The biggest names in website builders for WordPress are the Elementor Page Builder and the Visual Composer (WPBakery Page Builder). These two website builders are some of the best drag and drop WordPress content editor plugins or builder plugin, which allows you to design and structure your WordPress pages and post without having to incorporate any coding. Today, we’re going to discover the differences of Visual Composer vs. Elementor and see which one stands at the top and help you decide what kind of website builder or page builder you need to create your dream website.
The visual composer website builder was released back in 2017 and currently has more than 100,000 active installs while the popular Elementor was released back in 2016 and presently as over 2 million active installs. Both page builders provide excellent performance, interaction, and fantastic user experience.
Visual Composer vs. Elementor
The most familiar names in the WordPress website builder market are the Elementor and WPBakery Page Builder (Visual Composer). Understanding and examining the differences of these products to decide on what the best WordPress page builder doesn’t have to be hard. In this article, we have enabled you to easily match Elementor vs. WPBakery Page Builder and see their unique content elements.
Although, comparing these two is very interesting because page builders have different market positions. Elementor had an impressive upstart of garnering over 300,000 active installs in the first two years of its release, while the visual Composer has also accumulated a decent number of active installations over the years. However, it’s similar to most themes offered by ThemeForest.
Overall, these two are high-quality builders, so you’re more likely not going to make the wrong decision when choosing the best page builder in creating the site of your dreams. However, some of the differences between each builder may make the other better for your specific website builder for WordPress needs.
In this post, we’ve highlighted each visual Composer’s advantages, disadvantages, features, pricing, customer support, and the overall differences of each page builder to help you choose which one is the best website builder with WordPress for you. Read on to find out more.
Pros/Cons Visual Composer
The WPBakery Page Builder (Visual Composer), is a famous WordPress builder with over 100,000 active installs. It’s usually included with other themes on ThemeForest’s online market place. Like Elementor, it provides users with tons of builder elements and other benefits that allow users to create websites tailored to their tastes. Below we have provided you with the pros and cons of the Visual Composer page builder plugin.
What We Liked
- Intuitive & straightforward (Easy to use)
The builder simplifies the process of page building and customizing websites for even the most inexperienced users with no knowledge or skills in coding. The application is easy to navigate and well-understandable. The builder WPBakery page aims to let you create your dream site and build it with minimal effort.
- Responsive Site Design
When using a seamless and responsive theme, the pages you create via the Visual Composer will become responsive as well.
- More than 200 Third-Party Add-ons
The free version of the visual Composer offers over 200 third-party add-ons that you can easily incorporate in the WordPress theme itself. It gives you more flexibility for your site creation process.
- Flexibility
The WPBakery page builder offers numerous features that allow the user to integrate the plugin with any WordPress org themes. You can use it with Yoast, WooCommernce, Translate, and extendable API (Application Programming Interface).
- Affordable Price for One Site Use
It’s reasonably priced when compared to other website builders WordPress for one site uses.
What We Did Not Like
- Limited Opportunities
The WPBakery page builder lets you create fantastic layouts and navigable web pages, but if you want to customize it more with widgets, functionality, and integrations, it’s not enough.
- Sluggish Page Loading
Because of the numerous shortcodes that are incorporated in most page builders, it results in slow page loading. These codes are typically buggy and can slow down your site.
Pros/Cons of Elementor
The Elementor page builder comes in a free version and pro version (Elementor Pro). It’s an excellent builder for WP, and some even claimed that Elementor is the most advanced website or page builder available in the market. Elementor is a smooth page builder with regular updates and features, and both free and paid versions of this builder are fantastic, allowing you to create or edit your website with ease. Below we have provided you with the pros and cons of the Elementor builder.
What We Liked
- Easy to use
With simple and straightforward navigation and functionality, the Elementor also allows users to use different blocks with their simple drag and drop interface that allows you to see the changes you’re making in your website while making them. The plugin of the Elementor builder offers a variety of pre-designed templates or blocks, widgets, and the option of viewing your site’s design on smaller screens.
- Vast Features
Aside from the ease of use and user-friendly navigation, the Elementor also provides you with numerous features, such as different styles and templates, WooCommerce blocks, front-end editor, backend editor, global widget, and more.
