind that if using Poster with a Markdown folder, the same restrictions apply as per Alloy (both use Markdown).

In terms of user interface and performance etc., they are almost like-for-like. I’d suggest Poster loads slightly faster, but don’t quote me on that. Certainly from the users POV, despending on the layout and design you employ, they are indistinguishable from each other (to the average user).

I realise this is most likely little help still, but really unless you said “I want to be able to add blog posts today via the browser”, in which case you’d have to go Alloy, there is very little between then, in terms of the end result. The big differences are how to arrive there: Poster is all inside RW, Alloy is all inside the browser, once it’s set up inside RW.

Examples…

Poster: Small business website design and marketing news.
Alloy: Latest news and articles about bulk email makreting.
Poster: News from Template Repo.
Alloy: Wedding venue and events news Bangor | Field Of Dreams NI

I could go on. I’ve loads!

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A much belated thanks for your clear and complete response! It’s Thanksgiving on this side of the pond, and I’m the only one without a cold (so far…)

Knowing that I typically bite off more than I can chew (my typical ‘go-to’ mode of learning :) I’m going to sit with Alloy. I already own it, so that’s a plus :) I also own Poster 1, but based on your feedback it makes better sense for me to work with something I know and not have to bring new things into the mix. I still get beat up by the simplest things… Currently playing with Paysnap and the ‘details’ stack - I was hoping to give it some space above the card It looks a bit cropped) and it would be nice to round some corners and give a bit of a drop shadow to it - these are the things that tend to beat me up. I’ve tried messing with margins, using a spacer, etc. But I think it’s hard wired to drop from the top without any space, even when I use the tools that do these things elsewhere!

I’m getting off track - just experimenting to see what’s possible. Learning some, forgetting some - I’m always grateful for the help I get here at the forums. Thanks again!