Elementor Pro is a powerful and reliable page builder for WordPress. There are many other ‘drag and drop’ page builders for WordPress but what makes it ideal is that any user, even those who are new to WordPress environment can build their website using Elementor. This is a Elementor review of high detail, you can skip to the verdict at the end if you would like to know the price and if you should buy.
Elementor has become popular in such a short time because of its free version which offers a user-friendly experience with features that were usually found in premium drag and drop page builders. However, the Pro version has desirable features which open up limitless opportunities to develop your WordPress website.
Other Front-end page builders available for WordPress are not bad, they do their job, but considering all the additional modules and powerful features that it includes, it tops them by a considerable margin. It is not just me, but many of the prominent WordPress developers and CEOs seem to think so too.
Elementor Pro is a paid addon to the free version of Elementor. Since the free version is a perquisite it adds value to the Elementor Pro features, and so some of the best things about free version is also mentioned here. Let’s see more about Elementor Pro in this article.
Best things about Elementor free version
- User Interface
- Code Quality
- Performance
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Video Capabilities
- Customization
- Styling
- Supported Themes
- WordPress 5.0 Compatibility
Best things about Elementor Pro
- Custom Breakpoints
- Elementor Theme Builder
- Pro Widgets
- Global Widget
- Dynamic Contents
- Dynamic Widgets
- WooCommerce Integration
- Email Integrations
- Template Library
User Interface
One can use Elementor without any knowledge of coding, and there is not much backend work either. Only need to visit backend to change some setting initially and occasionally if required, this is the user-friendliness of Elementor.
At first glance from a beginner’s point of view, Elementor’s interface is not as intuitive as some other page builders. It takes some time to get used to. But you can learn how to use it quickly. Once you get used to it, you can build your website in a very short time. Comparing other page builders, you save much time with Elementor.
The most attractive character of Elementor is the sidebar control panel on the right side of the page with two columns containing all the widgets, and there is search bar to search the widgets. You simply have to drag and drop the widget where you want to put the widget in your page.
Since Elementor uses a visual editor, you can see any changes you make occur in real-time. You have in-line text editing, with which you can just click a box such as a column and type in real time and see changes there itself.
You can also access your change history and revert back to previous versions of your layout. This is useful if you make a mistake or just change your mind about something you added.
Code Quality
The code quality of Elementor is very applaudable. Elementor’s users seem to love it. It is because it uses very less shortcodes. In a page which was built with Elementor if you deactivate it, it will not destroy all the contents. That’s the least you can expect from a page builder. Some page builders use a ton of shortcodes which would destroy your contents.
Performance
Some people have experienced a lag or some other trouble while opening up the Elementor builder. However, it’s usually not caused by Elementor itself. It is typically caused by outdated hosting, outdated PHP version, the rocket loader enabled in Cloudflare, or some overly aggressive caching or other performance plugins. Based on my experience, Elementor is very fast, may even be the fastest out there.
Mobile-responsiveness
At the bottom of the control panel, you can change the view from desktop mode to tablet, and mobile modes. It lets you see how the pages or displayed on mobile/tablets as you are creating the page.
Elementor has more than 1 million active users, and many of them seem to be enjoying the builder’s mobile-design capabilities quite a lot. They have said that they chose Elementor above other builders because it lets you see the Mobile/Tablet/Desktop as they are building it. It is effortless to design Mobile responsive pages with Elementor.
Video Capabilities
Elementor’s video capabilities far exceed many of the video embedding plugins. With the video widget and the video background options of Elementor, you can embed YouTube and Vimeo, and you can even embed self-hosted HTML5 and Dailymotion videos.
There is a ‘Modest Branding’ option to hide the Youtube logo from the embedded video. If the original video is long you can set a start and end point for the video widget and the video background as well, so only part of the video is played.
Customization
Many people are quite comfortable with other page builders which gives them enough customization capabilities and limited styling. It serves their purpose.
For people who believe their website gives them an identity, Elementor Pro is the perfect tool. It lets you customize every single inch of your website thus making your site unique. You could use widgets and shortcodes to embed Elementor designs anywhere in your site, including sidebars, footers, and other areas. For a webmaster, it is an absolute pleasure.
Styling
While all page builders try to make a design as simple as possible, just by dragging a module but people want to do more styling too. Unfortunately, not many page builders allow much styling without having to add codes. But Elementor Pro has advanced styling options.
When you click to edit a widget, you can find a Style column in the control panel under which you can choose the style of your desire, which is more than what most people want. If you want more, there is an Advanced column, in which you can add a code to change your style.
What blew me away was how easy it was to switch between desktop, tablet and mobile views to style them independently.
Supported Themes
One of the key things about Elementor is that it is designed to work with any WordPress theme. This gives you the freedom to work with your favorite theme, or switch themes and you don’t have to worry about making changes.
Though it doesn’t cause any problem with a theme with a clean code, to make the best use of Elementor’s capabilities it is recommended by the creators that you use one of these themes – Astra, GeneratePress or OceanWP.
But, I personally, recommend that you use the Astra theme with Elementor. Astra Pro has the best integrations with Elementor and gives more than 50 pre-built and full Elementor-based websites.
WordPress 5.0 compatibility
While the whole WordPress community is expecting the release of WordPress 5.0 Gutenberg, Elementor is ready for this version. Elementor team is working closely with the Gutenberg team, making sure Elementor will continue to work smoothly for all Elementor users once Gutenberg is launched.
