Last Updated on April 24, 2021 by monk
WordPress page builder plugins are very useful plugins that allow you to customize and build out any kind of web page that you want. They come with modules/widgets that you can drag and drop into rows and columns. They can also be useful for anyone with no HTML or CSS experience.
In this article, I am going to compare and review 4 of the best drag and drop page builders for WordPress. These plugins were chosen primarily due to their popularity, ease of use and responsive features. They are well maintained by their respective developers and are also compatible with most WordPress themes.
I should also add that I have used all 4 pretty extensively on a variety of WordPress projects.
Site Origin Page Builder
The only completely free page builder plugin discussed here.
With more than half a million active installs, Site Origin’s Page Builder is one the most popular page builder plugins in the market.
The plugin allows you to add your default widgets into pages but it also has its own set of custom widgets that allows you to add images, maps, buttons, videos, galleries and much more.
Another unique feature of this plugin is that it allows you to set extremely specific widths of your columns (in percentages) by simply clicking and dragging your cursor on the edge of a column and releasing it when the desired width is reached.
The plugin also has several pre-built page templates which you can apply on an empty page thus saving plenty of time. Sadly though, the templates are not as impressive as those offered by the other page builders in this article.
Finally it also comes with a history tool which allows you to undo and redo changes that you made. This also helps to save a lot of time and gives you a peace of mind.
You can watch my YouTube tutorial where I show you how to build a full one page website using this plugin.
[wp-review id=”3625″]
Beaver Builder
There is a free version of the beaver builder which is similar to the Site Origin plugin but with some significant differences.
First of all, the actual page building occurs in the front end rather than in the backend like Site Origin. It does have its own modules (widgets) like video, text editor, image but are not as extensive as those of Site Origin. It does allow you to add sidebars though which is a unique feature of this plugin.
Perhaps the best feature of the beaver builder is that its in my opinion, the fastest page builder available. Beaver pages load quite quickly compared to other page builders.
There is a premium version of the plugin that offers more modules and over 30 stunning templates that can be used to build landing pages and content pages. The templates in my opinion are more than worth the $99 fee for the single license of the plugin as they are truly well designed.
You can watch my review of the Beaver Builder plugin.
Grab your premium version of beaver builder
[wp-review id=”3619″]
Visual Composer/WP Bakery
This used to be the most popular plugin with over 4 million active installations.
No other page builder has the amount of modules that comes with this plugin. You can add post grids, image galleries and sliders, statistics, social media icons, accordions, buttons, separators and so much more.
There are also third party extensions that provide over 100 additional addons that make this plugin by the far the most functional feature rich page builder plugin.
The plugin is also extendable allowing you to develop your own custom modules and is compatible with WooCommerce and many other third party plugins as well.
The biggest draw back of the visual composer plugin though is that it can be quite slow. Of the 4 page builders analysed in this post, it is the slowest and may not be appropriate for your website if speed is a top priority.
Another possible issue is that it is short codes based which means that if you uninstall the plugin, then you will lose all the content that you created using the plugin.
The plugin comes at a very affordable fee of $34.
Get your copy of visual composer here
[wp-review id=”3614″]
Elementor
Elementor is personally my favorite WordPress page builder plugin as it has no real weakness. It’s quite fast, has a very wide range of widgets/modules, has stunning pre built templates and its interface is very user friendly.
Elementor also has a free version with a decent amount of widgets which you can try working with first before deciding if you want to go with the pro version.
I have written an extensive article describing how its superior to other page builders and also have a YouTube playlist where you can learn how to use it to build websites.
Grab your copy of Elementor here
[wp-review id=”3702″]
Conclusion
Use Site Origin if cost is an issue. Beaver Builder is your best bet if you want speed or are looking for excellent ready made page templates. Go with Visual Composer if you are want a page builder that gives you nearly unlimited customization options while Elementor is always an excellent choice.
One Response
I have been using Page Builder from SiteOrigin for several years now. Clients like it because they can easily change or create new pages, making them look as if a professional developer did the work.
It’s amazing how quickly they pick up on it. Set-up the grid to give the page the structure they want, add the necessary widgets to display the content and publish. More or less, that’s about it.