Author: Jim Stephenson

As a WordPress website owner, it is common that you would want to find the best WordPress page builder so we can improve the performance of your website. But the competition among these page builders is so tight that you will find it hard to choose which one to go. For this reason, we are doing this Thrive Architect Vs. Elementor comparison since these two-page builders have been popular in the market. Let’s review the features, pricing, and other things that you need to know about these page builders.

What is Thrive Architect?

The foremost thing that we will discuss is about this Thrive Architect review. Thrive Architect is part of the Thrive Themes suite, and it was previously called Thrive Content Builder. But you can buy this plugin alone for an upfront fee of $67. With the said amount, you can enjoy a lifetime license of the plugin. Yet, for those who want to gain access to the product as an inclusion with the Thrive Themes suite, the membership fee is $19 per month.

There are many reasons why this product is best for your company. One of them is that the plugin was created from the basics for your company marketing and conversion. While building a great website is a must, you should never forget that the reason for having a site is to promote your business.

Below are few of the conversion goals that you can aim with the help of Thrive Architect:

1. Earn direct sales using an e-commerce store
2. Get subscribers for your email marketing campaign
3. Prompt your visitors to reach out to you
4. Gain shares through social media
5. Receive customer feedback or review
6. Establish engagement via comments from your readers

These goals can be measured with conversions. The good part is this product is known as a WordPress plugin and theme that is focused on conversion. When you earn access to the plugin as part of your membership with Thrive Themes, you will also gain access to different essential plugins like Thrive Ultimatum, Thrive Leads, and Thrive Apprentice. You need to keep in mind that your conversions are dependent on how you show your content. With Thrive Architect, you get the help you need in achieving those website goals we have mentioned above.

Different Features of Thrive Architect

If you are looking for a great landing page builder plugin for WordPress, then you don’t have to look any further because Thrive Architect is the answer to you. Getting started with this plugin is very simple. All you have to do is download the plugin using your member dashboard, upload the plugin to your website but clicking “Add New”, and then activate it with a license key. As soon as you are done with the setup, Thrive Architect can be used easily. If you have heard about Elementor and got the chance to use it, you will notice that there are similarities with how they work. But for now, let’s discuss Thrive Architect first!

• Drag and Drop Elements

This feature will make your life easy-peasy with Thrive Architect. If you want to create your landing page, you only need to drag the elements from the Editor Sidebar and place them in the middle of your page. The elements are divided into two categories, which are the Foundations and the Building Blocks.

Foundations are the basic elements that you can add to your page. They are referred to as text, images, buttons, and so one. While for the Building Blocks, they are referred to as the more advanced elements like tables, progress bars, countdowns, testimonials, etc. Thrive Architect also allows the pinning of your favorite elements so you can put them at the top of the Editor Sidebar, and you quickly access them.

• Content Block Templates

This is one of the features of Thrive Architect that you will love about the plugin. With content block, you will have the chance to access features that can help you in customizing your pages and make it look more professional. Some of the great blocks that you can choose are the call to actions, the pros & cons, quote, steps, product rating, and more.

• Thrive Landing Pages

It’s the highlight of all the features of Thrive Architect, the Thrive landing pages! With a licensed Thrive Architect, you will have the opportunity to use more than 300 landing page templates for the landing page. These landing page templates were designed professionally while considering conversions. So if you are tired or you don’t have time to add those elements and blocks to your page, simply choose the template that suits your business or campaign, and you are good to go.

To add those features above, Thrive Architect also supports the integration of the email marketing campaign that you are currently using for your website. You can connect it using an API and set up email forms within your WordPress site.

• Thrive Themes Membership

When we discuss Thrive Architect, discussing its whole happy family of plugins will also follow. The complete Thrive Themes membership is $19 per month, and it offers various extra premium plugins so you can expand the functionality of your website. These plugins are:

• Thrive Leads – this plugin can create opt-in forms professionally that will help you in growing your email list.
• Thrive Ultimatum – this plugin will allow you to make countdown campaigns so you can increase your sales.
• Thrive Quiz Builder – this plugin will allow you to make quizzes that you can use to survey your target market and boost engagement.

All these premium plugins can boost your business benefits and advantages in using Thrive Architect. If you can use these plugins well, you are sure to be a few steps away from your business goals.

Pros and Cons of Thrive Architect

Many marketers and niche pursuers believe that Thrive Architect is an amazing and excellent page builder that you can use for your WordPress site. While you can find many options when it comes to building pages, the Thrive Architect leads the competition because it is specifically focused on conversions. You will never go wrong with Thrive Architect because, aside from its function of creating professional-looking pages, you will also have the chance to use 300 templates for the landing pages that were professionally designed to increase conversion rate.

• Pros

• Thrive Architect is a highly-intuitive page builder tool
• The page templates and blocks are conversion-focused
• Built-in advanced marketing features
• Attractive pricing options (you may pay $67 for a lifetime license of Thrive Architect or $20 per month as part of full Thrive membership)
• The plugin can play nicely with the other tools in the Thrive Themes suite

• Cons

• The Thrive Architect doesn’t include a free trial
• The free customer support is only available for the first year, and if you want to continue the support, you need to pay a nominal fee
• Thrive Architect do no offer blog posts template

How much is Thrive Architect?

Since you will have various options with using the Thrive Architect for your WordPress site, we will do our best to present you with the pricing of Thrive Architect.

One way that you can use Thrive Architect is to purchase it as a standalone plugin. You can choose from one, five, or fifteen licenses, and they come with one-time payment so you can enjoy lifetime access and updates of the plugin.

• Single License – $67

• Install on one website
• It includes all features
• Unlimited free updates
• One full year of support

• 5 License Pack – $97

• Install on five website
• It includes all features
• Unlimited free updates
• One full year of support

• 15 License Pack – $147

• Install on 15 website
• It includes all features
• Unlimited free updates
• One full year of support

If you don’t wish to get the plugin as a la carte, you have another option, which is to get a monthly subscription of Thrive Themes, which starts from $19 per month. With this option, you will not only get the right to use Thrive Architect, but you will also have access to more than a dozen premium plugins.

The membership fees for Thrive Themes are the following:

Thrive Membership – $19/month 

• The membership fee is paid annually
• You can use all the plugins and themes on 25 of your website

Agency Membership – $49/month

• The membership fee is paid annually
• You can use all the plugins and themes on 25 of your website

Paying the membership annually can save you a lot since you will only pay $19 for the individual membership or $49 for an agency, and you can already use the Thrive suite for up to 50 websites.

The best option for you will depend on your preference and needs for page builders. If you’re one of the die-hard fans of Thrive Themes, then you will get the most with getting a full Thrive membership. You may be easily tempted with choosing the one-time fee of the standalone Thrive Architect since it is indeed budget-friendly compared to the membership fee of Thrive suite. But if you will consider all the functionality, tools, and plugins with the Thrive Themes suite.

What is Elementor?

Another excellent option for your WordPress drag and drop page builder plugin is Elementor. This popular page builder comes with a free account and paid version, and despite its young age, around three years, Elementor has been making a huge name in the industry.

Elementor only comes as a plugin, and you will never find a theme that will include Elementor. This is one of the differences between the two. Since Elementor is a standalone plugin, you will need to look for a theme that can go with it.

The FREE version of Elementor is another thing that makes it better from Thrive Architect. This free account is unlimited, which means you can use it on as many sites as you wish. Without paying a dime for your page builder, you can create responsive and beautiful websites for Elementor.

While going with the free account is already a great deal, the version will never give you the features that you can enjoy with Thrive Architect. This is also the reason why many Elementor users are going with the Elementor Pro version since it comes with many premium elements that you will need for conversions such as reviews, price list, form, flip box, log in, and many more.

Features of Elementor

Same as Thrive Architect, Elementor is one of the WordPress plugins that are pretty compatible with any themes. But what makes Elementor different from Thrive Architect is that the prior has no accompanying theme of its own. This means that you need to look for a quality WordPress theme that will go with Elementor. To give you a tip about the best theme that can go well with Elementor, check out the Astra theme and it’s free and paid versions.

Right now, we will talk about the different features of Elementor.

• The Sidebar

The sidebar is where you can get access to the different elements and blocks that you can use with creating your pages with this plugin. With the help of this permanent sidebar, you can drag and drop your desired elements and place them inside your page.

• Main Page

While sidebar works as the toolbox, the main page is where you can see your project coming to life. You can do different things with the main page, such as dragging a widget to the section, hitting the + button to make a new section, or hitting the folder button to load a template. You can subdivide every section into various columns of different widths, so the plugin lets you choose the structure that you think will work best.

Now that you have prepared the structure of the sections, you can start adding your widgets to those columns and create page content.

• Elementor Templates

Elementor made sure that you will never start building your pages from scratch, so it offers more than 150 professional landing page templates for all its users. Blocks are also available so you can easily add them to your existing page. Some of these blocks are footers, price, testimonials, and FAQs. To top it all, the Elementor Pro version lets you save your work as a “global element” so you can access those saved blocks easily if you want to use them on other pages.

• Theme Builder for Elementor

This is a compelling feature of Elementor, and it is only available with the Pro version of the plugin. The question is, what are the things that can be done by this feature? Whenever you want to create a custom page that will stand different from your theme, this feature makes it easier to do it. With this feature, you can visually customize different elements such as blog posts, archive pages, headers, and footers.

Another thing that can be offered by this feature is the dynamic content that you can utilize to change your content easily. For example, instead of using an element for a static image, you can go with an element for a dynamic image that you can put anywhere you want, and it can be altered depending on your desired condition.

With those functions, we can say that this feature is a stand out feature of Elementor Pro. With the Elementor’s page builder and theme builder, you can enjoy more flexibility with making a unique website without dealing with any coding work.

Pros and Cons of Elementor

This Elementor review will tell you many reasons why you should choose this plugin for your WordPress website. The number one reason is its FREE version. Who would not want that one, right? If you don’t have any budget to spare but still want to try a page builder plugin for your WordPress site, then Elementor is always available for you. The free account may give you some restrictions with the other useful features of the Elementor Pro version, which is already expected, but you don’t have to worry about that because you will have everything that you NEED with Elementor free.

The Elementor Pro version can bring you a whole lot of things since you have unlocked the door to one of the most flexible and feature-packed page builders of WordPress. With the Elementor Pro’s dynamic content, theme builder, and premium widgets, you can do anything with your page.

• Pros

• It comes with a FREE version, and you can enjoy it forever
• User-friendly and very versatile
• The personal plan at $49/year as unbeatable
• The Elementor pro version comes with full-pack features such as premium widgets and theme builder
• It’s a lightweight builder that can maximize your website’s speed
• The plugin is compatible with almost all WordPress themes

• Cons

• The customer support does not include phone options or live chat
• The free version will not give you access to all the fundamental features of Elementor Pro version like global elements
• Elementor is a bit harder to use compared to Thrive Architect.

How much is Elementor Pro?

While some users are happy with what the Free version can offer, others still opt for the Elementor Pro because of its handy premium features like global elements and theme builder. With these Elementor Pro features, you can make your website more effective and efficient. So if you are asking about how much the price of Elementor Pro is, you should check these packages.

• Personal – $4/year

• For 1 Site
• More than 50 Elementor Pro Widgets
• Theme Builder
• More than 300 Elementor Pro Templates
• WooCommerce Builder
• Popup Builder
• 1 Year Updates
• 1 Year Support

• Plus – $99/year

• For 3 Sites
• More than 50 Pro Widgets
• Theme Builder
• More than 300 Pro Templates
• WooCommerce Builder
• Popup Builder
• 1 Year Updates
• 1 Year Support

• Expert – $199/year

• For 1,000 Sites
• More than 50 Pro Widgets
• Theme Builder
• More than 300 Pro Templates
• WooCommerce Builder
• Popup Builder
• 1 Year Updates
• 1 Year Support

The features are all the same across the different plans of Elementor Pro. The difference is the number of licenses that you can enjoy with your plan.

A Comparison Between Thrive Architect and Elementor

Choosing between Thrive Architect and Elementor can be very hard by this time. They both offer promising features that you are sure to help with creating pages for your website. But with this comparison between Thrive Architect and Elementor comparison, you can help yourself with deciding which product to go.

Features of Thrive Architect and Elementor Pro

When it comes to the features of these two plugins, there is no significant difference among them. But the free version of Elementor may look more appealing to the users, and you can use it forever! Though there are some premium features that you cannot use with the Elementor free, it’s still a great deal because you can create landing pages without sending any buck.

Page Content Templates

Many Elementor Pro users will agree that this plugin is better when it comes to designing your website because it can allow you to create content templates. This feature is not available with Thrive Architect. For some users, this page content templates may not be essential, but for some designers, this is a huge thing because they can create a design that is far from the standard landing page.

Comparison of Elements

While looking for the elements of both plugins, you will never find too much difference between the Thrive Architect and Elementor Pro. But if you will study the elements well, you will understand that the plugins are targeting different markets.

If you need a page builder that will help you in creating a basic website like portfolio or social site, then you should go with Elementor Pro since it can provide you all the needed elements for this goal. However, if your goal is to make sites that create conversions and make money, Thrive Architect is perfect for you.

In this part, you will likely know the right product for you.

Is Thrive Architect Free?

A free trial is not available with Thrive Architect. But if you choose to go with the Thrive membership and you don’t like it for some reason, you can ask for a full refund of your payment within 30 days of your first purchase, which can also mean enjoying a free trial for 30 days.

