Elementor Website Builder Review 2022
What Is Elementor?
A free website builder plugin for WordPress is called Elementor. In essence, it provides you with a drag-and-drop interface for WordPress, making your workflow comparable to that of well-known website builders like Wix or Squarespace.
With no coding experience necessary, you can select a pre-made template or create your own feature-rich site with elements you can move wherever you wish.
After installing Elementor:
With any design, structure, or functionality you require, you can build new pages or an entirely new website. Your current WordPress theme’s features aren’t the only ones available to you.
As Elementor is compatible with all WordPress themes, you can continue using your current theme (as long as you have Version 5.0 or higher of WordPress).
You’ll get access to a completely unique (and far more user-friendly) editor. The native editing interface for WordPress won’t be required of you.
You won’t need to continuously save drafts and preview as you’ll be modifying your pages or site from the front end, where you can see exactly what visitors see in their browser.
Yes, there are other builders that provide comparable functionality, but they typically have at least one significant drawback: either they have fantastic editing features but no free plan, or they do have a free plan but with a significantly smaller number of templates (that don’t look as nice, either).
In many respects, using Elementor actually does set you free. Let’s examine what it enables you to perform in more detail.
Over 300 ready-made templates
We approve of Elementor’s templates as a qualified designer! They make it simple for you to construct lovely, expert-looking websites even if you have no sense of design. Full-page templates (referred to as Pages) and smaller, individual parts are the two sorts of templates (called Blocks).
Use a Template Page
Using a pre-made template is the fastest method to get started with Elementor. Around 40 of the 150+ elements in Elementor are free. (Uncomfortably, there is no “free” filter; you must manually look for the tiny “Pro” tag in the corner of each template.)
You can select Pages from the same family to build several pages with various layouts in a unified style. These are referred to as “kits” by Elementor, although there is no mechanism to look for “kits” in the actual library. Instead, search for templates with the same name at the end, such as Travel or Digital Agency. For instance, the Travel package comprises seven pages, including About, Gallery, and FAQ, all of which look fantastic when combined.
You can import Elementor page templates from independent suppliers like ThemeForest for even more diversity.
You don’t even need to use a template; you may create your page from scratch if you want complete control over its design.
- Pro tip: Since Elementor templates are automatically positioned in the page’s body, your theme’s header, footer, and sidebar components will still be seen. This combo can look odd depending on your theme and the specific template you’re using. Go to Settings and change the Page Layout setting to “Elementor Canvas” to get rid of these components and start over with a clean slate.
Use a Template Block
You can use templates for Blocks, which are a smaller, more discrete version of Pages.
200+ pre-made Blocks for pricing tables, testimonials, “meet the team” layouts, portfolios, and other features are available in Elementor.
Some content blocks, like templates, are free, while “Pro” Blocks are not.
Use Widget Drag to Design
Widgets, as opposed to Blocks, are more compact and contained items like text, photos, titles, and maps. Any page can have as many Widgets as you like.
In addition to the 50+ additional paid widgets that Elementor offers, you can also insert WordPress’ native widgets from the same toolbar on the left. Elementor provides 30 free widgets. You might be able to accomplish the style and functionality you desire with solely free widgets from Elementor and WordPress, depending on how adaptable your WordPress theme is.
Make use of the Drag & Drop Editor
You may use the editor to click into any element on the website and make local modifications to it after selecting a template and adding all the content blocks and widgets you desire.
You won’t need to click Preview or switch modes because Elementor is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) tool to see your edits. Although you’ll be able to view changes as you make them, visitors to your website won’t see them until you click Publish.
Advice: Use maintenance mode
The built-in maintenance mode of Elementor enables you to display a temporary page while building or upgrading your website and automatically sets the appropriate HTTP status code for you. This option is available through your WordPress dashboard.
You won’t need to be concerned about unintentionally publishing edits prior to the site being ready when it is in maintenance mode. As your temporary splash page, you can select one of more than ten Elementor templates.
During editing, you can adjust color, font, spacing, layout, and more using the left-hand toolbar.
