Pros
- Has A Free Version
- Great User Experience
- Open Source
- Updated Regularly
- Easy to Use
- Beginner Friendly
Cons
- Slow Performance
- Limited Number Templates
- Lacks Some Advanced Features
- Required Paid Version To Unlock Advanced Features
Introduction
The fact you’re searching for reviews on Elementor means you’re considering using it for a web project or company website.
Hi, I’m Emmanuel Asika.
I live and breathe Elementor, which makes me the perfect person to advise you on if you should choose Elementor as a website-building solution.
I’ve been building many client sites for the past four years with Elementor and have watched it grow from a small tool to the beast of a solution it is today.
After reading this article, you’ll know exactly what Elementor can do and if it’s the right tool for you.
Don’t worry; this isn’t an article that just lists features. I’m giving an expert opinion on everything. Most Elementor review posts I’ve seen are from people who barely know the ins and out.
Everything you read here is pretty much-known FACTS.
Let’s get to it.
Elementor Pro Review: In a Nutshell
I don’t plan on wasting your time, so here are my two cents about Elementor.
It’s currently the best pagebuilder for building WordPress sites, especially for beginners.
Every other pagebuilder on the market I’ve tested doesn’t come close to its ease of use.
Divi? Beaver Builder? All complex to get started with and have a clunky way of doing things (Divi is actually good, too, but only if you’re willing to watch five years’ worth of tutorial videos first, lol)
In terms of pricing, Elementor is free.
Free-ish, not wholly accurate, though, because the real power that comes with the pagebuilder is only unlocked when you pay for the premium version (Theme Builder *Coughs*, Ahem).
The only flaw I’d say Elementor has is it’s not powerful enough for advanced users (like me).
I’ve had to rely on third-party Addons (CrocoBlocks) to do some pretty crazy stuff for projects that required it, Elementor is simple, and the company behind the pagebuilder wants to keep it that way, I guess.
Websites built with Elementor also tend to be slow if they include too many sections and content.
Personally, I optimize all the websites I build with Elementor with WP Rocket which boosts Elementor’s speed performance to the max, but if you’re building simple 3 – 6 section pages, the speed should be fine.
Overall, I’d say Elementor is the best pagebuilder for beginners in the market right now.
Nothing comes close to its ease of use, especially for beginners.
Who Is Elementor Best Suited To?
If you’re someone that just needs an easy way to build websites without any hassles, Elementor will feel right at home.
Elementor is best suited for building simple landing pages and sections.
If you’re trying to build a website for your business or maybe a portfolio to show your work online, Elementor is suited for you.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never built a site in your life; after taking their Elementor introductory course, you should be able to get started and put something together fairly quickly.
If you’re an expert coming from something like Webflow or Oxygen builder, I’d not recommend Elementor.
The limitations you discover when building advanced websites are surprisingly shocking, except if you’re ready to invest in Addons to extend the plugin, it’s not worth it (stick to WebFlow, man).
You can also read my Elementor Beginner’s guide article, which has more in-depth information on the features Elementor offers; this is just an Elementor review article where I’m sharing my thoughts to help you make a decision.
Using Elementor for The First Time: My Experience
The first time I ever used Elementor was four years ago; I used to rely on themes from Themeforest.net, which heavily relied on WP bakery back in the day.
I was mostly into blogging back then, so I set up a lot of blogs as a paid service, and I kid you not; the limitations that came with those themes were hell-like.
When Elementor came, it changed everything for not just me but every WordPress admin.
We went from buying poorly coded themes with severe limitations on what you could change to building complete websites from scratch with no restrictions.
The thing is, I already had experience with building websites, so Elementor felt right at home.
After watching a couple of tutorials on YouTube about Elementor and making some demo projects, I have started using it as my primary website-building solution ever since.
I also tried Divi, beaver builder, and many others that came to market around the same time Elementor did, and they all felt clunky.
Divi was perfect, though, it just didn’t have enough people using it at the time, and I needed to make money, lol.
I can’t fight the crowd.
Since then, Elementor has grown to be the number one pagebuilder with many improvements.
Elementor Features
So, I’m going to share my thoughts on all the core features Elementor offers.
If you need more in-depth information about each of these features, check out my Elementor Beginner’s Guide because I don’t like writing things over and over again; this isn’t a typical ranking-hungry blog, lol.
Drag-and-Drop Editor
Two core features make Elementor the beast of a website-building solution, and the Drag-and-Drop Editor is one of them.
