Today we are covering the Elementor. We will discuss why Elementor is considered as most popular WordPress Website builder and why people love working with Elementor. We will also cover the abilities Elementor and Elementor PRO are giving to web creators.
First of all, What is Elementor?
Those who already know and have met with Elementor, please skip to the next chapter.
Elementor is a WordPress Website builder, it comes in free and PRO versions. The Elementor Core version is free and publicly available for download from the WordPress repository. You can download Elementor Free from here.
Most of the WordPress community knows this plugin as a really user-friendly and powerful plugin in the role of a page builder.
This plugin features a drag & drop editor that allows anyone to make a website or page without writing any code.
However, Elementor has been making great progress and it’s now a fully-fledged Website builder that empowers the web creators in making their design become a fully functional WordPress website.
With the power of Elementor Pro, web creators can design a complete website and all of its parts like header, footer, single post, archive templates, and more in one place.
Combining this with many powerful widgets already built-in, you can create any kind of professional website for less time.
If you don’t have any experience working with Elementor, I suggest watching this short course on Elementor below.
Introduction
Before we continue, I would like to refer to the news we mentioned earlier this year.
WordPress is about to enter an entire new era when it comes to design and the way people use WordPress to build all kinds of websites.
The new WordPress update will enroll support for block-based themes allowing the ability for web creators to build complete websites using blocks or widgets. This will end the era of themes as we know today, especially looking at the themes present for many years like Avada, Enfold, BeTheme, Porto, and many other ThemeForest themes. Basically, any theme that runs on an older or outdated framework will have to change or vanish over time.
On the other side, users of Elementor already have the fool power to create any kind of website using WordPress.
Why do people love Elementor?
Elementor is a part of the WordPress ecosystem for about 6 years now and during this time it has gone thru some changes and progress that made it the most successful WordPress Page Builder at the time. The main reason for such popularity lies in the way Elementor works.
Elementor offers a nice and intuitive UI that people easily understand and love using. The other thing is the ability to customize and style widgets and achieve a great custom design. There are also many powerful features built-in that helps web creators make custom solutions quickly.
Also, we can’t skip mentioning the great community that has been gathering around the Elementor. Also, Elementor is closely listening to their community, and over time, many most requested features were enrolled benefiting many happy users.
There are also many 3rd party plugins and add-ons for Elementor, thus making this plugin even more powerful and popular.
Also, there are a lot of premium WordPress themes featuring Elementor as a page or website builder. You can check out the list of Top 10 Elementor Multi-Purpose WordPress themes we tested and reviewed before.
Elementor and Elementor PRO
In order to unlock the full power of Elementor as a complete WordPress website builder, you need to have an Elementor Pro license.
You may head to the Elementor website and check the feature comparisons between Elementor Free and Pro.
In order to run the Elementor PRO, you will also have to install the Elementor Core, which is a free plugin.
After installing both plugins, you can start creating your website.
Elementor Kit Library
One of the cool things when it comes to Elementor is the ability to import professionally designed templates or website starter templates with just one click.
Besides many niche website designs available for importing, there are also many more pre-designed blocks and sections like header, footers, call to action section, forms, and many more.
In this way, you can quickly create complex pages with great-looking layouts and customize them per your needs.
Elementor Widgets
The most powerful feature and the building block of Elementor are its widgets. There are many widgets for Elementor that will allow you to add any kind of section of content to your pages.
The free version comes with the basic widgets that allow you to create custom pages and layouts.
Many themes are based on a free Elementor page builder that gives them enough power to create niche-specific websites. On the other side, Elementor Pro comes with more widgets and options that allow users to create much more complex websites or WooCommerce stores.
Most notable Elementor PRO features
There are certain features that are exclusively available in the PRO version. These are the most notable:
- Header and Footer builder
- Ability to upload and use custom icons
- Ability to upload and use custom fonts, locally uploaded or via TypeKit
- Options to add custom code inside header, footer or pages. Ability to set the conditions per code block
- Integrated Form builder
- Many more PRO widgets
- WooCommerce PRO widgets
- Custom responsive breakpoints
So, these features are very useful and many of them can replace the other plugins and thus help with optimizing the WordPress website.
Elementor PRO can replace many 3rd party plugins and it features form builder, custom code inserter, custom fonts, WooCommerce builder, and many more.
Forms Builder
Elementor features the form builder that will help you create a contact form or even more complex forms and store the data in the database.
With this feature, Elementor gives enough power for building any kind of agency or small business website.
You can also create a log-in form or newsletter sign-up form with this builder. Combined with the built-in popup feature, you can create pretty much any kind of popup with a sign-up request.
WooCommerce
As for now, there is a certain limitation when it comes to the use of Elementor for designing the WooCommerce specific pages.
But, in general, Elementor PRO offers the options to design your own single product template and categories. You can create a single product template per your own design needs.
Elementor Performance
As you might know from your own experience, every page builder has a certain payload impact on the pages and WordPress. This comes from the fact that there are a lot of elements and modules coming with the page builders as they offer many reusable blocks of code.
One of the most known issues regarding the Elementor and other builders like VC, WP Bakery, Brizy,
Elementor has taken measures to ensure it’s both optimized and performing. Currently, users can activate the optimization features inside the Elementor Experiments tab.
Elementor also works great with all major caching plugins like WP Rocket, W3, Super Cache, etc.
Elementor and themes
Elementor has its own very popular WordPress theme named Hello Elementor. You can easily install this free theme and it will provide all the needed theme-based features you might need when you work with Elementor and Elementor Pro.
This is a minimalistic, yet optimized and performing theme that works great with Elementor giving users the features needed for full canvas website building with ease.
You can also use any other theme of your own preference, many of the most popular free and paid themes are fully compatible with the Elementor. Themes like Astra, OceanWP, and many more.
Tip: If you plan to use Elementor PRO for creating a complete website, consider staying with the free Hello Elementor theme.
Elementor Support and Community
There is a total of 9 million websites powered by Elementor plugins at this time. This information tells you enough about the popularity of the plugin. Thus, the community around the plugins is amazing and large.
Elementor launched the Hub, a kind of support and social network forums, Github, Elementor Facebook group, and all other places where you can connect with other Elementor professionals.
Elementor also provides exceptional customer support, both via live chat and ticket system. Their support staff is well educated and professional. They will help you with any kind of issue and a PRO license is definitely a good choice.
Amazing number of 3rd paty add-ons
When compared with other similar plugins, Elementor is currently the plugin with the highest number of 3rd party add-ons. There are hundreds of free and paid add-ons that you can use to extend and customize your website with Elementor.
Conclusion
Elementor can boldly state that it is a fully-featured WordPress website builder providing its users the ability to create websites faster than ever before.
Also, having experience with other most popular and similar plugins, Elementor is by far the most mature and performing one. It also has some nifty features that are beyond competition.
And, the final conclusion is that the Elementor is the best WordPress website builder if you ask me. If you have some thoughts on this, or you don’t share my view, please comment below. I’ll be happy to see some feedback.