The fact that Elementor’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to have really granular control over each and every element is one of my favorite features. Almost all of the content blocks, widgets, text, photos, columns, and dividers on your website can be customized.
The Advanced tab, which is displayed below, has some extremely intriguing choices.
- Set precise margins and padding in terms of pixels or percentages.
- Elements can be given custom widths, and page positions are fixed.
- Columns can include widgets, text, or images.
- Adapt the column width and spacing
- Include cutting-edge hover and motion effects.
Here are a couple additional characteristics that I particularly liked:
- Any element’s upper-right corner can be clicked to reveal all of its editing options.
- With one click, content blocks can be duplicated.
- With Ctrl+Z and Shift+Z (or Cmd+Z and Shift+Cmd+Z on a Mac), it’s simple to undo and redo changes.
Elementor supports right-to-left (RTL) language display and is compatible with plugins for translation like WPML and Polylang (for languages that read that way, like Arabic).
Make adjustments to your website's mobile version.
The main goal of Elementor is to provide you design control, even though all of its templates are mobile-responsive by default. You can customize how your site appears on smartphones and tablets by using the Mobile Editing tool.
You can alter the settings to show or conceal features, alter the order of the columns, alter the margins based on the size of the screen, and more. To make sure the text on your site is always readable, you may even specify multiple font sizes for various devices.
The site won’t be mobile-responsive if you create it totally from scratch without using a template, but you can utilize the Mobile Editing function to make a distinct mobile version.
Building Pages Without Pressure: Version History
Sometimes it takes one, two, or even three undos to fix a bad design. It happens to the best of us, so don’t worry!
The History panel can help with that. You can either view whole versions of stored pages under the Revisions tab or specific changes under the Actions tab from this panel. Simply select Revert to bring up an earlier version of your page.
Which Version of Elementor, Free or Pro, Is Best for You?
Free Version
Elementor is distinguished by its robust free plan. The free edition more than meets the needs of many personal and even professional websites. With all the fundamental capabilities and the majority of the elaborate design elements, you may create custom websites and pages.
What is offered in Elementor’s free version?
- Use of the builder platform in its entirety, including mobile editing, live design, version history, etc.
- More than 30 widgets for audio files, text boxes, maps, and other things
- 40+ page models (including royalty-free stock photos)
- 100+ Block templates for “meet the team,” features, FAQs, and other content
Paid Version
For Elementor Pro, there are three premium options available. Only the amount of sites you are licensed for separates the Personal, Plus, and Expert plans.
Some of Elementor Pro’s most alluring attributes are listed below:
- 300+ high-quality templates
- Hundred plus premium Block templates
- Widgets that are global allow you to reuse them across multiple pages of your website. You just need to alter your widget once if you need to make a modification. All pages will automatically receive the update.
- Using the footers, headers, and other templates provided by Elementor, you can build your own theme from scratch.
- With the help of 18 WooCommerce widgets, you may establish an online store using WooCommerce Builder.
- Pop-up and form builder with MailChimp integration on the front end.
- CSS code access for your website
- 24/7 Premium customer assistance – you can provide Elementor representatives access to your dashboard to resolve problems and receive priority support for help tickets.
You can upgrade to the Plus plan to acquire licensing for three websites if you run numerous businesses or create websites for clients. However, the Expert plan offers you incredible value for your money. You get licensing for up to 1,000 sites for twice as much as the Plus plan, but the yearly cost is still pretty reasonable.
There is a 30-day money-back guarantee included with all paid plans.
Conclusion
The quick response? It does, indeed. This plugin is for you if you want complete control over the appearance of your WordPress site without having to dig into its code. There’s really no excuse not to utilize Elementor, even if you do have the technical know-how to code everything yourself because it makes building your site so simple and intuitive. Although you can do practically everything with Elementor’s free plan, I do advise upgrading if you’re creating websites for clients or if your website serves as the foundation of your company. It’s worth the relatively small payment because you can design your own theme and use the feature of global widgets.
