Elementor Review: Is This Page Builder Worth The Hype?
Looking for an easy way to design your WordPress website without hiring a developer?
WordPress page builders like Elementor make the process easier, and you won’t need any design experience to get started.
In this article, we’ll conduct an Elementor review, one of the leading WordPress page builder plugins, to see if it’s worth investing in for your business.
Before we get started, let’s clarify what a page builder is.
What Is a WordPress Page Builder?
A WordPress page builder is a plugin you can use to create custom designs in WordPress without needing to code.
They often have a drag and drop interface to make page building easier for beginners. This allows you to build pages visually and see the changes you make in real-time.
The best page builders for WordPress come with page elements to extend your WordPress site’s functionality. This includes elements like sign up forms, contact forms, social media buttons, and more. They also offer landing page templates to help you get started quickly with a professional design.
The most popular page builders include:
But since this is an Elementor review, we’ll spend the rest of this article exploring Elementor’s features and seeing if it lives up to the hype.
So is Elementor the best page builder? Keep reading to find out.
What Is Elementor?
Elementor is a drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. This means that you can:
- Create great looking posts and pages without writing a single line of code.
- Use a separate interface other than the WordPress editor to design your posts and pages.
- Work on the front-end of your website so you can see the changes you make in real-time.
- Make any content or page layout regardless of what WordPress theme you use.
Simply put, Elementor allows you to create great-looking designs even if you don’t have any site building experience.
With this in mind, let’s look at some of Elementor’s more interesting features.
Elementor Page Builder Features
Every user of the Elementor WordPress plugin, whether it’s the free or paid version, can access a suite of powerful features, including:
- Elementor free use on unlimited websites
- Drag and drop page editor
- 30+ basic Elementor templates
- 40+ basic widgets and page elements
- Mobile responsive editing
If you decide to upgrade to Elementor Pro, you get everything in the free version plus:
- Elementor Pro use on 1 website
- 300+ pro templates
- 50+ pro widgets
- 10+ full website kits
- WordPress theme builder
- WordPress form builder
- WooCommerce builder
- Popup builder
- Support and updates for 1 year
As we mentioned earlier, Elementor’s core functionality lets you build and adjust your designs freely and see how they look in real-time. This means you’re not left guessing what your page will look like.
So what is it like using Elementor to design your WordPress website? Let’s find out.
Designing Your WordPress Website with Elementor
The Elementor WordPress page builder plugin has a simple drag and drop interface. It comes with a wide variety of page elements and global widgets for organizing your website content visually, with no code.
With the free version of Elementor, you can visually edit WordPress posts and pages using the Elementor interface. However, with the Pro version, you can use its WordPress theme builder to design entire websites.
Using the Elementor Page Editor
Elementor’s editor interface is split into 2 sections. On the left-hand side are the page elements. You can drag and drop these onto the live preview on the right.
The page elements are separated by category:
- Basic – Simple elements like buttons, images, videos, columns, text, spacers, etc., which Elementor free users can access.
- General – Advanced page elements like star ratings, icon lists, social icons, and more.
- Pro – Page elements, including galleries, forms, reviews, and logins available to Elementor users with a Pro plan.
Clicking an element on the page allows you to control its’ content and style.
The Advanced tab lets you edit the elements’ motion effects, padding, positioning, attributes, and much more.
This can be a little confusing if you’re just a beginner and don’t know what each setting means.
Elementor also has a template library that allows you to start with a customizable pre-made design. Many of these templates come as part of a complete website kit with matching designs for different page types.
You can add individual landing page templates or pre-designed page blocks to build pages a section at a time, like header, footer, and call to action sections.
Are Elementor Templates Free?
Many of Elementor’s templates are completely free to use, allowing you to create many web pages without spending any money. However you’ll find the most impressive templates, are only available in the paid version.
Using the Elementor Theme Builder
Where Elementor shines is as a complete WordPress website builder. The innovative theme builder allows you to build every section of your website visually.
This is where the Elementor pro templates and website kits come in handy. The Elementor team created these kits to make it easy to give your site a unified look and feel.
For example, we used the theme builder to create a homepage and menu page for our fictional sushi restaurant.
