So what are WordPress Page Builders?
Page builders are plugins that allow you to build beautiful sites without the need for complicated coding or expensive designers.
It’ can be confusing for WordPress users particularly those just starting a WordPress blog on whether to just buy a theme and use the default WordPress editor when creating pages and posts.
The default WP editor can be a bit basic with what you can do unless you know HTML.
The alternative is to go with one of the many WordPress page builders available or to even hire a professional designer.
You do have 3 great methods to choose from when it comes to designing pages and sites.
As already mentioned the default WordPress editor can be a bit limiting with what you can do unless you want to go on a steep learning curve with HTML.
You can, however, expand your editor with a plugin called TinyMCE that when installed adds a lot of functionally to the editor and moves you away from learning HTML and that is a very good option.
If however you like the idea of a more drag and drop approach of editing and designing and prefer to leave HTML and coding very much on the sidelines then investigating a WordPress Page Builder plugin might just be the way forward for you.
All you need to know about WordPress Page Builders
Talking straight on this matter
Builder plugins are indeed a cost-effective in comparison to hiring a designer.
And there is no need to fear if you possess zero technical skill as they will normally operate in a drag and drop style meaning that you simply move a feature that you want to use to the area of the screen where you want it to be.
WordPress page builders can help you with explicit custom pages even if you have no idea about the fundamentals of WordPress coding.
Professional designers demand considerably high fees for little changes on pages.
WordPress Page Builders are extremely cost-effective plugins and can be helpful in this matter.
And the best part about any of the advanced WordPress builders is that they nullify your need for installing additional plugins.
No matter how many self-hosted WordPress users there are at present on the internet, you can still have a unique look and feel to your website, without installing too many plugins.
The best recommendation for designing your own site and pages would be to start with a trial edition of one of the popular WordPress builder plugins..
Keep reading to find some of the best page builder plugins available today, some of the features you can expect when building your site and pages and reasons why you should be using WordPress page builder plugins.
Popular WordPress Page Builders: Elegant Themes Divi and WP Beaver Builder
Two of the most popular page builder plugins are without a doubt Divi builder from Elegant Themes and WP Beaver Builder.
While both of these website design tools have their own strong and weak points, the crucial difference is that Divi is aimed at web designers primarily, while Beaver Builder is more focus towards web developers and programmers.
You can understand this crucial difference by reading the following article on CollectiveRay: Beaver Builder vs Divi – Which WordPress builder is good for you, and which one isn’t?
User-friendly interface for editing:
It’s always gratifying for a user when they can implement design changes all by themselves. And, using a WordPress Page Builder can promise that will be the case.
The front end editing options available can save significant amounts of time for a user.
Not just the beginners, the frontend editing interface is useful for the pros as well.
Anyone can bring the same professional look to a site through frontend their editing interface that they would have got through a paid designer.
Moreover, it can be done much quicker while in comparison with the usual method of hiring a designer.
At the same time giving beautiful designs, the frontend editing interface found on page builders is equally excellent from an editing point of view as well.
Just like designing, editing of utmost accuracy can be expected through the frontend editing interface.
All of the best WordPress page builders come with great design and editing features
In fact, the user interface of each is equally enchanting, being enriched with handy features.
Page builders are simple and user-friendly and can be learned very quickly and easily.
It’s not wrong to claim that these builders are user-friendly keeping the fact in mind that the number of beginners and intermediate users are higher in comparison with the pros.
The best part about the interface is that it doesn’t confuse the user with buttons and is often simply a process of dragging and dropping features where you want them to be on the page.
Visual composerS can be an incredible example in this regard.
They are extremely user-friendly, providing great features for editing.
Managing content and categorizing content is also incredibly easy.
Thrive Content Builder is another good example offering these features.
The drag-and-drop approach that page builders use really can solve a lot of page design headaches.
Smooth management of Content
Managing content through a WordPress Page Builder is easy.
You don’t even have to worry about plugin tools being affected when using page builders.
Another bonus with using page builders is that you find that you need fewer plugins meaning that your site loads fast which is great for your mobile SEO
Even if a page builder plugin is deactivated or deleted; there is little or no chance of losing any of your site or content created through a page builder.
