Quick answer: Elementor is a promising new page builder for WordPress. It is free, open source, fast to work with and edits pages live on the front end, so you see exactly what visitors will see. It is a good fit for small business sites, landing pages and anyone who wants visual control without paying for a premium builder. Because it only launched in June, it is still young: expect frequent updates, a smaller add-on ecosystem than established builders, and the occasional rough edge. For large or long-lived projects, weigh that against older options.
Page builders have become one of the most debated topics in WordPress. Some developers avoid them completely. Many site owners love them because they can build layouts without touching code. Into this busy field arrived Elementor, a free plugin from a small team that has drawn a lot of attention in its first couple of months. We spent time building real pages with it on WordPress 4.5. This review covers what it does, how it compares and who it suits.
What Elementor is
Elementor is a drag and drop page builder plugin, available free from the WordPress.org plugin directory. You install it like any plugin, open a page and click “Edit with Elementor”. The editor loads your page with a panel of widgets on the left and a live preview on the right. You drag widgets into sections and columns, then click any element to change its content and style.
The code is open source under the GPL, and the team develops it in public, so you can follow changes and report issues.
The editing experience
Live front end editing
The headline feature is that editing happens on the page as it really looks, inside your theme. Many builders use a separate back end interface with grey boxes that only hint at the final design. Elementor shows you the real thing as you work, which makes design decisions quicker and reduces the “save, preview, adjust” loop.
Speed
The editor is noticeably quick. Dragging a widget, changing a colour or adjusting spacing updates instantly without a page reload. On the sites we tested, it felt faster than several older builders, though performance will always depend on your hosting and how heavy the page is.
Sections, columns and widgets
Layouts are built from sections, which contain columns, which contain widgets. Widgets include headings, text, images, buttons, icons, image boxes, icon boxes, galleries, carousels, video, counters, progress bars, testimonials, tabs, accordions, toggles, social icons, alerts, shortcodes and raw HTML. You can also place standard WordPress widgets, and widgets added by other plugins, inside your layouts.
Responsive controls
You can switch the preview between desktop, tablet and mobile views and adjust some settings per device, such as column widths and text alignment. This matters, because a layout that looks great on a wide screen can fall apart on a phone. It is not as fine grained as hand written CSS, but it covers the common problems.
Templates
Elementor includes a library of ready made page templates you can insert and customise, and you can save your own sections or pages as templates for reuse. For agencies building similar landing pages, this saves real time.
How it compares with other page builders
Visual Composer
Visual Composer is bundled with a huge number of premium themes, so many people already have it. It is powerful and has a large add-on market. Its back end editor relies heavily on shortcodes, and the front end editor can feel slow on complex pages. Elementor feels lighter and more modern to use, but Visual Composer has far more third party extensions.
Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is a mature, well regarded builder with a free lite version and paid plans. It also edits on the front end, has a strong reputation for clean output and stability, and is popular with developers who build client sites. If you need a proven tool with a track record today, Beaver Builder is the safer choice. Elementor’s free version currently offers more widgets than Beaver Builder’s lite version, which is a big part of its appeal.
Divi Builder
Divi comes from Elegant Themes as part of their membership. It is feature rich, with many modules and a big community. The builder is tied closely to the Divi theme, although a standalone plugin exists. Divi is a good fit if you already use Elegant Themes products. Elementor works with almost any well coded theme.
SiteOrigin Page Builder
SiteOrigin Page Builder is free, stable and widely used. It works with WordPress widgets and is lightweight. Its interface is more functional than visual. Elementor offers a much more visual experience at the same price: nothing.
Thrive Content Builder
Thrive Content Builder focuses on marketing pages: opt in forms, sales pages and landing pages, with conversion elements built in. If lead generation is your main aim and you want ready made marketing elements, Thrive is strong. Elementor is more general purpose.
Strengths
- Free and open source. No licence cost for the full core builder.
- Fast, live editing. You design on the real page.
- Generous widget set. Covers most layouts small business sites need.
- Works with most themes. You are not forced into a particular theme.
- Active development. Updates are arriving quickly.
Weaknesses and risks
- It is new. Two months is not a track record. Features and settings may change, and bugs are still being found and fixed.
- Smaller ecosystem. Few third party add-ons exist yet compared with Visual Composer or Beaver Builder.
- Lock in. Like every page builder, content built with Elementor depends on Elementor. If you deactivate it, layouts lose their structure. This is not unique to Elementor, but it is worth understanding before you build a whole site with it.
- Extra weight. Any page builder adds CSS and JavaScript. Keep an eye on page speed, and see our guide to WordPress speed optimization if pages feel slow.
- Limited theme control. Elementor builds page content. Headers, footers and archive templates still come from your theme.
Who should use Elementor?
Good fit
- Small businesses that want to update layouts themselves
- Marketers building landing pages and campaign pages
- Freelancers who want a capable free builder for simple client sites
- Anyone already using a lightweight theme who wants more layout freedom
Think twice
- Large sites with strict design systems, where a custom theme gives better control and consistency
- Projects where long term stability matters more than ease of editing
- Teams with developers who prefer to build templates in code
For many serious business sites, we still recommend a custom WordPress theme with carefully designed templates and a few flexible content areas. That gives editors freedom where they need it without letting every page drift into a different style. A builder can sit alongside that for landing pages.
Tips if you decide to try it
- Test on a staging site first. Check it works with your theme and plugins.
- Use a lightweight theme. Builders work best with themes that do not fight them.
- Set global colours and fonts in your theme. Keep styling consistent rather than setting colours widget by widget.
- Save sections as templates. Reuse headers, calls to action and contact blocks.
- Check every page on a phone. Use the responsive preview, then test on a real device.
- Keep it updated. With a young plugin, updates often include important fixes.
FAQ
Is Elementor really free?
Yes. The builder is free on WordPress.org and released under the GPL.
Will Elementor slow down my site?
It adds some CSS and JavaScript, like any builder. With good hosting and caching, a reasonable page should still load quickly.
Can I switch from another builder to Elementor?
Not automatically. Pages built with another builder usually need to be rebuilt.
Does it work with WooCommerce?
You can build normal pages on a WooCommerce site and use WooCommerce shortcodes inside layouts. Product and shop templates still come from your theme.
Choose the tool that fits the site
Elementor is one of the most interesting new WordPress plugins this year and a strong free option for visual page building. Whether it is right for you depends on how your site will grow and who will edit it. If you want a site that is easy to manage and built to convert, see how we help businesses turn visitors into customers.
