Hello and welcome to my article about what is the best WordPress page builder plugin you can use to create beautiful pages throughout your WordPress blog pages and posts.
Many people that first get started with WordPress find it very limited with what they can do to customize their design and usually find it a bit frustrating in that aspect.
And those with HTML and CSS knowledge still would like an easier and faster way to customize their site due to the time that it takes to do so, especially when better and faster solutions are available.
Sites like Wix and Weebly have the functionality and the ability to simplify this process with a feature that we like to call “drag and drop” which many people love due to its simplicity, time, and customization options one gets when creating pages.
The Drag and drop feature lets you pick from a collection of components.
These components that can be added can be anything like:
- multiple columns
- content sliders
- full-width images and backgrounds
- parallax images and background
- easy to change custom fonts and color schemes
- etc.
Users can use these components as blocks that can be dragged to different parts of their pages to build their own custom layouts that have 1000’s of unique arrangements.
Does WordPress Have A Page Builder?
Out of the box, WordPress does not have a page builder option, but they do have a ton of free plugins to help design your page layouts with ease but it comes at a price.
Update, WordPress has evolved into something actually cool.
WordPress has implemented what is called the “Gutenburg” builder which is similar to a page builder but it doesn’t have as many options.
At first, it wasn’t a drag-and-drop page builder, but with the latest update, they now are!
Out of the box in 2021, the Gutenburg option is a great choice to use as your page builder, but I wouldn’t use it alone at this time.
I would add a great lightweight theme along with a few other lightweight plugins that will produce an amazing lightweight page builder.
This is what I did with my own blog, and I will cover that later on in this article.
This is the last of the latest update, so let’s continue.
Plugins are single components that can be added through the admin page of your WordPress site when you log in located in the Plugins section on the right panel menu bar, we will cover plugins on other articles that cover the ones that are the most needed and useful when building a site for speed, search engine ranking, and business.
With the addition of having a ton of plugins added to your site, the price you pay will be, the time it takes to load your site when a visitor visits your page because of all the extra data it has to load from your server-side, and what search engines have to read in order to open your site correctly.
You want your site to have the speediest response time for a better user experience which Google will reward you for with higher search engine rankings which are always nice.
So that brings me to 3rd party WordPress page builder plugins that can be added to your current WordPress site.
The Best WordPress Page Builder Plugins
There are 2 types of WordPress drag and drop page builders that you can use.
A theme-based one that can only be used with the theme it supports which I will not cover in this article due to its limitation on using just their own themes. And then there are the page builders that can be used in conjunction with any theme, both free and premium, which I cover below.
The way I ranked these are with my own personal opinion. I have used them all and with that said, I love using all of them in their own way.
The way I listed them below is as if I was in the shoes of a person that never used a WordPress page builder before.
So I have a learning curve, ease of use, and the price I take into consideration when determining the rank I gave, now if you have any experience with using a page builder in the past and get how they work more or less, I will share my personal favorite one I use the most often after my brief overview of the listed ones I have below, just for those of you that are curious.
So, let’s get started.
Elementor
Elementor is another front-end WordPress page builder. Elementor has a great feature-rich free version but if you really want to open up all the great and useful features is the premium version.
When editing your pages you will be presented with an element panel on the left side of your screen with a vast assortment of widgets that you can drag and drop onto your page just like Beaver Builder.
From basic image and text widgets to advanced accordions, sliders, testimonials, icons, social media, tabs, etc. Each widget comes with its own settings.
You can add and add custom widget features with the widgets they offer.
One of the features that Elementor now has, that I really love is the ‘form feature’ that comes with the pro version.
Being an Internet Marketer, this feature is a must-have!
Elementor is another great WordPress plugin for beginners and very great for seasoned marketers as well.
Elementor is also extremely fast and mobile responsive.
I feel Elementor is best for the person that wants to only deal with the design and now mess with any kind of code to further design the look of your pages.
The Elementor plugin is selling for $49 for a single website license as of writing this article.
Elementor also has a great free version to try out which is a big plus, but remember there are going to be a few plugins that are missing that really make this page plugin stand out as the best WordPress page builder plugin.
If I would compare the free version of Elementor to Beaver Builders’ free version, hands down Elementor wins.
Beaver Builder
Update, Beaver Builder is still a good option, however, at this time I wouldn’t consider it a top contender anymore.
There are better options that I would suggest like the WordPress Guttenberg builder along with Generateblocks.
Of course, using the GeneratePress theme is required.