Conclusion

Now that we have discussed everything with this Thrive Architect Vs. Elementor review, we can conclude that Elemetor wins the battle. Though it was launched more than two years ago, the features and other functions that it can offer to its users can compete with other plugins that have been in the market for many years. The free version of Elementor is also a big factor in winning this comparison since anyone can try the product without paying any amount. We can also expect more updates and features from Elementor as it continues to become more popular in the market.

Many people who find themselves wanting to build a website for the first time or a way to lower the cost of entry try to find the best WordPress page builder as a way to do it themselves. However, because there are literally dozens of page builders, it can be hard to find the best WordPress page builder per say.

While one option would be to invest in a premium WordPress theme, the advantage of which is that they often come with a couple of different variations but can be hard to customize. So, if you can’t tell the difference between CSS and HTML, then customizing themes can be a nightmare. That’s why most people end up stuck with what is, at best, a limiting theme that they have no idea how to update. Themes that are locked in have always been one of the main limitations of WordPress as a platform which page builders promise to rectify.

We get many people who ask, which are the leading WordPress page builders? To us, that’s a very difficult question to answer because it varies from one person to the next. It depends on your experience with using page builders, how comfortable you are with coding, and if you have the willingness to take the time out to work around the nuances of a WordPress page builder. However, as it turns out unlike the old days WordPress page builders are a dime a dozen, which can make finding one that works for you a little tricky.

So, instead of coming right out and telling you, which is the best WordPress page builder, we’ve gone through the top 5, in our opinion. To us, these are the best in terms of flexibility, ease of use, and design output. Make sure to read the description for each page builder and our opinion on who we think it is best for before making up your mind.

5 Best WordPress Page Builders

 5/5



Try it now

Read Review

 4.8/5



Try it now

Read Review

 4.5/5



Try it now

Read Review

 4.2/5



Try it now

Read Review

 3.8/5



Try it now

Read Review

How Do We Evaluate Each WordPress Builder for WordPress?

Now before we go into our opinion about each WordPress page builder, it is important to go into how we are evaluating each one. Our evaluation is based on the following:

• Interface

How easy to use and feature-filled is the page builder’s interface? It goes without saying that there are quite a few WordPress page builders’ interface types. Some people prefer more clean interfaces while for others the drawer type interface is more efficient.

• Widgets or Templates are Included

The widget or elements as they are called available to build a WordPress page can help determine how good the page ends up looking or functions, so this is an important one to consider. However, there isn’t any single page builder that offers all the options in one neat package.

• Styling Options

How can the elements on the page be styled using the page builder? Obviously, the more, the better here. But if you have loads of features like some page builders, things can become very complex. So, there is no such thing as the best balance. That’s why mentioning this when talking about page builders is so important.

• Miscellaneous Features

What other unique or notable features does the WordPress page builder offer? All WordPress page builders want to stand out from the crowd, so they try bringing something different to the table.Knowing this means you understand their unique proposition to users.

• The Lock-in

Is everything locked in with that given page builder only? What happens when you uninstall or disable the plugin, does that mean that your page is sent to aesthetic hell? We all want a WordPress page builder that leaves behind clean code, but few ever do!

Elementor

Launched originally in 2016, Elementor is one of the latest WordPress page builders to be added to our line up of the best. However, despite its comparatively late start Elementor racked up a whopping 3,000,000 installs, making it one of the most popular page builders around. That’s at least according to WordPress.org’s figures.

So, what’s so great about Elementor as a page builder? Well, for one, most people like the fact that it offers a glitch-free interface, numerous styling options, and theme building capabilities. So, a project that initially started as a page editor is now a full-blown drag and drop page builder in the form of Elementor Pro. The ‘Pro’ version is more than just a page builder; it is a theme builder!

Quick Glance at the Features:

Build a Theme, not a Page – This is one of the things we like best about Elementor. You can build an entire WordPress theme using the same interface, which includes footer, header, single post pages, archives, etc. There is also support for widgets like WooCommerce and custom post templates. Plus, there are dedicated page builder widgets for all the common elements and the option to insert content dynamically.

Popup Builder – Most people don’t know that they need a popup builder until they have one. You can include things like a popup opt-in email, log-in popup, contact form popup, etc.

To us, the above two additions to Elementor page builder make it stand out from the competition. However, we are seeing theme builders become more popular its fair to say that their offering like from other developers will evolve, but right now, Elementor is ahead of the pack as far as page builder features go.

Elementor’s Interface

The interface can be looked at as being two different parts of the same core with a third area, which we define as minor settings tweaks.

Live Preview – The first part of the page builder is being able to preview your design live. That way, you know exactly what visitors to the website are seeing. You can also type text directly into the interface and change the fonts in real-time to see how they will look.

A-List of Elements – The second part is a complete list of all the elements that can be used. You can just drag and then drop them where required. When an element is selected, that’s when you’re able to style it.

Responsiveness – The third part is arguably another important bit since you can see how the design will look in real-time on mobile devices. That way, you can make changes like, for instance, if the text box cut off or the header looks cropped on an iPhone, then it can be moved to the left or right slightly so that it is in full view.

Widgets and Templates Included

The free version of the WordPress page builder has just around 28 widgets. Plus, you have access to all the default WordPress widgets. However, the ‘Pro’ version is where you get 30 additional widgets. The pro version also gives you additional templates.

Speaking of templates, there are two types, i.e.:

Pages – These are complete WordPress page layouts which are obviously editable and customizable

Blocks – These are individual sections like CTAs, pricing boxes, etc.

Once you are happy with the layout, it can be saved as a template that can later be reused across other pages.

Styling Options

Elementor will give you three styling options when you click on any section or widget. The options will depend on the element in question. However, in our experience, these are the most styling options you’ll find in a WordPress page builder at the moment.

Apart from the basic settings like background, color, and topography you can also tweak aspects of your page like:

Padding and margins

• Add custom CSS classes. The ‘Pro’ version allows you to add direct CSS styling for each element.
•  Responsiveness control of this page builder allows you to hide and show device-specific elements.
• We also like the custom positioning system, which allows you to place widgets in just about any part of your page with drag and drop ease.

Notable Features

Apart from all of the above we discussed, here are a couple of other things we like about Elementor Pro:

Easy Form Integration – You can connect the form widget using any popular email marketing service.

Global Widgets Feature – The feature allows you to reuse common elements across the entirety of your website easily. Also, all instances of those elements can be edited at the same time. So, one update to the color will change the colors across all the widgets.

Does Uninstalling it Break Your Site?

No, it does not! That’s a good thing because if you deactivate Elementor or decide to uninstall it, it does not break your website. You can also just switch to another page builder because Elementor leaves behind clean HTML code. Furthermore that means whatever theme you install next will pick up at least in terms of HTML from where Elementor left off.

Who is Elementor for?

Anyone who wants a complete WordPress page building plugin, that’s easy to use. However, while you can build a complete theme with it, and there is a wide selection of templates, advanced users with commercial intent may not find it useful.

You can’t build a template and reuse it across multiple websites. It is also not possible to sell the template you designed.

Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is the second incarnation of what used to be called Thrive Content Builder. While a lot like its previous version, Thrive Architect builder plugins now sport an updated interface, which looks and feels a lot like Elementor.

While anyone can use the Thrive Architect page builder plugin, it appears as though it is slightly angled towards bloggers and those who build affiliate businesses. One reason for that is the builder’s focus on conversion related elements, of which there are many. Plus, the default styling is good right out of the box. Many people will happily stick with it after a couple of tweaks.

Interface

In our opinion, it can be hard to tell the difference between Thrive Architect’s interface apart from Elementor’s page builder plugin interface. Now in case, you were wondering, Elementor was the first to come up with this interface. But that does not mean that Thrive Architect’s interface is inferior, far from it actually.

The interface includes:

Live Preview – A live preview of the design, so you see how the page is being designed in real-time. Text can also be typed directly into the page. It is also possible to change colors, fonts, size of the text, and text boxes in real-time.

The Element Drawer – Located on the right of the screen, the page builder plugin has icons of all the elements you’ll need to design a page layout. Just drag the element or click on it. When an element is selected, you can still select it from the styling options on the right.

Responsive Previews – Once again, this is a leaf taken out of Elementor page builder responsive preview feature. This means that you can change things around so that they look good in mobile and tablet view. You can also hide certain elements for devices like mobile and tablets.

Breadcrumbs – Now, this feature is unique to Thrive Architect page builder. When you click on a nested element, you can see its entire layer. For instance, if you clicked on a picture, you’ll see that the picture is within a content box, and the content box is contained within the background. Breadcrumbs make it very easy to jump between nested elements on page templates.

Inline text editing – Thrive Architect’s implementation of inline editing is far smoother than that of any other page builder on our list.

Thrive Architect Widgets/Templates

Thrive Architect page builder comes bundled with around 40 various widgets, also referred to as elements. We especially love the marketing-centric ones like the countdown timer.

In addition to the dozens of templates that Thrive Architect packs along that come standard with the plugin, you also get the option to save your own. You also have the option of saving the layout as a template.

Element Styling Options

Thrive Architect handles styling very differently from Elementor and other page builders. Instead of tabs, everything is within a single column. Also, the styling is highly detailed, and the controls are responsive.

People who are more technically inclined can add their own custom CSS at a page level. However, CSS classes or unique IDs can be assigned to individual page elements.

Other Features Worth Mentioning

The Page Events feature is a very handy part of this WordPress page builder plugin. Marketers can use it to place a lightbox popup that’s triggered by certain actions. The other thing about Thrive Architect is that it is part of an ecosystem of other products. The plugin integrates very well with other products like:

Thrive Optimize – This plugin helps you run A/B testing via Thrive Architect

Thrive Leads – It allows you to integrate Thrive Leads’ opt-ins functionality into Thrive Architect easily.

Does Uninstalling Thrive Architect Break Your Site?

No, it does not. Thrive Architect leaves behind clean code.

Who is Thrive Architect for?

Thrive Architect is for the same audience for which Elementor is geared towards. However, it probably offers more value to affiliate marketers looking for marketing feature packed page builders. Bottom line, the preference boils down to user as to which they’ll choose, either Elementor or Thrive Architect.

Divi Builder

Divi Builder was one of the first drag-and-drop popular WordPress page builders and has fortunately survived to this day. Elegant Themes developed the Divi theme, and the standalone builder plugin that can be used with other non-Divi themes. So, you have the option for page templates by Elegant Themes too.

The one standout feature that you get with Divi Builder and the WordPress theme iis the ability to use both the front and back end interface. Also, with the update to Divi 4.0 and possibly beyond, there is now support for full theme building, which puts it on par with rivals Beaver Builder and Elementor. Now people can design footers, headers, and templates for their landing pages.

Divi Builder Interface

Most people who want to use it will be comfortable using the frontend visual interface. However, the backend interface makes certain tasks easier. Sure, people reading this may not be fans of WordPress’s geeky looking backend, but it does serve some purposes, and it is always good to have that option. In our opinion the best page builder needs to have features for people who want to use it.

Divi Builder’s interface is made up of floating buttons and popups, unlike the drawer or sidebar type interface that Elementor and Thrive Architect offers. While this popup and floating buttons combo do look enticing, it does not improve or speed up the page building experience.

Fortunately, inline editing makes editing text on the front end easy. However, that option is also available on the backend but will require that you preview the page to see how things are turning out.

Widgets and Templates

Divi Builder comes bundled with a whopping 46 modules that can be used to build stunning WordPress page layouts with full control. However, for those who don’t have the time or the creativity Divi Builder gives them access to a huge database of 316 pre-built templates that are spread across 40 packs. Plus, you have the option to save your own layouts as templates too if you want to use them later.

Divi Builder Styling Options

Divi Builder is a popular WordPress builder because it allows you to style elements via a popup that you can pin to either side of the screen. We like the fact that Divi offers a myriad of styling options and control over how individual elements look. You can also control things like responsiveness, custom spacing, etc which is imperative for a modern page builder for WordPress.

Similar to the above-mentioned WordPress page builders, you also have the option to add CSS to both before and after the main element. The CSS editor is pretty slick owing to the fact that it has some basic autocomplete and validation content elements. So, you’re not coding in the dark. Plus, you can open a color picker directly from the editor.

We think that Divi Builder is, in fact, the future of WordPress page builders.

Notable Features

Build a theme – You can build a complete theme for a website using Divi Builder.

WordPress Customizer – Every element’s look and feel.

Pair it with a Divi Theme – You can easily pair it with a Divi Builder theme, which gives you complete control over the sites’ look and feel.

A/B Testing – Unlike Thrive Architect, you don’t need to buy a separate plugin for A/B testing a website because it is built into the core plugin.

Built-in UAC – User Access Controls built into Divi allows role-based access controls, which is one of the reasons why we’ve ranked it amongst the best WordPress page builders in terms of site security features.

Does Uninstalling Divi Builder Break Your Site?

Divi Builder is almost entirely shortcode based which has its fair share of drawbacks, one of which means that it leaves behind a bunch of shortcodes. However, you can use a plugin like Shortcode Cleaner to fix the issue. But still, you lose formatting like the <h3> tags, but the content will remain intact. So, yes, it will partially break your website. That’s why we may not consider it the best drag and drop builder as some other reviews may imply.

Who is Divi Builder for?

Divi Builder is one of the few WordPress page builders in our line up which is geared more towards agencies and people with some technical knowledge. If you intend to build themes for clients, then this is the best WordPress page builder out there. It also isn’t a plugin that offers the best drag and drop interface which once again means it is for advanced users.

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder has been one of the leaders in the WordPress page building space for a while now evident from its active installs figures. One of the biggest selling points for this page builder is the fact that it outputs clean code, and happens to be a popular choice amongst seasoned internet marketers which is why it continues to be updated and talked about.

