You need everything to create a WordPress page or website that looks great. The platform’s page builder is available 24/7, but you won’t be able to edit the site as often as you would like due to its size and location.
Thankfully, third-party web design plugins are there to address those woes you may often experience with WordPress’s own, and one of the most notable is Elementor. Elementor aims to aid you in creating websites in a uniquely easy way – and when we say it’s a breeze to work with, we do mean it. Plus, no coding is required!
Are you a believer that Elementor is the right page builder? Or are you undecided? To answer your curiosities, we’re deeply diving into everything it offers.
Here’s a Pinky1472 video review for those who like a visual experience. You can still read our article to get an overview of Elementor.
Elementor in a Nutshell – What is It About? How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Elementor is a WordPress website builder plugin. It is best known for its intuitive and visual drag-and-drop editor. This allows you to create a variety of design assets and blocks, and then see how your page looks to visitors in real time.
With an interface that’s more akin to that of popular website builders like Squarespace and Wix, Elementor lets you either opt for a ready-made professional template or create a good-looking WordPress website from the ground up. This unique platform has one advantage: all the tools that you need to create a website are at your fingertips.
What does it have to offer?
Elementor is a WordPress plugin that lives up to its reputation. It offers a clean and simple interface that allows you to quickly navigate through all it has.
- Elementor offers a wider range of attractive and dynamic themes than the standard, plain themes that are often included with WordPress’ in-house themes.
- To edit your pages and posts, you have a completely separate interface that allows for interaction. WordPress’s similar editor is lightweight and easy to use.
- You can keep your current theme, even if it’s from WordPress – Elementor can deal with all WordPress themes as long as they’re compatible with version 5.0 of the platform or higher. The plugin can be used to transform a dull theme into something more appealing.
- All the editing for your pages and sites is done from the front end. You’ll see your work as soon as your customers or visitors see it. This remarkable feature allows you to better understand what design elements keep customers coming back for more.
Elementor as a whole makes it simple to create a stunning page. The interface of Elementor is so simple and packed with useful tools, even people with more advanced knowledge in web design, can use it without any difficulty. This, in turn, has solidified the website builder to be an ideal choice for folks lacking resources or working as a one- or three-man team.
Numerous similar web design plugins might offer working people a pleasant drag-and-drop experience as well as a few useful tools. Still, not all of them can live up to Elementor’s standard. With that being said, Elementor has gained a positive reputation among many WordPress users – more than three million of them have had the plugin installed on their accounts.
What is it that makes this web design platform unique? What else does it have that others usually don’t? We will soon find out as we look deeper into Elementor’s features, beginning with its impressive list.
Meet Elementor’s Features
Completely-packed Template Library
Elementor’s library of more than 150 templates is perfect for those who are new to web design, or have some knowledge but don’t have the time. All of them make the site-building experience easy on your end, as they help turn your ideas into a product that can catch anyone’s attention immediately.
Two categories are available for the platform’s templates:
- Pages – Full-length templates which require very little customization
- Blocks – templates for individual and specific parts of a page – examples of which include FAQs, pricing tables, portfolios, etc.
If you wish to expand beyond Elementor’s in-house template selection, you may find them from tons of third-party sources all over the internet and import them onto the platform under the My Templates tab.
Huge Selection of Widgets
Elementor has a lot more than just a wide range of templates. There are many widget options available in the plugin. Widgets are smaller, more contained elements that house a wide range of content.
With a whopping total of 60+ widgets, you gain lots of insight into how you want to structure your website as well as the flexibility of doing so. Some of those include text-related elements such as headings and the inner section, media files like images and videos, buttons, icons, and website sidebars. Elementor also offers testimonials, star ratings and gallery widgets as well as map widgets powered Google Maps.
You can add as many pages as you like to your site. To expand your selection, you can also import templates from third-party sources.
Convenient Drag-and-drop Editing
If there’s one thing that Elementor is most prominent for, it has to be its highly convenient user experience. Elementor’s drag-and-drop functionality allows users to create and edit pages as easily as possible. Simply drag whatever widget you like best from the left sidebar, and drop it into your workspace. You can also adjust the layout of the page by moving it to another location.
