Among website platforms, WordPress is probably the most famous. When talking about Content management systems alone, WordPress owns 60.8% of the market share. This is how widespread and massive WordPress is.
WordPress powers 14.7% of the top websites in the world. Time Magazine, Sony Music, The Harvard Gazette and even Microsoft News itself only function due to WordPress. WordPress is a must-have for the internet.
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.
Enter Plug-ins. WordPress plugins are pieces of software that you “plug into” your WordPress site. These pieces of software will then add new functionality or enhance functionality on your WordPress site. Through plugins, you can make your website into anything you can imagine.
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 of them are free, some are not. Some plug-ins are simple to use while others require some time to get 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.
A Quick Look on Elementor Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
To begin with, Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. As the name suggests, page builders help users build their websites from the ground up.
That said, Elementor is nothing new. It has been available in the WordPress Plugin Library since it was released in mid-2016. 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 easy to use, even for people just starting to build websites. Most of the process will involve dragging and dropping website elements on your workspace.
Most drag and drop builders operate on the “what you see is what you get” model. That means whatever you see while editing or building your website. It is easy to visualize how your website will look when you build it.
Elementor also allows you to do many 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. As such, you do not need to touch the standard editor that WordPress provides.
This interface also does not require you to have any HTML, CSS, PHP, or any coding skills. Everything is easy to use, and you can drag and drop it through the user-friendly interface.
Elementor is also a very flexible plugin. It can be used with any current WordPress theme. It can be used to create any page or content layout you can think of.
Elementor even works on all kinds of WordPress themes. Elementor is compatible with all themes, so there’s no reason to be concerned if your theme isn’t compatible.
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
Elementor, as a web page creator, is quite a strange name. It is not page building. Instead, it creates images of a monster that uses the elements to defeat the heroes.
However, nothing is further from the truth and Elementor was not named after a mythical creature or a scary monster to be vanquished. Its name is derived from the blocks that are used to build the pages. These blocks are called elements and form the web site.
These are the items that users “drag-and drop” to create eye-popping designs. And through them, the Elementor name is apropos.
Responsive Design
First came the smart phones. Then came the Internet of things. The internet can now be accessed by almost any device. Still, the most common way to browse the Internet would be a debate between the personal computer or laptop versus the smartphones and tablets.
Now, if you are an owner of a webpage who wants the “hits” you should have no cock to pick on that cockfight. Both would be welcome to your site. 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.
You can also customize the look and function of your browser to suit your needs.
Templates
With a drag and drop builder like Elementor, it would not be a surprise if there are people trying to build a WordPress page who do not know a thing about code. It will also be no surprise to find people who have no idea where to begin when building a webpage.
Luckily templates exist in order to help these poor souls. Templates can help avoid the blank page syndrome that most beginners suffer from. Elementor provides hundreds of templates that are designed professionally.
These templates are a great place to start when you’re creating a new website. These templates can also be used to inspire you in creating your own unique 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. You can also use the quick find tool to help you locate what you need to build your site with Theme Builder.
The Pro version (paid version), allows users to create 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 lets you add dynamic content to your pages using custom fields or plugins such as ACF, Pods, and Toolset. You can keep your pages up-to-date with any changes that you wish to reflect.
Popup Builder
The popup builder is another feature that only Pro users can access with Elementor. 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’s target is usually small to large online merchants. Its main draw is for its simplicity to integrate on your website 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 also include products and integrate them into your design.
The 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.
As a drag and drop page builder, it can be used to create a sales page or a potential landing page if you understand how to make those. To really increase your sales, you could combine the plugin with Landing Page friendly plugins.
You can use the Elementor Pro features to create lead forms if you’re serious. These forms are similar to those that focus on landing pages or lead conversion.
These lead forms can be connected to popular email marketing tools. 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. These popups can be placed anywhere on your website and targeted to specific items.
The WooCommerce Builder can also be used to design sales pages and sell products.
Site Builders
Elementor is the best choice for those who work on websites for clients.
Elementor has plenty of features to make website building an easier and more streamlined process. Drag and drop allows builders to quickly create a website. 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. These themes can also be used to inspire the next website they create. They can use the aesthetics, functionality, form, or any combination of the above to build the perfect website.
Flexible themes can be used with the plugin by Elementor users to create 100% custom client websites.
But if you want to code, Elementor still allows you to do that.
The Case for Using Elementor
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.
First of all, the most basic use of Elementor boils down as a page builder for websites.
Making websites is not an easy task. Sure, you might know the basics. It is possible that you even know what elements are needed to create a functional website.
It is still a fact websites must be unique to make their place 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. To keep visitors and users satisfied with the website’s performance, each of these should be in top condition.
Doing so will take a lot of work. These problems will be ten times more if you are a freelancer or website designer.
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. Work will take less time to consume.
Website designers will need to spend less time tweaking websites based on the preferences of their clients.
Even starting from scratch can be a thing of the past. Many professional-grade templates are available.
This is the core of website builders and webpage builders. They make it easier and more accessible for users to carve their own space on the Internet. Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
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. Now we can head over to the pages and open one that we are allowed to edit.
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. This is where you will edit and redesign most of your websites look
- You can drag the Elementor widgets section from which most of the functions and “apps” for your website to be placed before you place it in the main 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 have two options: you can start from scratch. Edit an existing webpage. To get started, you can use a template. Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
Elementor Structure Hierarchy
Before you can truly begin creating websites in Elementor, you need to understand how it works. 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”. Understanding this structure is key to effective website building (aside from 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 add a background in a section, change its sizing, and do more customizations. Most of all, sections hold columns and widgets. Basically they hold the other elements of the website together.