I’ve never seen a more intuitive page editor in my entire life; it’s so simple to use that a beginner would figure it out in a couple of hours and master it in a week.
I have used a lot of drag-and-drop editors, all the way from Dreamweaver back in the day to Wix and Squarespace, and in my opinion, None of them is as intuitive as Elementor.
When you drag in an element, it goes precisely where you want it to (try adding an element to the Editor in an average Pagebuilder, and you’ll understand how Elementor does it better)
Overall, the Editor works in a simple way by separating its layout architecture with two basic terms; Sections and columns.
Sections serve as a container that holds all the columns and content inside them together.
Columns simply allow you to separate and arrange content side by side.
There’s also an inner-section widget that makes it possible to add more columns inside an existing column.
Pretty powerful stuff.
I’d give Elementor a 10 out of 10 for its Drag-and-Drop Editor; it deserves it.
Elements and Widgets
Elementor doesn’t have the most widgets when it comes to pagebuilders in the market.
In fact, it only has 31 core widgets in the free version and 31 more advanced widgets in the premium version.
Yet, there’s nothing Elementor can’t do that an average pagebuilder with 100+ widgets can.
Each Elementor widget was created to be ambiguous, which means you can use them for different purposes.
All the basic stuff from Headings, Text, Lists, and images to widgets with advanced functionalities like Portfolio, Posts, and templates.
As long as you’re trying to display any standard form of content, there’ll always be a widget that can represent it with adequate control over customization.
If you ever find that the 62 core widgets aren’t getting the job done, you can install third-party Addons, which also have a barrage of awesome widgets.
I’m confident that no matter what you have in mind, there’s either a widget for it or an Addon that adds it.
Overall, I’d give Elementor a 7 / 10 for its Widgets. Having to rely on a third party is a bomber, but I understand they want to keep the plugin simple, so it’s all good.
Template Library
If you’re coming from something like Wix, the Elementor template library will likely disappoint you.
If you’re a total beginner, you’ll find the templates listed in the library useful, though.
Wix and Squarespace rely on their beautiful templates to get users to signup for their services, so naturally, they’d invest heavily in making the best.
Elementor has a lot of sides to it; the template library is sound, don’t get me wrong, but as someone who has used a toxic amount of no-code web development tools, they aren’t the best.
I had used them a couple of times, though, mostly when I was starting out, as they help save time, especially when using the Theme builder.
Overall, I’d say only a total beginner who doesn’t know how to build layouts from scratch will find the templates listed there helpful.
Oh, before I forget, the template library has a few free templates and sections, but you need an Elementor Pro to unlock all the good stuff.
You can also save any of your designs to the template library and export them to other sites.
A pretty neat feature that I use often.
Template Kits
Trust me; this is the best thing that ever happened to the Elementor community after Pizza.
Picture this; you need a bakery website built with Elementor to customize and edit the content quickly, but you have little to no design/development skills.
The Answers? Template Kits.
Template Kits are wholly designed website layouts that are available for purchase on Themeforest and other third-party marketplaces.
The best part about template kits is you can reuse and customize them however you want, and they’re not as expensive as purchasing Themes.
In fact, they will hardly ever break because they rely directly on Elementor.
Anybody can make a template kit and sell it, which opens many doors, but more often than not, it’s the users that benefit the most.
Personally, I’d say Elementor template kits make up for their lack of quality template library collection.
There are over 50,000 template kits available on Themeforest for purchase. Whether you’re building a website for your business or a company, there are a lot of professionally made kits available.
Theme Builder
I think up until Elementor coined this word, it wasn’t really a thing.
In many ways, Elementor is responsible for how other modern WordPress pagebuilder function; there’s breakdance and Brizy, which all take inspiration (lol, inspiration) from how Elementor works.
Elementor introduced the Theme builder at a time when the only way to build WordPress dynamic pages like blog post pages, Archive or category pages, and search pages was with PHP.
That’s right, Elementor Theme Builder allows you to build out an entirely custom website theme from scratch with zero restrictions on what you can do.
You can build an entire store with custom checkout and cart page experiences with just Elementor and zero custom code.
I know I’m making it sounds good and easy, but the Theme builder is an advanced feature, with aspects like display conditions and dynamic fields; it does take a bit of practice to get the hang of it.
If you’re looking to get elementor for developing simple websites, you’ll hardly ever need to use Theme Builder.
Overall, without the Theme Builder, Eleemntor would be just another easy-to-use pagebuilder.
Powerful stuff.
