Elementor Evaluation: Is It The Best WordPress Page Builder? – Elementor Buddypress Theme
Trying to decide if Elementor is the right page Builder for your WordPress website? In this hands-on Elementor evaluation, we’ll help you understand:
- How Elementor can benefit you
- Who must utilize Elementor
- The special features that help Elementor stand out from the competition
- Whether you ought to utilize the complimentary version or open your wallet for the premium version
Elementor Buddypress Theme
We have actually produced Astra, one of the most popular themes for Elementor, as well as a popular add-on for Elementor, so you can probably guess that we’re fans of Elementor. Let’s get that out of the way – this is a favorable Elementor evaluation. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Comprehending why we like Elementor and have constructed items in the Elementor community is more essential than simply the reality that we like it – that’s what we’re going to try and interact in this evaluation.
By the end of our Elementor review, you should have everything that you need to make an educated decision about whether or not Elementor is the right tool for your WordPress website.
Elementor Buddypress Theme
What Does Elementor Offer?
Elementor is a visual, drag-and-drop page Builder. If you’re not familiar with these terms, this means that you can:
- See a preview of exactly what your page will look like to visitors as you’re building it.
- Drag and drop various content and style elements to develop the ideal style.
Essentially, it changes creating a great-looking, custom website design from something you require to be a developer to do, to something that anyone can do. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Elementor is now actively utilized by over four million WordPress sites, which makes it the most popular WordPress page Builder. It’s likewise maintained an excellent 4.7-star ranking (out of 5) on over 5,900 evaluations, so the majority of those users are quite pleased with Elementor.
There are a great deal of WordPress page contractors that use a visual, drag-and-drop interface, however, so what makes Elementor stand apart and why is it so effective?
Well, we’ll enter into this in more depth later on, however a few of Elementor’s standout functions are:
- Great deals of content aspects – these are the foundation of your page. They’re what you “drag-and-drop” to make your style.
- Responsive style – the majority of people search the web on smartphones, so it is very important that your styles look terrific on all devices. Elementor’s styles are responsive by default and you get great deals of options to control how it works.
- Design templates – staring at a blank page is scary! Elementor comes with hundreds of expertly designed design templates so that you don’t have to start from scratch.
- Style options – you get tons of comprehensive style alternatives to make your design pixel-perfect without resorting to custom-made CSS (though you can do that too).
- Benefit – you get great deals of handy tools like right-click assistance, a fast find tool, and more to assist you construct beautiful pages faster.
- Style Builder – with the Pro variation, you can create your entire WordPress theme utilizing Elementor (though we still suggest combining it with a quality theme).
- Dynamic content – you can consist of dynamic content from custom-made fields and plugins like ACF, Pods, and Toolset.
- Popup Builder – with the Pro version, you can also design all kinds of popups using the same visual, drag-and-drop interface.
- WooCommerce Builder – if you’re constructing an eCommerce shop, you can develop your WooCommerce store using Elementor and consist of products in your other styles. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Who Is Elementor For?
Elementor is for … well, almost anybody who’s using WordPress.
For example, a digital online marketer might enjoy Elementor for its capability to help them rapidly produce landing pages and popups, while a casual user might simply be looking for a method to add some additional flair to their blog posts.
Let’s look at some particular circumstances:
Elementor Buddypress Theme
The Casual User
If you’re just a casual user trying to find a method to add some design to your blog posts or develop a great-looking homepage, Elementor is ideal for you.
You’ll be able to utilize the visual user interface to spin up some beautiful styles without requiring any technical knowledge … and you’ll most likely be able to do it for free! More on whether you should utilize the totally free or paid version later on. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
The Digital Online marketer
Elementor is fantastic for digital marketers and groups since it includes lots of marketing aspects.
For example, the Type widget in Elementor Pro lets you produce all types of lead forms and link them to popular email marketing services. It also has a Zapier integration, which lets you link to your CRM.
You can likewise utilize the Popup Builder to develop opt-in popups and target them anywhere on your site. And if you’re offering services or products, you can use WooCommerce Builder to create your sales pages.