The website builder with WordPress’ functionality can be extended with a couple of add-ons officially by Beaver Builder, one of which is a theme builder and Themer extension features.

Beaver Builder Interface

Many people like us who have been using page builders for a while now will instantly spot the unique looking drag and drop interface offered by Beaver Builder. Most of the work is done via the sidebar located on the right of the screen similar to other builders. Though these options will only appear if you click on the button located in the top bar, which makes viewing your website in full screen at any time.

Inline text editing was recently added which is a welcome addition but they are late to the party so it is no longer amongst its unique features. It’s implementation isn’t also exactly smooth, so entering text directly into a text box for instance feels jittery.

Widgets and Templates

The free version of the plug-in gives users access to 6 of its 30 modules which are otherwise available with the premium version of this drag and drop page builder plugins. However, the standard WordPress widgets can still be used on any site. Furthermore the modules are modular that means they can be enabled and disabled whenever needed, like the email address module.

The premium version of the plugin also gives you access to around 56 templates, and the ability to save your own page layouts as templates to be reused on the site.

Beaver Builder Styling Options

• Styling using Beaver Builder is done in two ways:Use the popup window which is opened by default like themify builder.
• You can also pin that widow to the side of your screen which makes it easily accessible when building a site page.

How exactly you decide to use Beaver Builder is up to you, but we love the fact that it gives you some degree of freedom over the elements, spacing etc. Plus, the controls are all responsive so you don’t have to worry about how the page will look on mobile devices like some other builders. Furthermore, they recently added a unique toggle which allows you to show and hide modules which is based on if the person is logged in which is unique as far as page builder plugins go.

Other Features

White Labelling – You can use Beaver Builder to build WordPress website for clients.

Beaver Builder Theme– While this is an optional plug-in, it does offer more control over how the website looks which is unique to this site builder plugin.

Even though the additional features are good, the fact that you have to pay more for them is a little disheartening especially when there are other builders offering it as part of the package. Plus unlike other best drag and drop page builders the additional page builder plugin can add a layer of complexity to the whole experience.

Does Uninstalling Beaver Builder Break Your Site?

No it does not! It leaves behind clean code with neat HTML formatting in place so the next theme builder or theme can take its place. However, in our experience once you start using Beaver Builder drag and drop builder, it is hard to switch over to anything else.

Who is Beaver Builder for?

It is for the advanced user, someone who is comfortable using CSS and editing code on their website. Also, someone who has used WordPress a great deal in the past. That said some advanced users will find this drag and drop builder to become overbearing with all the added plugins required. So, it can make building a WordPress website a lot more complex than it should be for most people.

Visual Composer

Visual Composer is a totally different drag and drop builder plugin from what it used to be. In the past what was referred to as Visual Composer is now rebranded as WPBakery. So, in other words WPBakery is a totally different product and not to be confused with Visual Composer even though they are by the same team.  We will discuss Visual Composer WordPress Website builder for this roundup.

Interface Functionality

Similar to Divi Builder, the WordPress website builder comes with both front and back end editing. Most people may choose to use the front end interface with a few people who are comfortable with WordPress’ bland backend choosing the latter.

Website page elements are inserted via the click of a button and customized via popups. Unlike Thrive Architect and Elementor there are no sidebar areas, and inline editing. Some people may like the fact that you need to preview how everything looks on the site while others may be turned off by the lack of inline editing.

Widgets and Templates

Visual Composer comes with 39 elements, and all the regular WordPress widgets that most people should already be familiar with on the interface. Even though 39 elements may not sound like a lot we assure you that it is more than enough to build a meaningful WordPress site layout.

You also get 86 templates for each website. Some of these templates are complete pages, others are sections like headers, and footers etc similar to themify builder. However, to get all the elements and templates you’ll need to connect with the Visual Composer hub.

Styling Options

Compared to the plug-ins we’ve talked about above, Visual Composer’s style options come across as limited. You still get access to custom spacing, parallax and shape dividers. However, you have some very fine-tuned control over the rows. On an individual level the use of the styling options are very limited for each element.

You can also choose to edit a page based on the user’s device. In addition to using a myriad of responsive options to preview you can also use sticky rows and columns as well as choose how they are stacked.

You can choose to use CSS to add custom CSS classes or a dedicated ID to each individual element. You can also add actual page level styles to a website. So, this may be worth considering for people who are comfortable coding.

Standout Features

The site builder does not have any standout features compared to the WordPress plugins we use and discussed above. However, the one selling point if you may is the massive third-party community which brings with it dozens of addons. You can also add dynamic content from custom and default fields. Over 250 plus add-ons is a significant figure, more than all of the ones we’ve reviewed and use above combined.

Does Uninstalling Beaver Builder Break Your Site?

Well the code left behind does not break your website but it certainly requires cleaning before you can use it. We are personally not fans of page builders that leave loads of shortcodes behind and Visual Composer fortunately not one of them. So, it does not break the frontend layout of a website  in any way.

Who Should Use Visual Composer?

Visual Composer isn’t a site builder meant for a beginner, though beginners can learn to use it. However, it is for someone who has used WordPress in the past with various themes and are now looking to build their own site layout. The vast library of themes and plugins is more than enough to keep advanced users busy churning out creative layouts.

Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Drag and Drop Page Builders

Q. Is Elementor The Best Page Builder?

No it isn’t the best site builder. But then again there is no one website builder for WordPress something we stated earlier in this roundup. Elementor will be the best choice for most people who are new to building WordPress sites and want a drag and drop interface though, followed closely behind Thrive Architect. But familiarize yourself with the limitations of each page builder before committing to one.

Q. How to Enable Page Builder in WordPress

Enabling a website builder WordPress page builder like Beaver Builder, Thrive Architect etc., is just like enabling any other plugin. You download from WordPress’ plugin archive to your site, and activate it. Then head over to create a new page, and you should see a button that says “Edit with Thrive Architect” or “Edit with Elementor” depending on what you’re using.

Q. What is the best free Page Builder for WordPress?

If you are looking for a free page builder or site builder, we think that Elementor offers the most features for its freebie offering. That’s followed closely behind by Visual Composer. However, if you determine that Elementor is right for you, make sure to upgrade so that you get more elements and themes.

Final Verdict

As you have probably already figured out eahttps://www.epicwinapp.com/divi-logo-size/ch type of WordPress page builder is meant for a certain type of person. So, there is no one size fits all recommendation here. That said the best WordPress page builder would be Elementor because there is a free version to try out, offers loads of options, is easy to use and leaves behind clean code to make it possible for people to experiment with it. In second place we’d recommend Thrive Architect, which does not have a free version, so there is no way of experimenting with it. Ideally, you’ll want to try out the free versions of all the WordPress page builders in this roundup and decide the best one for yourself. If you don’t have the time then start with our top rated page builder, 99% of the people reading this can’t go wrong with it.

Description: Want to find and use the best WordPress page builder for your website? We round up the best of the best in this showdown.

Rating: 3.8/5
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Our Visual Composer review is rooted in the fact that we were curious to see why it was rated as the top-selling WPbakery page builder by some experts. As professionals that often manage multiple sites, we are always on the lookout for innovative and new page builders to speed up the process. However, Visual Composer is neither new, nor is it uniquely innovative, which is what piqued our interest to do this review.

Developed by WP Bakery, the drag and drop plugin comes bundled with over 300 themes available on ThemeForest. Plus, the developers proudly state that it runs on just under 100,000 websites across the world. Evidently, it is a popular plugin, but is it easy enough for anyone to use? Can we use it to build WordPress pages with drag and drop ease? That’s exactly what we’ll examine in this Visual Composer review, leaving our final verdict as always for the very end!

Visual Composer Overview

The Visual Composer plugin product was one of the original WPbakery page layout designers to hit the market many years back. The plugin allows users to design pages using blocks of content. These ‘blocks’ as they are called are also referred to as ‘modules’ and ‘widgets’ in some other page builders. In Visual Composer, they care called ‘Content Elements’ similar to the naming convention used by Thrive Architect. Regardless of the naming terminology, it is essential to state that they all refer to blocks of content which fortunately can be dragged to any part of the page are needed.

Visual Composer has over 40 elements, which include social media buttons, text blocks, image carousels,  post grids, video players etc. The good news is that all the page elements available are responsive, which means that they will adjust themselves to screens of all sizes from laptops, to tablets and smartphones. However, it is also possible to customize individual product elements in WPbakery page builder  to make pages stand out.

The interesting thing about Visual Composer is the fact that unlike Thrive Architect, Elementor or most other page building product WPbakery website builder WordPress plugins you can style pages both on the front and even over on the backend. While styling pages over on the backend isn’t for everyone having that option does make handling certain tasks easier.

Furthermore, the Visual Composer product is compatible with most if not all WordPress themes. The plugin supports multiple languages and is compatible with WordPress’ popular translation plugin called qTranslate.

Visual Composer Features

Our Visual Composer review took a while because this WPbakery page builder has a boatload of features. Some features overlap which can be confusing which you’ll see as we go into each feature below.

Front-End Page Builder

Visual Composer is primarily a front-end WPbakery page builder. It means you can design a fully functioning page by dragging and dropping builder elements to where they need to be. Similar to newer WordPress page builders, Visual Composer offers a myriad of options to customize a page if you choose a template or an existing page. However, it is perfectly OK to layout a page of your own. For this Visual Composer aka WPbakery overview, we decided to see how easy it would be to design a page layout from scratch!

Templates

One of the inherent downsides of Visual Composer is that it does not come with dozens of ease of use templates like the competition. You get just six templates, i.e. landing page, call to action page, feature list, service list, description page and product page. The selection of templates are down to the bare minimum, and they look outdated. Fortunately, they do offer a good starting point for anyone who wants to speed up the process of laying out their page. The downside though is that you’ll still have a lot of work ahead of you, which is why we decided against starting with a template. But we have all rights reserved for our template!

Speaking of templates, once you create a page layout, it can then be saved as a template in this WPbakery page builder. Once we were able to layout a pretty decent looking page, we saved it as a template. That template was then reused multiple times for other pages, and the feature worked flawlessly. Our word of advice is not to choose Visual Composer if you’re going to rely heavily on the templates that come with it despite its ease of use.

Widgets

Visual Composer or WPbakery page builder comes packed with 40 product elements or widgets as some people like referring to them. Either way, the elements provided are more than enough to layout most professional-looking pages. What’s more, is that you don’t need to worry about them being responsive.

Upon further inspection you’ll notice as we did during this Visual Composer page builder testing, is that out of the 40 elements, 12 are default WordPress widgets, 25 of these are content elements, four are social media content elements, and there are three are the builder’s structural elements. However, every one of these elements can be further customized beyond their default look and function.

Visual Composer allows you to customize every content element. However, the settings you can tweak vary depending on the element. Simple elements like social media buttons have fewer settings so you can only change the size, with more advanced elements like post grids offering more options.

Take post grids for instance, which allows you to add more rows by clicking on the ‘+’ symbol in the header, there is also an option to place content into all of the columns. When it comes to columns there are 11 presets like the following sizes: 2/3 + 1/3, 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/4, and 5/6 + 1/6. Once the columns are added, you can easily move the content around from one row or column to the next. The look and feel of these rows and columns can also be customized. The ‘general’ tab, for instance, allows you to change the font colour and add more CSS classes.

Content Editing

The content editing part of Visual Composer as stated earlier in this article is done both on the front and the back end. The front end is an excellent way to style how the pages will look live. Switching from the back end to the front-end editor requires clicking the small button you see in WordPress’ post editor. However, before you do switch over to the front end make sure to save any changes you might have made because if you don’t those changes will be lost…suffice to say we learnt this the hard way.

Now the major difference between the front and back end editor is that the backend tends to be better for initially structuring the page. The front-end editor, on the other hand, makes those smaller tweaks easier. That said most novice users would feel comfortable solely sticking to the front-end editor.

When you click on the content block, it will present the same options as those on the backend editor. The options include the ability to add new columns and rows, edit, delete and add page builder elements etc. On the top of the page, there will be options from where you can add new elements, launch the template system, save the page as a draft, adjust settings of the page, and choose to publish the page. Also, switching back to the backend editor can be done from here as well.

One of the most useful features at least for us during this Visual Composer or WPbakery article is the ability to disable the element box options. Doing so allows you to see how the page will look with all those editing boxes removed from your screen.

Furthermore, the ability to preview how the page will look in up to five different screen sizes or devices is another nifty feature. Being able to see how the page will look in multiple resolutions as it turns out is a very useful feature, but Visual Composer’s execution of it is a little finicky. For instance, you can’t edit the page for that view or size of the device only, like it is the case with rival Thrive Architect. Also, the previews aren’t all that accurate, in terms of how the page will look on a mobile device, for instance.

Mobile Compatibility

During the time we were drafting this WPbakery page builder article, it was evident that the pages were automatically scalable. All the page builder elements are mobile compatible, and that’s something we checked multiple times. However, there are times when your page may look fine in desktop view, but in mobile view, things look chaotic. That boils down to optimizing the layout, by moving elements around and generally maximizing whitespace so that all the essential stuff is clearly visible on a mobile screen.

The one issue we did have with mobile compatibility is that the preview you see on screen isn’t what you see on mobile devices that have 4K or UHD screens. For instance, a couple of elements looked blurred and slightly off on our Samsung Note 10 Plus but looked perfectly fine on the older Note 4. Also, the colors on pages in the Safari browser using our iPhone X looked washed out. However, that could boil down to each screen having a different color and refresh rate. But we didn’t face these issues when using other WPbakery page page builder plugins.

