Looking to build a beautiful, custom website? Say goodbye to hours of endless coding! Making websites just 10 years ago used to be quite the hassle, and most people simply preferred to pay others to do it for them. These days, there are various WordPress page builders that help even non-techies create beautiful, professional-looking websites. Keep reading to learn about some of the best ones.
What Are WordPress Page Builders?
WordPress has become, by far, the platform of choice for web design. According to W3techs, over 41% of the web is powered by WordPress, and there are good reasons for this. WordPress provides a software platform that takes most of the heavy-lifting out of the way for you, allowing you to paste web content into pre-designed posts and pages.
Now, given that WordPress posts and pages come in the same bland templates by default, the outcome is usually a boring website that looks like everyone else’s. You can edit your posts and pages using WordPress’s native Gutenberg editor, however, this feature is somewhat limited at the moment.
To truly be the master of your own website, you may consider taking a course in web development. You could also try using well-developed multipurpose WordPress themes that offer a range of design options.
But for quick, unique design capability that is accessible to everyone, WordPress page builders are the best bet. WordPress page builders are plugins, add-ons that enhance the capability of the WordPress core. They add lots of widgets that make it possible for anyone building a website to add pretty much any kind of feature. At least, the best ones do.
To be fair, there are many great WordPress page builders out there, and singling out these five may be a little unfair to the rest. However, this group has acquired a reputation for being outstanding. If you’re building a WordPress website, you generally cannot go wrong using one of these page builder plugins.
Elementor is the market-leading page builder for WordPress, and up until the recent WordPress 5.8 release, it was a real game-changer. WordPress 5.8 brought changes such as native customization of headers and footers, which was a real challenge to less experienced web designers in the past. You either had to know your way around WordPress code, or you had to use a premium theme or plugin like Elementor Pro.
Despite the fact that WordPress now renders Elementor partially redundant, it still is one of the best page builders for anyone to use with its rich collection of widgets, predesigned blocks, and pre-designed pages.
For anyone looking to get things done fast, Elementor is one of the best tools to use in conjunction with WordPress.
Who Is Elementor Great For?
Elementor has the most intuitive drag and drop interface a web design rookie could ask for, with an impressive range of widgets even in its free version. While more experienced users will also love its versatility, you might find its usage caps a bit restrictive.
While Elementor is the undisputed leader in the page builder market, Beaver Builder is not far behind and is an excellent alternative. Beaver Builder offers many of the same features as Elementor, with a rich collection of widgets. One area where it falls short in comparison is its limited collection of pre-designed templates.
Additionally, you won’t be able to edit the header and footer areas of your website using Beaver Builder. However, since this is now possible to do directly in WordPress, this might not bother you so much.
While beaver builder does not offer a free plan, it does provide a demo that allows you to try out its features before you commit to making a purchase. Additionally, Beaver Builder stands out for its offer of unlimited use on all its plans.
Who Is Beaver Builder Great For?
Beaver Builder offers a good feature collection, with plenty of room for more experienced developers to get creative. It also offers unlimited use on all its websites, so if you’re an agency or web design professional, this would be a great tool to rely on.
Visual Composer is another popular and powerful WordPress page builder to consider. The free version is comparatively light on features, with only 30 elements and 10 pre-designed templates. For comparison, its paid plans feature over 300 elements and over 200 templates.
Unlike Elementor, you can only use the free version of Visual Composer with one website. If you would like to build more than one website using Visual Composer, you will have to subscribe to one of the pain plans.
Who Is Visual Composer Great For?
Visual Composer offers a range of features that are designed to attract marketers and designers in particular. If you are focused on growth marketing, this will be a great option.
Created by Thrive Themes, this recently released page builder is actually an upgraded version of the popular Thrive Content Builder plugin. With over 200 pre-designed page templates, it gives you access to lots of options you can use to create attractive pages for your website. What’s more, all the templates are fully customizable. You can mix and match elements from different templates to create a website perfectly fitted to your taste and needs.
Despite the fact that this plugin gives you full creative control over your website’s design, the collection of pre-designed templates available to start off your designs are limited when compared to other builders.
There is no free version of Thrive Architect. However, its relatively cheap price more than makes up for it. To get this website builder, you have to purchase Thrive Suite, a package that gives you access to all products from Thrive Themes. Thrive suite is priced at just $19 a month and it comes with lifetime updates.
Who Is Thrive Architect Great For?
If you are looking to build a website with a focus on driving sales and conversions, Thrive Architect is an excellent option. With in-built lead generating elements such as pop-up boxes and opt-in forms, this page builder is mainly geared towards convincing visitors to take a specific action.
WP Bakery has over 4,000,000 installs, which makes it one of the market leaders, and particularly strong competition to Elementor. It is easy to see why it is such a favourite with web designers. WP Bakery offers a good range of features, to begin with, while making it easy for developers to extend the capabilities with features such as CSS customization and access to the WPBakery page builder API.
Unlike most page builders that offer either a frontend editor or a backend editor, WP Bakery gives you access to both. It allows you to choose which interface works best for you at any point of the web development process.
There is no free version of this plugin but, fortunately, there is a demo version you can sign up for on the WP Bakery website. This allows you to test it out and find out if it is a good fit for you before you make a purchase.
Who Is WP Bakery Great For?
When compared to other builders like Elementor, WP Bakery has a steeper learning curve and is better suited to more experienced users. With the option to extend its capabilities, WP Bakery is an attractive option for programmers and developers.
The Best WordPress Page Builders: Our Verdict
All five of the WordPress page builders we have covered here are excellent choices. So which should you choose? The answer depends on your individual needs. The great thing is that you can give these page builders a try and settle for the one that suits you best!
If you’re building a new WordPress website, page builders can help but you also need to understand how to work with themes. Themes can literally make or break your WordPress website!
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