Custom Breakpoints – PRO
For a while, many users have been asking Elementor for Custom breakpoints for Mobile and tablets, and Elementor in its latest version gives you the option to change the mobile and tablet breakpoint values, and now you can customize your site for specific widescreen computers and laptops or small mobile screens.
This feature is not available on other page builders
Elementor Theme Builder – PRO
The Theme Builder is a recent and eminent feature of Elementor Pro. With Elementor Theme Builder, you can work with any theme and design its header, footer, single posts and archive page.
It works in a straightforward way. You can choose the type of template you want to create. This can be a header, footer, single post page or archive page and then set conditions to determine where your template will apply: across your website, for a specific page, or any condition you may like, and you are done.
You could help your visitors navigate through your site by applying a Sticky Header that follows them as they scroll. You can take advantage of the visual editor to fully customize your header and footer area.
Widgets – Elementor PRO
When it comes to widgets, Elementor Pro is the ultimate tool. The real power of Elementor is shown in the widgets area. Other page builders do give some widgets, but mostly you will have to use separate plugins to get the widgets that Elementor Pro offers.
All widgets are displayed in two columns of the control panel. The Pro version has 30 new widgets along with the 24 widgets already given with the free version. Totally, the 54 widgets can be put to very good to create a flawless design with zero compatibility issues.
The widgets include content widgets for WooCommerce, Social media sharing, Pricing tables, Posts, Portfolios, Facebook comments, and more. You can even use any WordPress widget with Elementor.
One main advantage of using Elementor Pro is that you get features such as Slider, Form, Login, Media carousel, Social media sharing, etc., Earlier these widgets had to be used through different plugins which could create new sets of problems. Now you get these in one place as widgets. You can embed these widgets anywhere on your website.
Global Widget – Elementor PRO
When designing a website most people use a particular widget with design, style, and colours customized to their need at multiple locations of a website. Usually, we need to change the settings for every time we add a widget, but with Elementor Pro you can save your widget with all its customized settings as a global widget.
You’ll be able to add it to multiple areas on your site, even across your entire website. Change it once, and it instantly updates on all places. It is time-saving and building WordPress websites has never been easier.
Dynamic Contents – Elementor PRO
One area where Elementor Pro excels every other page builder is Dynamic Contents option. You can create the design framework of the page, including dynamic parts like page title or featured image, and the content is put in automatically.
The dynamic content tags include Posts (URL, Title, Featured Image, Content, Excerpt, Meta, Date, Time), Archive (Title, Description, Meta, URL), Author (Name, Profile Picture, BIO, Meta), Comments (URL, number of comments), Site (Site Name, Site Tagline, Site URL).
You could help your visitors navigate through your site by applying a Sticky Header that follows them as they scroll. You can take advantage of the visual editor to fully customize your header and footer area.
Widgets – Elementor PRO
When it comes to widgets, Elementor Pro is the ultimate tool. The real power of Elementor is shown in the widgets area. Other page builders do give some widgets, but mostly you will have to use separate plugins to get the widgets that Elementor Pro offers.
All widgets are displayed in two columns of the control panel. The Pro version has 30 new widgets along with the 24 widgets already given with the free version. Totally, the 54 widgets can be put to very good to create a flawless design with zero compatibility issues.
The widgets include content widgets for WooCommerce, Social media sharing, Pricing tables, Posts, Portfolios, Facebook comments, and more. You can even use any WordPress widget with Elementor.
One main advantage of using Elementor Pro is that you get features such as Slider, Form, Login, Media carousel, Social media sharing, etc., Earlier these widgets had to be used through different plugins which could create new sets of problems. Now you get these in one place as widgets. You can embed these widgets anywhere on your website.
Global Widget – Elementor PRO
When designing a website most people use a particular widget with design, style, and colours customized to their need at multiple locations of a website. Usually, we need to change the settings for every time we add a widget, but with Elementor Pro you can save your widget with all its customized settings as a global widget.
You’ll be able to add it to multiple areas on your site, even across your entire website. Change it once, and it instantly updates on all places. It is time-saving and building WordPress websites has never been easier.
Dynamic Contents – Elementor PRO
One area where Elementor Pro excels every other page builder is Dynamic Contents option. You can create the design framework of the page, including dynamic parts like page title or featured image, and the content is put in automatically.
The dynamic content tags include Posts (URL, Title, Featured Image, Content, Excerpt, Meta, Date, Time), Archive (Title, Description, Meta, URL), Author (Name, Profile Picture, BIO, Meta), Comments (URL, number of comments), Site (Site Name, Site Tagline, Site URL).
WooCommerce Integrations – Elementor Pro
Elementor has specialized integration with Woocommerce plugin. In the 30 Pro widgets, there are 4 Woo widgets that is; they are specially made for your Woocommerce Store. They are,
Woo-Products
Woo-Categories
Woo-Add to Cart
Woo-Elements
All the other widgets especially Price List and Price table could be handy for Woocommerce store.
With these widgets, you could get a wide variety of options to display your products. Create advanced filters so that you can showcase your products in the best way possible.
Elementor Pro + Astra Pro + WooCommerce is the best package for an Ecommerce store.
Email Integrations – PRO
Elementor includes a built-in and hassle-free integration to MailChimp, MailPoet, and Zapier. You can connect your favorite email marketing service, CRM or any other Zapier integration with a few easy steps.
Template Library – PRO
If you don’t have time to learn how to build pages from scratch, you can access the templates library of Elementor Pro which has more than 125 pre-designed templates which you can use to build your website. The template pages include Homepages, Landing pages, Pricing pages and other pages. If you want more, there are many other Elementor templates available on the internet.
