Those days are long gone when you needed to spend hours coding to create a fully functional website. With the advent of WordPress, the process of website creation has become much more visual.
Drag-and-drop editors are constantly adding new features, making it easier and more intuitive for people to build their own websites.
Initially, these editors were just tools to help make small changes or add design elements to a website. But now, they’re competing with custom-coded sites.
Elementor and WPBakery are two of the most popular drag-and-drop builders, both with active communities. If you’re trying to decide which one to use, I’ve got you covered.
I’ll provide a detailed comparison between these two-page builders, including their pros, cons, and unique features. You’ll have all the information you need to make an informed decision.
| WPBakery (Official Site) | WPBakery (Codecanyon) | Elementor | |
| Single Site License | $59 (lifetime) | $64 (one-time) | $59/year |
| 5-Site License | $256 (lifetime) | N/A | N/A |
| 10-Site License | $499 (lifetime) | N/A | N/A |
| 3-Site License | N/A | N/A | |
| 25-Site License | N/A | N/A | |
| 1000-Site License | N/A | N/A | |
| Customer Support | Lifetime | 6 months | 1 year |
| Money-back Guarantee | 15 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Free Plan | Yes | – | Yes |
WPBakery Vs. Elementor: Overview
First, let me give you a quick overview of how these two plugins work.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a popular drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress, developed by an Israeli web development company. It’s one of the simplest page builder plugins available and is suitable for both beginners and experienced web developers.
Even the free version of Elementor is packed with features. You can choose from hundreds of templates and widgets and use the intuitive interface to create complex designs with ease.
You don’t need any coding skills to use it. Also, the page builder is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with other plugins, making it simple to build visually stunning websites.
What is WPBakery?
WPBakery is an amazing plugin for WordPress that lets you design web pages easily, both in the frontend and backend. It used to be called Visual Compressor, but now it’s a powerful standalone plugin.
As one of the pioneers in drag-and-drop page builders for WordPress, WPBakery eliminates the need for coding knowledge when creating stunning websites using WordPress CMS.
If you’re a fan of Gutenberg, then you’re in for a treat with WPBakery. This fantastic tool combines the functionality of the regular WordPress editor with the convenience of a drag-and-drop website builder.
It’s a perfect blend that gives you even more flexibility and control over your website’s design.
To add new widgets or elements to your page, all you have to do is click on the plus (+) icon. It’s as simple as that!
And if you ever want to make changes to your content, don’t worry, WPBakery has got you covered. The editing interface will pop up, allowing you to effortlessly modify and customize your widgets to your heart’s desire.
With WPBakery, designing your dream website becomes an enjoyable and hassle-free experience. So go ahead, unleash your creativity, and let WPBakery transform your WordPress site into something truly remarkable.
WPBakery Vs. Elementor: Pros & Cons
Like any tool, both Elementor and WPBakery have their strengths and weaknesses. Here’s what I think are the pros and cons of each.
Elementor Pros:
- Comes in both free and paid subscription
- Easy to understand User-Friendly UI
- Full with Templates and Blocks (100+ WordPress templates and 300+ blocks)
- Offers responsive design tools for Desktop, Mobile, and Tablets
- Coming Soon and Under Construction page comes inbuilt
- Supports Multiple languages and translation
- Works on any theme
- Complete control of customization
- The live preview allows checking each change on the go
- No need to add shortcodes for lock-in and no critical code on uninstall
Elementor Cons:
- No white label is available
- Customization is limited on the header footer.
WPBakery Pros :
- Both front-end and back-end editor
- Works on multiple themes
- Drag and drop is much more flexible
- A great number of templates and widgets
- Supports Translation and Multilanguage
WPBakery Cons:
- No free trial
- Takes time to adapt to the use
- Sometimes the customization feels overwhelming
- On uninstall or lock-in leaves shortcodes that mess with the overall website.
UI Comparison Between WPbakery Vs. Elementor
While I’ve highlighted the contrasts between these two plugins, I believe it’s worth delving into the deeper comparisons I’ve personally explored with them.
User Interface
When discussing page builders, the user interface (UI) takes center stage as the most crucial feature. So, let’s dive right into the UI and explore its significance.
Elementor
Elementor is ranked as the 6 most popular plugin in the WordPress repository. The left sidebar houses all the features while the rest of the screen is dedicated to adding or editing your website.
With the frontend editor, you can modify elements individually without affecting others. It’s like using a Word editor rather than a website builder.
Simply search for what you need in the sidebar, drag it to where you want it, and adjust the spacing and layout or add multiple columns. And it will get your things done.
WPbakery UI
WPbakery allows you to design your website from both the front and back ends. You can choose to edit your page live or from the WordPress dashboard.
Adding elements is easy – just click the (+) icon and it will appear on your layout. Clicking on a popup lets you edit its elements.