The core Elementor plugin itself is likewise an excellent solution for structure WordPress landing pages.
The Site Builder
If you’re developing websites for clients, Elementor is a best (and popular) option.
You can combine Elementor with a versatile theme like Astra to develop 100% custom-made customer websites with no code required. You can likewise use Style Builder when needed, like designing the design template for a customized post type and incorporating dynamic data from ACF, Pods, or Toolset.
Elementor Buddypress Theme
Elementor Rates
Short answer: It’s Free.
The base version of Elementor that is offered in the WordPress Plugin repository is entirely free to use. There is also a professional version with a lot more versatility and a lot more functions.
Check out our short article on Elementor Vs. Elementor Pro if you want to get a detailed review of both.
Elementor is a feature-packed plugin that works for all sites. Nevertheless, it is limited at certain points.
For instance, with Elementor Pro you can personalize your header, footer, posts page, single posts page, or product pages. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
The Elementor base variation delivers the bare minimum you need to design and tailor your site. But if you wish to have the liberty of upgrading the entire website, Elementor Pro is the best choice.
With Elementor Pro you can likewise add pop-ups, contact types, membership forms, worldwide widgets, and customized CSS.
Here is a list of additional functions that you get in Elementor Pro:
- 50+ extra widgets
- 300+ premium demonstration imports including imports for header, footer, and pop-ups
- Total site personalization through Style Builder. This lets you alter the header, footer, and posts pages
- WooCommerce Builder for modifying item and category pages in eCommerce websites
- Popup Builder with advanced functions like, exit intent, after scroll, and controls to display particular pop-ups on specific pages
- Visual Kind Builder that can be integrated with popular e-mail marketing tools
- You can create worldwide widgets and use them site-wide
- Include custom CSS
- Deploy any Elementor widget basically anywhere you want
Elementor Pro Rates
Elementor Pro has a 5 tier pricing plan based upon the variety of licenses you desire.
If you are working with a single website then the Essential Strategy would be best for you. If you are dealing with numerous websites, the Advanced strategy or above plans would be preferable.
All the plans include an annual subscription.
How Elementor Works: Touring the Interface
Let’s see how Elementor deals with this practical area.
Much like any other plugin, you have to install and trigger Elementor through the WordPress repository.
Next, you can either pick to customize Elementor settings or dive straight into creating.
If you are just starting, we suggest utilizing the default settings only. Head over to pages and open one of the pages that you wish to edit.
Click Edit With Elementor to begin modifying.
For the sake of this presentation, we installed the Astra theme and imported among its demonstration sites constructed with Elementor. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Now, let’s go through the Elementor control panel using that demonstration site.
Here’s what the Elementor control panel looks like.
Here’s the label of different parts numbered.
- The working area or the main canvas. This is where you modify and redesign your site
- Elementor widgets area
- Elementor settings
- Open Elementor widgets
- Global settings
- Modification history
- Switch view (desktop, tablet, mobile).
- Sneak peek modifications.
- Publish.
Elementor Structure Hierarchy
If you are totally brand-new to constructing websites, you need to comprehend the structure of the Elementor page Builder.
Every page built with Elementor includes areas and columns.
Area. A section is basically a row. You can include a background, alter its sizing, and more. Columns and widgets go inside sections.
Column. A column divides an area into different columns. You can then control each column separately. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
A page can have any variety of sections in it. Sections contain columns and columns consist of the Elementor widgets.
Here is an illustration revealing what the structure in Elementor looks like.
Elementor Buddypress Theme
How to Style a Page in Elementor from Scratch
When designing a websites, you can either begin with a blank screen or import a pre-existing design template. In this section, we will cover how you can produce a page from scratch utilizing Elementor. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Here’s how you do it:
Action 1: Open a blank page and click “Edit With Elementor”.
Action 2: Click on the “+” button to add a brand-new section.
Step 3: Pick an area with a single column or several ones depending on your requirements.
