Have you ever asked yourself how people on Star Trek would create a site if they needed one? Would they say to a virtual personal assistant, “Hey, I need a site to present my skills,” and it would instantly generate one?
To be frank, I don’t have an answer, even though I have asked myself many times. Altogether, I am sure that the current WordPress page builders are better than last year, and they will become even more competitive this year.
Creating a site without writing a line of code is a dream that has become a reality. Nowadays, the biggest problem isn’t how to empower average Internet users to design websites, but how to allow them to personalize their creations fully.
WordPress page builders have evolved exponentially in the last few years, and users have started paying attention to them. This Google Trends chart shows how user interest has grown for the search term “WordPress page builders”:
I’m guessing that you have an idea about page builders. However, I believe that you need some suggestions in this respect, so here are five fantastic WordPress page builders to enhance your sites.
Elementor
Elementor is a premium page builder, but it has a free “little brother” available in the WordPress repository. The free version is enough to get an idea about the plugin.
Once installed, go to Settings and determine who can use it and where. Next, go to a post and click on the Edit with Elementor button. From now on, you will be able to use Elementor’s mighty power.
You can start from scratch or use a pre-made template. Unfortunately, the free accounts have access only to a single template. Regardless your decision, the plugin displays a bunch of elements on the left sidebar—these are the building blocks of a site. Images, text, videos, Google Maps, testimonials, tabs, social icons, counter, sidebars, and HTML are just a few elements available for free accounts. Forms, Facebook comments, price tables, animated headlines, and WooCommerce add-to-cart are elements available for premium accounts.
Each element is customizable—drag any of them onto your canvas and use the styling box to fine tune it. Surprisingly, any modification you make is visible in real time on your layout. On top of that, anything you do is lag-free! It looks like a Star Trek plugin, doesn’t it?
In plain English, these elements give you unlimited powers to design excellent sites even though you don’t have coding skills.
Beaver Builder
Similar to Elementor, Beaver Builder has two versions: a free one available in the WordPress repository and a premium one that has more features. Unlike Elementor, however, the free version doesn’t have many features, but it certainly reveals the potential of the premium version.
To create a page, use a template or start from scratch by deciding the number of columns. Next, add modules and customize them. It’s super simple to create a page: drag and drop a module, tailor it as you want, and check if you like the output. It works in near-real time (Elementor is faster), but Beaver Builder impresses with its simplicity of use—it looks like a built-in WordPress core feature and not an external plugin. Most likely, the interface, which is similar to the WordPress editor is “guilty” for this association.
Beaver Builder works with any theme, is mobile-friendly, and is optimized to not slow pages. The only downside is the price—it’s higher than that competitors, but you really get value for your money.
Site Origin Page Builder
Site Origin Page Builder is also a plugin that comes in two versions: free and paid. Both versions lack fancy items, but they do what they were created for—crafting sites.
Less-trained users will have a hard time finding where to start with this page builder. It’s a button situated on the left side of the post editor, near the Visual and Text buttons. Click on it, and enable Site Origin Page Builder. The next step is to choose a template suitable for your project. You can import, export, and duplicate a template.
You can radically change the layout of a template by adding or removing columns. As you have probably guessed, each pixel is customizable. Finally, add modules to enhance your site. History is a stand-apart feature of this plugin—you can see your actions and revert an earlier version.
Premium accounts benefit from add-ons like contact-form fields, a custom post-type builder, and social widgets. Additionally, they get better support.
Overall, this plugin fully deserves to be featured here, and you should give it a try.
WPBakery Page Builder (Formerly Visual Composer)
WPBakery Page Builder is one of the most popular plugins on CodeCanyon. The stats are simply extraordinary—it’s been sold almost 350,000 times and has a rating of 4.64 out five stars. The price is reasonable, but you don’t have to purchase it blindly; you can create a testing sandbox that is available for a few hours to get an idea.
You can use it as both a back-end and front-end editor, and you will be excited to see how quickly you can create complex structures. WPBakery Page Builder gets the highest mark in intuitiveness. All you have to do is to select your favorite template and delete or add different elements. Rows, image carousels, video players, separators, round charts, or accordions are a few elements you can add to your layout.
A window opens to fine-tune the element you have just added to your layout. It may sound crazy, but it’s true that even a newbie is empowered to do anything that a developer can do, such as determining the proper border-radius or padding area for a box element.
Live Composer
Live Composer is a free front-end page builder that excels at interface design and user-friendliness. Install and activate it, then open a post and hit the Open in Live Composer button. Next, you will find 30+ modules situated at the bottom of the page. Drag and drop the desired module onto the canvas and customize it. For most of the modules, you will have to go through the Functionality, Styling, and Responsive sections.
This page builder focuses on making cool pages even though you don’t have coding skills. Live Composer is the proper tool to create any type of site, from personal blogs to complex business websites.
Advanced custom forms, responsive mega-menus, gallery grids, and animations are some of the modules that enhance Live Composer’s functionality. However, these features aren’t available for free.
Live Composer works as a magnet for people in love with visual editors—it’s the most eye-catching. At the same time, Live Composer is a genuinely powerful page builder that helps users craft outstanding pages and posts.
In Conclusion
These five WordPress page builders must be on your list if you plan to use one in the near future. Ranking them isn’t possible because each page builder has been for a particular type of users. Test all of them and make the best decision in line with your skills, budget, and needs.
These WordPress page builders are our selection, but there many other great page builders out there. Did we miss your favorite? Add it in the comments, and we will update the post if it’s worthy!