Features Comparison Between WPbakery Vs Elementor
Both Elementor and WPbakery are top-notch when it comes to feature-packed tools. They have some similarities but also have their own unique features.
I’ll start by comparing their common features and then highlight some of the differences between them.
Elements
Elementor’s free version offers 53 elements and 70+ for Elementor Pro. You can create headings, paragraphs, columns, spacers, and more. You can even add Google Maps and use HTML or shortcodes without getting lost in the code.
The free version also includes basic media settings like creating a gallery or carousel and adding videos from other sources.
But for advanced changes like dynamic headings, post-page design, and WooCommerce editing, you’ll need a premium subscription.
With it, you can design your eCommerce store products with custom titles, ratings, and menu cart designs. You can also design WooCommerce pages and add related products manually.
Whereas, WPbakery offers more than 50 elements, including WooCommerce features. Its drag-and-drop editor lets you add text blocks, social media buttons, calls to action, and even WordPress widgets.
Both plugins have many add-ons for more flexible customization. Essential Addons for Elementor and Ultimate Addons for WPBakery Page Builder are two popular options.
Pre-Made Templates
As a website WordPress lover, having pre-made templates is a lifesaver. If I need to build a website quickly and don’t have a design in mind, I might be stuck. But with templates, the process is easier. I can add or edit them to fit my needs.
Elementor offers 30 free templates and blocks, and over 300 in the pro version. With these blocks, you can create beautiful heroes, contact us, and body sections. Its pro version even lets you create a custom 404 page to keep visitors engaged.
You can also create landing pages and complete websites with just a few clicks. This includes a home page, an about us page, a contact form, and more.
In this regard, WPBakery is another great option. It comes with 85 blocks and 100 premium templates for designing beautiful websites.
You can showcase your portfolio, photographs, or previous work. And with the call to action block, it’s easy to encourage visitors to take action on your website.
Header Footer Editor
Both the header and footer are integral parts of a theme. They are essential components that you simply can’t do without when launching a WordPress website.
If you ever want to make changes to these areas, you have two options: accessing the theme customization settings or delving into the editor settings.
When an item is within the customization settings, making alterations is a breeze. You can modify it hassle-free, tweaking it to suit your preferences.
However, if the item is in the editor, that’s where things get a bit more complicated. You’ll need coding knowledge to effectively make the desired changes.
Note: Visual editors typically don’t provide direct access to edit header and footer codes.
Here’s where Elementor Pro steps in and sets itself apart. With this powerful plugin, you can edit the header and footer using a visual editor. This saves you from the hassle of dealing with intricate theme code.
Elementor Pro makes these areas entirely editable, granting you the freedom to customize them to your heart’s content.
On the other hand, WPBakery doesn’t offer this feature as part of its core functionality. While it may require you to invest in a premium plugin, it lacks the convenience of editing the header and footer visually.
Undoubtedly, this can be disappointing for those seeking a streamlined editing experience.
However, if you’re determined to achieve this capability with WPBakery, you have the option to add the Visual Compressor Website Builder as an additional plugin.
Styling And Customization
With Elementor, You can easily customize and style your website in real-time using the left tab. YOu can also adjust the size of images, change the background color, choose a font family, and so much more.
And if you want to get really fancy, you can use the advanced settings to change the padding animations and even add custom CSS.
WPBakery also has these features in its popup settings. It lets you set images, image sizes, animations, custom CSS and more in the general settings. The design tabs have options for padding and coloring too.
Also, you can add a margin from here. The only thing to remember is to check the design after making changes instead of live editing.
Integration
Elementor supports a variety of integrations with email marketing, CRM, social media, and other platforms. Some of these include:
- Facebook SDK
- HubSpot, Zapier
- MailChimp
- ActiveCampaign
- Discord, Drip
- Font Awesome 5
- Slack
- MailerLite
- GetResponse
- Campaign Monitor
- ConvertKit
- ReCaptcha V3
- Custom Icon Libraries and more.
WPBakery also has a lot of integration options. It integrates with over 500 plugins and has more than 15-page layouts to choose from.
WPbakery Vs. Elementor Lock-ins
One issue with any page builder is that a simple bug can mess up your entire website design. And it’s not just page builders – any plugin you install on your WordPress site adds code and scripts to your website.
Some plugins even leave a cache behind after you uninstall them. Both Elementor and WPBakery leave behind scripts.
But Elementor is better in this regard. Even if you uninstall it, your website’s basic layout will remain intact without leaving complicated coding behind. Your advanced designs won’t be affected.
On the other hand, if you uninstall WPBakery, your entire website can get messed up. It will still contain shortcodes and JS code. And if there’s a lot of text content to be scraped from that coding, it can be impossible for you to do so.
So if you plan to change your design after launching your website, Elementor is a better option.