Beaver Builder is a premium WordPress drag-and-drop page builder plugin. In our opinion, it is, at this time, the best WordPress page builder plugin in the market for the person that is just getting started with most of the design features as far as WordPress page builders go.
It is extremely fast, mobile-friendly, and comes with a built-in walk-through tour that quickly lets the new users get familiar with its interface and features.
Beaver Builder is a visual intuitive front-end page builder that you can actually see the edits while you are making your changes.
By simply dragging the vast element options from the right sidebar and dropping them on your page you can quickly and visually see your layout.
When your ready to edit each element that you have moved onto your page you simply click on the element to edit it.
There are modules to add sliders, carousels, backgrounds, content blocks, buttons, among many other things.
Another big plus that Beaver Builder has is a beautiful theme template library. So far the themes available with the purchase of the license are the most beautifully designed ones I have seen compared to the other page builders that are on the market as of right now.
The Beaver Builder plugin is selling for $99 for unlimited sites basic, themes are extra. For all themes and premium plugins and unlimited sites, the cost is $199 premium.
Beaver Builder is very easy to use for beginners, stylish, and has many of the features that a seasoned web designer is looking for as well.
Visual Composer
Visual Composer is another great page builder plugin and has both a back-end and front-end editor.
Update, with website speed being a major concern moving forward, I wouldn’t recommend using Visual Composer anymore.
I would use Gutenberg along with GenerateBlocks and the GeneratePress theme for the fastest page speeds.
You can see your changes after you make them through the preview option, which makes this last on the list as far as ratings go for being the best WordPress page building plugin for beginners to start with and use.
With that said Visual Composer has some excellent features and templates that can be manipulated to your design heart’s desire.
Visual Composer has over 45 content modules. This includes social media modules, post grids, media support, charts, and more.
Widgets can be inserted into the content area too, which makes the possibilities of Visual Composer limitless. All modules can be styled using the included skin builder.
Visual Composer is also integrated into many WP themes right out of the box, some of which you can find within CodeCanyon.
The sidebar can also be customized.
This page builder is the best-selling page builder to date and the #1 and is also the highest-selling plugin on CodeCanyon.
As of writing this article, Digital Cash Kings is using the Visual Composer platform.
The Visual Composer plugin is selling for $34 per single website at this time.
The only problem I have with Visual Composer is when doing edits it feels a bit sluggish at times, meaning that when I click on something to edit, especially in the widgets area it takes a moment to load. And the front-end editor is a bit buggy at times.
Are these issues enough to not use it? No, these issues are very minor and it’s not like it takes even a minute to resolve itself, I just felt I needed to address it.
With that said, the developers are constantly updating and improving so I have 100% confidence that these small issues will be worked out very soon.
What WordPress Page Builder Do I Use Most Often?
The WordPress page builder plugin that I use most would have to be Visual Composer right now.
Update, I no longer use Visual Composer.
Due to the slow loading times that my site was experiencing, it was due to Visual Composer.
I decided to change to a lightweight theme called GeneratePress and decided to use Gutenberg which is standard with your WordPress install along with GenerateBlocks which is a plugin, and this formula works the best for me as a page builder.
GeneratePress along with GenerateBlocks provides lightning fast load times along with great customization options.
Visual Composer is a fantastic page builder for visuals like most other page builders, but page loading times are what you want to also focus on and Visual Composer just didn’t get my page load times low enough for my liking.
I want to also say that Beaver Beaver and Elementor are fantastic plugins as well and I don’t want to take anything away from them with what I personally use.
The only reason I used Visual Composer was because of the theme I used.
The theme actually came with the Visual Composer page builder plugin which made it possible to create this beautifully designed out website you are on right now.
I have since moved on to use GeneratePress along with GenerateBlocks to custmize and style my blog.
It works great and is blazing fast, I can’t be more happy at this time with my choice.
To Summarize
If I was just starting out and wanted to choose a WordPress page builder plugin that would be rich in options and customization without pulling the very last hair from my head out before figuring out how to fully use it to its full potential, then I would choose either Beaver Builder or Elementor at the time of writing this article.
Let me also be clear, when I mention instances like, “At the time of writing this article” or similar phrases, WordPress page builder plugins are constantly improving and updating to have more features, more customization, more themes, and more templates… they also will work out the bugs and the sluggishness, so I am 100% sure the WordPress page builder plugins I have mentioned above will get better and better, and this list will change over time.
Additionally, there are some page builders that just don’t evolve and sometimes you just have to move on to something lighter that provides a better reader experience.
This is what I did when I chose to switch to using GeneratePress along with the GenerateBlocks plugin for one of the lightest themes but with amazing customization options.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed my article about