Elementor and WPBakery are among the most widely used page builders for WordPress. Elementor offers a more intuitive user interface and advanced customization capabilities, making it a preferred choice for many users looking for creativity and flexibility. On the other hand, WPBakery is well-known for its stability and backend editor, appealing to those who prioritize quick setup and ease of use.
Both page builders have their unique features that cater to different needs. Elementor is relatively advanced with its drag-and-drop editing and real-time previews, allowing users to see changes as they happen. WPBakery, in contrast, supports both front-end and back-end editing, which can be advantageous for developers familiar with traditional coding methods.
This article will provide a thorough comparison of each page builder's strengths and weaknesses, offering valuable insights to help users make an informed decision based on their individual needs. This in-depth analysis will examine both page builders to assist you in choosing the right one for your requirements.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Overview
Let me give you an overview of the main differences between Elementor and WPBakery. Then, I’ll dig into the key features of each builder in depth.
| Feature | Elementor | WPBakery |
| Freemium | Yes | No |
| Launched | 2016 | 2011 |
| CMS Market Share | 16.4% | 6.3% |
| Pricing | Free with paid plans starting at $59 | Paid plans start at $69 |
| Ease of Use | Feature-rich, steeper learning curve | Classic editor-like interface, moderate learning curve. |
| Template Library | 300+ pre-built templates (free + pro) | 150+ website templates |
| Widgets/Elements | 100+ elements (free + pro) | 50+ elements |
| Popup Builder | Yes | No |
| Form Builder | Yes | No |
| Customization | Advanced styling, custom CSS, global theme styles | Basic styling options, custom CSS support |
| Integrations | WooCommerce, ACF, dynamic content, more | WooCommerce, basic WordPress integrations |
| Performance & Speed | Can be resource-heavy | Generally lighter, but depends on addons |
Elementor Overview
Elementor is a powerful visual page builder plugin for WordPress launched in 2016. It revolutionized the way users approach web design within the WordPress ecosystem. Elementor allows for real-time editing, meaning changes can be seen instantly. It allows users to design pages with a front-end, drag-and-drop editor. With over 100 widgets, pre-built templates, and responsive design capabilities, Elementor is favored for its ease of use and flexibility. But there's a small downside: it can slow things down if you use too many elements. Many advanced features are locked behind the paid Elementor Pro version.
Additionally, a thriving ecosystem of third-party add-ons is available to enhance its functionality. However, Elementor can experience performance issues if too many elements are added to a page, potentially slowing down load times. Moreover, while the free version offers substantial features, advanced functionalities require Elementor Pro, which includes options for dynamic content and additional customization tools.
WPBakery Overview
WPBakery, formerly known as Visual Composer, is one of WordPress's oldest and most popular page builders. It is recognized for its dual editing interfaces: a backend editor for quick layout adjustments and a frontend editor for live changes. This builder provides significant flexibility in design, allowing users to create custom grids and content blocks while ensuring compatibility with a wide range of WordPress themes and plugins.
WPBakery offers a lifetime licensing option, enabling users to pay one-time for lifetime updates. Additionally, its integrated grid builder facilitates designing complex layouts without custom coding. However, users may find the backend interface somewhat outdated compared to more modern alternatives like Elementor, and it presents a steeper learning curve.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Make the Right Choice for Your Site
When choosing between Elementor and WPBakery, it's essential to consider various factors that impact your website-building experience. Ease of use, user Interface, customization capabilities, features, WooCommerce compatibility, performance, speed, and pricing all play significant roles in making the right choice for your project.
Elementor vs WPBakery: User Interface and Ease of Use
Elementor User Interface
Elementor’s intuitive, drag-and-drop interface is designed for ease of use, making it accessible for beginners and advanced users. The real-time front-end editor allows you to make changes and see them immediately.
The editor has a fixed sidebar panel with various widgets, making it simple to access and organize. Also, users can edit text on the page thanks to in-line editing features. This creates a smooth editing process without switching between back-end and front-end views.