Apart from that, Elementor offers right-click support to assist users without having to go over the sidebar for slight edits all the time – something a couple of WordPress web design plugins aren’t equipped with.
You will find a section called Navigation View that provides a complete list of content, arranged according to Elementor’s page layout. We’ll talk more about that later.
Also included within the editing interface is a Finder tool to help you further navigate swiftly between pages or content elements.
Fine-tuned Control over Your Elements
Elementor, a simple WordPress page-building plugin is packed with design options that can be used by anyone. Elementor understands that every detail is important when creating a website that stands out. It allows you to modify and fix any design elements in the site you are building.
You can amend some necessary adjustments to your site’s content blocks, widgets, images, and text. You can also change the font, sizing, and color of your text content and headings.
These are just a few of the basic editing options you have in Elementor. You can also make specific adjustments to the plugin’s content elements. Widget positioning within columns, setting exact margins and padding in numbers, animation effects, and custom CSS settings are part of the plugin’s line of next-level customization options.
Options for Your Mobile-friendly Page
Elementor templates are all mobile-friendly by default. However, you might be curious if you can make some adjustments to your template to suit your needs. You’ll be glad to know that the platform gives you full control to do whatever you want to make your website more appealing on smartphones and tablets, as with everything else.
Just click the Switch view icon along the sidebar, and you’ll be greeted with three viewing options, each for the desktop, tablet, and mobile phone. If you want to omit a widget or limit whatever you want your clients/customers to see, you may choose any of the three and edit right away.
A Chance to Look Back at the Changes You’ve Made
Sometimes, a few ‘undos’ actions are not enough to correct a major design error. Similar situations could have occurred if you tried to edit on any other design platform.
Elementor’s Revision History tool is a great help in this situation. You can easily revert to previous pages without losing any design elements.
Pricing
The Elementor plugin is offered completely for free, letting you take full advantage of all its core web design features and elements needed to create a good-looking site or page. Elementor Pro has many more upgrades and additions than the previous version. You might be interested in one.
Elementor Pro will allow you to explore a wider range of themes, templates and design blocks, as well as custom CSS and advanced programming capabilities. You can also create forms and pop-ups in the platform’s editing interface, integrate with WooCommerce, and use the theme builder.
Elementor Pro offers four subscription options, each tailored to different individuals or groups. The plan also offers a website builder and hosting plans for advanced site management. All tiers are paid annually and share the same premium features; the only two factors that set each other apart are the number of website activations and customer support response time.
Elementor Pro Plans
- Essential Plan – $49/year. 1 Pro Website Activation. 24/7 Customer Support
- Expert Plan – $199/year, 25 pro website activations, 24/7 customer support
- Studio Plan – $299 in the first year, then $499/year after; 100 pro website activations, VIP customer support in under 30 minutes
- Agency Plan – $999/year. 1000 Pro Website Activations. VIP Customer Support in Less Than 30 Minutes.
The Elementor Cloud Website Builder + Hosting plan is $99 annually. You get all the features of an Elementor Pro plan, but with amazing hosting and CMS capabilities. You get a remarkable range of design assets, templates, and editing capacities, and your website is fully protected with Google Cloud Platform integration, SSL, and robust website management.
Elementor Free vs. Elementor Pro
Now comes the complicated part: Is the free WordPress plugin version still suitable for your needs, or do you think the Pro version has such a big advantage that it makes you want to try it instead?
If you want to build a website or landing page without thinking of adding anything else to further attract your clients, you may choose to stand by the free plugin variant. Elementor Free is already feature-rich in retrospect – its series of core tools are as dynamic as other web design platforms where their premium plans bring the same level of delivery. It is so dynamic that business teams can use the free version. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Elementor Free allows you to:
- Create optimized mobile-friendly versions of your site and page
- Check out the version history of your website.
- You can use fully customizable themes and pre-made templates.
- Add or edit out website blocks however you need them.
