So, you’re looking to build a sleek, professional website but you don’t know how to write html code… Sounds like you need a WordPress page builder! But, which one should you use?
There are many different page builders to choose from and you can find positive reviews for all of them. So, the KIJO team has honed in and sought out the pros and cons of our top five in detail. We hope our insights will help you choose which WordPress page builder is for you.
In WordPress, page builders are web design plugins; extra programmes to install on top of the core WordPress code to give more scope for professional website design. They help developers to build SEO-friendly pages and can be utilised over entire sites.
WordPress page builders are suitable for creative individuals who seek perfection. They offer flexibility and detailed design at the level of each pixel, and almost everything is customisable. Some builders have the option to create a design system to use across a whole website too – perfect for implementing your brand guidelines consistently.
Using a front-end WordPress page builder can often be quicker and more reliable than creating a website from scratch using bespoke code. That said, for a truly feature-rich website, hiring a web design agency is really the only way to go. Experienced, expert knowledge can help you make your desired vision an actual reality.
Page builders enable just about anyone to independently customise existing website pages and to build entire websites quickly and easily. Many page builders can be downloaded for free as plugins.
The main benefit of using a WordPress page builder is that it reduces the need for coding. This enables quick and efficient web development. Almost all WordPress page builders use simple drag-and-drop building blocks, enabling designers to see what they’re creating whilst they build. This also enables users to easily create layouts from different content modules or ‘blocks’, which snap together like a jigsaw puzzle.
The best builders are those which offer the greatest range of blocks and the broadest scope for their customisation. Most WordPress page builders provide a beautiful selection of pre-designed templates too, which you can edit to create the perfect representation of your brand.
For experienced coders, most page builders include Developer Options. These allow for adding bespoke elements and minor edits.
Price: From £47 per year
From freelancers to agencies, Elementor is WordPress’s most popular drag-and-drop page builder for professionals. Offering pixel-perfect design, this WordPress page builder enables users to create beautifully unique websites. You can integrate marketing tools into your bespoke designs to encourage website traffic and increase your leads and conversions.
While other page builders (like some below) offer customisable templates, Elementor enables users to easily create a house style. This is not to be confused with branding, as a house style simply means that no matter how many developers work on your site, the fonts, colours and formatting will be consistent throughout.
Elementor users can include their existing marketing material to create a recognisable look throughout their website design which is vital for brand continuity. Elementor allows for users to employ standardisation across fonts, colours and links. The plugin also ensures that users’ blog posts and website landing pages are formatted in identical styles.
Built with remote workers in mind, the user interface is sleek, intuitively usable and users can create everything from landing pages and blogs to bespoke professional sites. Anything is possible! And, that’s exactly why we use Elementor websites ourselves at KIJO.
Price: from £78 per year
Aimed at professional designers, WordPress page builder Beaverbuilder supports WooCommerce (an open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress) and is compatible with nearly all WordPress themes.
Beaverbuilder focuses on being a complete design system, which incorporates WordPress page builder plugins. Offering only a small amount of unique homepage layout templates, Beaverbuilder is definitely streamlined. It’s perfect for users who want to quickly build a professional site without starting from scratch. However, this lack of template choice may seem a little uninspiring and many users simply use Beaverbuilder to edit their existing sites.
Beaverbuilder users can personalise templates to match their brand guidelines by replacing the images and text. More importantly, users can save these pages as customised templates for future website development, and even export these to use on a different site.
Price: from £70 per year
What began as a theme in itself, Divi is now a stand-alone WordPress page builder plugin, offering over hundreds of different template layouts. It will work with any WordPress theme, transcending its creative origins as ElegantThemes’ most popular choice.
Divi’s content module range is extensive, including audio players, comments, data capture forms and testimonials in your pages. It’s easy to use, providing a lot of flexibility to those building pages from a template. Developers can choose to work in the front-end, able to see exactly what they are building, or in wireframe mode. In the front-end editor, you can simply click into a text block and begin editing. Wireframe mode strips back all the content to leave the bare bones of your layout. This is useful when you need to avoid distraction or rearrange the page structure.
Not accessing back-end code does have its issues. Sometimes a pixel or two makes all the difference to your design. Accessing the back-end page builder to edit at this micro-level is sometimes the quickest option.
Price: from £235 per year
Thrive Architect is a very popular, powerful and easy-to-use WordPress page builder. It allows you to create great looking pages, brilliant layouts and content in WordPress minus using code!
What’s attractive about Thrive Architect is that out of the 300+ professionally designed templates and layouts, they can all be totally customised using the front-end visual editor. There’s also building blocks for things like call-to-action buttons and testimonials, and you can even create custom blog post layouts. There’s many options with Thrive Architect that can help your WordPress blog capture your user.
You can also connect Thrive Architect with the Thrive Optimise add-on. This feature allows you to split-test your pages. A split test means you can compare two versions of the same web page and find out which establishes a higher rate of conversions – a very neat feature!
Price: from £31 per year
This WordPress page builder is a premium plugin. SeedProd lets you create custom WordPress themes from scratch, minus the need for code, or choose from hundreds of stunning pre-made layouts. Plus, it has an easy-to-use drag and drop visual builder feature.
Its design system is super smart and minimises the need for repetitive work as you can re-use elements and define your global styles (font combinations, colour schemes etc.) It even offers up a smart AI (artificial intelligence) writing assistant which not only assists you in writing content, but can translate what’s written into multiple languages!
SeedProd is evidently built with website performance and SEO in mind which is ideal for those needing support in getting their pages to rank on search engines. Like Beaverbuilder, it also supports WooCommerce too.
For the KIJO team, Elementor would be the front runner in the WordPress page builder ranks. In a league of its own, it’s truly a quality piece of open-source software and offers the epitome of what drag-and-drop design should be.
Elementor is absolutely both user-friendly and flexible. However, to incorporate your house style across elements like your email signatures, press releases and forums, your best option is to employ a professional website design agency. They’ll be able to offer you these refined, finishing touches.
You can read more about KIJO’s work with Elementor websites here.
If working with a web design agency is of interest to you and your company, don’t hesitate to contact our expert team today.