The sidebar categorizes individual widget settings into clear sections such as content, style, and advanced options. This organization helps users quickly locate the settings they need to customize their designs. Furthermore, Elementor offers a navigator view that simplifies access to all page elements, making managing complex layouts or large projects easier.
Elementor provides options for setting global fonts, colors, and spacing across the site. Users can easily apply and adjust these global settings, ensuring their website maintains a cohesive look and feel. The top ribbon bar includes a responsive preview feature, allowing designers to see how their site will appear on different devices. Elementor's page revision history option also enables users to track changes over time and revert to previous versions if necessary.
WPBakery User Interface
WPBakery provides both a backend editor and a frontend visual editor, though Elementor is more user-friendly.
The backend editor allows for detailed layout management, enabling users to fine-tune their designs, but it lacks the visual intuitiveness that makes Elementor so appealing. On the other hand, the frontend editor supports live editing, allowing users to see changes in real-time, though it may feel somewhat outdated compared to more modern alternatives.
Customization in WPBakery can be a double-edged sword. While the platform offers a range of options, using shortcodes in the backend can be particularly confusing for beginners. This complexity can hinder the editing process and make it challenging for new users to navigate effectively. Additionally, while the grid builder provides unique layout capabilities that can enhance design options, it often requires more time and effort to implement than simpler drag-and-drop solutions. One of the features that WPBakery incorporates is color-coded elements based on type, which can aid in organizing and identifying different components within a project.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Features and Customization Options
Elementor Features
Elementor offers a broad range of features to improve website design and function. It has more than 100 widgets, which include basic elements like buttons, images, and forms, as well as advanced options such as moving headlines and sliders. The theme builder feature lets users make custom headers, footers, and post templates without coding skills, expanding its use to WooCommerce pages and custom post types.
Also, Elementor has a big template library with over 35 full website template kits and access to more than 300 pre-made pages and section blocks designed for different industries. It works well with popular marketing tools, CRMs, and social media plugins. To allow more customization, the platform supports custom CSS for extra styling and has dynamic content support in its Pro version.
WPBakery Features
WPBakery gives you a Backend and Frontend editor to customize content. The Backend editor lets you control the structure and layout in more detail, which works great for building content layouts. Some people think the backend interface is easier to use.
It comes with over 50 built-in content elements you can customize right away. The grid builder helps you create complex layouts that other builders struggle with. It also lets developers make custom shortcodes and add them to the builder.
It also plays nicely with plugins like Slider Revolution and Essential Grid. One downside is that it uses shortcodes for content and layout. So, if you turn it off, you need to rebuild the whole website because of the mess it leaves behind.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Performance and Speed
Elementor Performance
Although Elementor's code can become bloated with excessive elements and animations, it usually outperforms WPBakery regarding optimization features such as lazy loading, minification, and caching options—which are still experimental. Users should exercise caution when adding numerous third-party add-ons that might slow loading times. For instance, creating a page rich in elements, like a video embed and Google Maps, can lead to performance issues due to too many components, animations, or complex layouts.
Elementor has introduced multiple performance enhancements in its recent updates, including lazy loading, minification, and caching options; however, most optimization features remain in the experimental stage. The ease of accessing free third-party add-ons often results in users installing a high volume of poorly coded ones, which can further degrade page loading speed. It's important to remember when installing third-party add-ons, as they can adversely affect loading times.
WPBakery Performance
WPBakery typically generates heavier code than Elementor, which can negatively impact page speed. Its reliance on backend shortcodes might result in slower loading times and potential compatibility conflicts with other plugins. Users often require additional performance plugins to boost speed effectively. Because of its shortcode reliance, WPBakery typically creates more HTML/CSS code than Elementor, further influencing page speed. Additionally, shortcodes can contribute to slower page loads and compatibility issues. Caching and optimization plugins may be necessary to enhance your website's speed while using WPBakery. To tackle that, WPBakery Page Builder, in version 4.9, did a detailed code refactor to optimize the speedy loading of elements.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Template and Design Library
Elementor Template Library
Elementor offers more than 300 templates, which include full-page designs and separate sections such as headers, footers, and call-to-action areas. These templates cover different industries and design preferences, allowing users to build everything from portfolios to business websites.