If the ability to build and license more than one website is what you’re looking for, Elementor Pro may be a more logical option. It offers a lot more value than the free version. What we mean by it is you have more options to explore and more features to give you the extra edge. These include:
- An expanding list of over 300 themes and 100+ premium block templates;
- Global widgets allow you to use the same widget on multiple pages and not have to modify it individually.
- A front-end form builder and a pop-up editor if you want more ways to attract potential customers;
- Integrations with the popular e-commerce platform WooCommerce, complete with template blocks and widgets that let you build an online storefront;
- The ability to create your personalized theme from scratch through its Theme Builder feature. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
However, unless you wish to license multiple websites, Elementor Pro shouldn’t be viewed as the only way to expand the WordPress plugin. As previously mentioned, Elementor Free is already sustainable enough for most users – there are plenty of flexible themes and templates out there that can be integrated with Elementor, a notable example of which is Astra.
Using Elementor: How Does It Work?
First, install the Elementor plugin and activate it in WordPress. Once you’ve installed it, there’s a settings panel that you can visit if you wish – you may opt to modify whatever you want to see while you do the editing. You can also go to WordPress’s pages section.
You will see the Edit with Elementor link located along the bar above your canvas. You will be immediately redirected to the builder interface as you click the button. This image shows you how it looks. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Based on the image, here are some things you should know as you explore this interface.
- The canvas or workroom. It takes up the largest part of the screen.
- The widgets area. Situated on the left side next to the canvas, it contains lots of content and design elements that are ready to use.
- Settings. It is represented by three horizontal lines. This symbolise the ability to access a variety of fonts and colors.
- The Open Elementor widgets button. It is essentially a menu button that allows you to return the widgets list. Nine little squares are used to represent this.
- The Global Settings button. This button is represented by the cogwheel icon. It takes you to more advanced settings.
- The Revision History button. Displayed as a clock icon, it allows you to take a look at the history of previous versions of your page or website.
- Switch to another view This small monitor icon lets you convert the desktop version of your page into tablet-friendly and mobile-friendly iterations. This icon can be used to edit the content you wish your customers to see on their smartphones.
- Preview Changes. Once you click the tiny eye icon, you’re given a full look at the changes you’ve made to your page before you’re ready to publish it.
- The Publish/Update button. Once this shaped button goes green, that’s when you’re ready to publish. If it’s grey, it means your page is updating – this time, unlike when it’s green, you can’t click it. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Structure Hierarchy
Before you can begin building, it is important to understand the structure hierarchy Elementor uses. This similar structure has been used by many web designers, including those who are more experienced in website design.
Elementor’s primary goal is to create pages. A page is where it usually contains a series of sections and the columns that come after that.
On the one hand, a section is a row that you can customize with plenty of design elements, such as background, colors, sizing, and more.
The columns, on the other, go inside a certain section. These, in turn, are where the widgets or content elements are placed. Each widget can be customized and sized separately.
This is Elementor’s hierarchy structure.
Page > Section > Column > Widget/Content element
Designing a Page
Now that we know how the skeletal outline works, let’s go ahead and create a page. Click the Edit with Elementor link in WordPress’ page design interface. You’ll soon notice a plus (+) button highlighted in red violet – click on that to add a new section. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
The next thing you must do is select the structure of your section. You can choose to have one column or several columns depending on the type of content that you want. From there, you may populate those columns with content elements. Simply drag any widget from the interface’s widget area and drop it onto them, be it a heading or an image. You can even adjust or rearrange them and sections and columns within the page.
Now is the time for fine tuning the details and making the page more attractive. There are three main editing tabs to explore: Content, Style, and Advanced.
It is easier to design a pre-existing theme page than it is to create one from scratch. You would usually only need to make minor adjustments between sections, columns, and widgets, unless you are adding a new design element. Elementor’s drag and drop functions make it much easier to refine some changes than coding.
The Disadvantages: What Else is Lacking?
We don’t mean to mislead you, Elementor is certain to be one of the best WordPress web design tools. However, nothing in this world is always perfect. While there are many things that we love about it, there are a few that some of you may find inconvenient:
- The editing interface can be a bit buggy on some occasions. It’s speedy, swift, and ultimately convenient, but it does so well, too fast to the point where it freezes altogether. To get it working again, refresh it and reopen it.
