Elementor Review: Is It Worth It in 2024?

Elementor at a Glance

Should You Use Elementor?

Elementor is one of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress, if not the most popular. Even though it’s been on the market for quite a few years, it’s still going strong.

But should it? Does Elementor keep up with the latest page builders for WordPress and indeed, website builders in general, or did it simply get a head start? I put in the hours of research to find out.

I tested Elementor’s free and paid plans to discover firsthand how good it actually is, in addition to consulting the opinions of dozens of previous users.

I’ll give it to you short and sweet: Elementor is not as convenient as a normal website builder, but it is every bit as powerful as it needs to be to let you create the WordPress site of your dreams.

However, Elementor’s costs are on the higher side. Also, though it’s user-friendly for the basics, you’ll be facing a learning curve if you really want to make the most out of it. Is it what you need for your WordPress site? Read on to find out.

Thousands of Built-in and Third-Party Templates

Unlike a traditional website builder, Elementor is a WordPress page-building plugin. So, instead of getting a single “templates” page you can check out, there are many layers to Elementor’s template offering. You can use Elementor-compatible themes on WordPress, plus Elementor’s template kits, which are like bundles of page templates. It sounds complex, but it means that you have no shortage of options.

On WordPress’ theme page, you can find thousands of different themes. Elementor is compatible with most WordPress themes, but it’ll probably be faster for you to use Elementor’s default theme.

As a default, when you install Elementor, you’ll get the “Hello Elementor” theme, which is just Elementor’s blank canvas. From there, you can choose from Elementor’s proprietary selection of “website kits.” Each kit lets you build a fully functional single or multi-page site.

There are 2 free full-website kits available for free users, and 23 more available for pro users. If you want even more options, you can also install over 100 available website kits from Elementor’s library website, though they are available for pro users only.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are thousands of third-party Elementor template kits available in online marketplaces like Envato or ThemeForest.

Since the market for templates is so varied, it’s difficult to make any generalizations about them. However, I can say that Elementor’s built-in kits look modern, functional, and include plenty of attractive elements like animations and transitions.

It’s a shame that most good-looking template kits are reserved for paid users, but don’t worry too much if you can’t afford the membership, as there are fantastic third-party template kits available for a smaller, one-time fee.

Design and Customization

Elementor is one of the original page builders for WordPress, and many others have tried to imitate it or improve on it. But when it comes to design freedom, Elementor is still one of the best. 

Elementor combines drag-and-drop editing with a section approach. The way it works is: you add a section to whatever page you’re editing, and you choose whether you want it as a Grid or a Flexbox. Both are structured ways of placing your content, but the latter allows you to edit the spacing of the structure and the former is more rigid.

That’s the section-based aspect. However, unlike other section-based builders, Elementor’s sections are not (always) pre-populated. Once you create a section for your site, you can then manually add elements from the widget menu.

You get a truly staggering amount of control over each section and element, including its layout, style, motion effects, responsiveness attributes, and more. You can even edit elements with custom code. However, the design freedom also brings a learning curve – which I’ll get into later.

Just remember that the best, most interesting elements are reserved for Elementor’s Pro plans.

A Wide Range of Design-Specific Features

Elementor offers plenty of features outside of its already overflowing widget and template library. However, I’ll remind you (again) that Elementor is a page-builder plugin, not a full website builder.

There are plenty of crucial website tools that you’re going to have to search for elsewhere. While traditional website builders offer e-commerce integrations, analytic options, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and more, Elementor’s main focus is on giving you control over how your website looks.

Are there any non-design related features? Sure, but I’d recommend using specialized plugins for that and letting Elementor do what it does best.

A Widget for (Almost) Everything

It would be a discredit to its name if Elementor didn’t offer a wide variety of, well, page elements. Depending on your pricing plan, however, you may not get much beyond what you’d expect from any half-respectable website builder. What I’m trying to say (if my editor will allow it) is that the element selection on Elementor’s Basic plan is quite basic.

Besides the elemental (sorry, I’ll stop) widgets you’d expect, you also get access to some cool tools like image carousels, progress bars, testimonials, and more. However, while some builders might give you more widgets, they definitely don’t give you as many customization tools as Elementor does.

Elementor allows you to customize nearly every single property of any widget you add to your page. That means not just fonts and colors, but options for advanced spacing, HTML tags, animation, borders and masks, and much more.

And your flexibility really skyrockets with the Pro plans. These give you access to some truly unique tools, like custom price tables and pricing lists, login features for your users, and advanced media and post-display options. And all with that same, extreme level of control.

There Are Hundreds of Free and Paid Add-Ons

If Elementor’s default features aren’t enough, you can also get even more from hundreds of Elementor add-ons. Some get very specific. For example, if you like it when animations react to a site visitor’s scrolling, you can add the “Scroll Sequence” widget that comes with the “Unlimited Elements” add-on for Elementor.

Some of these add-ons are designed solely to expand your widget selection, such as “Unlimited Elements,” “Essential Addons,” “Element Pack Pro,” and “Ultimate Addons” (give them a break, they’re developers, not copywriters).

Elementor is also compatible with other popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce or Yoast SEO. So you don’t have to sacrifice your site’s functionality for design freedom. On that note…

Powerful Woocommerce Integration for Online Stores

Though Elementor doesn’t come with e-commerce features on its own, don’t worry – you can still create a successful e-commerce website. That’s because Elementor fully integrates with the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress.

