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If thereβs a downside to WordPressβ widespread popularity, itβs that at times it has resulted in a lot of cookie-cutter websites. Choosing a unique and flexible theme is a great start if you want to avoid creating a site that looks like everyone elseβs. However, thereβs one additional tool you may need.
Weβre talking about βpage builderβ plugins β solutions for your WordPress site that offer a high level of customization potential. Page builders let you create content using an intuitive drag-and-drop system, so you have near-total control over layout and features. Fortunately, there are a lot of options to choose from.
This is not a comparison of page builder plugins. In this post, weβll talk about why you might need a page builder tool for your website. Then weβll explore the five most important criteria to consider when selecting a plugin. Letβs get to work!
Why You Might Need a Page Builder Plugin for WordPress
WordPress has made its name as both a beginner-friendly and a highly-flexible platform. Itβs easy to pick up and learn, yet offers endless possibilities for customization.
However, the core platform itself is quite streamlined, and doesnβt contain a large feature set. Instead, when it comes to building a unique and fully-functioning site, you have two basic options:
- Make your own custom development and design changes to the software.
- Customize your site using a hand-picked selection of themes and plugins.
For most newcomers without development experience, the first option is out of reach initially. That means youβll be dependent on your chosen theme and plugins for shaping your siteβs appearance and functionality.
The right theme can do a lot to make your site stand out visually. Still, there are limits to the choices available in any particular option. Plus, you still run the risk of ending up with a site that looks a lot like all the others that were built using the same theme.
Thatβs where page builders come into the picture. These highly-popular plugins provide you with access to a drag-and-drop system for building pages, posts, and other content. This gives you a very high level of control over how your site is laid out, what it looks like, and what features it contains β with no development or design knowledge required.
Unless youβre building a very basic site (such as a personal blog or portfolio), itβs worth strongly considering picking up a page builder tool. This is especially relevant if your site will be connected with your business, as it will be vital that it reflects your companyβs style and target audience.
Itβs worth noting that WordPressβ developers recently added a page builder-style feature to the core platform – the Block Editor (formerly known as Gutenberg). While it is still in the early stages, a number of great extensions such as Kadence Blocks and Toolset Blocks are emerging which are adding some of the core features you can enjoy with page builders. Toolset is also integrated with page builders such as Elementor so you can easily add features you create on Toolset to your Elementor designs.
Some page builders even include larger pre-built pieces of content, which may go by other names. In Elementor, for instance, you can use βblocksβ to include entire page sections made up of multiple elements. These make building out your pages a lot faster, and they can still be customized to suit your needs. You can also add custom fields and other data to your Elementor pages if you create them using Toolset.
How to Choose a Page Builder Plugin (5 Key Criteria)
Page builders have been around for a while, so you have many choices. A lot of WordPress users will swear by their favorite tool, which can make the decision challenging.
At the same time, itβs vital to pick a solution youβll be happy with over the long term. Switching from one page builder to another can be tricky, since each one has different features. It may be hard to make your old and new content look similar, unless you reformat all your existing content in the new page builder by hand.
With that in mind, weβre going to help you make an informed choice by walking you through the five most important criteria youβll want to consider. By keeping these key factors in mind, youβll be in a good position to pick the right tool for your site.
1. Number of Elements
We mentioned earlier that page builders work using a drag-and-drop system. In practice, this means that you start with a template or a blank page, and fill it up with pre-built pieces of content from the page builderβs library:
These pieces go by many names β such as βelementsβ, βblocksβ, βwidgetsβ, and βmodulesβ. Whatever the terminology, each one is designed to add a specific type of content to your page. So if you want to include a text paragraph, for example, you might drag the βtextβ element onto your page and start typing.
Other common elements include:
- Images, videos, and other media
- Headings and lists
- Tables
- Buttons
- Progress bars and counters
- Maps
- Social media icons
Of course, most page builders offer far more than just a few elements. Whatβs important is to look for one that provides a large library, and covers the bases when it comes to both standard features (text and images) and more complex functionality.
Some page builders even include larger pre-built pieces of content, which may go by other names. In Elementor, for instance, you can use βblocksβ to include entire page sections made up of multiple elements. These make building out your pages a lot faster, and they can still be customized to suit your needs.
2. Layout Options
You can use either the Block Editor or page builders to create complex page layouts.
Given how the Block Editor was only released a few months ago there are still some teething problems. For example, its Column Block for adding columns to your pages lacks important features. Fortunately, there are alternatives such as Kadence Blocks which are far more reliable.
In the Block Editor, youβre largely constrained to placing elements above and below each other:
The other method is by using popular page builders which have a proven track record of designing complex layouts which look great. The aforementioned Elementor lets you arrange your pages into multiple columns and rows by default:
Apart from that, they very recently introduced a feature never before seen in WordPress – Flexible Layout. You can read on about how they have implemented position absolute, position fixed, side-by-side widgets, flexbox distribution and more in their announcement post.
Other options offer different flexibility. Both Visual Composer (read our full review here) and The Divi BuilderΒ allow for complex designs:
The interfaces for these kinds of page builders can be a little more confusing at first, and will take some getting used to. However, if you want total freedom to build out your pages to look exactly as youβd like, that learning curve may be worth your time.