- Though most of Elementor’s features are offered for free, there are a few that may appear essential but are only limited to Elementor Pro, which may be a bit discouraging for some. For instance, you can’t set site-wide styles in the free version, as you’re essentially stuck to a few pages simultaneously. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
- Some editing refinements may not go exactly as you wish them to. You may find that the default font and typography of certain links is what you have chosen, even if you add your own styling. On the other, you may have difficulty locating the exact margin value whenever the alignment of your design elements is off.
Who should use elementor?
Elementor is filled to the brim with expert-level core features and tools included in the free version, plus more useful upgrades in any of the Elementor Pro plans. Furthermore, most users will likely find it easier to grasp than other WordPress web design plugins.
With that being said, it’s no wonder why many individuals like Elementor as a whole – it’s both a popular DIY solution for folks who may not have on-hand expertise with web design and a quick, feature-rich platform for a wide range of businesses.
We do have a few users in mind who will find Elementor more suitable. These are:
- Casual internet users. Bloggers and hobby website runners, in particular, will enjoy the wide, customizable benefits gladly offered by Elementor.
- Digital marketing professionals. Design tools aside, most of Elementor’s features are built to be marketing-ready – from the seamless integrations to thousands of platforms using Zapier to the pop-up and e-commerce widgets.
- Site builders. If creating websites for a handful of clients is your day job, then Elementor is a great stepping stone to get you to where you want to be. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Alternatives to Elementor
Elementor may have some advantages over other web design plugins, but that doesn’t make it the best choice.
There are plenty of nice web design plugins for WordPress that deliver close to the same level as Elementor, with some that may offer only a few. We all know by now that WordPress’s in-house web design feature is not everyone’s cup of tea – that’s why the plugins were created in the first place, to make the experience much better by the mile.
Right now, there are two other leading WordPress web builder plugins out there that are on the same par as Elementor in terms of features: the Divi builder by Elegant Themes and Beaver Builder. Divi, one on hand, offers the same feature-rich range as Elementor and has the same ability to edit your website from a front-end interface as your clients see it. Although it has a similar look, there is no free option. Beaver Builder is a more straightforward plugin than the others, but it packs as many design tools as you need into one platform. These tools are enough to make a website look great.
Other noteworthy web design plugin alternatives to Elementor include SeedProd and the SiteOrigin Page Builder.
Final Verdict: Is Elementor worth trying?
To answer the question: yes. If you’re searching for a top-notch drag-and-drop page-building instrument for WordPress that’s stuffed with professional-grade design tools and features, with most of those core features offered for free, look no further than Elementor. How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
It’s easy to see why so many people continue to use this plugin to build websites and pages. We believe that Elementor stands out from most web design plugins because it allows individuals of all skill levels to build whatever they wish with no major obstacles in the way. Unlike others, it doesn’t force you to upgrade to a higher plan or a paid license, ensuring there’s enough space for everyone.
Before we let you explore Elementor, here’s some advice: If your job involves creating websites for clients or running multiple websites, we recommend that you use Elementor Pro. The free plugin for WordPress will still work fine.
FAQ How To Embed A Pin In Elementor
Can I upload or export my templates to Elementor?
Yes, Elementor can import your templates. You can create a new template using the Theme Builder. Additionally, you can import your personal themes to the website builder via the Templates tab.
Similar to the previous function, you can export your template files to be used on another WordPress site – useful if you work as a web-builder for multiple clients.
What types of pages can I create using Elementor?
Elementor allows you to create landing pages, homepages, landing page, landing pages and about pages.
If you’re subscribed to Elementor Pro, you can create full websites and even online stores apart from numerous pages.
Is Elementor slowing down my website?
Elementor won’t slow down your website to the point where it will take as many seconds as possible to load. A website built with this plugin might take two seconds longer than one built from WordPress’s built in website builder. Nonetheless, both equally bit faster than the version made through, say, Beaver Builder.
The reason why WordPress websites that are made using plugins take longer may derive from multiple factors: poor hosting, large media files, slow themes, and too many plugins at work.