When I say “integrates” I mean much more than just basic compatibility. Elementor offers unique tools to help you design a convenient and attractive WooCommerce store. That includes full customization over individual product pages, the cart and checkout flow, and even the option to match your checkout page style with the rest of your website.

Easy To Use, Hard To Master

Creating a basic page using Elementor is one of the easiest things I’ve done. Making a simple landing page with a nice-looking background, a heading, and a call to action (CTA) button probably took me about ten minutes, and the result was nothing to scoff at.

However, when I tried to imitate the vibrant, dynamic designs of similar pages I’ve seen made with Elementor, the process got complicated quickly. Sure, a big part of that is just being in the hands of capable web designers, but still, if you want to make the most out of what Elementor has to offer, then you’ll need to face a steeper learning curve.

Just to give you an idea, during my research, I encountered tutorials for building basic, good-looking landing pages in less than ten minutes, as well as instructions for creating more complicated websites that took over four hours.

Still, Elementor does offer some features to make your process a little less complicated.

Convenient Theme Builder Options

If you’re creating a larger site, being able to design a specific feature or section once and apply it to multiple pages can save you a ton of time. That’s exactly what Elementor lets you do with its theme builder.

Just as the name implies, Elementor’s theme builder allows you to create your own templates with the same scope as the pre-built website kits. This means that you can create custom templates for entire pages, specific sections, or even save a global format for certain Widgets. 

You can also create templates for landing pages and website pop-ups. Depending on your goals, you might need to create several different landing pages for a single website, or re-use pop-ups on more than one occasion, so this can save you a lot of time and effort down the road.

AI Creation at Every Level

Elementor has recently introduced Elementor AI, which allows you to use generative AI in almost every part of your design process. Elementor AI can automatically generate section variations, improve its own creations with your feedback, and even generate custom CSS code.

If you don’t want fully AI generated sections, but still need a little help with the design process, you can also use Elementor AI for text and image generation. You can even use Elementor AI to optimize your images for greater loading speeds.

Streamline Your Design With Elementor’s Workflow System

Elementor allows you to make global changes with ease. That means that you don’t have to go page-by-page if you want to modify your website’s fonts or color scheme.

Elementor is also filled with small, but useful, efficiency-improving features. For example: the option to create custom shortcuts, or copy-paste styles from one widget to another. And if you have more than one person designing your site, you can easily customize Elementor’s permissions based on their role.

Let me know if you start to see a pattern here, but Elementor’s customer support is reserved for Pro users. And even with a Pro plan, Elementor isn’t exactly filled to the brim with customer support channels. There’s a live-chat and a ticket system, and that’s that.

Seeing as there weren’t that many options to choose from, I started by testing out Elementor’s live-chat support. Or at least I thought I did. As it turns out, your first interaction on Elementor’s live-chat isn’t with a support representative, but with one of those AI bots that are the bane of my existence.

Credit where credit is due, the chatbot experience was better than I was expecting. The chatbot would only connect me to a human representative if it could not answer my questions by itself, but frustratingly, it was able to answer a lot before customer support stepped in. The question that finally got me to connect with another human was “how can I include a livestream to my Elementor page?”

My support representative did a great job, responding just a couple of minutes after my initial question. Even though the feature I sought isn’t built into Elementor, they gave me some workaround advice for finding a third-party solution. They were friendly, professional, and even went the extra mile by adding it as a suggested feature.

I’d also be remiss not to mention that Elementor has a large knowledge base with how-to guides and video tutorials which are quite good.

I do feel like there should be more support available for free users, and more support channels overall, but my experience was far from a bad one.

I Have My Issues With Elementor’s Pricing Model

Elementor’s free plan “Basic” is a good, simple page builder. On its own, it offers less widgets than WordPress’ built-in editor, so I’d only recommend it if you prefer the interface and aren’t shooting for a very complicated website. For anything more impressive, you have to go with Pro.

Though I’ve been referring on and off to Elementor Pro for the entire length of this review, there isn’t a single “Pro” plan per se on Elementor’s website. Elementor doesn’t offer a single “Pro” plan, but 4 different plans called Essential, Advanced, Expert, and Agency. All of which are technically “Elementor Pro.”

The main difference between the plans is the number of websites you can use Elementor’s license on. Essential, which will set you back $59.00 each year, allows 1 site and gives you access to 50 pro widgets. Advanced ($99.00 a year) allows up to 3 websites, grants access to 82 widgets, and unlocks the rest of the Elementor Pro features that were not included with the Essential plan (such as custom CSS editing and a pop-up builder).

For the higher tiers, the only difference is that the more you pay, the more websites you’re allowed to use your license on. Elementor also now sells hosting plans, but I wouldn’t recommend them over plans from established hosting providers like Hostinger or InterServer.

Overall, I’d say Elementor’s pricing falls on the more expensive side, considering you already have to pay for hosting as well as Elementor.

My main issue with Elementor’s pricing model is that I see no reason for it to be subscription-based. You should be able to pay for the Pro version once, and maybe a small fee for any major updates. I also think that the number of websites per plan is limited considering the cost.

Frustrations aside, I can’t deny that Elementor Pro is worth it if you can make the most out of its design features. You’ll be able to create a truly unique WordPress site.