Elementor also provides over 35 complete template kits that help users bring in an entire site's design by clicking once. These kits keep the design consistent across all pages and sections and give templates for many categories. Users can pick templates to create blogs, online shops, travel sites, fashion blogs, charity websites, learning platforms, and more.
Furthermore, Elementor has a large ecosystem; users can access thousands of community-created templates in various third-party template marketplaces.
WPBakery Template Library
In contrast, WPBakery's template library is more limited in built-in templates than Elementor. It often requires users to purchase additional templates from external marketplaces while providing more manual control over design through grid-based options but at the cost of variety. The Template Library gives WordPress users access to premium layout templates, with professionally designed templates that are easy to customize. Additionally, every template you acquire includes high-quality free stock images as placeholders.
Elementor vs WPBakery: WooCommerce Support
Elementor WooCommerce Features
Elementor comes with a WooCommerce builder, allowing online store owners to create custom product pages, shopping carts, and checkout flows. This makes it an ideal choice for companies running e-commerce sites. It has dedicated WooCommerce widgets to easily customize product pages, shop pages, carts, and checkouts. Also, Elementor offers ready-made product templates to set up and customize using its visual editor.
WPBakery WooCommerce Features
WPBakery works with WooCommerce at a basic level, but it doesn't have the special WooCommerce features you'll find in Elementor. It relies on shortcodes, so you'll need to do some extra work by hand and add third-party tools to make it do more. To customize WooCommerce in more advanced ways, you must install the WooCommerce Page Builder for WPBakery add-ons.
Elementor vs WPBakery: Pricing Plans
Elementor Pricing
Elementor offers a free version with basic features like drag-and-drop editing and a limited widget selection. In contrast, a Pro subscription unlocks advanced capabilities like WooCommerce integration, theme customization, and dynamic content features.
Elementor’s paid plans begin at $59 per year for a single site, granting access to premium widgets, templates, and functionalities like the Theme Builder and Popup Builder. Pricing varies according to the number of sites, catering to the needs of freelancers, agencies, and developers.
Higher-tier plans include options priced at $99 yearly for three sites, $199 for 25 sites, and $399 for 1,000 sites, tailored for agencies and businesses overseeing multiple websites. This makes Elementor an excellent choice for growing companies that require scalability. All Elementor Pro subscriptions necessitate annual renewal to maintain access to premium features and updates, potentially increasing costs for larger projects.
WPBakery Pricing
WPBakery offers a clear and straightforward pricing model. For a one-time fee, users gain lifetime access to the plugin and its ongoing updates. It is often bundled with premium themes for free. Notably, only the premium version is available; there is no free trial for potential buyers, which could deter some users.
WPBakery provides three pricing options designed to accommodate different budgets and requirements. The tiers include a single-site license for $69, a five-site license for $256, and a ten-site license for $499.
Which Is a Better WordPress Page Builder Between Elementor and WPBakery?
When choosing between Elementor and WPBakery as WordPress page builders, Elementor shines with its modern, user-friendly interface and real-time editing features, making it an excellent choice for beginners and anyone looking for an easy design process. With over 300 pre-designed templates available, it simplifies the task of creating visually appealing websites. Moreover, Elementor tends to be better optimized for performance, achieving higher PageSpeed scores and offering excellent support for WooCommerce, which is crucial for those planning to set up online stores.
On the other hand, WPBakery may appeal more to seasoned developers who need greater backend control and customization options. Its traditional interface provides both frontend and backend editing capabilities, allowing for more in-depth customization through built-in elements and shortcodes. While WPBakery offers a decent selection of templates, they don't match the variety in Elementor's library. Elementor is the go-to choice for a modern and efficient page-building experience. At the same time, WPBakery is better suited for advanced users who prefer a one-time purchase and want more control over their site's design.