Site(wide) Theme Settings
If you have a colour scheme and set of fonts you prefer, Elementor makes it easy to implement these as defaults.
You can set defaults for almost every text-based widget and other things like buttons, page layouts, and breakpoints.
This helps you save a ton of time when developing sites and help keep everything consistent.
I really love this feature, especially when I’ve had to work on massive 10- 20 page projects.
Role Manager
The Eleemntor role manager helps you limit who can do what.
If you have a team and they all have accounts on your WordPress site, the Role manager helps segregate control.
Things like who can change text, who can change images, and who can do whatever.
Again, this is more of an extra feature, but you’ll definitely find it helpful when working with clients (who tend to destroy everything, lol)
Overall Verdict On Elementor’s Features
Elementor doesn’t have the most features in the market; heck, it’s not nearly as powerful as competitors like webflow.
But overall, as an everyday person who needs to build websites without learning many complex things, Elementor stands out.
Based on all the hand-picked features of this article, I’d recommend it 10/10 to anybody that fits the I don’t want stress; I just want to build a d!mn website demographics.
Moving on, let’s take a look at the pricing.
Elementor Pricing
Elementor has four different plans, namely:
- Essential Plan
- Expert Plan
- Studio Plan
- Agency Plan
Elementor Essential Plan
The essential plan is primarily aimed at users who want to build a single website.
It has all the pro widgets and website kits required to build advanced Elementor websites.
With an annual cost of $49, it’s way cheaper than going with something like WIX or Squarespace, which charge almost the same monthly amount (even with hosting).
The Essential plan would fit just right if you just need a single website built.
Elementor Expert Plan
The expert plan allows up to 25 website activations, which is the most popular plan Elementor offers.
It has all the features of the essential plan, but the main reason people purchase this is the number of activations.
The Elementor Exper plan costs $199 per year, again not a bad deal compared to competitors and what you’re getting.
In a year, you can decide to build 5 – 10 websites, especially if you’re freelancing or have a ton of business ideas you’d like to try.
The expert plan also unlocks access to Elementor Experts, which is a marketplace for Elementor developers and designers (there are a lot of unqualified profiles on there, but that’s a discussion for another day).
Overall, this is the perfect plan if you need more than one website built with Elementor.
Elementor Studio Plan
The Studio plan offers everything the Expert plan does with even more website activations, a 100, to be precise.
Except you’re planning on building websites for an entire country, lol; this plan isn’t for you.
Personally, I’ve only ever used the Expert plan, and most of my clients purchase their own licenses.
I’d say anything over the Expert plan isn’t for regular users but agencies that deal with hundreds of clients.
You also get VIP support; on the Expert plan, you get Premium support – I really don’t know the difference between premium and VIP support, but it seems the more money you can speed, the faster and better they’ll help you, lol.
The Elementor studio plan costs $299 for the first year and $499 for renewal, it doesn’t actually make much sense, but I guess a company or freelancer with hundreds of clients should be able to afford it.
Elementor Agency Plan
The Elementor Agency Plan is the holy grail of plans, and guess what? It has Super Premium VIP Support, lol.
When you’re paying $999 a year for pagebuilder, you know they’ll be sure to call and check on you daily.
For the rest of us using the Expert plan, well… We’re broke, so we get late live chat replies and generic messages when they can’t help.
Jokes aside, the Agency plan supports up to a thousand site activations; talk about going overboard.
And in all my years of developing websites with Elementor, I have never come across anyone that purchased the agency plan, though, I know some established web agencies have, but I’ve not come across any just yet.
Still, a good deal, though, if you have thousands of clients, that is.
Elementor Cloud Website
This new Elementor plan offers cloud hosting with Elementor Pro pre-installed and activated.
If you do not want to host Elementor yourself and just want a complete Wix-like experience, this would be perfect for you.
The plan costs $99 a year, which is a good deal considering all the features you get access to.
You’re practically paying $51 for an entire year’s worth of cloud hosting (Elementor costs $49 a year).
Personally, I don’t use this plan, but it’s a great deal for non-technical users.
Elementor Support
First, I’d like to say if you’re not using the paid version of Elementor, do not expect any direct support from Elementor.
Aside from their documentation and searching google for help, there’s really nothing else for free users.
If you’re paying elementor user, you’ll have access to their support team via Email and live chat 24/7.
Note that their response time is not so good, especially if you’re on the first two plans (Essential and Expert)
Priority support is reserved for higher plans (Studio and Agency) as they get responded to under 30 minutes after any query is sent.