- It’s Reliable
Elementor works with all WordPress themes, which allows you to use the page builder without having to constantly change themes. It enables you to create pages that will match the rest of your website’s style with ease.
What We Did Not Like
- Complicated Custom Widgets Creation
Creating custom widgets for Elementor can be difficult in the first processes or exploration of the application.
- Limited Use To WordPress Enabled Websites
Elementor can only be used on websites that are enabled on WordPress, which limits you to one platform.
Overview of Visual Composer Features
The WPBakery Page Builder or Visual Composer is a premium page builder with over 100 features that let you make stunning personal or business websites. It’s considered one of the best editors for WordPress that enables you to build any layout with its vast content elements, designs, and add-ons that you can add on your website, making you create your dream WordPress site quickly and with ease. Below is an overview of the many features that the WPBakery Page Builder has to offer.
Visual Composer Hub
You can maximize the benefits of WPBakery Page Builder’s visual Composer with its free cloud marketplace that allows you to download any content element you want to add to your website. It consists of a vast library of components that provides you with unlimited downloads and regular updates to ensure seamless operation.
Convenient Undo and Redo Option
You can quickly revert back and forth on your progress at any time you are working with your website’s design or content with its handy separate undo and redo button.
No Coding Skills Necessary
The WPBakery Page Builder makes it easy for novices and experts. The developers of the tool ensure that even if you’re not tech-savvy or a professional web developer, you can create beautiful websites with ease.
Pre-made Templates
The WPBakery Page Builder developers made it easier to create your ideal website by offering over 100 professionally crafted templates that you can use for different industries. It enables you to save more time in creating beautiful and professional websites.
Custom Element Names
You can create customized element names to your website’s elements to help you organize your layout more or let your other co-workers see that you’ve made these specific changes in your website.
Custom CSS
You can maximize the benefits of the Visual Composer by incorporating your CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) skills. It helps you add your custom CSS in the tool’s editor settings, letting you immediately add global or local CSS to your website.
Overview of Elementor Features
Elementor currently has over 2 million active users worldwide. Users of the page builder consist of marketers, businesses, entrepreneurs, content writers, and web developers, indicating how diverse and accessible the plugin is. It has both a free version and a pro version and unlike most free versions of different page builders. Its free version offers users an almost full experience of what they have to offer, helping you transform your dull website into a stunningly professional one. Below is an overview of the many features that it has to offer.
Great Support
It offers users an extensive knowledge base that comes in forms of articles, tutorials, and more. These different forms of knowledge bases answer the most frequently asked questions of all users, which can help you solve common issues easier.
Good Styling Features
You can style all widgets to your liking. Elementor allows you to adjust the content, typography, layouts, colors, and more.
Mobile-Friendly
With the ever-increasing popularization of mobile devices in the modern age, more website visitors opt to use smartphones to access the Internet and browse there. The Elementor provides you with more natural mobile compatibility that automatically adjusts for smaller screen sizes.
Front-end Builder
Elementor proves you with a real-time preview of each change you make on your site. These changes include adding a button or tweaking it to suit your preferences or place it from a single to a multi-column layout, and the Elementor makes you see these changes instantly.
Convenient Blocks
This drag-and-drop builder provides you with preset sections in the form of blocks, which allows you to add and load them to your page quickly. You can use these blocks for different parts on your website, such as testimonials, features, reviews, FAQs, call to actions, about us, and more.
Mobile Preview
Unlike other page builders, the Elementor enables you to preview your site’s design on different screen sizes, from mobile devices to tablets anytime. The mobile preview features make it easier to design your website and ensure it’s perfectly responsive to any screen size.
Ease of Use: How Quick Can You Create a Website With Visual Composer and Elementor?
If you plan on creating stunning websites, you’re going to rely a lot on the page builder of your choice, which means you should choose a builder with a user interface that’s easier to use and more navigable.
Both page builders have the advantage of being able to provide easy customization, a unique plugin, multi-purpose templates, and more. However, regarding the ease of use of Elementor vs. Visual Composer, both are relatively straightforward. Below is a more extensive explanation regarding the ease of use of both these WordPress page builders.
