Among website platforms, WordPress is probably the most famous. WordPress holds 60.8% market share in Content management systems. That is how ubiquitous and gigantic WordPress is.
Even 14.7% of the world’s top websites are powered by it. WordPress is the only reason that Time Magazine, Sony Music and The Harvard Gazette, as well as Microsoft News, function. It goes without saying that the internet would be a different landscape if it weren’t for WordPress.
WordPress is a simple website builder. However, it requires a lot more work to make a website comparable to the larger sites like Microsoft News and Time Magazine. Without the know-how, it would be very difficult to make a website that is as functional or as elegant as those.
Use plug-ins. WordPress plugins are pieces of software that you “plug into” your WordPress site. These plugins will enhance or add functionality to your WordPress site. Plugins allow you to transform your website into any type of thing you can think of.
Plugins are the heartbeat of WordPress. They are essential to maintain and enhance its function. WordPress plugins are so embedded in the WordPress environment, that there are over 55,000 plugins listed on the WordPress Plugin Directory.
Some are free and some are paid. Some of these plug-ins are easy to use, and others take a while of getting used to. One notable plug in is the page builder plug in called Elementor.
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review of Pink1472’s Youtube channel. You can still read our article to get an overview of Elementor.
Elementor: A Quick Overview Elementor Widget Documentation
Elementor, a drag-and drop page builder plugin for WordPress, is the first. As the name suggests, page builders help users build their websites from the ground up.
That said, Elementor is nothing new. Since its release in mid-2016, Elementor has been in the WordPress Plugin Library. It has quickly become one of the most popular, visual page builders in WordPress. From there, it hasn’t stopped and rested on its laurels.
Even today, Elementor continues to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, keeping up with the newest technologies.
It is easy to use, as it uses drag-and-drop technology. Elementor is very easy to use for those just beginning to build their websites. Most of the process will involve dragging and dropping website elements on your workspace.
Drag and drop builders work on the principle that “what you see, is what you get”. This means that you can see what you create while building or editing your website. It is easy to visualize how your website will look when you build it.
Furthermore, Elementor allows you to do a lot of things. You can create pages and posts that are more unique than regular WordPress themes.
When making your page, Elementor will bring you to a separate interface. This is where you get to work on your posts and pages. You don’t need to use the standard editor WordPress offers.
You don’t need to know HTML, CSS, PHP or any other programming skills to use this interface. Everything is easy to use, and you can drag and drop it through the user-friendly interface.
Elementor is a flexible plugin. It can be used with any current WordPress theme. You can make and generate any content layout or page layout you can imagine with it.
Elementor works with all types of WordPress themes. So there is no need to worry if your theme will be bugging out since it is not compatible with Elementor.
The Features of Elementor
Elementor looks like it’s a drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress Users.
However, we wouldn’t be discussing Elementor if it is all that Elementor can do.
Aside from being one of the most used and well reviewed page builder plugin in WordPress, Elementor also has the following features:
Content Elements Galore
Admit it, the name Elementor is pretty strange for something that is a web page builder. It is not page building. Instead, it creates images of a monster that uses the elements to defeat the heroes.
Elementor is not named after any mythical creature or scary monster. Its name is derived from the blocks that are used to build the pages. These blocks are the so-called elements that form the web page.
These are the things that users need to “drag-and-drop” to form their eye popping designs. These are the Elementor names.
Responsive Design
First came the smart phones. Then came internet of things. Now, almost everything can be used to browse the internet. The most popular way to browse the internet is still via a personal computer or laptop, rather than using smartphones and tablets.
If you’re the owner of a website and want to get “hits”, you shouldn’t be allowed to pick on any cockfight. You would want both to visit your website. You want your website to look great on any device.
Elementor makes it possible to achieve this. With its responsive design that is turned on by default, your website will look optimized no matter which gadget your viewer is using.
And if you are not satisfied with the default look, there are multiple options provided to allow you to customize and control how it works and looks.