Step 4: Drag widgets from the Elementor panel into the columns that you wish to.
As soon as you are happy with the positioning, you can adjust the finer details in the Material, Design, and Advanced Sections.
You can experiment with the alternatives when finding out to discover the best designs for you.
Get Started with Elementor Pro
How to Design a Pre-Existing Page in Elementor
Often you might need to modify a pre-existing page with Elementor. The procedure is not really various in this case either. In fact, it is a lot easier to edit an existing Elementor page than going back to square one.
Here’s how you do it.
To include a new widget, drag it from the sidebar left wing.
To rearrange a widget on the visual sneak peek, you can likewise utilize drag and drop. If you want to edit text, simply click and type on the visual sneak peek:
To create the designs for your widgets, utilize sections and columns.
To personalize a widget, click on it. That will open the widget’s settings in the sidebar, which are divided into three tabs:
Utilize a comparable method to personalize areas and columns:
As you alter an element’s settings, you’ll immediately see those modifications reviewed the visual preview.
8 Awesome Functions That Assist Elementor Stick Out
Next, let’s go through some of the things that help Elementor stand out from other visual, drag-and-drop page home builders.
1. Convenient Modifying Functions for Faster Style
Elementor comes with some practical modifying features that assist you construct designs more quickly.
For example, Elementor includes right-click support, which most other page builders don’t use.
You can right-click on any component to replicate it, copy and paste designs, and more:
It likewise features a beneficial Navigator view that provides you an ordered list of all the material on your page, separated by sections and columns. You can utilize this to quickly open the settings for any element on your page. You can also rename elements to make them simpler to find: Elementor Buddypress Theme.
And to assist you quickly navigate between your styles, it likewise includes a Finder tool that lets you jump to anything that you’ve developed with Elementor by looking for it by name:
2. Substantial Widget Selection for Style Versatility
Throughout the core plugin and add-ons, Elementor has an absolutely massive selection of widgets, which offers you a ton of flexibility when constructing your styles.
It’s not practically the 60+ widgets that feature Elementor and Elementor Pro, though, there’s likewise a big choice of widgets from third-party designers.
For example, Ultimate Addons for Elementor adds another 36+ new widgets that you can utilize in your designs, covering whatever from form stylers to hotspots, content toggles, videos, and more.
With numerous options, you can generally find a widget that does precisely what you want it to.
3. Comprehensive Design and Positioning Rules for Pixel-Perfect Styles
Another location where Elementor vanquishes a lot of the competitors is its design choices.
Elementor lets you do all the essentials – you can switch up colors, font styles, spacing, etc.
It also adds advanced options like:
Shape dividers
Customized positioning
Animations, including parallax scrolling, mouse tracking, 3D tilt, and more
Custom-made CSS for specific widgets
Simply put, Elementor provides you more alternatives to create an unique, reliable design.
4. Huge Design Template Choice to Save You Time
If you do not wish to build your styles from scratch, Elementor comes with a big selection of templates, divided into two classifications:
Pages – full-page design templates. All you do is tailor them to meet your needs. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Blocks – design templates for specific parts of a page, like a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION. You can mix-and-match them like legos to develop total designs.
Similar to widgets, you can likewise find templates from third-party sources.
If you utilize the Astra WordPress theme, it features stacks of pre-made starter templates constructed with Elementor. Each starter site includes numerous Elementor templates that you can personalize as required.
5. Versatile Form Widget and Integrations
Above, I pointed out Elementor’s widget selection in general. I believe it’s worth singling out a particular widget:
The Kind widget.
The Type widget lets you create customized forms, total with as numerous fields as required. Where this widget gets truly powerful, specifically when it comes to marketing applications, is its integrated combinations.
You can hook it up to popular e-mail marketing services like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Mailchimp, and more. There’s likewise a Webhook alternative that lets you link to Zapier (and the countless apps offered there), in addition to chat combinations for Slack and Discord.