Themes Compatibility

Visual Composer is compatible with just about every WordPress theme out there at least in our opinion and experience. We used several themes to test things for this WPbakery page builder article and had no problems.  It is also something we double checked with customer support. Furthermore, there are several themes you can find on ThemeForest that were designed using Visual Composer, so if you have one of those, even then there are no compatibility issues.

Visual Composer Pros

• Easy to Use:

Visual Composer is comparatively easy page builder plugin owing to its drag & drop interface on the front end. It is also the reason why it was one of the first beginner-friendly WPbakery page builder plugins.​

• Front and Backend Editor:

The ability to edit a page both on the front and backend makes creating pages easier on the whole. In our experience its speeds up the page creation process by around 25%.

• Bug-free:

We didn’t experience any issues with the plugin.

• Easy to use Margins:

Margins are easy to remove, and any images are left behind sit flush with the edges. Plus various options make working with margins very easy.

Visual Composer Cons

• Issues Resizing Images:

Resizing images is nearly impossible. Our Visual Composer page builder became impossibly frustrating as we weren’t able to scale down the images without knowing their exact required dimensions.

• Font Family Issues:

All fonts are inherited from the theme, which is why we were not able to alter them in a page specific way.

• Drop Shadows Don’t Work:

We were told that drop shadows could easily be applied. In our experience, you’d need to play around with CSS code to get it working.

• Inline Buttons Cant Be Aligned:

We tried, and tried but couldn’t get two buttons to align one, next to the other.

• Can’t Customize Background Images:

We weren’t able to customize the background images used. Not only is the positioning impossible to change, but if the image repeats itself, that can’t be fixed either.

Visual Composer Pricing

All things considered, Visual Composer is one of the more competitively priced drag and drop WordPress page builders. There is a free product of the plugin, which albeit limited still gives people on a budget an opportunity to build a couple of basic pages [we examine Free vs the Pro version in the next section below]. However, the real power of the tool is only evident once you upgrade to the full version for which there are three packages.

The basic package starts at $57 a year for a single website. The next one up is $149 for 3 websites. Agencies that build websites for clients or who may have a few dozen of their own will benefit from the generous $349 a year subscription.

Visual Composer Free vs Pro Edition

Now the biggest difference as you might imagine between the free and paid version of this visual composer website builder is the fact that the latter has all the features enabled. That said the ‘Free’ version while still capable of making it possible for a person to design a WordPress layout has many important features disabled. For instance, the ‘Free’ one does not have a much-needed icon library, no header builder, no footer builder, no global templates and no way to export or import created pages. So, you’ll be spending a lot of time trying to work with it and with no customer support it will soon be a nightmare.

Free users of WP Bakery also don’t have access to stock images, Gutenburg Compatibility, menu items, etc., which makes it near impossible to build a meaningful page. So, unless you’re starting with no money in the bank to invest in your business, we wouldn’t recommend the ‘Free’ builder especially since the Pro Edition of Visual Composer is just $57.

Should You Upgrade to Visual Composer Pro?

During this Visual Composer Pro page builder article, we tested both the free and the Pro Edition. Despite our best efforts weren’t able to figure out how to work our way around the limitations of the Free Edition. Also, there is no customer support for this page builder.

Almost every meaningful element is disabled, which makes the Free Edition a waste of time and it shouldn’t even be included; instead, there should have been a trial version with all the premium features enabled for a week or so. So, if you want to use the product or plugin the free builder isn’t good to say the least. That’s why if you’ve decided to use Visual Composer, make sure it is ‘Pro’ version.

Visual Composer: Popular Questions & Answers

Q. Is Visual Composer and WPBakery the same?

What started off as Visual Composer a WPbakery page builder nearly a decade ago, later became WPBakery. WPBakery should be considered the latest version of Visual Composer which has since evolved into a website builder. Visual Composer Website Builder as it is now called is a full-fledged website building program and not just a page builder like WPBakery.

Q. Is Visual Composer free?

Visual composer has a free product version which can be downloaded and used on any WordPress website. However, the features, as mentioned above, are severely limited.

Q. Which WordPress Builder is the best?

Visual Composer is by no means the best WordPress Builder, but it is amongst the best. Since everyone is different, there is no one ‘best’ WPbakery page builder. So, you’ll want to figure out what works for you based trying out a couple of top plugins for free. There are other WP builders out there that might compete against Visual Composer such as Thrive Architect and Elementor.

Visual Composer Review: Conclusion

Visual Composer is a drag and drop page builder, which has come of age but is now faced with stiff competition from a growing number of plugins that serve the same purpose. The one thing that’s going in favour of Visual Composer is the fact that it is virtually bug-free. We didn’t experience any stutters or icons disappearing when building pages. The resulting pages are also pretty stunning thanks to the depth of customization options.

However, the resulting pages built using Visual Composer are bulky and slow. The content blocks, despite being visually appealing, aren’t as varied as what you get with the competition. That’s why we conclude this Visual Composer article by only recommending it to agencies, i.e. people who build WordPress templates for a living, understand CSS and are willing to work around the nuances of the plugin.

Rating: 4.8/5

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We decided to do an in-depth Thrive Architect Review, after having used it across a couple of our websites. One of the questions we often get asked from fellow digital marketers is, did we finally fire our web designer because Thrive Architect is purportedly so easy to use? The good news for our web designer is that he is still working for us and even helped with this review. However, that does not automatically mean that Thrive Architect is a dud, as some would assume.

In the world of page builders, Thrive Architect has to be amongst the most popular and newer ones around. Perhaps not as new as competing landing page builder Elementor but not as old as Beaver Builder. If anything, it’s usually down between which one’s better: Thrive Architect or Elementor. However, the history of Thrive Architect goes back several years to when it was called Thrive Content Builder. So, if you previously used the Thrive Content Builder plugin, you’ll feel right at home here because a lot of the tried and tested tools have been carried over to Thrive Architect, along with modern updates. Though the company does say that Thrive Architect was built from the ground up, using thrive isn’t all that different.

So, the question you’re probably asking is, how does Thrive Architect fare as a WYSIWYG drag and drop custom WordPress page builder compared to the competition? That’s a complex question to answer, which is why we have pieced together our experience in this review so that you can decide if it is a good choice for your business.

Thrive Architect Overview

Thrive Architect is designed, built, and sold by the same folks that were responsible for the highly successful Thrive Content Builder. Back in the day the Thrive Content Builder plugin was the talk of the town for DIY landing page builders. Almost anyone who wanted to design a website or landing pages on their own, without having to mess around with coding and style sheets chose the plugin. However, as the story goes despite its success, Thrive Content Builder had its limitations, which couldn’t be outdone, especially keeping in light the fact that WordPress had evolved so much. That led the team to build a brand new WYSIWYG, drag and drop WordPress landing page builder that offers more features, makes adding a lot of new stuff easier, and, most of all ensuring that it was compatible with all past, present and arguably future versions of WordPress.

Fast forward to today, and Thrive Architect, delivers on its promise of being able to build a landing page with drag and drop ease. You don’t need to know anything about coding, and the only code you might have to add is shortcodes for features like a ‘Contact Form.’ However, that isn’t a requirement with any Thrive Theme.

The big selling point for Thrive Architect is that it can be used by anyone to build any type of page. What’s more, the plugin continues to receive more updates, and with it comes new features. So, it is a consistently evolving plugin that keeps its loyal users happy.

Thrive Architect Features

To truly understand how Thrive Architect is similar to or better than the competition, it is important that we examine its most prominent landing page builder features. Now whether you have used Thrive Content Builder, or any other WordPress page building tool, or perhaps never used a page builder before, it is important that you read through our take on the features offered. In our Thrive Architect review, we tend to dissect the features offered so you can decide if they will actually work for you or are just a marketing gimmick.

Front-End Page Builder

The first and perhaps the most important feature is that Thrive Architect is a true WYSIWYG, drag and drop WordPress page builder. Our Thrive Architect Review can’t be complete without stating this enough times. Once you have installed the plugin and paid for it, you are good to go! All elements from content boxes to text boxes, buttons, headers, etc., are all drag and drop compatible. What’s more, is that dragging and dropping feels smooth even if you’re using a half-decent computer. Though Thrive Architect isn’t heavily dependent on your computer’s CPU or GPU.

We are big fans on the in-line text editing feature, which allows you to type in text, in real-time on a landing page you’re designing! That’s a feature we’ve not seen in other WordPress landing page builders, and yet it is so useful because it makes the job of editing and adding text easy and quick.

When building a test page for our Thrive Architect review, it was apparent that just about every element can be dragged on the page and placed exactly where you want it. What’s more, the plugin is stocked with just about any element you would need which makes using Thrive Architect feel more comprehensive. The current updated version as of April 2020, has 34 elements, and each element has a set of sub-features which help customize everything from the color to its shape.

That’s why in terms of being a comprehensive drag and drop front end WordPress page builder, we give it full marks. However, using Thrive Architect similar to Thrive Themes can take some getting used to.

Templates

Thrive Architect though a page builder does not skimp on the quality of its template library. We were admittedly impressed with the selection of templates offered, which range from ones for restaurants to dentists, and ones that can be customized to suit any business. Using Thrive Architect means you get access to around a hundred or so of these templates.

The amazing thing about these templates is that once you load it, they can just as easily be customized. Global settings like colors, fonts, etc. can be changed with a few clicks. You can then save all the changes as your own custom template. Most of all, these templates aren’t stored on your website but instead on the cloud. Only the template you’re using gets downloaded on to your website. While that means it won’t end up costing you a lot in bandwidth it also means that switching landing page design takes a few seconds.

Furthermore, you can create templates for landing pages of your own. If you have worked hard to create a layout for different landing pages, that layout can be saved as a template. You can then use that layout on subsequent pages like your ‘About Us, ‘Contact Us,’ ‘Terms of service,’ etc.

While all of this sounds great on paper, the fact is that the landing page templates are severely limited. You can’t find a template for a digital marketing agency, for instance, also digital services don’t seem to be represented in the library.

The other frustrating part of using these templates is that you can’t preview how they would look before being applied to your website’s landing pages. We were initially caught off guard countless times because we clicked on a template, assuming it would show us a preview before confirming we’d want to apply it to our page. Once a template is applied, you can’t undo it! So, you’re pretty much stuck with it. But that’s just half of the frustration we encountered when researching to write this Thrive Architect review.

Using thrive Architect we found yet another source of much frustration is the size of these templates. Now, most people may not notice this, but on average, the size of a single template is around 7 megabytes, which is very large compared to competing Elementor that has templates that are on average, 400 kilobytes.

The other consequence of these large template file sizes in Thrive Architect is an inherently slow-loading webpages. Despite compressing all the pictures, and running through a battery of page optimization techniques, we couldn’t get a score better than a ‘C’ on most speed tests. So, there is no way to speed up your landing pages beyond a certain point.

Widgets aka Elements

Now using Thrive Architects means that for the most part, you’ll be working with dozens upon dozens of various elements as we had to for this review. Similar to Thrive Themes, all page templates are made up of elements. The good news is that all elements can be changed and customized as per your needs or likings. Elements like content boxes, table of contents, columns, and styled lists, etc. can easily be customized.

Now because there are so many elements in Thrive Architect, the best way to explain all of them is to break them up into three categories, i.e., Foundation elements, Building Blocks, and Integration elements.

• Foundation Elements:

Consider these to be your basic set of page templates’ elements i.e.paragraphs, headings, images, columns, and content boxes. The reason they are thrivearchitects foundation elements is that no page can exist without them. Ever try building a WordPress content page without images or headings?

• Building Blocks:

Now, these are mainly elements that help organize your content and make them stand out from standard WordPress content. Building blocks include star ratings, styled list, and table of contents, etc.

• Integration Elements:

These are mainly elements that you add, and they help integrate the page into other ecosystems. For instance, contact forms, video embedding from YouTube, perhaps, social media integration, lead generation items like content reveal, rights reserved, click to tweet etc. Like all other elements, these are easily dragged and dropped into place on blog posts and regular lead generation pages.

Content Editing

Many WordPress page builders may slip up in the content editing department which makes drafting blog posts difficult. However, here is another area where Thrive Architect tends to excel. Unlike other plugins we’ve tested, you can edit content and see exactly how it will look in the builder plugin. For instance, when editing the text on a button or content box, you can see if the text is going to overflow, and then tweak it accordingly. The same goes for text boxes and other content which allows you to type in what you want, in real-time, or simply paste the text you have from a Word or Google Docs document.

Furthermore, if you’d rather handle editing text over on the backend, i.e., how WordPress traditionally handles it you can add the WordPress element into your content box. However, in our experience, the text looks out of sync with this element, and so you’re better off adding a text box on the page and editing it on the front end.

Speaking of editing everything from font sizes to types and colors can all be changed in real-time on any page. You can see how the font will look like on a lead generation page. For instance, on the header as you click through to choose one. This content feature alone saved us a lot of time and allowed us to find the perfect font.

The one drawback of the content editing system at least it was something we noticed is that the page tends to slow down and become jittery when editing content. However, if you save and preview, the page looks fine, and you can scroll through with ease. So, it appears that something is bogging the page down when in editing mode. Our suspicion is that it has something to do with having a content box or too many of them.

Mobile Compatibility

When designing important sections of your websites like landing pages, you always want to make sure that the layout looks and performs perfectly across desktop, mobile, and tablet screens. Furthermore, Google wants websites and pages to be highly mobile compatible first, so it pays to put in extra effort to make sure that’s the case.