Templates
Elementor is a drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to create a WordPress page. It is not surprising to see people who don’t know where to start when creating a website.
These poor souls can be helped by templates. Templates can help avoid the blank page syndrome that most beginners suffer from. Elementor offers hundreds of professionally designed templates.
These templates will be a good place to start whenever you are starting out for a new web page. Or they can be used as an inspiration to create your own eye popping websites.
Style options
Elementor offers style as well as templates. Elementor offers many options for customizing your design to make it pixel perfect. What’s more is you do not need to know custom CSS or any coding at all.
Convenience
Elementor’s many tools make it easy to create web pages. Some of which include right-click support where you can get help with a click of the mouse. There is also a quick find tool to aid you in finding what you need to build your website with the Theme Builder.
The Pro version (paid version) even allows users to design entire WordPress themes.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content refers to any digital or online content which changes and updates based upon data, user behavior, and preferences.
Elementor allows you to add dynamic content from custom fields and plugins like ACF, Pods and Toolset. You can keep your pages up-to-date with any changes that you wish to reflect.
Popup Builder
Another feature available only to Pro users of Elementor is the popup builder. Popups are small web pages that can be used into whatever you like. They are often used to convert leads.
Elementor’s popup builder allows you to create your popup with the same tools as your webpage builder. You can use the same visual, drag-and-drop interface and the “what you see is what it gives you” interface.
Elementor’s Popup Builder will allow you to create popups as striking as your pages.
WooCommerce Builder
WooCommerce is an open source ecommerce plugin for WordPress. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to sell products online. Its primary draw is its ease of integration on your site and its customizability.
Elementor allows you to set up an eCommerce store with the WooCommerce plugin. Through Elementor you can design your WooCommerce shop using Lementors. You can even include products and integrate it in your design.
Users for Elementor
Anyone can use Elementor. From digital marketers to students. Anyone who has plans in creating a web page through WordPress, can spice up their pages through the different functions and styles available in Elementor.
Casual User
Elementor is a great tool for casual users who want to inject some personality and pizazz into their blogs or websites. In fact Elementor is the perfect tool for such a job.
Using the visual interface, it would be very easy for casual users to create groundbreaking or eye-opening designs even without using technical knowledge like coding, custom CSS or whatever programming language available.
Even the free version is good enough for casual users.
Digital Marketer
Elementor is great for digital marketers, teams and individuals because it offers many marketing opportunities.
It can be used as a drag-and-drop page builder to create sales pages or landing pages if you know how to do that. To really increase your sales, you could combine the plugin with Landing Page friendly plugins.
If you want to get serious, you can avail of the Elementor Pro features that allow you to create lead forms. These forms are not far from those plugins that focus more on lead conversion or landing pages.
You can even connect these lead forms to popular email marketing services. Zapier is one of the most popular integration and automation tools on the internet.
One feature discussed earlier is the Popup builder.This popup builder is perfect to create opt-in popups. You can place these pop ups anywhere on your site and target them to specific things.
The WooCommerce Builder can also be used to design sales pages and sell products.
Site Builders
For people whose work involves building websites for clients, there is no better choice than Elementor.
Elementor offers many features that make website building easier and more efficient. The drag and drop feature allows builders an easy way to create a website from scratch. Combine this with the website preview, and you can almost instantly see the results of your work.
You can even choose themes to simplify the process of building websites. Or these very same themes can be used as an inspiration for the next websites they will be making. To create the perfect website, they can combine the functionality and aesthetics of all three.
Elementor users can even use the plugin in conjunction with flexible themes to build 100% custom client sites without even touching code.
But if you want to code, Elementor still allows you to do that.
Elementor: The Case
While we know of Elementor’s features and we know who can benefit from using the plugin, we should probably get to know why we should use Elementor in the first place.
Elementor is a page builder that creates websites.
Making websites is not an easy task. Sure, you might know the basics. You might even know which elements to include to make a very functional website.
