When it comes to creating a good-looking page or website on WordPress, you need to make sure you have everything you need to accomplish it. Sure, the platform’s in-house page builder is always ready to assist you, but the problem is you can’t edit it as much as you’d like because of how bulky and out-of-the-place it is.
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. No coding required!
Do you think Elementor could be the right page builder for you? Or are you undecided? To answer your curiosities, we’re deeply diving into everything it offers.
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from the YouTube channel Pinky1472. To get a comprehensive overview of Elementor, you may still want to check out our article below.
Elementor in a Nutshell – What is It About? Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Elementor is a WordPress website builder plugin. It’s best known for its visual and intuitive drag-and-drop editor that allows you to use a wide range of design assets and blocks and see what your page will look like 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. One good thing about this one-of-a-kind platform is that all the tools you need to build a website are within your reach – all without the added hassles of coding that may get in the way of enjoying it.
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.
- The front-end handles all editing of your pages and websites. This means you’ll be able to see your work immediately as your visitors or customers 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. Its interface is designed to be so streamlined and filled to the brim with essential tools that even those who may need more expansive knowledge in web design can navigate through it with no problems. 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.
Many similar web designer plugins may offer working individuals a pleasing drag-and-drop experience and a handful of 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’ll find out soon as we take a more in-depth look at what Elementor has in store for us, starting with its illustrious list of features.
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.
The platform’s templates are classified into two categories:
- Pages – full-length templates that only require you to do low-effort customization
- Blocks are templates that can be used to create pages for specific and individual parts. Examples of blocks include portfolios, pricing tables, FAQs, portfolios, and more.
You can find templates from other sources than Elementor’s own and then import them into the platform via the My Templates tab.
Massive Widget Selection
Elementor has a lot more than just a wide range of templates. The plugin is also rich in widget choices. Widgets can be smaller and more contained elements, which house a variety 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 may add as many as you want to your page. As with the templates, you may also opt to import those from third-party sources to further expand your selection.
Convenient Drag-and-drop Editing
Elementor’s user interface is the most notable feature. It has been best-known for its drag-and-drop capabilities, allowing users to build and edit pages as freely as possible. Simply drag whatever widget you like best from the left sidebar, and drop it into your workspace. Similarly, you may tweak some adjustments between the page’s elements by dragging it to a different location.
Elementor also offers right-click support, which allows users to make minor edits without having to look at the sidebar. This is something that a few WordPress web design plugins don’t offer.
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.
The editing interface also includes a Finder tool that will help you navigate quickly between pages and 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. It knows that the finest of details matter when it comes to creating an eye-catching website, so it allows you the liberty to edit and fix every single design element in whatever you’re building.
You can amend some necessary adjustments to your site’s content blocks, widgets, images, and text. You can also modify the font, size, and color of text content and headings.
These are just a few of the basic editing options you have in Elementor. The plugin also has more advanced options to let you tweak specific adjustments to your content elements. The plugin offers advanced customization options that include widget positioning within columns, custom CSS settings, animation effects and exact margins and padding for numbers.
Optional Features for Your Mobile-Friendly Page
All of Elementor’s templates are mobile-friendly by default, but you may be wondering if you could make some changes to match how you want it to look. 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.
An opportunity to look back at the changes you’ve made
Sometimes a few ‘undo’ actions may not be enough to fix a huge design mistake. 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. With it, you can revert to any of the previous versions of the page you’re editing without sacrificing the rest of your design elements.
The 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.
Among the things you may get to enjoy if you choose Elementor Pro include exploring an expanded library of themes, templates, and design blocks; custom CSS and advanced coding capabilities; creating forms and pop-ups within the platform’s editing interface; integrations with WooCommerce; and, of course, the theme builder.
Elementor Pro has four main subscription plans, each designed for various individuals and/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 for the first year, and then $499/year thereafter; 100 pro websites activated, VIP customer support in less than 30 minutes
- Agency Plan – $999/year. 1000 Pro Website Activations. VIP Customer Support in Less Than 30 Minutes.