We then used the matching header and footer templates from the same website kit to make everything look uniform and professional.
This functionality gives any website owner the power to design their website however they want without seeking expert help. Yet, it’s a bit overkill if all you need is to create a simple landing page.
Can Elementor be Used with Any Theme?
User’s of Elementor’s theme builder can use any WordPress theme and customize its header, footer, posts, and archive pages. You can also download their free minimal Hello Elementor theme and customize it any way you like.
When using Elementor with our existing WordPress theme, we found that many design elements didn’t display correctly. This was largely down to the theme not having a full-width page template. So if your WordPress theme doesn’t support full-width design, you may come across some issues.
Now that you know how to use Elementor for your website design let’s explore the features you get for both the free and paid versions.
How Much Is Elementor?
As you can see from the feature set, Elementor Pro is the more attractive option for users wanting to create entire websites without hiring a developer.
But how much does Elementor cost? Let’s take a look.
Elementor Pro:
- Personal pricing: $49 per year for a single website.
- Plus pricing: $99 per year for 3 websites.
- Expert pricing: $199 per year for 1,000 websites.
Does Elementor Slow Down Your Site?
Elementor uses extra CSS and JavaScript which could potentially slow down your website. Plus, if you couple it with their premium plugins, your site could become slower.
To see how Elementor’s speed compares to other popular WordPress builder plugins, we carried out a speed test which you can see in our Beaver Builder vs Elementor vs SeedProd comparison.
Here are the results:
| Page Builder | Page Size | Load Time | Requests |
| Beaver Builder | 142.7 KB | 1.22s | 12 |
| Elementor | 312.2 KB | 1.57s | 30 |
| SeedProd | 124.1 KB | 1.18s | 11 |
While Elementor isn’t the slowest tool, it’s clear to see to that here faster alternatives.
What Is Elementor Good For?
When it comes down to it, what is Elementor good for, and who can benefit from using it?
While Elementor is packed full of features designed to make building WordPress websites easy, we found it a little confusing for beginners. If you don’t have much experience, you could find yourself stuck and frustrated.
It was difficult to learn what each page element does without searching through the documentation or Google for the answer. Plus, adding a template to a page often resulted in conflicts with our existing WordPress theme like this:
It wasn’t until much later that we learned you had to switch the page attributes to use a full-width template, something that isn’t made obvious.
Here are few more pros and cons of Elementor.
Elementor Pros
- You can use Elementor for free. Most websites won’t need to upgrade to Elementor Pro.
- It has a vast range of useful features that are relatively easy to use.
- You can build custom layouts without knowing any any HTML, CSS or PHP.
- The “what you see is what you get editor” gives you a true impression of how your website looks when designing.
- You can redesign your entire WordPress website visually, without hiring a developer.
Elementor Cons
- The advanced settings can be complicated for beginners to navigate.
- Adding custom styling doesn’t always go as planned. Sometimes you’re stuck with Elementor’s default color and font settings.
- With so many features crammed into a single plugin, Elementor has the potential slow down your site.
Is Elementor Worth It?
There’s no denying that Elementor is a powerful website builder in the right hands, but if you’re just starting, there are easier solutions.
With that said, Elementor is most definitely worth it for website owners and developers who want to cut back on the time it takes to build websites and customize WordPress themes. If you have some experience with page builders, you should have no trouble getting what you need out of this plugin.
A Better and Cheaper Alternative to Elementor for WordPress: SeedProd
As mentioned above, Elementor is a little overwhelming for beginners who only want to make a simple landing page in WordPress.
Luckily, there’s a landing page builder plugin that’s both cheaper and easier to use: SeedProd.
SeedProd is the #1 WordPress landing page builder with drag and drop functionality. It’s dedicated to building high-converting landing pages and making the process effortless.
Right from installing and activating the plugin, you’re guided through making your first page every step of the way.
There’s even a handy video tutorial on the launch screen to familiarize yourself with the features.
Responsive Landing Page Templates
Even if you’re a beginner, you can create any landing page you like with SeedProd by using any of the premade landing page templates.