WPBbakery Vs Elementor Speed
As for the specific speed of each plugin with certain themes or on various hosting platforms, I wasn’t able to find specific data within the time constraints.
If you’re interested in more detailed information or specific use cases, I’d recommend conducting further research or contacting the plugin developers directly for more comprehensive data.
Here’s a comparison table based on the performance metrics from WP Rocket’s analysis:
| Performance Metric | Elementor (Without WP Rocket) | Elementor (With WP Rocket) | WPBakery (Without WP Rocket) | WPBakery (With WP Rocket) |
| Overall Performance Grade (PSI) | 62 | 93 | 58 | 91 |
| Page Size (KB) | 2,287 | 859 | 2,040 | 979 |
| HTTP Requests | 19 | 14 | 20 | 15 |
| Fully Loaded Time of the Homepage (s) | 3.2 | 1.792 | 4.027 | 1.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint (s) | 2.8 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 1.5 |
| First Contentful Paint (s) | 2.3 | 1.1 | 2 | 0.9 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (s) | 0 | 0 | 0.434 | 0.038 |
| Speed Index (s) | 6.2 | 1.1 | 4.8 | 1.9 |
| Time to Interactive (s) | 3.9 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 1.1 |
| Total Blocking Time (ms) | 120 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
You can use WP Rocket to improve the speed and performance of both Elementor and WPBakery. I have got, it applies 80%+ of web performance best practices right upon activation, improving loading times, overall website performance, and PageSpeed Insights scores.
It also optimizes Core Web Vitals, which can help improve SEO rankings
WPBakery & Elementor: Price Comparison
If you buy it from the official site, the regular license for WPBakery costs $59/lifetime for a single site. But if you need an extended license for a single SaaS application, it’ll cost you $256/lifetime for 5 sites to access and $499/lifetime for 10-site use.
You can buy this plugin from Codecanyon for only $64/one-time for 1 site use and lifetime update, but you will get 6 months of customer support.
Note: You will get 15-day money-back guarantee if you buy from the WpBakery official site. If you buy from Codecanyon, you will get 30-day money-back guarantee.
Elementor has a free plan if you just want to learn or design a basic website. But for serious web designers and website builders, there are 4 plans to choose from. the basic plans start from $59/year for a single site. But if you have multiple sites like $89/year for 3 sites, $159/year for 25 sites, and $279/year for 1000 sites. You will get a 30-day money-back on all plans.
Note: The Essential package doesn’t include the Website Kits feature, but the other three packages do – for various websites.
WPBakery Vs. Elementor: All Unique & Similar Features
Before I wrap up, here’s a summary table of all the features you’ll get – and miss out on – with either of these plugins.
| Elementor | WPBakery | |
| Unique features | Integrations, Interactions, Theme content, hotkeys, background features, and marketing tools | Auto Shortcode mapperMultilingual ready |
| Editing tools | ✅ | ✅ |
| Design tools | ✅ | ✅ |
| Premade templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| WooCommerce builder | ✅ | ✅ |
| Popup Builder | ✅ | ❌ |
| Popup builder | ✅ | ❌ |
| Mobile editing tools | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integrations | Email marketing, CRM, social media, and other popular apps | Integrates with +500 add-ons and +15 predefined web page layouts |
| API | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free trial | Free plan | Free trial with demo site on your own demo sandbox |
FAQs Related to Elementor & WPBakery Page Builder
Can I switch from WP Bakery to Elementor?
Yes, you can switch from WP Bakery to Elementor. You can deactivate WP Bakery and activate Elementor instead. But, you should be aware that the transition may not be seamless. Elements designed with WP Bakery will not be automatically converted to Elementor’s format, so you might need to rebuild some parts of your site.
Can you use Elementor and WP Bakery together?
As for using Elementor and WP Bakery together, technically, it is possible. You can have both plugins installed and activated on your WordPress site. You can use Elementor on some pages and WP Bakery on others. But this could lead to inconsistencies in design and potential plugin conflicts, and it might make your site management more complex. As a best practice, it’s usually recommended to use only a one-page builder across your entire site to maintain consistency and reduce potential issues.
WPbakery Vs Elementor: Which One Should You Buy?
There are many reasons why I prefer Elementor over WPBakery. For starters, Elementor has a free plan that you can try before upgrading to a pro plan. And it’s less expensive to start with Elementor Pro. If you don’t like Elementor, here is alternatives to Elementor.
WPBakery, on the other hand, offers fewer features but at a lower price. But aside from the price, I really like Elementor’s user interface and flexibility.
And even though WPBakery’s platform integrates features from both DIVI builder and Elementor, I still prefer live editing.
When I edit something in Elementor, I feel like I have more control and confidence. WPBakery is close behind, but if I had to choose a winner in this comparison battle, my vote would go to Elementor.