However, it is still a fact that websites should be unique in order to carve out their own space in the internet. This might sound like an easy task, but there are a lot of factors to consider when maintaining a website.
Then there is the website navigation, the overall aesthetic, not to mention, the security of your website. Each of these must be maintained in a pristine condition to keep users and visitors satisfied with your website’s overall performance.
Doing so will take a lot of work. Now, put yourself in the shoes of a freelancer or a website designer and you will have these problems multiplied tenfold.
You will need to generate and create new ideas for each client you have or every website you build.
These people will find plugins and page builders apps a blessing. There are many features that make website building easier and more intuitive. It will be easier to do the work.
From the multiple features such as dynamic content, version features, and drag and drop builders, Website designers will have to spend less time fine tuning websites depending on their client’s preferences.
Even starting from scratch can be a thing of the past. Thanks to the multiple professional grade templates available for use.
This is the core of website builders and webpage builders. They allow the users to have an easier and more accessible time in carving their space in the Internet. Elementor Widget Documentation
The Examination of Elementor
The Interface
The Elementor plugin must be activated before it can be used. This can be done through the WordPress Repository.
Once you’re done, you can either customize Elementor’s settings to your liking or start creating and designing websites immediately.
The default settings for people just starting out should not be altered. We can now go to the pages and edit any that we want.
Click on the “Edit with Elementor” button in the upper right corner of the page to begin editing
This will bring about the dashboard that has the following parts:
- The Main Canvas where most of the action will take place. Here you can edit and redesign the majority of your websites.
- The Elementor widgets area where most of the “apps” and functions for your website can be dragged from before putting it in the main working area of our website
- Elementor Settings
- Open Elementor Widgets
- Global Settings
- Revision History
- Switch View. Switch View. This is where you can switch between different views of how your website will appear on different devices (desktop/tablet, mobile).
- Preview Changes
- Publish
From this interface, you can choose what to do with your website. You can either start from scratch. You can edit a pre-existing webpage. To get started, you can use a template. Elementor Widget Documentation
Elementor Structure Hierarchy
Understanding how Elementor works is essential before you can create websites. In this case, you need to get a grip of how the website elements in Elementor work as well as how they work with each other.
Sure, Elementor might offer a drag and drop builder, which at first glance can make it a chaotic and free builder. However, there is actually a structure to this “madness”. This structure is essential for effective website building, and not just copying a template.
Every page built with Elementor contains sections and columns
Sections can be described as rows. Each section is the foundation of the page. You can change the size and background of a section. Most of all, sections hold columns and widgets. Basically they hold the other elements of the website together.
Columns meanwhile divide the sections. Each column can be customized and controlled individually, just like the sections. Each column can be home to multiple widgets or content. You can also make each section’s columns different.
These are the smallest elements of a website. This is basically the toppers of your website. Your website’s function will be determined by the widgets, while its personality will be determined by the content. Of course, you can still customize and style these two.
Pre-made Templates
Although they aren’t necessary for creating web pages, you can still make them from scratch. However, pre-made templates are always a blessing. They not only make it easier to do your job faster but also provide inspiration.
Elementor offers professionally designed templates that you can use on your website. You can use each template as is, or you can edit them to suit your needs or tweak them a little to make a perfect fit.
So how many templates do Elementor provide its users? Elementor offers 150 templates to free users. If that is not enough, Pro users are given three hundred and more templates to play around with.
Then there are the Elementor Kits. These are “design kits” that consist of a collection of templates. These templates have a common design or are generally uniform. These kits are perfect for crafting whole websites that carry a singular vision on its design aspect.
Both the pre-made templates and the Elementor kits are available on Elementor’s template library. This library holds most of all common page templates for different purposes. Think of a web page, and you might find what you need there. Elementor Widget Documentation
They have a selection of pages for about pages, contact pages, homepages, landing pages and their various niches (i.e. restaurants, hotels, resorts etc.) portfolios, and even teampages as well as many more.