When the worst happens and your page builder gets corrupted, your site and content are still there.
The more advanced editions of a WordPress page builder you use the better. You get more features you can experience and better plugin support
BeaverBuilder can be a good example in this regard.
BeaverBuilder can save your prime content in case the plugin is crashed.
Advanced versions can protect the other associated segments as well, from contact forms to sliders.
All of the popular WordPress Page Builders come with adequate safety features
In most occasions, upon the plugin getting deactivated, a user simply has to revert back to the default WordPress editor.
Here the content is secured, keeping the text, pictures, forms, exactly as they are from the builder.
There are many great examples one can find for WordPress page builders with incredible content safety features.
Tailor Page Builder can be an incredible choice, offering basic user-friendly tools along with advanced options for saving the developed data.
With the Elementor page builder one doesn’t need to worry about the contents; no matter if the page or plugin is deactivated at any time.
There are also advanced page builders available those not only assure the user about not losing any content, but also keep the option of updating the page smoothly through the default WordPress editor.
One could go with renowned page builders like Pagebuilder Sandwich, Thrive, Fusion Builder, etc., to experience the excellent features explained above.
Supreme performance and minimal loading time
Page Builders have always been incredible from a performance point of views.
At the same time, it assures users from an SEO point of view as well.
It is no secret that there are SEO ranking factors that are dependant upon a site’s design and features. Speed and UX being the main ones particularly with the mobile experience
In fact, flawed plugin coding can affect the overall performance of a site in a noteworthy fashion. And it will affect the overall ranking of a site very badly.
Specifically, the newbie WordPress users often get worried about this.
The good news for them is that most of the advanced WordPress page builders are based on shortcodes.
These are made to ensure that the site gets crawled flawlessly.
The day has gone when bloggers had to be worried about high-end layouts with a huge bank of content.
You can now stay relaxed with WordPress Page Builders in.
Performance is calculated based on two aspects for WordPress page builders
The first aspect is the efficacy of the editing process within the builder or the rate at which the builder gets loaded.
Another relatable aspect is the rate at which the content modules get loaded.
At the same time, page loading time is also a key factor for any site’s greater ranking.
On the whole, it is desired that the back end of any CMS loads as quickly as it is possible.
And, WordPress Page Builders can greatly assure its users in all these aspects.
Developers are trying different types of strategies in modern times with their page builders for enhancing performance.
For example, CSS generated by advanced WordPress page builders are kept within outside minified CSS files, which ultimately help in CSS markup getting processed quicker.
This is one of the best strategies that keep the source code simpler, enhancing the loading time of the pages.
Each of the problems that can affect the SEO of a website is thoroughly addressed through advanced page builders.
In short, when using WordPress page builder, you can be assured about superior performance, without compromising your SEO optimization.
Enhanced Plugins
Page builders can play a great role in content management for any site.
It’s obvious that no user wishes to have an extremely baffling plugin to use.
Using a page builder is about making things easier.
it’s all about how well the plugin is coded that determines its features, loading time, etc.
However, one doesn’t need to worry about these aspects with a WordPress Page Builder.
Unlike others, these page builders are devoid of extensive markup code or non-semantic code those would make things tough from debugging aspect, increasing the loading time of the page. Despite being multitasking in many ways, these tools are super performing.
With proper code markup, an advanced caching system for portraying CSS and JavaScript well, removing the nested segments within the code, page builders have managed to fulfill what the user wants.
At the same time taking loading time and performance of a page to the next level, they also deliver incredible SEO features as well.
Moreover, one doesn’t need to think too much about any additional tools to be integrated when using a page builder.
Thoroughly customized layouts
Everyone wants the features like call-to-action, customized designs, etc. with their themes.
Those who want these features are recommended to go with a premium WordPress theme.
They can get a huge range of customized templates, specific to the niche.
It is Interesting here to mention that such options can also be available through a good WordPress Page Builder.
Best recommendation for a WordPress Page Builder would be to give BeaverBuilder a try.