Fortunately, Thrive Architect is amongst the few page builder plugin we’ve tested that make building mobile-centric pages or responsive pages as they are called easier. You can use mobile, tablet, and desktop modes by simply switching from one to the next below the editor screen. Doing this will allow you to see in real-time how the layout appears across all three types of screens. Furthermore, you can edit it in those modes. For instance, if you see that the ‘click now’ button appears to be cropped on the mobile screen, you can choose to move it into view by clicking and dragging.

Interestingly all 34 elements that come packaged with Thrive Architect content builder come with what’s called a responsive design option for all pages. So, you can choose to show certain elements, for instance, on a WordPress page on a mobile device which is otherwise is not available on desktop and vice versa. For instance, the ‘rights reserved’ box from the mobile version of the website, to make more place for perhaps an exclusive discount. That said, a discount may not be available if being accessed via a desktop browser. So, in other words, you can choose to turn certain elements on pages off for mobile or desktop devices.

When you create a page or edit one one in mobile mode, the changes you make will only appear on mobile devices. For instance, style changes, color changes, etc., made in mobile view will not carry over to other pages or their instances. For instance, we wanted a slightly darker version of our website on mobile devices, so added an overlay on mobile, and we were done. The same changes didn’t appear on our desktop devices.

When testing the views and editing screens for this Thrive Architect review, we ran into a couple of very frustrating bugs. For instance, once we laid out the desktop version of the website templates, and switch to a mobile screen, some elements to the right of the screen would disappear. Upon closer inspection, they were cropped out. However, there is no way to bring them back into view, without first switching back into desktop mode, then moving the element all the way to the right or left, then previewing it again in mobile mode and adjusting it from there. That said, after we did that, it would ruin things on the desktop layout screen which is one of the most frustrating part of using this plugin.

The other rather irritating thing about the use of mobile and tablet view is that you can’t preview in landscape mode. You’re stuck in portrait mode. So, there is no way of knowing how your website will appear in landscape mode and that limits the way you use and create pages in Thrive Architect.

Finally, you can’t tweak the screen sizes. There is also no mention of what assumptions of screen sizes the preview modes are making. So, you’ll just have to do your own offsite testing and rely on visitors to provide you with feedback which defeats the purpose of using Thrive Architect at least partially.

Themes Compatibility

Thrive Architect’s ease of use with foundation blocks, lead generation, and landing page templates, etc. all appear to be compatible with just about every theme you can think of, but there is a reason for that. When you fresh install WordPress, you have a default theme, that theme is compatible with Thrive Architect regardless of what you create. The reason that’s the case is that Thrive Architect does not build on that theme it will create a blank canvas of its own. However, we’ve tested it with other themes, and as soon as you activate the Thrive Architect plugin, that theme becomes irrelevant. So, you can use the Thrive theme.

We like the fact that the use of the content builder instantly disables the underlying theme and takes over your website. If anything, it reduces if not eliminates the need for compatibility. However, if your 404 pages, for instance, isn’t set up, WordPress will fall back on using the default theme that you had installed. We didn’t know that until we stumbled upon a couple of 404s and figured out that the base WordPress theme was being used instead of Thrive Architect’s template that we had designed and used. So, in a way, Thrive Architect does not auto-apply its own theme or one you create.

Thrive Architect Pros

• Users have access to over a hundred templates that run across most standard industries
• Global colors allow for customization across the entire website making it quick to use
• Predesigned sections can be used to create and customize pages saving time and creativity
• Tends to work with all themes we’ve tested it with for this Thrive Architect Review
• Many advanced marketing features that aren’t found with any other content builder
• A delightful and often useful popup engine
• Doing it yourself using the drag and drop interface is still cheaper than hiring a professional to create a theme.
• Updated almost every month with new features added at least twice a year

Thrive Architect Cons

• You can’t create an entire theme with Thrive Architect and sell it as you can with Beaver Builder perhaps
• Does not work well with third-party plugins
• An overwhelming interface takes time getting used to
• Template sizes are huge, and that bogs down the load time which could affect SEO
• Lack of optimization options across Thrive features

Thrive Architect Pricing

Thrive Architect does not have a free version like other Thrive services. However, the full or premium version of architect is available for a one time $67. The one-time payment of $67 means you can use the plugin forever but only get a year of support. If you want more support, then Thrive charges $40 each year.

Thrive Architect: Popular Questions & Answers

Q. What is Thrive Architect?

Thrive Architect is a WordPress page builder or content builder that leverages the power of drag and drop ease to allow anyone to create landing pages, home pages, and lots of other types of pages on their own. The biggest selling point for Thrive content builder is that it is easy to use. Using Thrive does not take a lot of training or practice. However, it does take some getting used to for a complete novice user. That said, the company’s training videos library should suffice to help most people get started.

Q. How much is Thrive Architect?

Thrive Architect, requires a one-time payment of $67, which entails a year of customer support. Though customer support can be extended for an extra $40 a year. There is no free version of the plugin, so the only way to use it is to buy it.

Q. Is thrive Architect free?

Thrive Architect isn’t free, and there is no free version of the software. Even for existing Thrive Themes users, there are no additional discounts or trials.

Thrive Architect Review: Conclusion

Thrive Architect content builder is one of the best around. Not only can you build your own WordPress landing page layouts but also add a lead generation plugin, if not use the limited few that come bundled with it.

While Thrive Architect does have its flaws, the pros tend to outweigh them. However, many people reading this will ask if it perhaps a better choice compared to Elementor? That’s a hard question to answer, but anyone who does ask that question should try out Elementor’s free version before deciding between the two. Unfortunately, Thrive Architect does not have a free version, which can be a turn off for people who have never used a page builder before.

It is possible to use this landing page builder to build any type of page. Not only will your page be a serious contender in terms of design, and professionalism but is going to be very cheap to update in terms of design. So, it is an excellent choice for someone who wants to get their feet wet and handle all aspects of the process.

Despite a lack of a few features and that the competition seems to be doing many things better, especially in the speed department, and of course the bugs we mentioned earlier, it is still worth considering. It does offer everything; you’ll need to build a serious page within a single plugin. Plus, regular updates means that you’re always getting something new.

We conclude this Thrive Architect review by recommending it. However, it might not be the best choice if you’ve never used a WordPress page builder before.

Rating: 4.2/5
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One of the reasons why we decided to do this Beaver Builder Review is because it has been around since the very beginning of drag and drop WordPress page builders. It was amongst the first we used way back then. Beaver Builder was and continues to remain amongst the Big 3 in the page builder space, and also happens to be the most widely used visual front-end builder for WordPress. As of late, the company has added a dedicated theme builder and beaver builder theme that works alongside this front-end page builder. The one distinguishing feature of Beaver Builder compared to the competition is the strong bond that the plugin has with the development community. Beaver Builder promises site builders and clients the ease and versatility of creating visually impactful websites.

In this Beaver Builder Review, we’ll only be looking at the page builder used as a standalone plugin. But we also will use the Beaver Builder theme. We’ll also touch about the extra you might choose to pay to get extra features and if it is worth it especially when compared to the competition.

Beaver Builder Overview

Beaver Builder is one of the most established WordPress plugins used to design WordPress pages and theme using drag & drop ease. Users can build and restructure websites via an easy to use front end interface, that does not require any coding knowledge. As a page builder, it was one of the first of its kind for WordPress.

Users don’t have to know anything about HTML, shortcodes, CSS, etc. The modules work right from the front end, with everything being easy to adjust with the ease of its drag and drop interface. Just about anyone who knows how to use a computer can use Beaver Builder to build websites. It helps you save time, money on hiring a professional and gives you the flexibility to edit or fine-tune an existing page as required.

Beaver Builder Features

Beaver Builder has a truckload of features to use, and as anyone who has used a front-end page builder will know that this is sort of a prerequisite to being a good page builder plugin in this space. However, there are a couple of things that stand out about the features offered by Beaver

Builder, and we’ll go over those when discussing each feature below.

Front-End Page Builder

A front end page builder for WordPress by its very definition means that you can edit the front end of the website from the front end! It also means that you are only working on a website via the front end, which is the case with Beaver Builder. You can add things like buttons, timers, headers, footers, etc. all without ever having to revert to the backend. Making it an easy to use WordPress page builder.

Unlike other WordPress builders, users don’t have to guess how their website will look, because they are using a WYSIWYG editor. So, there is no need to switch back and forth or click to preview every time a change is made to the website.

Beaver Builder’s page builder interface like other competing products shows you a live preview of the page, along with a selection of the most used tools on the right. You can start customizing by clicking on any place on the page. More content blocks, rows, widgets, accordions, etc. can all be added and removed just as easily from the website.

In addition to all the drag & drop ease, there is also support for shortcodes, and WordPress widgets baked into Beaver Builder. So, there is no need to do away with your favorite WordPress plugins like for Contact Forms, membership areas, etc.

Templates

The Beaver Builder theme and plugin come packaged with 30-page templates to get started. Now we weren’t able to check out each one of the templates for this Beaver Builder review, but we did go over each one briefly to see how the designs looked.

To start with, the Beaver Builder plugin is compatible with just about every WordPress theme out there. So, there is no need to install a specific builder theme for it to work. However, if you do run into compatibility issues, with the present Beaver Builder theme, Beaver Builder’s support should be able to help [more about their support later].

What we’ve discovered during our time with Beaver Builder is that as long as your theme is responsive, there will be no issues in terms of them being mobile-friendly. All pages we created with responsive WordPress themes worked perfectly on all mobile devices by scaling precisely like we expected them to. That’s something that has been standard regardless of the version of Beaver Builder.

Plus, you’re free to use all of Beaver Builder templates that accompany the premium plan, and there are no hidden costs associated with them. This is really good if you have a blog that’s specific in niche, like inviting people to get paid to test out games.

We were able to find templates for law firms, restaurants, personal branding websites, etc. But these are only available with the paid version of Beaver Builder.

Inner page templates for the website are also packaged with the plugin like for newsletters, contact pages, about, and pricing pages. However, they were bland for our taste, and if we were to use them, a lot of effort would be put in spicing them up, but then again, that’s just us. We need the perfect website because, without it, it is hard to sleep!

Furthermore, Beaver Builder allows you to save a template you create. There is no limitation on how many templates you can create and or save in the builder. Also, you can save both modules and raw within the builder for later use as you want.

Widgets

Beaver Builder is compatible with all the standard set of WordPress Widgets. Shortcodes are supported, for widgets like the Contact Form, plugins for membership areas, etc.

While we didn’t throw a whole bunch of widgets at Beaver Builder, the ones that we did use worked perfectly. However, if you are in the market for a paid widget and are not sure if it will be compatible with Beaver Builder, you should contact the company’s support, something we did for this review.

Content Editing with the Module Library

Beaver Builder allows you to edit various types of content, i.e., visual, and written content, in real-time. The editing is made possible via a collection of elements that are also used to build the page. Commonly used modules include text blocks, images, buttons, etc. There is also support for advanced modules like sliders, pricing tables, and accordions.

Speaking of content, use Beaver Builder to add a couple of conversion elements like the subscribe form, testimonial slider, and countdown timer. So, all the basics are pretty much covered. Unfortunately, it does not go beyond the basics for Beaver Builder.

Unlike other builders, there are no modules for portfolio, pricing, forms, flip box, etc. Though you can still add all of this but only via third-party plugins, which takes you away from the otherwise uniform visual page building experience that makes Beaver Builder so sought after. But to use Beaver Builder the way it should those extra plugins are needed.

Compared to Elementor and Thrive Architect, we found that the modules lacked styling variations. One reason for this after we dug a little deeper is that the platform relies heavily on CSS. The severe limitation in the way of styling options may turn off people who want to make, for instance, a sales page that stands out from a competitor’s page in the same niche using the same page builder. Unfortunately, builder Beaver is one of those page builders that makes it impossible to stand out.

The somewhat good news is that you can upgrade the module library by shelling out some extra cash. Beaver Builder sells what’s called “Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder.” Paying for it will inject another 40 modules and over 200 template elements. Every one of these has multiple styling options.

But they can’t be added to the free version or “Lite” version as it is called of the Beaver Builder plugin.

The bad news is that you’ll be paying an additional $69 for a year’s license on top of what you’re paying for the Beaver Builder plugin. If you are already committed to Beaver Builder, the investment may make sense; if not, then it is better to look elsewhere.

Mobile Compatibility

Everyone wants a mobile compatible or scalable website. Scalable websites get the desired love from Google, which announced that mobile search volume had surpassed desktop search volume by a large margin. Not to mention that Google rolled out mobile-friendly labels for websites as part of their search results. That means people searching for you will know if your website is scalable or mobile-friendly and decide to use it based on that.

Fortunately, web page layouts built using Beaver Builder, even the free version is mobile compatible. However, the only thing you need to make sure of is that the underlying theme is mobile responsive. That’s something we’ve discussed above. The best way to know this is to view your website on a mobile device and see if it looks as though it has been scaled to fit the screen. If you have to pan around with your fingers, then the website hasn’t been scaled.

If the theme isn’t scalable, then use one that is before using Beaver Builder to layout the page.

Themes Compatibility

One of the standout things about Beaver Builder (both the free version and paid version) is that you don’t need a specific beaver themer for it to work. Whether you’re using the default WordPress beaver themer or a custom one you picked up online, so as long as the theme is scalable, it will be compatible with Beaver Builder.

During our Beaver Builder Review, we tested it across 12 different themes, all free and at random. We were able to easily build pages, and it looked perfectly OK on mobile devices. However, in our personal experience, you’d want to stay clear of themes with loads of graphics, charts, menus, etc.