The library gives and receives. If you created a web page that you think you really are satisfied with, you can export them as a template and you will be able to reuse them at the drop of a hat.
This allows you to easily choose a design for a page that shares design elements or functions with your other pages. You can even share them to the greater community online.
Elementor allows you to design a page from scratch
Elementor allows you to build and design your web page either from scratch, with a pre-existing template. While it is easier to build one from a template, it is still worthwhile to learn how to build one from scratch.
Through examining it sprocess, we can clearly see how good the functions of the Elementor Plugin is.
To start:
- Click “Edit with Elementor” to open a blank page
- You will see a “+” button. To add a new section, click on the button.
- You will be presented with a page that has a selection of sections in it. Choose the one that best suits your needs. It is best to choose one that has enough columns to meet your needs.
- Now that you have your sections, you can start picking your widgets in the Elementor drag and drop them to your columns where you want to place them.
- Once you’re satisfied with the placement of your elements, you can modify them in the Content and Style sections. It is a good idea to experiment with the different options until you find the style that suits you best. Elementor Widget Documentation
Editing an Existing Page in Elementor To Suit Your Design
After learning how to create web pages with Elementor from scratch, we can now look at editing instead of building one from an existing page. Pre-existing pages can come from a variety of sources.
These templates can be taken from your saved pages. Some can come front he dozens of templates available from Elementor’s library. They can also be templates you have imported into Elementor.
It doesn’t matter what source you use, editing a page from a pre-built webpage is much easier than building it from scratch.
Let’s get on with it.
- Adding in a new widget is the same as doing it from scratch. Simply drag the widget that you wish to use from your Elementor Panel to the place you want it to be on the page.
- Rearranging widgets on the visual preview is also done by dragging the said widget and dropping it to the new location of where you want to place it.
- Editing text from content boxes is just as simple. Simply click on the box to open it and then enter the text you desire on the visual preview.
- Remember, you can always add new sections and columns. This is particularly useful if you need to create new layouts of your widgets.
- By clicking on the widgets, you can modify them in the same way as text. In the case of widgets, it will open the appropriate setting in the sidebar. This is divided into three tabs: Content, Style, and Advanced. These settings can be adjusted until you find the right setting. Elementor Widget Documentation
The Price of Elementor
With all the features elementor provides its users, it seems too good to be true that it is just a free plugin. You heard it correctly. Elementor is FREE
You might have noticed that the Pro version is mentioned. And it’s true there is a pro version. However, you don’t really need to go pro to enjoy almost all of Elementor’s benefits and features.
The official WordPress repository contains Elementor’s main plug-in. It’s completely free with no signups or registrations required. If you wish to upgrade to Pro, this plugin will be required.
Speaking of the Pro edition. There are currently four plans available. Each plan has more features and benefits. You will get a different amount of Pro Website Activation depending on the plan you choose.
These are the details of the plan:
| Essential Plan | Expert Plan | Studio Plan | Agency Plan |
| $49 per Year | $199 per Year | $299 per Year (1st year only)
$499 |
$999 per Year |
| 1 Pro Website Activation
More than 100+ basic and pro widgets
300+ Basic and Pro Templates
60+ Pro Website Kits
Theme Builder
WooCommerce Store Builder
Landing Page Builder
Premium Support |
25 Pro Website Activations
More than 100+ basic and pro widgets
More than 300+ Pro and Basic Templates
60+ Pro Website Kits
Theme Builder
WooCommerce Store Builder
Landing Page Builder
Premium Support
Elementor Expert Profile |
100 Pro Website Activations
More than 100+ basic and pro widgets
More than 300+ Pro and Basic Templates
60+ Pro Website Kits
Theme Builder
WooCommerce Store Builder
Landing Page Builder
VIP Support
Elementor Expert Profile |
1000 Pro Website Activations
100+ Basic and Pro Widgets
300+ Basic and Pro Templates
60+ Pro Website Kits
Theme Builder
WooCommerce Store Builder
Landing Page Builder
VIP Support
Elementor Expert Profile |
The case for going pro
When it comes to Elementor Pro, there is much debate. Many people struggle to pay for a service that offers 90% of the benefits it could offer for free. This really boils down to Elementor Pro.
