WordPress is the most well-known website platform. When talking about Content management systems alone, WordPress owns 60.8% of the market share. This is how widespread and massive WordPress is.
Even 14.7% of the world’s top websites are powered by it. Time Magazine, Sony Music, The Harvard Gazette and even Microsoft News itself only function due to WordPress. 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.
Enter Plug-ins. WordPress plugins can be described as pieces of software you “plug in” to your WordPress website. 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.
This is the reason why plugins can be considered as the beating heart of WordPress. They are vital to the function of WordPress. 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 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.
Elementor: A Quick Overview Slider Revolution Elementor
To begin with, Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. Page builders are a tool that allows users to build websites from scratch.
Elementor is not new, however. 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. It has not slowed down since then.
Even today, Elementor continues to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, keeping up with the newest technologies.
Since it is a drag-and-drop builder. 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.
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. This makes it easy to imagine how your website would look as you are building it.
Elementor also allows you to do many things. It gives you the ability to create posts and pages that are unique and more eye-oppoing than the standard post or page templates from a regular WordPress theme.
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. As stated above, everything is drag and drop and done through a handy user-facing interface.
Elementor is a flexible plugin. It can be used with whatever current WordPress theme you are using. 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.
Elementor’s Features
At first glance, Elementor is what it says it is, a drag and drop page builder for WordPress User to make their pages without using a code.
However, we wouldn’t be discussing Elementor if it is all that Elementor can do.
Elementor is not only one of the most popular and highly reviewed page builders plugins in WordPress. It also offers the following features:
Content Elements Galore
Elementor, as a web page creator, is quite a strange name. Rather than page building, it brings about images of a monster who uses the elements to vanquish 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. And through them, the Elementor name is apropos.
Responsive Design
First came the smart phones. Then came the Internet of things. Now, almost everything can be used to browse the internet. 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. As such, you would want your site to look the best it can no matter the device being used.
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
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 be used to avoid the “blank page syndrome” that many beginners experience. 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
Aside from templates, Elementor also provides style. 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
With its multiple tools, Elementor makes it a lot easier to build your web pages. You can access right-click support to get assistance with just a mouse click. 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) even allows users to design entire WordPress themes.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is defined as any digital or online content that changes and updates based on 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. This allows the added benefit of having your pages constantly up to date with any relevant changes you want to be reflected.
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 design your popup using the same tools given for your webpage builder. This includes the same visual, drag and drop interface as well as the what you see is what you get interface.
With Elementor’s popup builder, you are sure to create popups that are as visually impressive as your page.
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.
This customizability extends even to Elementor which allows users to create an eCommerce store using the WooCommerce plugin. You can create your WooCommerce shop through Elementor using Lementors. You can even include products and integrate it in your design.
Users for Elementor
Elementor can be used by almost anyone. Digital marketers, students and everyone in between. 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. Elementor is the ideal tool to do this job.
The visual interface makes it easy for casual users, even those with no programming knowledge, to create eye-opening or innovative designs.
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.
These lead forms can be connected to popular email marketing tools. It can even be integrated with Zapier, one of the internet’s most well known automation and integration tools.
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.
Even the WooCommerce Builder can be used to sell products and services and design your sales pages.
Site Builders
Elementor is the best choice for those who work on websites for clients.
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. 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.
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
We know about Elementor’s features, and we also know who can benefit from the plugin. But we need to understand why Elementor is so important.
First of all, the most basic use of Elementor boils down as a page builder for websites.
It isn’t easy to create websites. You might be able to grasp 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. Although this may sound simple, there are many factors that must be considered when creating 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.
It will require a lot of effort. 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. With lots of features to make the website building process more accessible and easier to use. It will be easier to do the work.
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. Thanks to the multiple professional grade templates available for use.
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. Slider Revolution Elementor
The Examination of Elementor
The Interface
Of course, using the Elementor plugin requires installation and activation before using it. You can do so 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.
For people who are just starting out, the default starting settings should not be changed. Now we can head over to the pages and open one that we are allowed to edit.