This includes responsive designs for:
- Coming soon pages
- Maintenance mode pages
- Sales landing pages
- 404 error pages
- Lead Squeeze pages
- Webinar registration pages
- Video landing pages
- Thank you landing pages
- Custom WordPress login pages
You can customize any template in the visual editor, and more templates are released regularly, providing tons of choice.
Easy Drag and Drop Visual Editor
The drag and drop page editor is lightning fast and clutter-free. It only includes the page elements you need for a successful landing page, with none of the extras you’ll never use.
In SeedProd, those elements are called blocks and include lead-generating tools like optin forms, contact forms, giveaways, countdown timers, star ratings, login forms, dynamic progress bars, and more.
Most of these blocks have custom templates, making it easy to switch between different block styles with a few clicks. This saves messing around with color pickers, and borders, etc.
Although if you like, you can tweak those settings with handy sliders and drop-down menus.
You can also insert whole page sections using SeedProd’s ready-made landing page sections.
So if you need a header, call to action, features area, FAQs, or footer, you can add them with a single click.
Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode
SeedProd also comes with powerful Coming Soon, Maintenance Mode, 404 page, and Login landing pages. You can switch the different modes on and off with a single click.
Plus, the coming soon page and maintenance modes have access controls that allow you to choose who sees your full website and who sees the landing page.
This is a fantastic way to hide your website while it’s under construction but still grant access to your clients for a preview.
Email Marketing Integration
Managing your landing page subscribers is also easy with SeedProd. You can integrate with popular email marketing services like Constant Contact, GetResponse, MailChimp, and more.
This means anyone who subscribes to your landing page is automatically added to your list.
Don’t have an email list? No problem!
In SeedProd, your subscribers are stored on your WordPress website for you to view and manage in one place.
This is a great way to start building your list, even if you haven’t signed up for an email marketing provider.
Mobile-Friendly Design
Another fantastic SeedProd feature is the mobile-friendly landing page design and preview. With the mobile preview option, you can view your landing page as it would look on mobile devices.
This allows you to edit your design, so it looks great for visitors browsing from desktops, mobile phones, and tablets of all screen sizes.
Your landing page also won’t conflict with your current website design.
SeedProd works seamlessly with all WordPress themes. Unlike Elementor, you won’t need to worry about setting individual page attributes when launching a template. The whole design will adapt to whatever screen or theme you’re using.
Speed and SEO Optimized
There’s a common misconception that WordPress page builders are slow and bulky. While that’s certainly true for some plugins, it’s not for SeedProd.
SeedProd is designed to be lightning-fast and bloat-free. The code used in the plugin is as minimal as possible. Plus, there aren’t any unnecessary bells and whistles taking up space and slowing down your site.
It’s also built with search engine optimization in mind, with easy settings to control your WordPress SEO preferences with plugins like All in One SEO.
SeedProd’s pricing starts at only $39.50 per year.
SeedProd vs Elementor
If you’re looking for a side-by-side comparison of Elementor vs SeedProd, and their main features, here’s a handy table to help you out:
| Features | SeedProd | Elementor |
|---|---|---|
| Drag and Drop Visual Editor | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pre-made Templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Page Blocks & Elements | ✅ | ✅ |
| Responsive Editing | ✅ | ✅ |
| WooCommerce Integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email Marketing Integration | ✅ | ✅ |
| In-line Editing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Global Customization | ✅ | ✅ |
| Maintenance Mode | ✅ | ✅ |
| Coming Soon Mode | ✅ | ❌ |
| Login Page Mode | ✅ | ❌ |
| 404 Page Mode | ✅ | ❌ |
| Domain Mapping | ✅ | ❌ |
| Color Schemes | ✅ | ❌ |
| Font Combinations | ✅ | ❌ |
| Popup Builder | ❌ | ✅ |
With all the above in mind, we conclude that SeedProd is a superior WordPress landing page builder for beginners.
SeedProd is perfect for people who want a simple, user-friendly alternative to Elementor, where you can build high-converting landing pages in WordPress.
We hope you found this Elementor review useful. If you did, do follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more reviews, tutorials, and helpful WordPress tips.
