WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. However, when it comes to designing a page on the frontend, WordPress’s toolbox falls short of other site building platforms like Wix or Squarespace.
This WordPress disadvantage is now over, with the introduction of Elementor, the fastest and most user friendly frontend page builder for WordPress.
Elementor is a live drag and drop page builder that lets you create high-end pixel perfect pages at record speeds, while designing on the frontend of the site. The plugin is released free and open source (GPL) on the WordPress repository.
Elementor has been recently featured on Product Hunt, and has gained a lot of interest from WordPress users on Facebook groups.
You might be wondering how Elementor wins where so many previously released page builders failed. Let’s go over what sets it apart.
The Advantage of Speed
When it comes to page builders, speed matters on all levels. Elementor is the fastest page builder today. Whether it’s the instant flow of the drag and drop, that works without lags, or the fast loading time for pages designed by Elementor.
To reach this speed, we’ve made no compromise, and have built the plugin using the strictest code standards.
Speed and performance don’t only affect the site, but the user experience as well. The whole idea of a frontend page builder is to let you design the page while you view it, and if that experience is interrupted by loading time then the whole usability is compromised.
The Advantage of Open Source
We set out to become the standard web design plugin for WordPress. Elementor is released free and open source. While there are other free page builders, no other similar open source project offers such broad design capabilities, and such a wide array of features and widgets in the free plan.
We plan to release a premium plan for Elementor, but the free version will always allow users to reach high end and sophisticated designs, like no other free builder does.
We’ve already added 6 totally new widgets within the first three weeks after launch. These included the spacer, icon box, image box, grid gallery, slideshow gallery and carousel gallery.
The Advantage of Community
We regard the WordPress community as having a vital role in developing Elementor. The project is in GitHub, and developers can help expand and extend it further.
It has also been translated into several languages, including Japanese, German and Hebrew. This is the only page builder that was built to be compatible to other languages, including RTL support. We hope to see more and more contributors join our community, and are in the process of setting up a badge system to reward them accordingly.
How We Are Doing So Far
Elementor has been downloaded over 10,000 times. It was featured in the Product Hunt newsletter, and has already gained over 700 upvotes. We are constantly adding new features on a weekly basis, and as mentioned, have a clear plan for the roadmap ahead.
Check out the first list of features available on the Elementor website.
6 Responses
Ben is right, it does work very well, the user interface is easy to understand. LiveComposer is nice too but I find the interface clumsy with all the horizontal scrolling you have to do.
Any mention of what the sustainability/monetary model is? I have already invested heavily in another page builder ecos and, even though Elementor is currently free, I wonder where the “gotchas” will come in?
Most likely they will sell premium extensions and page designs the same way Forge plugin developer do: https://wordpress.org/plugins/forge/
So far I saw the next models for the page builders:
– 100% Free, not premium version (they make money on other businesses were page builder is part of the deal or use 100% free page builder to get users for other paid plugins):
https://wordpress.org/plugins/siteorigin-panels/,
https://wordpress.org/plugins/live-composer-page-builder/
– Free, but make money on premium extensions:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/forge/
– Limited free plugin, with premium version available:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-builder-sandwich/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/kingcomposer/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/beaver-builder-lite-version/
There is no “gotchas” planned. We will be launching a pro version in the future, but the widgets you see today, plus more to come in the following weeks, will remain free. We are going to publish our roadmap soon depicting our plan for the future.
Thank you for the response. It’s just that there are so many annual subscriptions that I already have to maintain that I am very reticent to add new ones. Also, asking my clients to learn another process that may disappear is not something that I relish.
I am going to download Elementor and see how she goes.
I am glad you are going to download it, because once you try it you will see it is not a plugin that will disappear. We have put a lot of thought into every control, and three weeks after launch there are already over 2,000 active users that understand this is a well crafted plugin.
Once you use Elementor you won’t be able to go back to other page builders, because it will be like moving from high speed internet to land line.