Elementor Cloud Website Building + Hosting is $99 per year. It gives you the same features you can expect from any Elementor Pro plan but includes stunning hosting and CMS capabilities. It offers a wide range of templates and design assets. Your website is protected by 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?
The free plugin version is a good option if you don’t want to add any extra features to your website or landing page. 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. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Elementor Free allows you to:
- Optimize your website and pages for mobile viewing.
- Go through your website’s version history
- You can use fully customizable themes and pre-made templates.
- You can add or modify website blocks as you wish.
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. This means that you have more options and more features to help you get the most out of your software. These include:
- A growing list of more than 300 themes and over 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 WooCommerce are available, with templates blocks and widgets to help you create an online storefront.
- The ability to create your personalized theme from scratch through its Theme Builder feature. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Elementor Pro should not be considered the only way to grow the WordPress plugin if you don’t want to license multiple websites. Elementor Free, as mentioned above, is sustainable enough for most users. However, there are many flexible themes and templates that can be integrated into Elementor. Astra is a notable example.
Elementor: How does it work?
To get the Elementor plugin to start, the first thing you will need to do is install 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.
From there, you will notice the Edit with Elementor button placed conveniently along the bar above the canvas. As soon as you click on the button, you will be redirected to builder interface. The image below perfectly illustrates what it looks like. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Based on the picture, here are a couple of things that you should expect as you explore the interface:
- The workroom or canvas. 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. Essentially considered a form of the menu button, it allows you to return to the widgets list – nine little squares 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 View. You can convert your desktop page to tablet-friendly or mobile-friendly versions by clicking the small monitor icon. This icon can be used to edit the content you wish your customers to see on their smartphones.
- Preview your 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. When the shaped button turns green, you are 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. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On 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.
In Elementor, your primary goal is to create a page. 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 are the places where widgets and content elements are located. Each widget can be customized and sized separately.
To recap, this is how Elementor’s structure hierarchy plays out:
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. On WordPress’s page design interface, click the Edit with Elementor button. You’ll soon notice a plus (+) button highlighted in red violet – click on that to add a new section. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On 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. You can then populate the 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.
Once you’re happy with the structural placement, now is the time to retune the finer details to make the page look more presentable. 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. With Elementor’s drag-and-drop functions, refining some necessary changes has been made much easier than the more advanced processes done through coding.
The disadvantages: What else is missing?
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. Although it’s fast, efficient, and ultimately very convenient, it can freeze too quickly. With that in mind, you might need to refresh and reopen it to get it back on track.
- 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. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
- Some editing refinements may not go exactly as you wish them to. On the one hand, if you add custom styling to certain links, you may end up with the default typography and font color. 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 include:
- Casual internet users. Bloggers and hobby website runners, in particular, will enjoy the wide, customizable benefits gladly offered by Elementor.
- Digital marketing professionals. Elementor features can be used for design purposes, but they are also marketing-ready. This includes seamless integrations with thousands of platforms via Zapier and pop-up and online commerce widgets.
- Site builders. Elementor is an excellent stepping stone for those who are interested in creating websites for clients. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Alternatives to Elementor
Just because Elementor has advantages that may far exceed other contemporary web design plugins doesn’t mean you should consider it as the only choice worth considering.
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. WordPress’s web design features are not for everyone. We all know this. That’s why plugins were created.
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. On the other hand, Beaver Builder may not be as flashy as the other two plugins, but it still manages to pack as many essential design tools as possible into one platform. These are already enough to create an attractive website.
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. Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
It’s easy to see why so many people continue to use this plugin to build websites and pages. Elementor is different than other web design plugins in that it allows anyone to create whatever they want with no restrictions. 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. Otherwise, the free plugin for WordPress will work just as fine!
FAQ Elementor Server 403 Forbidden Appears When Click Update Html Page On Elementor
Can I upload or export my templates to Elementor?
Yes, you can import your templates to Elementor. Apart from letting you create one from scratch with the help of the Theme Builder feature, you can import your personalized themes into the website builder under 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.
Elementor Pro subscribers can create websites, and even online shops.
Does Elementor slow down my website?
Elementor will not slow down your website so that it takes as little time 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. Both are still faster than the Beaver Builder version.
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.