One reason for this is that it slows down the overall page loading time. Why that happens is something we don’t know for sure. Our guess is that Beaver Builder makes an already hefty page heftier.

Beaver Builder Pros

• Beginner-friendly thanks to an intuitive user interface, and helpful tooltips.
• A pretty good selection of Beaver Builder page templates makes getting started easy.
• Templates can be created, then saved and reused later.
• Good overall support via multiple mediums so anyone can get started.
• Beaver Builders allows a single plan that can be used across unlimited sites.
• Rows and modules can be saved and reused globally.
• Compatible with all WordPress themes.

Beaver Builder Cons

• A limited selection of modules and customization options for those modules.
• Every action is followed by a considerable loading time or refresh.
• Flexibility isn’t it’s strong suit with a clunky user interface.

Beaver Builder Pricing

Now Beaver Builder, unlike the competition like Thrive Architect has a lite version, which is free to download and use via the WordPress plugin library. We like the lite version because it offers just enough for people who can’t afford the regular version to build a pretty decent website. Though there are limitations to this version of Beaver Builder but then again, it is also free.

The premium or paid version of Beaver Builder is available in three different pricing tiers. You have the Standard, Pro, and Agency tier. All three plans allow you to use the Beaver Builder page builder across as many websites as you want, but their support is available for only a year.

The only difference between all three plans is that with the Standard Plan, you don’t get the Beaver Builder theme and multi-site capability. Now that’ isn’t exactly a deal-breaker but good to know regardless.

The Pro plan comes with the theme and with its multi-site feature for those who own more than one website. The Agency plan has everything that the Pro plan does, but with the ability to white label Beaver Builder. So, people or agencies can build websites for clients and change all instances of elements that reflect that Beaver Builder was used like “page builder,” “Beaver Builder,” etc. You should check their website’s pricing tables for updated prices and discounts. Below is the pricing for Beaver Builder as of writing this..

• The Standard Plan is $99
• Pro costs $199
• Agency is $399

Beaver Builder Free vs. Pro Edition

Now before we dive into what the major differences are between the Free and Pro versions, let’s just start by saying that they are huge. We’ll try to cover all bases when comparing features between both versions, so you’ll want to read this section carefully.

Availability of Basic Modules

The ‘Lite’ version of the Beaver Builder Page Builder comes with a couple of basic modules that are just enough to build a website. However, there is a limited set of basic modules. The ‘Pro’ version has a complete set of basic modules. The ‘Lite’ version gives you:

1. Text editor
2. HTML
3. Photo
4. Audio
5. Video

The ‘Pro’ version throws in three additional basic modules, i.e., Heading, Button, and Separator, which adds flexibility to your website.

Advanced

Modules Only Available with the ‘Pro’ Version

Most of the advanced modules are available with the ‘Pro’ version of the Beaver Builder plugin. The ‘Lite’ version has just a single module, i.e., the sidebar. However, by paying extra for the ‘Pro,’ you get around 20 additional modules.

Templates

‘Pro’ Version Only

Perhaps this is one of the biggest differences. The ‘Lite’ version does not have any website templates, so there is no option of a pre-designed layout here. The ‘Pro’ version comes with numerous pre-designed templates that are fully editable. The templates include landing pages, and content pages, and post types.

Create Custom Templates

You can create your own theme templates, which are then saved for later use. However, this feature, too, is only limited to the ‘Pro’ version of the plugin. Even if you create a killer page using the ‘Lite’ version, the inability to save it when you want for reuse is a shame.

Import/Export

Feature

Theme templates cannot be shared across multiple websites with the ‘Lite’ version. That means if you want to create multiple pages that look similar, across multiple websites, that can’t be done with the ‘Lite’ version. However, with the Pro version, you’ll save a great deal of time and effort, creating a theme or website. So, if you have multiple websites, you will want the “Pro,” and we certainly recommended.

Global Rows

The Global Rows feature allows you to display it across every page. So, it saves you from hours of work having to create the row across every page. Updating a single row when you want means that all rows are updated, making it a major time saver. However, this feature, too, is only limited to the ‘Pro’ version.

Other features that are limited to the ‘Pro’ version include:

Background Options – The Lite version theme builder only has three options for the background, i.e., video, photo, and color. However, the Pro version adds Parallax scroll, Slideshow, and Gradient if you want to those types of options.

Custom Rows – If you’ve created an impressive header row for all the postsand want to keep the same style across all, this is the tool to do it. Unfortunately, this one, too, is limited to the ‘Pro’ version.

Support – Only premium customers or ‘Pro’ customers get priority support. That means faster response times when you want it.

Should You Upgrade to Beaver Builder Pro?

If the above reasons aren’t reason enough to upgrade to Beaver Builder Pro, then we are not sure what will motivate you to do it. In our experience testing both the ‘Pro’ and ‘Lite’ version, we found that the latter is severely limited in terms of features and functionality. So, designing what you want is difficult.

The ‘Lite’ version is for people who may be working on a personal project on a budget, or they don’t expect or want to make any money from it.

Perhaps a website offering information about a product. That said, if you are running multiple websites, design matters to what you are selling or offering, then it is certainly worth upgrading to the ‘Pro’ version.

Support

One of the things that we’ve heard Beaver Builder boasts about is their support. So, we decided to put that to the test for this review.

We contacted support via email and were surprised to get a response within the hour. Not to mention that the response we received to our query was detailed and easy to understand, something we like very much.

However, because there is no contact form something we don’t like! The best way to contact them is either via the dedicated support form or email.

The community Facebook group is just as helpful, and with 6000 members, newbie users should be able to get all their questions answered. Most of all, we like that the answers here come from other people who are using Beaver Builder, who offer alternatives, workarounds, etc., stuff you wouldn’t normally get from regular official support.

The Facebook group isn’t populated by only diehard fans of the plugin. So, you’ll also receive a lot of unbiased advice, like we did when asking the community if it was worth it.

Beaver Builder: Popular Questions & Answers

Q. How much does Beaver Builder cost?

Beaver Builder’s Lite version is free to download and use. However, the paid version starts at $99 a year; the Pro costs $199 a year, and $399 a year for the Agency version.

Q. How does Beaver Builder work?

The Beaver Builder WordPress plugin is a front end page builder that uses a drag and drop interface. Elements like pictures, backgrounds, sidebars, etc., can all be dragged, dropped, and resized with the click of a mouse button. You can use it to build web pages, or entire website themes with drag and drop ease.

Q. Does Beaver Builder work with WooCommerce?

Beaver Builder does work with WooCommerce and can be used to show several subsets of products on a WooCommerce page. Shop and product pages can easily be customized with the same drag and drop ease as you’d expect when building any other page.

Beaver Builder Review: Conclusion

When the Beaver Builder plugin for WordPress first came out, it was perhaps the only one of its kind. People were wooed by the fact that they could create their own WordPress pages without knowing a shred of code.

However, over a period of several years, the plugin improved, but new competition from the likes of Thrive Architect, Elementor, and Divi has meant that Beaver Builder up its game, which it, unfortunately, hasn’t.

During our time testing Beaver Builder and comparing it to all other similar page builders, we couldn’t help but notice that it struggles to outdo the competition, especially for what it costs. It is a fierce marketplace, and Beaver Builder isn’t doing enough in our opinion to merit what we think is a high price for what it offers. While others are offering lifetime subscriptions, this isn’t the case here, which makes the page builder more expensive to use.

Divi 3.0, Elementor, and Thrive Architect all offer, better, and more features for a flat fee, without needing to buy more upgrades. They work exactly as they should right out of the box. The fact that the competition is so good means we can’t make a case for Beaver Builder unless…

If you understand CSS, are already using Beaver Builder across multiple websites and don’t mind investing in addons to unlock the real power that it promises, then it is worth it. You’ll also have a different opinion, mainly because you might not have tried newer, competing plugins.

We have to conclude our Beaver Builder review by saying that it probably isn’t going to be as good as competing products for most people.

However, if you white-label websites for clients, the $399 for the Agency version is a good deal, most of all because it will make you money. Everyone else will want to try out the Lite version and the competition before deciding.

People on a tight budget should shop around because there are better paid options with more features.

Rating: 4.5/5

 4.5/5

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What is this Divi 3.0 Review All About?

We just had to try Elegant Themes’ Divi 3.0  WordPress theme and the Divi builder after reading a couple of reviews on the internet. However, before we can dive into this Divi 3.0 review, it is essential to mention that it is near impossible to cover every feature that Divi WordPress theme has to offer in detail. That said, Divi is a pretty popular theme with features and design elements that many find makes their lives easier.

During our time with Divi for this review, we had our fair share of ups and downs with it. We have, however, decided against implementing the Divi WordPress theme, and not because it is bad, but because it isn’t ideal for certain types of workflows…[we’ll get into details about this in the features and conclusion]

Divi Theme & Page Builder Overview

Divi Theme is the latest from Elegant Themes WordPress theme and is one of their 87 themes that accompany 3 of their plugins. Over the past few months, the WordPress theme seems to have attracted a lot of attention, mainly because of its modern design and features like the page builder tool.

The good thing about the Divi theme is that it continues to receive updates since when it was first released. Today it is the Elegant Themes’ flagship product. The latest update, i.e., to Divi theme 3.0 significantly overhauled the page builder, and now includes features like a true front end page builder, complete with drag and drop ease.

The question everyone has asked us, and we just had to answer is if using Divi 3.0, make life for the average WordPress user easier and more productive when it comes to designing a custom layout? To answer that question, we need to start by discussing Divi theme features.

Divi 3.0 Features

As mentioned earlier, the Divi theme has several features. That said, most people will not use all the features that Divi has to offer. However, we’ve tried our best to cover as many features in this review in as much detail as possible.

Divi Front-End Page Builder

Like most modern WordPress page builders, Divi theme is an easy to use, front end builder. Think of it as a highly moldable theme that you can use to create everything from a blog to a business website, portfolio page, booking & reservation page, etc. The front-end builder is compatible and supports WooCommerce, which allows you to create eCommerce stores with ease which is unlike most other WordPress themes. Did we mention, you can customize the divi theme using the divi builder with built in drag and drop features?

You will start with what Divi calls the “Default Editor,” which is a skeleton layout of the website. It is now your mission to use the building blocks provided to fill in the Divi theme.

Modules in the divi builder are the above-mentioned building blocks we were alluding to above, also called elements they cover just about everything you’ll need when designing a website. There are a total of 46 Divi builder content modules, which can be added to any layout or page. The modules include an accordion, slider, videos, call to action, social buttons, and galleries, etc. [more about this when we talk about the modules feature below].

Pages can be designed or redesigned using drag and drop ease. Modules can easily be dragged and dropped into where you want them. There is no need to touch a line of code except for when you want to insert shortcodes, for forms but even then, it is as simple as copying and pasting it into the backend.

While you don’t have to be technically inclined to design a Divi theme or wrap your head around the page builder, having a bit of creativity certainly goes a long way. Since we have little to no creativity, the resulting pages created using the Divi builder weren’t great but still look surprisingly good for only an hour of work.

Another feature of the Divi Builder is the ability to redo and undo changes or actions easily. The version history gives you a full list of everything you did, allowing users to backtrack easily. Almost every section can be cloned, and the same goes for design elements. Plus, selections can be saved to be used later.

The front-end editing interface does bring the Divi Builder on par with some of the leading builders out there. However, many of those are jittery, and glitchy especially when you try to move elements around, but that’s not the case with Divi Builder. Transitions feel smooth and polished, that’s what probably impressed us the most about this Divi builder during our Divi theme review. As you can see, Divi 3.0 also has the same feels and features as Generatepress, another WP page builder.

Customizable Divi WordPress Theme

The Divi builder plugin offers a myriad of customization options, and each one allows you to customize every element that you can see. The freedom to customize everything on the page means that you can completely redesign it to what you want or perhaps create a new one. Further customization options can be found in the dedicated settings menu baked into Divi builder.

Those who are familiar with CSS and have no problem coding can use it to move beyond the confinement of the Divi theme. Just write your custom CSS code, and the default code will be overridden. Since every module can be customized, the possibilities are endless for what designs can be created. Not to mention that those with the time can experiment with different modules to see what effect it has on their page.

Since we were spoilt for choice with so many customization options and variations, things soon became confusing. We had no idea which two variations of a module we should use at times. But using the builder, we were able to compare these modules to figure out which of the two were best. I guess it is one of the drawbacks of having too many options coupled with the time constraint of drafting a theme review. Our guess is that over time using Divi builder will make it easier to, choose the right module perhaps it may become second nature, but by then, it is a time-consuming diversion.

Templates and Layouts

While creating a custom page design is relatively easy using the Divi Page Builder as we found out during our theme review, you still have a couple of different rather impressive looking templates from which to choose. Similar to other builders like ThriveArchitect and Elementor, the templates or layouts can be easily customized to what suits you the best. Think of them as a shortcut to get what you want. So, you can choose a template that best represents the layout you want with the least amount of customization.

The slightly over 20 Divi theme layouts include various types of designs from about pages to portfolio pages, case study pages, homepage templates, etc. The good news is that things will never go stale as the Elegant Themes team tends to add more to the mix, which can be downloaded directly via their website. You also have a pretty healthy selection of Divi themes available via third-party sources. So, there is no shortage of inspiration. Different sections can easily be combined using the Divi builder to create the ideal layout quickly.

Custom layouts can easily be saved for later use and can be exported for use on other WordPress websites that have the Divi theme or perhaps the Divi Builder plugin. It is one of the best features that Divi has to offer and is what makes it stand out from competitors like ThriveArchitect and Elementor. Designers can use this feature to create themes for clients, which gives them an incentive to learn how to use Divi builder.