6. Theme Builder With Dynamic Material for Customized WordPress Sites
With Elementor Pro, you gain the ability to surpass posts and pages and design your whole WordPress style with Elementor. That is, you can construct:
Headers
Footers
Single design templates
Archive design templates
You might create a customized post type and then utilize Elementor to design the template for that post type, rather than messing around with theme template files straight.
The actually powerful thing here is that you have the capability to generate dynamic material from customized fields that you create with plugins like ACF, Toolset, and Pods.
With this vibrant feature, you can develop truly custom websites and harness WordPress’ power as a versatile content management system. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Just one note – while this is definitely a powerful feature, there are still some reasons you may want to select a flexible Elementor style like Astra even if you choose to utilize Elementor Theme Builder.
7. WooCommerce Builder for Customized eCommerce Designs
If you’re producing an eCommerce store, you can also apply Elementor Style Builder to your store content with dedicated WooCommerce Builder widgets.
You’ll be able to design both your single item pages and go shopping pages.
To help you build your styles, you’ll get an array of devoted WooCommerce widgets for whatever from item images to upsells.
In one of our articles, we talked about how to create an eCommerce site with Elementor.
8. Popup Builder for Marketing, Usability, and More
Lastly, Elementor Pro can do more than simply posts, pages, and style design – you can likewise utilize it to develop popups with Elementor Popup Builder.
With Popup Builder, you get access to the same familiar Elementor interface and all of the widgets.
This opens up a great deal of possibilities:
You might utilize the Form widget to develop email opt-in popups and connect them straight to your email marketing service of choice.
Or, you might use the Login widget to create a popup login kind for your site. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
When you publish a popup, you’ll get an array of targeting and activate guidelines to manage precisely where and when your popup appears:
Elementor Buddypress Theme
Should You Use Elementor Free vs Pro?
If you’ve made it this far, there’s a likelihood that you believe Elementor is right for your requirements.
That causes the next concern – can you utilize the totally free version at WordPress.org or should you buy Elementor Pro?
This is an essential choice, so we actually wrote an entire post on how to select between Elementor free vs Pro.
In general, if you simply want to create some posts/pages or basic landing pages, you can probably manage with the complimentary version.
With that being said, there’s a lot of worth in Elementor Pro. It adds:
- 30+ new widgets, including the Type widget. The Form widget is especially powerful for marketing pages.
- Style Builder. This lets you develop your entire theme and WooCommerce shop using Elementor.
- Popup Builder. This lets you build popups using Elementor.
- More templates. While the totally free variation includes some design templates, you need Pro for complete gain access to.
- More style options. For example, you get access to custom positioning.
Acquiring Elementor Pro is not the only way to extend Elementor.
For instance, if you want more versatility to customize your theme, you don’t need to purchase Elementor Pro. Rather, you might use a versatile theme like Astra. Through its lots of Customizer settings, you can adjust Astra to practically any use, and it’s a lot easier than attempting to design your own style from scratch. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
You can construct your header and footer using Astra. Then, since Astra is developed to pair with Elementor, you can still use Elementor to create the material that goes “in between” your header, footer, and other style elements.
Astra also consists of lots of pre-built website design templates built with Elementor. So you can import an already-finished website using Astra and after that just tweak it to match your requirements utilizing Elementor.
Or, if you wish to include new widgets for design flexibility, you might acquire an extension like Ultimate Addons for Elementor, which adds 36+ brand-new Elementor widgets.
Does Elementor Decrease Your Site?
Now, this has actually been a question that is recently gaining appeal. And rightfully so.
Elementor is a plugin that can be helpful for adding beautiful widgets and designs to your website. Its versatile and user friendly features have welcomed a number of addon plugins that let you develop amazing sites without needing to code.
However, if you use too many plugins or have too many animations then it might make your entire site slow.
The question develops if Elementor slows your site down even without any of these addons. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
To find out, we compare two of our starter template websites. One of them was constructed with Gutenberg and the other with Elementor. Gutenberg is the default editor for WordPress and should have greater speeds in general, but by what degree?