Aside from the ones listed above, Elementor Pro has its other benefits. These include: Elementor Widget Documentation
- 50+ Additional content elements or modules
- 300+ additional page templates
- A theme builder (which allows you to change headers and footers for your current theme)
- WooCommerce Builder (which allows you to rebuild your WooCommerce Product Pages
- Popup builder (which allows you to build popups and integrate them with either an on opt-in form or some offers or discounts)
- Visual form builder (which can be integrated with multiple and popular marketing tools)
- Global widgets can be used on the website, even if they are not on the same page.
- Add custom CSS to any Elementor Blocks for further customization
- Sidebar widgets and widgets can be used to deploy Elementor elements
You can choose Elementor Pro Version if you don’t think these extra features are sufficient or you require some of these features on your website. Elementor Widget Documentation
The Pros and Cons of Elementor
Pros
- Elementor’s core product is completely free. Unlike most plugins, you do not need to get the Professional plan in order to get the most out of Elementor
- You have many options to create your website. These features are also very simple to use.
- It allows users to build custom web pages and page layouts with eye-popping design that may not be accessible in your basic theme or on WordPress’ basic builder.
- Drag and drop builders eliminate the need to have HTML, CSS, orPHP skills. Elementor is your friend!
- The “What you see, is what you get” approach makes it simple to build your website. This can save a lot of time.
- Elementor pages are all responsive. They even allow you to view how they would look on mobile, desktop, or tablet as you are building your website.
- This plugin allows you to adjust all alignments, margins and padding values. You can literally fine tune all details of your page.
Cons
- Sometimes the links’ custom styling doesn’t always work as expected.
- Sometimes you may need to stick with Elementor’s default typography or color settings.
- It can be difficult to correct misaligned elements, particularly when it comes to their margin values. Because most content elements, including blocks and columns, have their own margin settings, this is not possible.
- Some people have observed that Elementor can sometimes slow down the overall speed of your website. Elementor Widget Documentation
The Verdict for Elementor
In conclusion, Elementor is a splendid page builder. It has all the features you want and need for a basic page builder and more. Both beginners and veterans can use it. What’s more is that you get all of its features for the low low price of free.
So if you are looking for a drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress, you will never go wrong with Elementor.
I would even go far as to say that the developers of Elementor have struck themselves gold and never really let go since then. Given Elementors age, it is amazing that they are still among the top choices today.
Common Questions about Elementor
Does Elementor work with WordPress Themes?
Elementor works with all themes provided they adhere to the WordPress Codex coding standards.
Can Elementor be used with other WordPress plugins?
Elementor can be used with nearly all WordPress plugins.
There might be some incompatibility issue here and there, but you can report these incidents to Elementor’s support for them to locate and find a solution about the issue.
What is Elementor Pro?
Elementor Pro, the advanced version of Elementor, is available.
Unlike regular Elementor, it is not free. It adds many features and completes the tools web designers need to create a professional website. Elementor Widget Documentation
Why is the Studio subscription to Elementor Pro discounted?
Elementor simply wants to offer a lower entry price point for their studio plan.
At 40% discount, this is a fantastic deal. However, this only applies for one year. During renewal, Studio plan users will be required to pay the full price.
How can I pay for Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro can be paid for using Stripe, PayPal or any other credit card.
Is there a Demo Version of Elementor Pro available? Elementor Widget Documentation
Elementor Pro does not have a Demo version.
They do have a 30-day refund policy which allows you to cancel your pro plan and get a full refund. If you are interested in the Pro version of Elementor Pro, you can pay for it and then use it for one month to decide if it is worth keeping.