I remember the days when WPBakery was the go-to page builder if you wanted to create fancy layouts and designs with WordPress. But in 2016, this all changed when Elementor was introduced.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a WordPress plugin that allows users to build websites using drag and drop techniques.
The plugin is available in over 57 languages and has over 5 million active installations worldwide. It currently powers 2.24% of the top one million websites globally.
Is Elementor free?
Elementor is a freemium product. There are two versions, Elementor and Elementor Pro. The pro version is the official paid add-on that extends functionalities by enabling premium features such as Elementor’s theme builder, forms, popups, custom fonts, global custom CSS, dynamic content, display conditions and the WooCommerce builder.
With the free version of Elementor, you get access to 30+ content and design widgets, as well as access to Elementor’s pre-designed website kit templates.
You can see a complete list of Elementor features here.
Is there a hosted version of Elementor?
Yes, If you want an all-inclusive hosted solution for Elementor Pro, you will not be disappointed.
Elementor’s hosted version, powered by Google Cloud, includes 20GB of web space, backups, SSL and Cloudflare CDN.
Is Elementor easy to use?
Elementor is very easy to use, the drag and drop technology is very smooth and unrestrictive, providing a great user experience.
The builder can accommodate advanced web designers and design agencies as well as those with very little to no experience.
If you are new to WordPress, then it may feel a little complicated at first. But fear not, there are hundreds of online video tutorials that will guide you through every step of the way.
Does Elementor have pre-designed templates?
Yes, Elementor has its own pre-designed library that is accessible to both free and paid users directly from the builder. Paid users get access to a larger collection of templates.
Because Elementor is such a popular product, designers and developers are now building themes with Elementor in mind. There are hundreds of Elementor themes available on Themeforest, so you are spoilt for choice.
Is Elementor good?
Elementor is more than good, it’s excellent.
Elementor has become one of the most popular and most downloaded plugins built for WordPress, and with good reason.
When I first installed Elementor back in 2016, I was instantly blown away. Having been used to working with WPBakery for so long, I couldn’t hold back the excitement. For the first time ever, you had a visual website building tool that allowed you to see every little change you made instantly.
I knew that Elementor would be a game-changer from the very first day, and I wasn’t wrong. And it didn’t stop there; when Elementor 2.0 was released, it cemented its status as the king of WordPress website builders.
The possibilities introduced in Elementor 2.0 were unseen, and it took the community by surprise. Not only could you build fancy pages, but you could now also build entire websites without the need of touching a single line of code; no more messing with your template files to make custom changes to areas like your header, footer, post pages, archive pages and Woocommerce product pages (which was introduced a little later). Elementor was no longer a fancy page builder; it became a fully-fledged advanced website builder.
What features does Elementor have?
Elementor is full of features, so I will highlight the most popular.
- Complete website builder
- Theme customiser
- Revision control
- Auto-save
- Copy-paste elements and layouts
- Export, import templates
- Dynamic data, custom fields integration
- Popup builder
- Shape dividers
- Custom CSS
- Custom fonts
- Absolute positioning
- Responsive control
- Motion effects
- Background videos
- Video widget
- Image widget
- Gallery widget
- Slider widget
- Testimonials widget
- Star rating widget
- Google Maps widget
- WooCommerce widgets
- Layout widgets
- Icon widgets
- Form widget
- Text and Title widgets
- Portfolio widget
- Post widgets
You can see a complete list of Elementor features here.
What type of website can you build with Elementor?
The possibilities are endless, and it’s all down to your imagination.
You can build simple landing pages, advanced data capturing pages, brochure websites, portfolio websites, blogs and with the aid of third-party plugins that are compatible with Elementor you can take things further by building websites such as directories, e-Commerce stores, multi-vendor marketplaces and educational platforms.
Does Elementor slow down your website?
This is a commonly asked question, and in short, it really depends on your setup.
Elementor has been working hard behind the scenes to make the code leaner and faster. They recently introduced an experimental feature, the DOM optimiser, which aims to improve performance by decreasing the number of wrapper elements present in the HTML that the page builder generates.
When using Elementor, choosing a theme that is not feature-heavy is important as they tend to be bulky, and this can cause speed issues.
A theme with little to no built-in features is what you want to keep things light and fast. Elementor’s own HELLO theme is ideal; it’s a bare-bones theme that lets Elementor do all of the Work.
Working with as few plugins as possible goes without saying, the more plugin your website has to load, the slower the experience will be for the end user.
If you have no choice and have to work with numerous plugins to achieve the desired functionality, optimising as much as possible will be key.
A good web host with generous resources also helps.
Is Elementor bad for SEO?
Website speed can have a negative impact on SEO; it’s a known fact. However, Elementor itself is not bad for SEO.
Elementor pricing
Elementor Pro has four annual subscription plans, and pricing is based on the number of licenses required.
- For a single website, the cost of Elementor Pro is $49 per year.
- For 25 websites, the price is $199 per year.
- For 100 websites, the price is $499 per year.
- For 1000 websites, the price is $999 per year.
For the hosted version of Elementor, also billed annually, the price per year is $89.
Elementor pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to use. | Too many nested HTML elements adding bulk. |
| Constant updates and development. | Optimisation improvements are needed. |
| WooCommerce compatible. | The agency plan expensive, no white label option. |
| Revision control. | Customer support can be slow. |
| Save, re-use, import, and export template features. | Lack of requested features implemented. |
| Large design library. |
Elementor alternatives
Despite Elementor’s dominance, other WordPress page builders have survived the test of time. Here is a list of Elementor alternatives for WordPress.
- Divi Builder
- Beaver Builder
- Oxygen Builder
- Visual Composer
- WPBakery Page Builder
- Thrive Architect
- Brizy
None WordPress Alternatives
- Weebly
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Webnode
- WebFlow
Last words
Elementor is my number one go-to website builder.
Elementor has made it possible for anyone to design and build WordPress websites without the need of having to hire expensive web designers or having to be stuck with pre-made themes thanks to its fast, clean and easy-to-use drag and drop interface.
You can create impressive layouts without limitations, and the company is constantly developing and introducing new ideas, which is why I have remained a loyal customer.
See beautifully designed websites built with Elementor at BeautifulPress.