Elementor is a drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. According to an introduction on its official website, this plugin has been used by over 13 million users. This indicates that Elementor is a popular page builder plugin. How great is this plugin? This review will find out the answer.
Page builder plugins like Elementor have one thing in common. They are created to make it easy for you to design a web page in WordPress. Elementor comes with a drag and drop interface. It also adopts the concept of WYSIWYG just like regular WordPress editor. The difference is, Elementor offers more elements which you can use add to your page. Also, Elementor is built with visual approach instead of text.
A brief intro about Elementor
As mentioned earlier above, Elementor is a drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress. It has a visual user interface. There are lots of elements you can add to the page you are creating. From image, text, social media icons, video, maps, forms, and so on. Elementor itself is a freemium page builder. While you can use it for free, premium version offers more elements. With premium version, you can, for instance, create a beautiful pricing table like the following.
Elementor has an extensive use, depending on your need and creativity. You can, for instance, use it to design a WordPress page which you can set as the home page of your website later. In addition to elements from Elementor, you can also add elements from WordPress such as recent posts, navigation menu and so on.
Elementor is not merely a page builder. It also offers pop-up builder. More interestingly, Elementor also supports integrations with popular services like MailChimp and MailerLite. Started to curious? Read on.
Elementor overview:
- Author: Elementor
- Active installations: 13,000,000+
- WordPress version: 5.2 or higher
- Ratings:
(5 / 5)
The interface of Elementor
Elementor is a visual page builder. It comes with a drag and drop interface. You can simply drag the elements you want to add from the elements panel on the left side to the canvas on the right side. To give you an overview, here is how to add an element to your page in Elementor.
Elementor has a clear interface and pretty easy to learn. Even if you haven’t used any page builder plugin before, we are pretty sure that you will not meet any serious problem in using Elementor. Before adding any element, you can first add a section by clicking the plus button. Section is a design layout block with one or multiple columns in it. You can add several sections on a single page.
Every time you add a new section, you will be asked to select a content structure for your new section. There are 12 section types to choose from.
If you want to use Elementor to create a page for the home page of your website, you can create a scratch on a paper first to design the layout of your page then you can implement it on Elementor.
All contents you added to your page can be edited via the left panel. You can hide this panel to give extra space for the canvas. One of the interesting things about Elementor is that it supports right click. Simply right-click an element and you will see a contextual menu that has options like edit, duplicate, copy, and delete.
In addition to hosts the elements you can add to your page, the left panel on the Elementor editor also has handy color picker. This feature is pretty handy since you can select certain color and copy the hex code to be applied to your page.
The editor of Elementor is equipped with Navigator. This feature allows you to easily switch from one section or column to another ones more easily. You can also live-preview your page without certain section by disabling it (click the eye icon to disable a section). Navigator can be accessed by right-clicking or by clicking the Navigator icon on bottom side of the left panel.
Elementor features
Elements
First and foremost, you need to know that Elementor is a freemium plugin. Not all features of Elementor Pro are available on free version. You can use the free version if you only need to create a web page with basic elements like image, text, social media icons, maps, and buttons. Elements like form and pricing table are only available on the pro versions. There are about 29 basic elements available on the free version of Elementor.
Following are the comparison between basic elements and pro elements.
- Basic elements
Following are the basic elements available on the free version of Elementor.
- Pro elements
Pro version of Elementor have all basic elements above. Plus the following pro elements.
In addition to the elements above, there are many other elements you can add your page. From theme elements like post title, post excerpt, post navigation to WooCommerce elements like product stocks, product meta, product rating, product price, add to chart and so on.
Page templates
Another good thing offered by Elementor is page templates. With templates, you can create a beautiful web page in minutes. You can simply select an appropriate template and tailor the contents according to your site. To browse templates, you can click the folder icon on the Elementor editor.
There are about 141 ready-to-use page templates offered by Elementor. Of course, not all of these templates are available on the free version. If you love certain template, you can add it to your favorite so that if you want to create a new page next time and want to use the same template, you can effortlessly find it on the MY FAVORITES tab. Elementor also allows you to save page templates.
Elementor allows you to either import or export page templates. Template files are available in JSON format. Following are 4 examples of page templates offered by Elementor (click the View demo link to preview the pages).
Speaking of page, Elementor offers 3 page layouts: Default, Elementor Canvas, and Elementor Full Width. You can choose a layout according to your purpose of creating a page. Following are the differences between those layouts.:
- Default: Default page template from your theme. This layouts contains header, footer and sidebar according to the current theme you use.
- Elementor Canvas: No header, no footer, no sidebar. Just Elementor.
- Elementor Full Width: Similar to Elementor Canvas but includes header and footer.
Responsive mode
Another interesting feature offered by Elementor is responsive mode. This feature allows you to live-preview the page you are creating in three device types: desktop, tablet and smartphone. With this feature, you don’t need to wait until you are done editing the page to preview your page on either tablet smartphone. Simply click the Responsive mode icon on the bottom side of the left panel to live-preview your page in desktop, tablet or smartphone.
Add-ons
This is probably another thing you will love about Elementor. This page builder supports add-ons. This means that third party developers are welcomed to create Elementor elements. Thanks to this feature, you can find useful free elements other than ones provided by Elementor. For instance, you can find free pricing table element on the Essential Addons. This allows you to create a beautiful pricing plan page on your website even if you use the free version of Elementor.
Installing Elementor add-ons is no different to installing regular WordPress plugins. You can install it from the Plugins menu on your WordPress dashboard. Elements from the third party developers can be found right below the WordPress section on the element panel of the Elementor.
You can get the Elementor add-ons from various sources. From the official plugin directory of WordPress, CodeCanyon, Themeforest to the official Elementor Developer Resources.
Integrations
If you use services like MailChimp, MailerLite and Campaign Monitor, then you surely will love to hear this. Elementor supports integrations with those popular email marketing tools. However, this feature is only available on the premium version of Elementor.
In addition to email marketing services above, you can also integrate Elementor with Adobe TypeKit to get beautiful fonts. Or, you can also integrate Elementor with Slack to get notified about forms being sent via your Slack channel.
System requirements
Before installing Elementor to your WordPress site, make sure to read the system requirements of the plugin first. Elementor doesn’t work on the PHP 5. It requires your WordPress site running on at least PHP 7 or greater. Minimum memory limit is 64 MB. Also make sure that your website already use SSL. Following are the system requirements of Elementor.
- WordPress version: 4.7 or greater
- PHP version: 7 or greater
- MySQL version: 5.6 or greater (or MariaDB version 10.0 or greater)
- Memory limit: 64 MB
The verdict
With more than 2 million users, Elementor is one of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress, if the most popular. It is extremely easy to thanks to its drag and drop interface. Elementor is a versatile page builder. You can use it to design the page of your site home page or other exclusive pages like pricing plan and contact page. If you can’t find the elements you want, Elementor supports add-ons to allow third party developers to create Elementor elements. This benefits you as the user because there will be more unique elements you can add to your page.
Another handy features offered by Elementor is templates. You can save page templates for recurring use. Elementor itself offers more than 100 ready-to-use page templates to allow you effortlessly create a beautiful web page.
You can use Elementor on all WordPress themes, even the default WordPress (Twenty Sixteen). You can get rid of the theme’s header and footer by selecting the Elementor Canvas page layout, which is great if you are designing a page for the home age of your website.
Pros:
- Easy to use drag and drop interface
- Extensive elements and page layouts
- Add-ons and third party integrations
- Elementor Cavas is great to create a website home page
- Excellent user base and support
Cons:
- Only works on PHP 7 or higher
Overall score: (5 / 5)