Divi Modules

A module in Divi’s universe is defined as a small building block or section which is used to layout a web page. So, a completed page will be a collection of probably dozens of small blocks or modules, each one next to the other.

Divi allows users to add sections, and within those sections, add modules. So, software like Divi theme essentially enable regular people to build complex web pages, which is far easier than WordPress’s own classic editor.

Prior to WordPress version 5, the CMS only allowed users to add images, text, HTML, and shortcodes to the pages. However, more flexibility has been added as of late, but that isn’t on par with Elegant Themes’ builders like Divi, Elementor, etc. The prime reason why WordPress’ newfound flexibility does not matter is that it does not use modules the way Divi builder uses them.

Divi, as mentioned above, has 46 natively supported modules, but competing page builders add flexibility with add-ons, which help compensate for their limited number of modules. In Divi, each module is inserted into a section. There are three types of sections, i.e., Normal, Specialty, and Full Screen.

Depending on the section chosen, Divi offers up a set of modules that can be used in it. Interestingly and confusingly, both Normal and Specialty have the same modules. Full Screen has a specific set of modules.

While modules make adding something like a Call to Action a simple drag and drop affair, it is still confusing wading through all those modules. We instead prefer the straightforward approach taken by Elementor in this regard.

While Divi’s wide selection of modules is commendable, there is also a bit of controversy surrounding it. The modules allegedly use shortcodes under the hood. So, if you ever decide to dump Divi in favor of another page builder, you will be left having to deal with literally thousands of shortcodes, and a broken website. So, as long as you have Divi as the active theme, things work fine; if it removed, that’s when you’re in for a nasty surprise. We state this based on personal experience during the Divi theme review!

Content Editing with the New Divi inline Editor

Most page builders aren’t text editing powerhouses. It is assumed that you only need a handful of basic text editing for a website, when in fact that’s not the case.

Starting from version Divi 3.0, the plugin now includes an in-line editor feature. It allows users to add, style, and edit text-based content directly on their page and without needing to open up the module’s settings panel. You just click and start typing or pasting the text from a Word document.

For the sake of science, we tried to see if it was possible to compose an entire blog post using the in-line editor by setting it to a single column layout and the text module. The experience was great for the most part, but at times the text lagged. We, on average, type at 60 words per minute, but it appeared too fast for the editor to catch up with. So, each time we stopped, we could see lines of text appearing seconds later. But that’s just a minor niggle in the grand scheme of this Divi theme review..

The in-line text editor also has options for custom fonts and changing text sizes as required. Plus, bolding text, or changing it to italic uses a similar shortcut to regular MS Word. So in terms of experience, the new editor is surreal!

Divi’s Mobile Compatibility

Designing mobile-friendly pages, aka scalable websites, are easy using Divi, but it’s unlike what other page builders have to offer. It is also a little tricky and took us a while to wrap our heads around it.

The Theme Customizer has a sub feature that allows you to adjust the font sizes and the spacing for a multitude of mobile devices. You can give the layout different text sizes, spacing values, which, for the most part, are estimates for tablets and phones. Adjusting these settings are made easier with slides on the left (of your screen), and you can push the slider to what you think looks good. Also, these settings are independent of how the website and its pages will look on desktop computers.

Interestingly finding the mobile customizability feature isn’t straightforward as customizing WordPress themes. To reach the desired location click on Div and then Theme Customizer within the WordPress Dashboard. You then go to the Mobile Styles panel and open that up. Here you will be greeted with all the styling options for mobile devices.

Right off the bat, there are distinctive sections within the Mobile Styles Panel for Mobile, Tablet, and Phone. Plus, it is seen as a separate section of the Divi builder.

• Tablet – here you can customize how your website will look at varying size tablet screens. You can adjust features like the fonts, body, and header, in addition to the row spacing, etc.

• Phone – You can adjust the styles here based on current phone screen sizes. It’s pretty much the same drill as for Tablet computers.

• Mobile Menu – When you reach the mobile menu breakpoint, you’ll see the navigation menu change appearance to a mobile style. People who visit your website from a mobile device will see this menu. You can adjust things like overriding general styles, header, and navigation of the theme etc.

While we appreciate Divi 3.0 giving us all those customization options for different screens, the fact is that you use the Divi builder because it easy, but here it’s implementation is confusing. Unlike Elementor, or ThriveArchitect, you can’t just click on an icon on the page editor to see how the website will scale to a mobile device and then make changes that will only be reserved for those screens. To us, it is over complicating what should be a simple job and for people who aren’t into sitting for hours trying to figure out line spacing.

While we see they had good intentions for this part of the Divi page builder, reinventing the wheel wasn’t needed here.

The Divi Live Preview Customizer

Anyone who has used WordPress to design a website or put some content on it, know that clicking on ‘preview’ is the only way to know for sure how everything will eventually look. However, Divi 3.0 throws in what’s called Live Preview, so not only do you see how your website will look like but do so while building it. It is one of the most powerful features of the Divi page builder.

Using the Live Preview Customizer, it is possible to customize things like style, colors, fonts, etc. for any type of website. If anything, it makes life for beginners a whole lot easier since they can see the changes live as they are made. Errors can also be instantly undone when using the content modules.

Divi gives you the option of using the Visual Builder or Default Editor to customize the theme or drop page. However, if you’re anything like us, you’ll opt to use both to customize the theme of the website just because you can!

The Sucuri Safe Theme

While it isn’t a Divi builder plugin, it is a very important aspect of the software. When it comes to safety, we are all aware of the fact that WordPress has had its fair share of security vulnerabilities exposed. Many hackers exploit vulnerabilities with the WordPress theme, which in turn compromises the security of the entire website.

When you use the Divi 3.0 theme, you can be assured of relatively tight security as it has been audited by none other than the security experts at Sucuri. Now for those who don’t know, Sucuri is one of the leading web security businesses in the world today. The company has closely looked at the code and tested it to make sure that it is a safe theme for designing page layouts earning its seal of approval.

Divi Pros

• The design is very attractive for a theme builder
• A healthy selection of varying modern page layouts and templates
• A relatively easy to use page builder tool
• Regular updates
• Comprehensive documentation which is easily searchable
• Theme pricing is competitive

Divi Cons

• A large number of design options is confusing and overwhelming
• Bugs like delays between typing and the text showing up on the screen
• Building mobile or responsive websites isn’t as straightforward as competing page builders

Divi Pricing

Divi’s pricing plan is simple. You can choose from two plans, i.e., the LifeTime Access and Yearly Access. The Divi Yearly Access is $89 a year, and as you might have guessed, it is the most popular plan for this theme builder.

The Lifetime Access plan is a one-time fee of $249, and with that, you get access to a lifetime of updates and support. You get access to all the themes builder features and extras with both plans, as well as Monarch and Bloom. Plus, Elegant Themes throws in a risk-free guarantee.

LifeTime Access

one-time fee of $249

Yearly Access

Divi Yearly Access is $89

Divi: Popular Questions & Answers

Q. Is Divi worth buying?

Yes, Divi theme builder is certainly worth the investment. However, it is important to be aware of the caveats associated with it, many of which we’ve detailed in our review.

Q. Is Divi a good WordPress theme?

It is a good WordPress theme in the sense that it is modern and customizable. However, depending on your business, industry, or nature of your web presence, the theme will have to be heavily customized. So, expect to put in a lot of time with this theme builder.

Q. Is Divi fast?

In terms of speed, Divi is average. Dragging and dropping are smooth, but typing text like for a blog post can lag. Also, adding images and video tend to be lagging at times. Not to mention that it adds a bit of heft to your web page, which slows down overall page loading time.

Q. Is the Divi theme free?

Divi isn’t free. It is amongst the more expensive themes out there.

Divi Review: Conclusion

Divi is great looking and offers an impressive wealth of features that ensure you can fine-tune web pages in every possible way. Every design element or module in Divi is customizable, and with drag & drop ease of use, it helps novices design websites without knowing the slightest bit of coding.

Add to it the fact that Divi has a range of excellent templates. There are templates that work as an out-of-the-box solution, and for people who want to use it as is with little customization. Then there are those who want to use it as a basis for their entirely new design.

While on paper, the Divi theme is simple, but in practice, it isn’t. The design options aren’t complex, but it’s the split interfaces, i.e., the Theme Customizer and the customization panel that’s very confusing. In all honesty, it took us a while to wrap our heads around it, and when we finally did, it dawned upon us that the whole system isn’t as elegant as we first assumed.

Why hasn’t Elegant Themes consolidated everything into a single interface? It appears as though someone added new sections to an old house, and that lead to the creation of a maze. The experience is inconsistent, at best.

Adding insult to injury is the new theme Elegant Themes’ brand-new interface to deal with along with the two older ones. So, with this much going on, it is easy to be confused.

Who is Elegant Themes’ Divi builder and theme ideally suited to? We promised at the beginning of this Divi review that we’d answer this question. It is for someone who wants to build Divi theme and sell them or build them for clients. Because only that type of person will invest the time needed to learn the intricacies of Divi’s interfaces and deal with its niggles at the most inopportune moment. The time it takes to build a meaningful website, and the hoops it makes you jump through isn’t worth it for us. That’s why we aren’t using Divi on any of our websites because we lean in favor of using something that’s fast and simple.

Rating: 5/5
Try it now

Elementor Pro is billed by its creators as the best page builder on the planet for any WordPress site. Since we’ve heard similar claims in the past, our Elementor review focuses on determining if those claims have any truth to them. During our time with Elementor, there were many things that came to light, much of which no other review covers, at least the ones we’ve read so far.

In this full review, we’ll go over exactly who should use Elementor for their WordPress site, if it is worth the price of admission and what you can expect as a user. However, stick with us to the very end because that’s where we’ll reveal if the WordPress plugin lives up to all the hype.

[lwptoc]

Elementor Page Builder Overview

Most people reading this Elementor review have no idea about how to design a WordPress website. Traditionally most people would buy page templates and add new one if the old one turned out to be limited.. Many are probably just hearing about a WordPress page builder and wondering what Elementor gives compared to traditional page templates.

Traditionally designing WordPress page templates would require you to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop for the layout, provided that you had a few hours for it, but that’s just 50% of the work. There is still the question of coding everything in CSS and PHP to turn the design into a WordPress theme.That’s where Elementor for WordPress gives you a more control over the design without the hassle of learning how to code. Other page builders such as Visual Composer and GeneratePress have similar functions as Elementor, but the latter is a lot better and more flexible.

Elementor is a page builder which helps the average Joe, layout their own WordPress website right down to the color of the font using a drag & drop interface. It does not require you know code, and most of all it boasts of having features that no other similar page builder offers [more about this a little later].

Unlike other page builders, using Elementor pro for WordPress allows you to design an entire theme, instead of individual pages. Users can visually design their pages and theme based on what visitors will see. So, there is absolutely no ambiguity over how for instance the header footer of the page will appear to a visitor and how it should function.

Almost all elements like buttons, image boxes, forms, bullet points, etc., can be dragged and dropped. All of which ensures that the website turns out looking exactly the way you want it…or does it?

Elementor Features

Elementor page builder, unlike rival page builders, does not boast of a laundry list of features. In some respects, that’s a good thing because you’d expect that the little it does, it does perfectly. The elementor team alludes to the fact that they continue honing the WordPress plug-in too. That’s something we can attest to especially as they add new features with each consecutive update.

Let’s get started with our review of the features!

Front-End Page Builder

One of the profound features of Elementor is the fact that it is a front end page builder that can handle all types of content. The front end page builder works the same across every version of Elementor (free and paid). What that means is that instead of having to go in and edit CSS style sheets to change the color, or code in PHP to tweak the layout, everything is done on the front end. You can drag and drop-boxes, lists, pictures, symbols, edit content etc. You can also adjust each element on the page by dragging and dropping it in a spot that looks best to you. So, what you’re doing is working on a so-called live page.

While it is a front-end builder, Elementor also allows you to tweak the code for certain items in a very limited way which is something to keep in mind before you get started with writing lines of code. That said, anyone who can code shouldn’t be using Elementor in the first place! This is a browser-based builder, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing a high-end PC to use this.

Even though Elementor isn’t the first or only front-end builder, its implementation of the interface is a lot cleaner. Between Thrive Architect and Elementor the dragging and dropping feel smoother our kudos to the Elementor team! However, in terms of elements that you can tweak, Elementor at the moment seems to be behind the competition. That’s something the company might opt to fix with future updates.

Templates Library

Elementor Pro (the paid version) comes with a selection of some high-quality pro templates. The Elementor templates can be easily imported into your pages, after which they can be customized to meet your individual needs.

As of writing this Elementor Review, we counted a bit over 20 pro templates that Elementor gives its paid users aka Pro! The templates cover a myriad of industries, from landing pages to home pages, menu templates for restaurants, contact page design, service pages, and product pages amongst a few others. All of these Elementor templates appear to be professionally designed and so we couldn’t spot anything apparently wrong with them. However, depending on your business, the majority of these templates will need to be customized. Not to mention that there are industries like car rental businesses, nanny services, roofing services etc., which aren’t catered to in these templates. If you belong to an industry for which there is no template, there is a lot of work ahead customizing the one that’s nearest to what you want in terms of adding content boxes, header footer, also colors, and overall general layout.

Once a template has been imported into your front-end editor, elements can be customized, and sections can be easily removed. After the page has been customized to suit your particular needs, it can be saved to the template library, after which it can be reused elsewhere on the website.