The sections are divided by columns. Just like the sections, you can control and customize each column individually. Each column is home to multiple content or widgets. You can also make each section’s columns different.
As for the content and widgets, these are the smallest elements in a website. This is basically the toppers of your website. The function of your website will depend on the widgets and its personality will depend on 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 provides you with professionally designed pre-made templates you can use for your page. 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? Free users are given 150 and more templates available to use. Pro users have three hundred more templates available to them.
Then there are the Elementor Kits. These are “design kits” that consist of a collection of templates. These templates are mostly uniform or share the same design feel. These kits are perfect for crafting whole websites that carry a singular vision on its design aspect.
Elementor’s template collection contains both pre-made templates as well as Elementor kit kits. This library contains most common templates for various purposes. You might think of a website page and find the information you are looking for. Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
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 not only gives, but it also 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 makes it easy to choose a design when you are building another page that shares design or function elements from your previous pages. These designs can be shared to the wider community online.
Elementor allows you to design a page from scratch
Elementor lets you create and design your website from scratch or with a pre-existing template. Although it’s easier to use a template to create one, it is worth learning how to make one yourself.
Through examining it sprocess, we can clearly see how good the functions of the Elementor Plugin is.
To start:
- Open a blank page and click “Edit With Elementor”
- There will be a “+” button. Click on it to add a new section
- 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.
- Once you have created your sections, you are able to drag and drop your widgets from the Elementor to the columns you wish to place.
- 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-Motion-Effects-Layer
Editing a Pre-Existing Page in Elementor to Suit your Design
Now that we’ve learned how to design web pages from scratch with Elementor, it is time to look at the process of editing rather than building one from a pre-existing page. You can find pre-existing pages from many sources.
These templates can be taken from your saved pages. Some can come front he dozens of templates available from Elementor’s library. Or they can be other templates that you have imported into Elementor.
No matter the source, one thing is true: Editing a webpage from a pre-built page is a lot easier than building one from scratch.
Let’s move on.
- Adding in a new widget is the same as doing it from scratch. You just take the widget you want to use from the Elementor Panel and then drag it to where you want to place it 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. You just need to click on the box and then type the new text you want 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.
- You can customize your widgets the same way you edit text, by clicking on them. 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-Motion-Effects-Layer
The Price of Elementor
It seems unbelievable that elementor is a free plugin when you consider all of the features it offers. You heard it correctly. Elementor is completely free
That said, you might have noticed that there is a mention of a Pro version. And it’s true there is a pro version. To enjoy most of Elementor’s features and benefits, however, you don’t need to be a pro.
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.
The Pro edition. There are currently four plans available. Each of these plans adds more benefits and features. You will get a different amount of Pro Website Activation depending on the plan you choose.
The plan are as follows:
| 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
More than 300+ Pro and Basic 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
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 |
1000 Pro Website Activations
More than 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
There is a great debate if when talking about going Pro with Elementor. A lot of people find it hard to reconcile paying for a service that already offers 90% of what it can do for free. This really boils down to Elementor Pro.
Elementor Pro offers many other benefits, in addition to the ones mentioned above. These include: Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
- 50+ additional content elements or modules
- 300+ additional page templates
- You can create a theme using the theme builder.
- WooCommerce Builder allows you to rebuild 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
- Deploying Elementor elements in sidebars and widgets
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-Motion-Effects-Layer
The Pros and Cons of Elementor
Pros
- The core product for Elementor is entirely free. Elementor is free to use, unlike many plugins.
- You have many options to create your website. They are even very easy to use.
- This allows users to create custom web pages or layouts using eye-popping designs that are not possible with the default theme or WordPress’ basic builder.
- The drag and drop builder removes the need for HTML, CSS, or PHP skills. Elementor is your friend!
- Chooses the “What you see is what you get” approach, makes it easy for you to build your website without switching to previews. This can save a lot of time.
- All pages made with Elementor are responsive. They even allow you to view how they would look on mobile, desktop, or tablet as you are building your website.
- The plugin provides detailed settings for 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. This is because most blocks, columns, and content elements have their own margin settings.
- Some people have observed that Elementor can sometimes slow down the overall speed of your website. Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
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. It caters to both beginners and veteran page builder alike. 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’d even say that Elementor’s developers have made a fortune and have not stopped trying since. Given Elementors age, it is amazing that they are still among the top choices today.
Elementor Frequently Asked Questions
Does Elementor work with WordPress Themes?
Elementor Works with all themes as long as they follow the coding standards of WordPress set by its Codex.
Does Elementor Work with other WordPress plugins
Elementor can be used with nearly all WordPress plugins.
You might have an incompatibility problem. Elementor can help you to find and fix it.
What is Elementor Pro?
Elementor Pro is the more advanced version of Elementor.
It is not free, unlike regular Elementor. It adds many features and completes the tools web designers need to create a professional website. Elementor-Motion-Effects-Layer
Why is the Studio subscription to Elementor Pro discounted?
Elementor wants to provide a studio plan at a lower price.
This is a great deal at 40% off This discount is only valid for one year. During renewal, Studio plan users will be required to pay the full price.
How do 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-Motion-Effects-Layer
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. So if you want to try the Pro version, the best thing to do would be pay for Elementor Pro, try it for a month, then decide if you want to keep it or not.