3. Customization Potential
As weβve seen so far, a quality page builder will offer a large library of both simple and complex elements, and will let you arrange those elements on the page however youβd like. Thereβs one more piece to this puzzle, however β customizing the elements once theyβve been placed.
Just about any page builder (including the Block Editor) will offer unique settings for each element type. Youβll generally access this through a menu that opens when you place, click on, or hover over an element:
The options on hand will depend on what the element does. For instance, a paragraph element might enable you to change the text color and size, alter the font family, and add a drop case. On the other hand, a button element may include options for changing the buttonβs size and shape, and for adding borders and animations.
Generally speaking, the more options on offer, the better. This will enable you to create pages that look completely unique to your site. Whatβs more, the customization shouldnβt stop within each element. You should also be able to tweak your layouts β such as by changing the width and height of each piece of content, and adjusting the border spaces in between:
While you can learn a lot about a page builderβs library and layout options from reading through its feature list and documentation, with this criterion itβs best to do a little hands-on experimenting. Most page builders offer a free version β so try installing each plugin on a test site and playing around with it in order to see if it has the flexibility you need.
4. Performance
Itβs a common misconception that simply installing a lot of plugins on your WordPress site will slow it down. This isnβt necessarily true. Having many plugins can increase your chances for a sluggish site, but itβs not sheer numbers that matter β itβs quality.
In other words, some plugins are βheavierβ than others. They contain more features and more code, and thus put more of a strain on your siteβs performance. This matters, because slow pages drive away visitors, and can even hurt your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Unfortunately, page builder plugins tend to be on the weighty side. This is a natural consequence of how complex they are, and how much βstuffβ they come with (pre-built elements, demos, templates, etc). Therefore, youβll want to make sure your chosen page builder isnβt going to negatively affect your siteβs performance in any significant way.
A good place to start is by checking out the reviews for each page builder you’re considering. This should give you some insight into whether other users found its performance lacking. You can also find comprehensive comparisons on the performance impact of the most popular tools.
Finally, you can even run your own tests. Simply install a given page builder on a test site, build a page with it, and test that page’s speed using a site like Pingdom Tools:
For best results, you’ll want to do this on a staging copy of your live site (if you have one), and make sure all the other plugins you use are also installed.
5. Price
Last but certainly not least, we come to the most practical consideration. Thereβs a good chance price will play a role in your page builder decision, so itβs best to take a look at your budget and balance it with your needs before settling on a tool.
The majority of popular WordPress page builders work on a βfreemiumβ model. That means thereβs a base version you can use for free, with limited features. If you want access to the complete functionality, youβll need to pay for a premium license.
When considering the price of a page builder, youβll want to look for answers to a few key questions:
- What are the differences between the free and premium versions? Will you have everything you need on the free tier, or are you likely to require the complete feature set?
- What is the cost of a premium license? In addition, while most premium plugins require a one-time payment, that will only come with six months or a year of support and updates. Therefore, will you need to factor in this cost on a yearly basis in order to keep the plugin running?
- Along with the page builder itself, what types of βextrasβ will you get? Many page builders come bundled with additional features like themes or other plugins. Of course, thatβs only a benefit if you see yourself using the extras in question.
The nice thing about a freemium model is that you can always try out the free version first, to make sure you like the toolβs interface and options. Weβd suggest experimenting with a variety of popular page builders, before settling on (and potentially paying for) your favorite.
Conclusion
If youβre not a developer or designer, but you want to create a WordPress site that looks truly unique, a page builder is usually your best option. With the right tool, you can build pages and posts to meet your specific requirements, without the need for any technical know-how.
Finding WordPress page builder plugins isnβt hard. However, making the best choice for your site can be tricky. To do so, youβll want to consider each pluginβs:
- Number of elements
- Layout options
- Customization potential
- Performance
- Price
We currently use and recommend Elementor. We found that it met our needs in terms of feature-set and simplicity-of-use, without doing much to the site’s performance. They’re also adding amazing new features every few weeks, which is exciting.
If you want to try out the WordPress Block Editor then we recommend using this along with Toolset Blocks. While the WordPress Block Editor provides the basic editing features, Toolset Blocks gives you the ability to add dynamic content so you can build complete web pages with great designs.
What page builder are you using to customize your website, and why? Share your thoughts in the comments section below and let us know why you chose that one (or none at all).
7 Responses
Elementor plugin is really good. I just tried this. It is easy to customize a page by using this plugin. Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks, Mary. π
Such a great way to explain things. it was very useful post. thanks a lot man.
Thanks!
Thank you, Deva! π
Hi, Thanks for your nice post. I have questions on it is there any problem with page builder which is free?
Hi Main, are you concerned because they are free and not paid? I’ve seen no issues with that. A solution like Elementor has over 2 million active users for the free version. Some of those will have the paid version too, but the free version alone is great too.
You just need to find one that works for you that has great reviews, a dedicated team behind it (you can usually tell that from the replies in support and the changelog), and which meets your requirements.