Presentation Of Elementor Software
36% of the web is powered by WordPress, that’s how much this tool is essential. However, despite its great functional wealth and its many customization possibilities, it is quite complex to use for a neophyte. You need to be technically inclined to create an ultra-customized WordPress site. Like many entrepreneurs who want to launch their business on the web, you could use this plug-in, which is why we decided to give you our opinion on Elementor.
If you have little or no technical skills, good news, Elementor will make your life easier! This solution aims to allow anyone to create their own WordPress website, without technical skills, without the need to code, thanks to a very intuitive editor based on Wysiwyg and drag & drop. You hesitate to use Elementor for your website? Find in this article our detailed opinion about this tool. We will describe its features, then we will list its advantages and disadvantages to help you make your decision.
WordPress Elementor In A Few Words
Elementor is a free page builder plugin for WordPress. Its primary function is to allow you to create your pages with drag and drop. This simplifies your task, in the same way as tools like Wix or Squarespace.
You can choose an existing template or create your own page. Rich in features, the tool offers you elements that you can place wherever you want. No coding knowledge is required.
The main advantage of Elementor, in our opinion, is that you can create attractive layouts and designs, even if you are not a professional and have no experience in creating sites.
This is especially important if you are on a tight budget and don’t want to hire someone to help you create your site.
Offers & Pricing
Elementor PRO is available in three versions: Personal, Plus, and Expert. Each version offers the same features, so the difference is in the number of websites you will be able to create.
Here are the main features you will be able to enjoy:
- Create uniquely designed posts and pages, compared to the standard post/page templates that come with your WordPress theme.
- Have a 100% separate interface to work on your posts and pages. Most of your work is not done in the standard block editor provided by WordPress.
- It does not require any HTML/CSS/PHP coding skills. Everything can be done through the dedicated interface.
- You work directly on the front end. You see the results of your work immediately.
- It works with all WordPress themes. This allows you to keep your current design while enjoying all the benefits of Elementor.
If you are a small business owner, such as a bakery, and you want to create a website, we think Elementor’s Personal package will suit your needs.
On the other hand, if you are a freelance web designer and you create a lot of websites for your clients, the Expert package will be the best option.
Each license is active for one year. Once the license expires because you decided not to renew it, you will lose access to future updates, support and pro templates and blocks.
You will still be able to use Elementor Pro modules, pop-up features, theme builder features, etc. You can also install the latest version you have on any new websites you create.
Designs & Templates
Elementor offers you, in our opinion, a lot of design possibilities but it can be hard to get started if you don’t have a framework in mind. You can then use one of the many predefined Elementor templates. Over 150 templates are available in the free version and over 300 in the Pro version.
If that’s not enough, you can also get what are called Elementor kits. Collections of templates that all follow the same pattern. This allows you to create a complete and consistent website.
The library contains all types of pages depending on your objectives. You will find a nice selection of information pages, contact pages, homepages, landing pages (also for various niches, such as a hotel, restaurant, etc.), portfolios, team pages and many more.
Not only can you import templates into your page, but you can also freely modify them until you get the result that suits you perfectly.
A little advice
You can save your own pages as templates and reuse them on another page or share them publicly with the web community.
Creating a WordPress Site with Elementor
So that you can make up your own mind about Elementor, let’s get into the more practical part of our article: let’s see how to create your WordPress site with this tool.
Creating a page with Elementor
Elementor is a WordPress plugin – albeit a bit more advanced. To make it work, you must first install and activate it. The installation is standard – like any other WordPress plugin.
Then there is a control panel that you can visit if you wish, but it is not required. Go directly to your WordPress pages and create a new one.
The “Edit with Elementor” option appears, you can now access the user interface directly on the front end of your site.
Here is what the different elements correspond to:
- #1 The main canva. This is where you can place your content blocks and adjust them.
- #2 The available content elements.
- #3 Access Elementor settings (colors, fonts, etc.).
- #4 Return to the block editor.
- #5 The general settings of the page you are working on.
- #6 The revision history of the page.
- #7 Switch to responsive mode to optimize your site for tablets and mobiles.
- #8 Preview of changes.
- #9 Publish the page.
Page hierarchy and structure
To build a basic page with Elementor, you must first understand the hierarchy of the page structure :
- A page can have any number of sections.
- Each section can have one or more columns.
- A column can house one or more content items.
- Each content item can be individually styled
In a new section, you can add new columns, then fill those columns with content by simply dragging and dropping specific blocks from the sidebar.
Once you’ve set up a content block, you can click on it to adjust its content details and layout. There are three main tabs for this: Layout, Style and Advanced.