They will mostly answer questions and give advice; they do not help out in building layouts.
At the end of the day, Elementor is a pretty simple tool, so you’ll rarely need any severe support.
Your hosting company is generally responsible for fixing most WordPress issues; Elementor support simply fixes and advises on Elementor-related issues only.
Even their cloud hosting promises to answer questions, nothing like helping you build out a section you’re having trouble with.
Elementor Performance
Elementor doesn’t have the best performance compared to alternatives like Oxygen or Brizy, but it still scales well when optimized.
You see, I always use WP Rocket for all my Elemenetor sites because of how slow pages can get after adding in content.
In fact, WP Rocket published an article comparing Elementor and Oxygen in terms of performance, and Elementor performed worst by a margin.
If you’re planning on purchasing Elementor because of its performance, don’t.
You need an optimization plugin like WP Rocket or Nitro Pack to get it up to par.
Not a complete deal breaker, though, since Elementor is constantly improving with every update.
FAQ
Is Elementor any good?
According to statistics from BuiltWith, Elementor currently powers over 11 million websites, making it the most used WordPress pagebuilder. It also has a 4.8 (out of 5) rating on over 6,300 reviews, so most users find it good.
Is there anything better than Elementor?
Oxygen offers better performance and features than Elementor, making it the better option if you’re looking to build complex websites with no restrictions.
Is Elementor good for building websites?
Yes, Elementor offers the best user experience when building websites with pagebuilders. From its compact widgets to easy layout elements, it’s truly a good website-building technology.
Is Elementor good for beginners?
Most beginners can master Elementor in the first week of using the tool; its simple user interface and approach to building out layouts make it one of the best options for beginners looking to build websites with WordPress.
Why is Elementor so popular?
Elementor is popular because of its template kits and wide adoption by major theme developers. Since it’s an easy-to-use pagebuilder, theme developers use its infrastructure to streamline their themes’ user experience, resulting in its rapid growth.
Does Elementor slow down your site?
Yes, according to speed tests carried out by WP Rocket, Elementor performances badly when compared to other WordPress pagebuilders and can slow down your site if used without an optimization plugin.
Is Elementor good for SEO?
Eleemntor integrates with SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Maths, making it good for SEO. You can set things like meta description and keywords right from the Editor, which will be reflected on search engines like Google.
Do I have to keep paying for Elementor?
To keep your Elementor website updated, you must keep paying for Elementor Pro. If you decide not to renew your subscription, Elementor will keep working, but you won’t have access to new updates.
What is the difference between Elementor and Elementor pro?
Eleemntor is a free pagebuilder plugin that aids in building websites with WordPress. Elementor Pro is a premium version that adds more features like a Theme builder and a premium template library, making building websites on WordPress even easier.
Is Elementor Pro a One time purchase?
Elementor Pro has an annual subscription, meaning you must keep paying to continue using it.
It is not a one-time purchase.
Can You Cancel Elementor?
Yes, you can easily cancel elementor subscriptions by logging into your dashboard on their website Elementor.com. Navigate to the billing page and click on the cancel button to initiate a cancellation request.
Can I use Elementor Pro without a license?
Without the Elementor Pro license, you can not access some premium features like the Template library, but you can use all premium widgets. Using Elementor Pro without a license is not advised because you will not receive crucial updates.
How many websites can I use Elementor Pro on?
Depending on the Elementor Plan you subscribe to, you can use Elementor on 1 – 1000 sites,
Each activation can only be used once, but you can swap out websites if you no longer need Elementor on them, freeing up more activation spots.
Does Elementor Pro expire?
Yes, Elementor Pro subscriptions expire yearly, so you have to renew your plan constantly. If not, you’ll lose access to Elementor Pro updates and support.
How do I activate my Elementor Pro license for free?
There is no free way to activate Elementor Pro; you must pay to access an activation license. They do offer a 30-day return policy so that you can test it out with a guaranteed refund.
Conclusion
So, do I recommend Elementor despite all the negative things I pointed out?
I absolutely do, nothing comes close to the ease of use Elementor brings to the table, especially for beginners.
Using other plugins that integrate with Elementor can practically make you a WordPress god overnight.
I do not recommend it for experts, though; if you know how to code or have been building websites with Webflow, you’ll find elementor restrictive as heck.
I still use though, because I know many ways to bring out the best from the pagebuilder.
Please, consider joining my email list if you want content that will help you become a better Elementor Visual Developer and start making figure sites (even though I only make four figures per project, lol, just join, please).