Background
In September 2016, Pippin Williamson wrote a comprehensive review of 13 Page builder plugins. Prompted by a tweet from Keith Devon, and a reply from Kimb Jones I re-read Pippin’s review. Realising that I had my own requirements for a Page builder and that it would take a long time to perform my own review I have decided to:- Attempt to summarise the review.
- Itemise my requirements for a Page builder plugin.
- Have a look at one or two of the plugins myself.
- And perhaps make a few comments of my own.
Summary of 13 Page builder plugins
This is my summary gleaned from reading WordPress Page builder plugins: a critical review.| Requirement | Tailor | Page-Builder-Sandwich | Elementor | Pootle | Live Composer | SiteOrigin | Beaver | Visual Composer | Fusion | Divi | Thrive | Brix | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy to use | ||||||||||||||
| Nicely styled? | ||||||||||||||
| Front-end editor | ||||||||||||||
| Visual/text/builder toggle? | ? | ? | ||||||||||||
| Embedded shortcodes? | ||||||||||||||
| open / close shortcode compatible? | ||||||||||||||
| shortcode styles and scripts? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||||||
| Compatible with ‘the_content’? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||||||||
| All content retained after deactivation | ? | ? | ? | |||||||||||
| Lock-in effect (e.g. shortcodes) | ? | ? | ? | |||||||||||
| Features? Content & Layout | some | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||||||
| Dependencies? | y | ? | ? | |||||||||||
| Pippin would use? | ? |
6 free Page builder plugins from WordPress.org
| Plugin name and description | Plugin links | Version, total downloads, last update, tested |
|---|---|---|
| Tailor Page Builder Build beautiful layouts for your content faster and easier than ever before using your favourite theme! | tailor home | 1.8.2 59,122 November 24, 2017 4.9.17 |
| Page Builder Sandwich – Front-End Page Builder Page Builder Sandwich is the friendliest drag and drop landing page builder for front-end editing. | page-builder-sandwich home | 4.5.4 188,509 September 19, 2020 5.5.4 |
| Elementor Website Builder The Elementor Website Builder has it all: drag and drop page builder, pixel perfect design, mobile responsive editing, and more. Get started now! | elementor home | 3.1.4 101,888,897 March 10, 2021 5.7.1 |
| Pootle Pagebuilder – WordPress Page builder Pootle Pagebuilder is a front-end, drag and drop page builder that makes it easy to create beautiful WordPress pages and posts. | pootle-page-builder home | 5.7.0 95,738 March 26, 2021 5.7.0 |
| Page Builder: Live Composer Page builder for WordPress with drag and drop header/footer editing, responsive settings, and animations. Compatible with Gutenberg block editor. | live-composer-page-builder home | 1.5.9 1,238,850 November 10, 2020 5.5.4 |
| Page Builder by SiteOrigin Build responsive page layouts using the widgets you know and love using this simple drag and drop page builder. | siteorigin-panels home | 2.11.8 31,542,285 March 24, 2021 5.7.1 |
References
- WordPress Page builder plugins: a critical review
- The 20 best drag and drop page builder WordPress plugins
Conclusions
I haven’t made any conclusions yet. I’m still considering my requirements… I’ve started drafting another post. I’ll finish with some questions for you to think about.- What requirements do you have for a Page builder?
- Do you already have a site/theme built with a Page builder and you want to change to a different one?
- Is there a lot of content that’s dependent on the Page builder?
- How would you go about migrating?
- What will you do if your current Page builder stopped working?