Elementor User Interface
Elementor offers a seamless and glitch-free front-end page editing experience with its handy drag and drop feature, which allows you to customize your website. For instance, if you want to add elements and edit the typography, you drag the item from the sidebar to the visual preview on your site, and start typing or opt for content options. That’s the gist of using Elementor, you simply drag and place it anywhere you want.
Visual Composer User Interface
Elementor offers you a handy front-end page-building experience, while Visual Composer lets you choose between different views they offer, backend editing, and front-end editing. Backend editing enables you to construct your page using convenient abstract blocks, while front-end editing lets you create your page with a live visual preview, like Elementor.
Although it’s another option that’s absent in the other tool, most individuals will likely use the front-end editor because it’s more comfortable and convenient. Having the option of doing backend editing can also come in handy if you aim to create a more abstract aesthetic for your site or page.
The Verdict
Another notable feature of the Elementor that makes the whole user experience seamless and the website creation process easier is that it offers inline editing, which corrects your spelling, punctuation, etc. as you write along. The WPBakery Page Builder doesn’t provide inline editing, which can make the whole process of writing content and building the site more difficult.
Regarding the ease of use of Elementor vs. Visual Composer, use Elementor because it is the ideal tool for you. It is easy to use, and its interface does better in making essential elements accessible for the user if you want to create your pages or sites with the much easier front-end visual editor. Other benefits it the Elementor provides is a faster and smoother experience.
How is the Support of Visual Composer and Elementor?
No matter how easy the builder plugin is to use or create a website or pages, facing problems or technical issues can still happen, and when facing these issues, you will need answers immediately. That’s why both the Visual Composer plugin and Elementor plugin need extensive and reliable options for accessible support.
Elementor Support
Elementor offers a solid knowledge base that is easily accessible on the plugin’s official website. They provide vast articles, video tutorials, and reliable customer support services. Elementor’s developers also offered their users with open communities, such as their Facebook group and Github community, which lets users contribute to their project by gathering feedback, suggestions, and reports. Pro support is also available for users who paid for their services, giving them premium customer support services 24/7.
Visual Composer Support
Support provided by the WPBakery Page Builder is minimal, especially to free license users. The only form of support given to these users is through the company’s slack page. Attaining support from Visual Composer’s customer service is a long process because their expert support will only help you if you provide them with a ticket. Lastly, the knowledge base that this plugin offers is significantly lesser than the Elementor support services.
The Verdict
Elementor offers several support options for both their premium users and free users that can help them solve or manage most issues. Visual Composer only provides minimal support and doesn’t have a well-structured knowledge base, so getting information regarding their product may be difficult. Regarding the support offered by Elementor vs. WPBakery Page Builder, Elementor wins when it comes to the broad support that they provide their clients.
Pricing of Visual Composer and Elementor
Only one website builder offers a free version at WordPress’s site, but both offer premium versions of their tools to take on extra functionalities. Below is a brief comparison of Elementor’s and Visual Composer’s pricing and plans.
Elementor Pricing
Elementor’s core page builder plugin is free and can be found at WordPress org, Elementor’s free version offers the best experience for free demos of page builders. You can avail of the brand’s services in three ways.
- 1 Site – $49
- 3 Sites – $99
- Unlimited Sites – $199
WPBakery Page Builder Pricing
Visual Composer offers no free demos or versions of their services, and they only allow one site per purchase. Below is the single payment plan that WPBakery Page Builder provides.
1 Site – $45
The Verdict
When it comes to Elementor vs. WPBakery Page Builder’s prices, the most practical and affordable option is the Elementor. That’s because they offer three different plans that range from one site use to unlimited use to different websites you plan on creating. You can also opt for WPBakery Page Builder for a single site, but consider if you want to use it for multiple websites.
Which One Should You Choose? Visual Composer vs. Elementor?
When choosing the appropriate WordPress Page Builder, you have to consider your specific needs and expectations. However, for our review and intensive comparison guide of the different advantages, disadvantages, and features of the two popular WP builders Visual Composer vs. Elementor, our winner is the Elementor Pro because it offers more features and benefits. It ensures us with a more seamless user experience that allows anyone from novices with no coding skills to experts creates stunning, professionally crafted websites with ease and convenience.