Let’s discover.
Here are the sites for you to take a look at.
- Gutenberg website from Starter Templates
- Elementor website from Starter Templates
We hosted both websites on the exact same server and under various directories of the same domain name and compared their efficiency in GT Metrix.
Here are the results.
As you can see, the performance of the Gutenberg website is much faster than the Elementor site.
In terms of specific loading time, the site made with Elementor took about 5.5 s to load totally while the site made with Gutenberg took 2.2 s.
If you are optimizing for SEO, you understand how big of a distinction that is!
The very same website constructed with Beaver Builder likewise performs slightly much better than the Elementor website.
In terms of completely filled time, it takes a second longer than the Elementor website to load.
Elementor Alternatives
Elementor is a fantastic tool, it does not indicate that it is the ideal tool for you all the time.
For instance, if you are developing a concentrated landing page with the Elementor base variation, you may not have the ability to do it directly without incorporating another contact form plugin or a payment entrance. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
In such a case you will require to upgrade to Elementor Pro.
For the SEOs out there, you might want to think about a lighter plugin that loads quicker without causing any delays in page loading.
With all these and numerous other factors in mind, we have created this list of Elementor alternatives that can help you out.
Elementor Buddypress Theme
Gutenberg
Gutenberg is one of the most light-weight and quick site builders due to the fact that it is WordPress default editor. Gutenburg makes it easier than ever to create web pages with ease.
The blocks include everything you may expect, including headings and subheadings as well as lists of items like images or videos within the content location on each specific site page – all from one easy user interface!
Constructing a website in Gutenberg is like building a house utilizing Lego blocks. You set up the blocks in the right order to come up with a gorgeous site. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
In regards to performance. Gutenberg works way much better than any other page Builder. It is optimized for WordPress users and provides what it assures. However, it also lacks the different style aspects that Elementor gives the table.
If you are somebody who chooses efficiency over design, then Gutenberg is the right choice for you.
Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is not as fancy or feature-rich compared to Elementor (Elementor Vs Beaver Builder comparison). It does supply a steady and consistent experience with its core plugin that only constructs private pieces of content. There is the Beaver Builder Style readily available if you desire one too! Elementor Buddypress Theme.
Beaver Builder is a complete page style package that supplies you with all the tools and elements to construct any kind of website. It has elements such as headings, buttons, maps, sliders, contact forms, testimonials, and more all in one place.
It stands head to head in regards to style and performance with Elementor. However, Beaver Builder does not have as many addons developed for itself as Elementor does.
SeedProd
SeedProd is a premium drag-and-drop landing page Builder plugin for WordPress. It has been created to be as quickly, user friendly with site speed in mind.
SeedProd’s wise design system makes reusing blocks of content fast and simple by defining color schemes which will conserve time when creating brand-new layouts. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
It has all the blocks and features you ‘d expect from a powerful page Builder such as opt-in types, social profiles, countdown timers. It also consists of contact pages with an alternative to quickly reroute visitors on any site map or Google Maps noting for their organization area!
You can use SeedProd’s customized domain mapping feature which will conserve time when handling numerous customer landing pages in WordPress while still preserving branding connection across platforms.
Any Lingering Questions?
As you can see, we believe that Elementor is one of the best WordPress page contractors out there, which is why we’ve use Astra, among the most popular styles for Elementor, and Ultimate Addons for Elementor, one of the most popular Elementor widget collections.
We’re likewise not alone in our positive Elementor review – over four million WordPress sites utilize Elementor and Elementor has an incredible 4.7-star rating on over 5,900 evaluations.
If you wish to experience what Elementor can use totally free:
Set up the free Astra style to develop a flexible base for your Elementor designs.
Install the complimentary Elementor plugin from WordPress.org and start building. Elementor Buddypress Theme.
If you like what you see, believe about whether Elementor Pro is right for your requirements.
Is there anything we missed out on in our Elementor review that would help you make your decision? Leave a remark and we’ll attempt to help you choose.
Get Started with Elementor Pro