One can find as many as 30 interesting layouts with this plugin.
Among the others, Visual Composer can be another fantastic recommendation as well.
You can find a range of interesting templates there.
If you are looking for the highest range of customized layouts, Divi Builder would be a nice choice.
Many people prioritize Page Builders that provide them with the largest collection of ready-made templates with multitasking features.
In this context, Thrive Content Builder would be a fantastic recommendation to go with.
No issues of compatibility
It is important for the plugin being used to be compatible with the most updated WordPress edition.
The best way to achieve this is to upgrade the builder and enhance its features consistently.
Compatibility is indeed an issue among many.
These are mainly caused due to superfluous shortcodes among too many plugins being used.
The more advanced the page builder you go with, lesser will be the chance of compatibility issues.
Accomplishing for themes
People want customized themes these days.
To be specific, they want the best features and everything that goes with having a great site.
Using a professional developer or designer will cost huge to achieve this.
WordPress Page Builders work great with various out of the box themes that you download in seconds.
Builder plugins are not just for beginners, they are also useful for professional purposes as well.
For example, if someone wants to have any specific feature or theme to be integrated in a customized way, designers demand fees almost like a new project.
But, it becomes a playful task with WordPress Page Builders.
The good news is that most of the renowned WordPress page builders mentioned here work fine with customized themes.
Responsive
It’s impossible to remain in the digital world ignoring the mobile audience.
This is the reason that smartphone-friendly themes are so much desired among users.
These themes are meant to give an enhanced look to the users on a smartphone platform.
The usual process of developing such these used to involve a lot of quality checking process.
However, WordPress Page Builders have made things simpler in this regard.
These builders have come up with a native emulator that enables a user to select from different kinds of displays upon going through the admin areas.
It makes things automatically responsive and mobile device-friendly.
There is no need to worry about any technicalities it’s pretty much a matter of a few clicks.
Easy customization
A user is obvious to wish for a huge range of default options with its page builders.
WordPress Page Builders have made things more interesting in this regard by providing simpler and comparatively much user-friendly options.
Moreover, these builders come with a range of features through which you can do any level of customization.
At the same time, it doesn’t compromise the scope of fine-tuning the design as well.
These advantages are useful for all level of users
What is the future for WordPress page builders?
Have you heard of Gutenberg? If not then you’re about to.
Gutenberg is an update to the WordPress visual editor.
The current editor is about to be replaced with Gutenberg when WordPress 5.0 is released.
Gutenberg is WordPress’s take on page builders where text, images, galleries, widgets, shortcodes, and even chunks of custom HTML are added as blocks.
So the big question is will we now need any of the Page Builders highlighted in this post?
Will Gutenberg now cover all the design bases?
We will find out very soon.
If you can’t wait to try out Gutenberg it is available to download as a plugin here – Gutenberg
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That’s all for now, I hope you have found this simple guide to page builders useful.
Do you use a page builder plugin?
Do you have any experience with the ones mentioned in this article
Let me know in the comments below.
Make sure that you subscribe to the comments so that you see my reply
Regards Dexter
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Moss Clement
A great and informative article, Dexter. Many of these plugins are new to me, but I do know of Beaver page builder and used it on my first site. Recently I have been considering creating a static page for my site, so i think i will have to give it a run once again or try the others you listed here such as “thrive page builder.”
Dexter Roona
Do you think they are needed now we have Gutenberg on the horizon?
Atul Host
Nice and helpful article Dexter. I am new to WordPress development and after so many test and trials I found that Divi is my one of the favorite page builder and it works for me all the time.
Dexter Roona
How simple do you find it to use?
Chris jones
This Very Nice and attractive Article…
Kathryn Maclean
Hi Dexter,
What a very informative post about using WordPress page builders.
I have just discovered using Thrive Themes so I was very interested in finding out more info about them. Your link to Thrive page builder was tons of great content.
Thrive Content Builder is a great example of being extremely user-friendly, great for editing.
Dexter Roona
How easy is it to use?
Regex SEO
Great insight although I am still new to all of this. Thanks!