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 57,623 November 24, 2017 4.9.13 |
| 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 | 4.5.2 179,355 March 8, 2019 5.1.4 |
| Elementor Page Builder The most advanced frontend drag & drop page builder. Create high-end, pixel perfect websites at record speeds. Any theme, any page, any design. | elementor home | 2.9.7 52,089,524 March 25, 2020 5.4 |
| 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 | 5.5.2 90,403 March 9, 2020 5.4.0 |
| 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 | 1.5.6 1,170,144 February 20, 2020 5.3.2 |
| 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 | 2.10.15 27,455,171 April 7, 2020 5.4 |
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?