To start editing: On the upper right side of the page, click on “Edit With Elementor”
The dashboard will now have the following parts:
- This is the Main Canvas, where the majority of the action will occur. 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. where you can switch between views on how your website will look like on different gadgets (desktop, tablet, or mobile)
- Preview the 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. Slider Revolution Elementor
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. There is a structure to all 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 add a background in a section, change its sizing, and do more customizations. Sections hold widgets and columns. They basically hold all the elements 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.
As for the content and widgets, these are the smallest elements in a website. These are the main elements of your website’s toppers. 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. Not only do they make your work easier and faster, they are also a source of lots and lots of 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. If that is not enough, Pro users are given three hundred and more templates to play around with.
There are also the Elementor Kits. These “design kits” consist of a variety of templates. These templates have a common design or are generally uniform. These templates are great for creating websites with a single design theme.
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. Slider Revolution Elementor
There are pages for contact pages, about pages, landing pages, and niches. restaurants, hotels, resorts etc.) Portfolios and teampages are also available.
The library not only gives, but it also receives. You can export web pages that you are happy with to a template so you can reuse them whenever you want.
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 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.
We can see the effectiveness of the Elementor plugin’s functions by looking at it.
To begin:
- Click “Edit with Elementor” to open a blank page
- 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.
- 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.
- When you are satisfied with where you placed your elements, you can customize them in the Content, Style, and Advanced Sections. A good idea is to play around with the options until you find out which styles fits for you. Slider Revolution Elementor
Editing an 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. You can find many templates in 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 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.
- You can also arrange widgets in the visual preview by dragging them and dropping them to the new place.
- 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.
- You can always add sections or 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 section is broken down into three tabs: Style, Content, and Advanced. Play with these settings until you find something you fancy. Slider Revolution Elementor
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 FREE
You might have noticed that the Pro version is mentioned. 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.
You can get Elementor’s main plugin via the official WordPress repository. It is entirely free and no hidden costs or signups and registrations are needed. You will also need this main plugin if you want to go Pro.
Speaking of the Pro edition. There are currently four plans. Each of these plans adds more benefits and features. Depending on which plan you choose, they will provide a different number of Pro Website Activation.
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
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
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
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. To be honest, this actually boils down to what Elementor Pro offers.
Aside from the ones listed above, Elementor Pro has its other benefits. These include: Slider Revolution Elementor
- 50+ additional content elements or modules
- Additional page templates available in 300+
- A theme builder (which allows you to change headers and footers for your current theme)
- WooCommerce Builder allows you to rebuild WooCommerce Product Pages
- Popup Builder (which allows you create popups and then integrate them with an on-opt-in form, some offers or discounts).
- Visual form builder that can be integrated with many 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. Slider Revolution Elementor
The Pros and Cons of Elementor
Pros
- The core product for Elementor is entirely 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!
- 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.
- Elementor pages are all responsive. You can even see how your pages would look on mobile, tablet, and desktop while you build your website.
- The plugin provides detailed settings for all alignments, margins, and padding values. All details can be fine tuned.
Cons
- Sometimes, the custom styling to links does not always go as intended.
- Sometimes you may need to stick with Elementor’s default typography or color settings.
- It is difficult to fix misaligned elements, especially talking about their margin values. Because most content elements, including blocks and columns, have their own margin settings, this is not possible.
- Elementor can slow down your website’s overall speed, according to some users. Slider Revolution Elementor
The Verdict for Elementor
Elementor is an excellent 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 would even go far as to say that the developers of Elementor have struck themselves gold and never really let go since then. It is incredible that Elementors are still one of the top choices today, given their age.
Elementor Frequently Asked Questions
Is Elementor compatible 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.
You might have an incompatibility problem. Elementor can help you to find and fix it.
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. Slider Revolution Elementor
Why is the Studio subscription to Elementor Pro discounted?
Elementor wants to provide a studio plan at a lower price.
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
The folks at Elementor access Stripe, PayPal, or any credit card to pay for Elementor Pro.
Is there a Demo Version of Elementor Pro available? Slider Revolution Elementor
There is no Demo version for Elementor Pro.
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.