While we didn’t run into any bugs with the templates when we were using Elementor, our personal opinion is that the selection is limited. Most of all, if you’re an affiliate marketer like us and need an Elementor template that accommodates ratings, product reviews, and blog posts.

Widgets

Creating complex page layouts using any drag & drop page builder is an exhaustive task, we should know! Thankfully, Elementor widgets take a lot of the frustration and repetitive tasks out of the equation with the use of pre-styled elements.

Similar to Thrive Architect (for those who have used it), Elementor recently introduced the same drag and drop feature for complex elements like the Call-to-Action. Even though you can design a custom Call-to-Action for the layout, or customize the one that’s already there, dragging and dropping in one is a lot faster for things like content boxes.

Elementor takes things one step further with its widgets, by making it possible for users to select dozens of so-called ‘blocks’ from the Elementor library. The library speeds up the page building process, but it isn’t as good as rival page builder Thrive Architect. The good news is that the pace at which Elementor is evolving it is only a matter of time before it is as good if not better.

One of the issues we spotted, which has since been fixed, is missing highlights. Then in some cases, it struggles to focus and also slow down for a second. Sometimes things just hang up. We get the feeling that Elementor is trying to cater to everyone which is a pretty difficult balancing act.

Take, for instance, the fact that affiliate marketers will have very different requirements compared to your average business owner who just needs a couple of well laid out pages. So over time, it has become a sort of Frankenstein, because multiple solutions need to be hashed together to do one thing which is one of the drawbacks of using Elementor.

One solution we found to the above-mentioned hassle and the lack of templates is to use the Envato Elements plugin. Doing so will give you access to literally hundreds of free templates and blocks which can then be imported into Elementor and used as required.

The one thing you need to bear in mind is that as of this writing, the Envato Elements plugin is in Beta, so you’ll want to keep everything backed up. That said we strongly feel that Elementor does a decent job of covering all bases if you’re fine with installing a couple of plugins.

Global Widgets

Global Widgets is a relatively new addition to the Elementor plugin universe, and we say this with lots of pun intended. The feature allows users to create their own custom widgets from within Elementor using already created content. For instance, if you have an icon box, that’s styled to look a particular way. Maybe it took you an hour to come up with something that’s perfect in every way. Now you can save it to the library as a global widget and use it as many times you want within the content of the site in the future.

Saving using this Elementor feature is easy just click ‘Save as Template.’ On the proceeding popup, click ‘save,’ and the element is added to your library. Global widgets are indicated by a yellow border. The widgets can be used on any page and multiple times on the same page.

The downside to using the feature is that there is no way to change or edit them, which essentially means they are locked. So, no styling changes can be made like with a regular element. However, you can also choose to temporarily unlock an element by clicking the ‘edit’ button and that will apply your changes across all instances of the widget.

There is a way you can make changes to the widget without those changes being applied globally by unlinking it. By clicking on the ‘unlinking’ button, the global widget becomes a normal element. The border turns blue from yellow allowing you to make the required changes using the Elementor editor.

Content Editing with Elements

Elementor Pro’s elements make editing content and text editing on your pages easy. Whether you want to add a sidebar with a few lines of text, or perhaps paragraphs of text with graphics, the use of elements makes content editing a breeze at least compared to coding everything on the backend!

The elements within Elementor work like traditional WordPress widgets, with the difference being that you directly insert them into the page’s design. The elements can then be customized in the way of color, border, fonts, location on the page, text editing features etc. All of which quickly upgrades your content from boring text editing like workflow to one with lists, graphs, graphics and infographics. You can also insert image carousels, icon boxes, counters, and Google Maps to name a few others.

The interesting thing about use Elementor WordPress plugin is the fact that it does not limit you to the elements that come with the package. So you can use all the Elementor widgets that come by default with WordPress, and those which are added to the website usually via third party plugins. So, you use Elementor to easily insert these elements into your pages with ease. It’s not hard to see that you have a lot of possibilities and flexibility in terms of how content is added to your site, as well as control over the design and aesthetics of the layout.

Elementor Pro’s creators recently announced that there are more elements in development and will be added with each consecutive future update. However, features that are not available can be added through third-party widgets, so it isn’t a deal-breaker for most people.

Mobile Compatibility

Elementor is mobile compatible, and you can also design a separate mobile-friendly page too. While the feature works a lot better on rival ThriveArchitect, Elementor’s implementation isn’t too far behind.

When designing a page using Elementor, you can preview your page as it would appear on a mobile device. You can then adjust things like the buttons, text size, borders, etc. so that everything looks perfect on a smaller screen. All of this is pretty standard but we strongly advise that you preview and also edit your page in mobile view.

The other fascinating aspect of Elementor’s mobile compatibility is its ability to design a totally different page for mobile devices. So, you can have, for instance, a home page that’s yellow, with bold fonts, for desktop computers, and also have a mobile-friendly page with italic fonts, with a pink background. Both these pages are treated as individual pages in Elementor and will be served based on what device is accessing the website.

During our testing, we accessed our test page from both a mobile and desktop computer. Both pages were very different from each other. For mobile devices, we use an iPad Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and an iPhone 5 just for giggles! Surprisingly, the mobile-friendly page was served correctly each time and resized perfectly to our screen size. We were most surprised at how well the test page looked and also impressed by how it looked on our outdated iPhone 5’s small 4-inch screen!

Themes Compatibility with the Default WordPress Theme

We tested Elementor with a couple of default WordPress themes and found that, for the most part, they are compatible. However, we weren’t able to test it with any number of paid or premium themes because our assumption is that those who choose to use Elementor aren’t going to pay for a theme in the first place. But we are also under the assumption that premium themes such as Astra are compatible with Elementor or any other page builder.

Elementor now has a full-wide template the one that has now sidebars, and there is a full-screen template, which is one with no header or footer. These templates are ideal for creating pages where you don’t want to display your footer, header or sidebar. It is ideally suited for people who want to create a fullscreen homepage or some sort of landing page.

Theme Builder Feature

We mentioned earlier that Elementor recently introduced their Theme Builder feature, which gives users more control over the design of their entire WordPress website. However, the feature is only available for Pro, aka paid users. So, if you’re holding out on a purchase, this might nudge you over the edge.

When Elementor was first introduced, you could only use it to create post designs and page designs. Usually, you’ll have to do it one post and page at a time. Now, the process in Elementor is somewhat sped up by the ability to create a unique header and footer design for the entire website, as well as design templates for various pages of the website.

The new feature in Elementor allows you to use the visual editor to create the footer and header design. You can then choose where to place them on the website. For instance, you can create a header design for your blog posts and have a separate one for your website’s pages. You can also customize the content of the header. The header can be set as sticky, or it can be a permanent placement as your visitors scroll down the page. The feature has mobile support which allows you to configure exactly how the template behaves depending on if it is a laptop, iPhone or a tablet computer.

The Theme Builder feature in Elementor can be used to create a dynamic template for your blog. So, you can choose what content is shown on the blog archive pages. You can show the title of every blog post, an except or short summary of the article, and a featured image in Elementor.

We found that choosing where and when the custom layouts are incorporated using Elementor is very easy. You can choose a multitude of conditions for every template, like when they should be displayed and when they shouldn’t. So, you can have an archive template for the posts in some categories of the blog or a specific author.

As reviewers who are into using page builders like more established competitors, we think that Elementor Theme Builder feature is what makes it standout. We have seen a similar implementation across competing page builders and so it helps elevate Elementor to a status beyond just a page builder.

The initial creation of custom layouts is a chore in Elementor, but it is well worth the effort because, once completed, they can be applied to different areas of the website. You can have a custom layout for the blog, another for the home page and one for the portfolio page. Since everything is done via the Elementor visual editor, there is no coding required.

The one suggestion we for the creators of Elementor is to have the ability to save and transfer these custom templates so that they can be transferred from one Elementor website to the next. Since we tested the same account across two websites, it would have made our lives a lot easier if the templates could be used across both websites, with minimal customization. That way we wouldn’t have to design the same layout individually for each site.

Elementor Pros

• Elementor is Easy to use even for people who have never used a page builder before
• Elementor has an excellent selection of elements
• A choice of high-quality templates
• A couple of helpful video guides to get people started
• Drag and drop interface
• A theme builder that helps create custom headers and footers

Elementor Cons

• Compared to the competition Elementor is still has some way to go in terms of features
• Most people will end up installing numerous plugins to support Elementor features
• Some elements tend to increase the size of a page which increases loading times
• No easy to way to optimize the load speed other than reducing the size of pictures/photos

Elementor Pricing

Compared to competing page builders, Elementor Pro is very competitively priced. While the free version isn’t crippled in any way, it is severely limited especially if you want to use it on a money site to generate sales or leads.

The only way to unleash the full power of Elementor is to get the pro version, and that’s going to cost you money. Thankfully, unlike competing page builders, you don’t have to pay for Elementor Pro every month or annually after you get it.. You pay a one time fee depending on the number of websites Elementor will be used across and that’s it! However, customer support is only available for one year. After that, you need to pay the annual fee again to get customer support similar to competitor ThriveArchitect.

• Personal: $49 for a single website
• Business: $99 for 3 websites
• Unlimited: $199 for up to 1000 websites

Note: We asked the company and found out that Elementor does not automatically charge your credit card once the annual subscription ends. So, if you want to get ongoing support through the following year, you’ll have to manually execute the payment.

Elementor Free vs. Pro Edition

Now before we go any further in the elementor review to discuss choosing between the two, as if they were competing against each other, it is important to clarify that the Elementor ‘Pro’ version is an add-on to the free Elementor page plugin. So, if you purchase Elementor Pro, you’re also getting the free version. Knowing this is important because that will make understanding of how things are set up on your site easier.

Elementor Pro has everything that the free version of the plugin offers plus 30 additional and new widgets. It also unlocks the complete template library. However, in addition, when you get the Elementor ‘Pro’ version offers a couple of additional features, many of which were recently added as of version 2.0:

Theme Building Feature – You can build an entire theme using Elementor editor’s drag-and-drop feature. That way, you don’t have to build each page and post page individually. GeneratePress has something similar as well.

Live Custom CSS Editing – The free version of Elementor allows you to add custom CSS classes and a couple of IDs. However, the Pro version goes one step further by allowing you to directly add custom CSS styles to each section or widget. So, if adding custom CSS is your thing this feature is a huge time saver.

Global Widgets – As discussed above in the meat of our Elementor review, the Global Widgets feature helps you reuse customized widgets multiple times across your entire website.

Embed Anywhere – The feature enables users to insert Elementor templates just about anywhere using a series of shortcodes or widgets. For instance, the feature can be used to design a CTA, which is then placed on the sidebar via a shortcode or widget.

Should You Upgrade to Elementor Pro?

Yes! Most people reading this Elementor review will want to upgrade to Elementor Pro. But below are just a couple of reasons you should consider upgrading if you’re using the free or lite version:

• If you want to build more complex landing and blog pages. Having those extra widgets comes in handy, especially if you need to break out of mediocrity.
• You are using WooCommerce. Using the WooCommerce widget can help you onboard loads of flexibility.
• Want to include your own CSS. Using CSS directly in sections and widgets speeds up your workflow.
• You want to build an entire theme. If it’s theme building you want to do, the Pro version is what you should get.
• Want access to a vast template library. The Pro version tends to get the latest and greatest templates, while the free version seems to be stuck in 2017.
• If you want to use and reuse widgets across a multitude of pages, then go Pro. The Global widgets feature is your best friend and will save you a lot of time.

Elementor: Popular Questions & Answers

Q. Is Elementor easy to use?

Yes, for the most part, Elementor is easy to use, and it’s something we’ve mentioned throughout this Elementor review. However, more advanced features will require trial and error and some experience with coding especially if you want to insert CSS.

Q. Does Elementor slow down your site?

Yes, the Elementor page builder loads a whole bunch of bloat, which weighs down the loading time. However, it isn’t any different with competing page builders. We wouldn’t say the pages are any heavier than ones built using the competition’s page builders. That said, steps can be taken to speed up load times a bit.

Q. Is Elementor the best page builder?

The best page builder in our books will check all the boxes in terms of features, ease of use, content editing, functionality, and page building ability. Elementor page builder checks most of those boxes, which puts it amongst the best, including a nifty popup builder for internet marketers. Each new version of Elementor brings with it improvements which a sign that the company continues to support their product.

Q. What is Elementor used for?

Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress that will take your website from mediocre and painful to amazing without the need for a WordPress developer. With this plugin, you can create beautiful pages with a visual editor. It’s designed for you to quickly create dynamic websites.

Elementor Review: Conclusion

We commenced our Elementor review by stating that we’ll conclude with our verdict on if Elementor lives up to all the hype. It is quite evident from our review (if you’re read it), that the plug-in offers a load of great features, good documentation, and good enough support for most people to get it. As a page builder, it is easy to use and certainly lives up to the hyped-up drag-and-drop ease of use.

In our opinion, as reviewers who have used other competing WordPress page builders, we’ll say that Elementor is good, but it isn’t excellent. The fact that you need to continue installing plug-ins to make up for missing functionality is frustrating, if not time-consuming. We also don’t like the fact that you only get customer support for a year which appears to be the industry standard.

We’d recommend that people try out the free version before upgrading, especially if you’ve never used a WordPress page builder before. If you don’t have any issues with it and think it works perfectly only then should you upgrade.

Our verdict is that Elementor Pro is an indispensable tool for bloggers and business people who want to build their own websites. Features like the popup builder works perfectly albeit limited. While it does have its faults, it still offers the best value for money and the company appears to be working hard on extending its functionality, with almost weekly updates.