So, one by one, you can work with individual content blocks until the whole page is ready.
Overall, Elementor is in our opinion very easy to use and quite intuitive. Once you’ve got the page/structure hierarchy figured out and know all the content elements, working with your pages becomes pretty fun.
Advantages Of The Paid Version Over The Free Version
The free version of Elementor comes with a full set of features. Nevertheless, the Pro version will be more suitable if you want a professional result.
Here are the main reasons why you might want to upgrade to the pro version:
1. The Pro version allows you to customize your theme.
With any free page builder and theme, you will be limited to editing only the content area of your page.
Specific areas like headers, footers, archives and search results pages are almost always off limits and would require coding to edit. Our opinion for Elementor and like other page builders is that the free version is extremely limiting. If you want your site to stand out, the Pro version will be more suitable.
Here are the elements that Elementor Pro allows you to customize:
- Header (you can create multiple headers and assign them to different pages on your site)
- Footer
- Archive page
- Footer
- Single post page for your blog (create a blog post template and use it for different categories, pages or taxonomies)
- 404 pages
- Search results page
2. Access additional modules.
Elementor Pro has 30 additional modules that will help you quickly create important parts of your website. Here are the main modules you’ll be interested in:
- Forms (membership, contact and login forms)
- Grid blog posts
- Price list
- Woocommerce features (products, categories, add to cart)
- Share buttons
- Form integrations
- Media carousel
- Reviews
- Quote blocks
3. You’ll have access to the templates and blocks in the pro version.
Elementor Pro also offers more professional templates and blocks that will help you create impactful websites quickly.
These templates and blocks will allow you to create websites with animated titles, slides, beautiful forms and more advanced features.
4. Change role access.
A common problem when building sites for your clients is giving them access to the back office of their site without giving them the ability to modify the design. This disrupts the website and increases your workload.
This problem is also encountered by webmasters who hire content developers like writers and editors. You wouldn’t want them to move things around without your permission!
With the Pro version you will be able to change the roles of everyone and define who can edit on your website. For each role, you have the option to give them full access to everything or limit their access to edit content or nothing at all.
5. Access to pro updates and 24/7 support
Their 24/7 support is only available to Pro subscribers. While there are many resources available to you on their website, getting help from their team can save you valuable time and money.
6. Elementor Pro integrations make marketing your site easier.
Looking to implement a marketing strategy with your website as the central tool? Integrations with other applications like Zapier, MailChimp, HubSpot, ConvertKit and GetResponse will come in handy.
The Main Advantages And Disadvantages Of Elementor
If you want to have full control over the appearance of your WordPress site, without having to dive into its code, this plugin is for you. Even if you have the technical know-how to code everything yourself, Elementor makes designing your site easy and intuitive. Since no one is perfect, we’ve compiled the pros and cons of Elementor for you so you can make up your own mind.
The pros
- It’s free. And most new websites won’t need to upgrade to the Pro version.
- A very rich and easy to use feature set.
- It allows you to create custom layouts and designs that may not be available in your current theme and requires no HTML, CSS or PHP skills.
- Features such as inline text editing and real-time previews give you a real editing interface.
- The ability to adjust desktop, tablet and mobile versions of your site separately.
- Very precise settings for managing alignments and margins in particular. Nothing is out of your control.
The disadvantages
- Free and pro templates and blocks are displayed together, with no possibility to filter the results to display only free or pro templates.
- Adding a custom style to links does not always work as expected. You may be blocked by Elementor’s default typography and color settings.
- If something is misaligned on the page, it’s often difficult to find the exact margin value that is problematic.
Final opinion on Elementor
Our opinion on Elementor is that it is an excellent free drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. Although there are other alternatives on the market, Elementor stands out as the only solution that can be used by everyone (including beginners), without forcing you to upgrade to a paid license.
Features
Here are the main features you will be able to enjoy:
- Elementor allows you to create uniquely designed posts and pages, as opposed to the standard post/page templates that come with your WordPress theme.
- You have a 100% separate interface to work on your posts and pages – most of your work is not done in the standard block editor that comes with WordPress.
- It requires no HTML/CSS/PHP coding skills – everything can be done through the dedicated interface.
- You work directly on the “front end”, which means you see the results of your work immediately.
- It works with all WordPress themes, so you can keep your current design while enjoying all the benefits of Elementor.
Offers & Pricing
The PRO version of Elementor is available in five versions. Each version offers the same features, so the difference is the number of websites you’ll be able to create.
And you what do you think? To be tried urgently
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