7 Best WordPress Page Builder Plugins: All The Plugins Compared

Looking for the best WordPress page builder plugin to design more advanced content on your WordPress site? While the new WordPress block editor added more design flexibility to the native WordPress editor, page builder plugins still take things even further and give you full drag-and-drop design control.

That means you can create more complex, stylish designs without requiring any technical knowledge or writing a single line of code, which is pretty awesome!

In this post, we’ve collected seven of the best WordPress drag-and-drop page builder plugins. We installed each plugin on a test site using our Foodica Lite theme to give you a hands-on look at how each tool helps you design your content. Beyond a real look at each plugin’s interface, we’ll also share key features, pricing information, and help you pick the best plugin for your needs.

All of these plugins are fully compatible with the new WordPress block editor. So whether you’re using the classic WordPress editor or the block editor, you’ll be able to add a great new drag-and-drop editing experience to your site.

(we’ll also look at WordPress’ new “Gutenberg” block editor separately at the end of this post!)

Additionally, all of these plugins work great with all of WPZOOM’s themes.

How to Pick the Best WordPress Page Builder for You

Before we get to the list of page builder plugins, let’s quickly run over some of the features you should look for in a page builder.

This list will help you focus your thoughts so that you can pick the best page builder plugin for your needs:

• Editing experience — most of these plugins offer a visual front-end editor, but some also allow for back-end editing. Think about which approach you prefer. There’s no right or wrong — it’s just a personal preference.
• Inline editing — inline editing is the ability to edit text by clicking on the page, rather than using a popup or sidebar. Most of these plugins support inline editing, but not all. You’ll need to decide how important it is to you.
• Responsive design — all of these plugins create responsive designs by default, but some let you go further and actually customize how your design will look on different devices, like changing margins and hiding certain elements on different devices.
• Widgets/content elements — does the plugin have pre-built widgets for content types you find important? For example, if you want to design a pricing page, you’ll want to look for a page builder plugin that has a pricing table widget.
• Theme building — do you want to design your entire theme with your chosen page builder? Some plugins support full theme building, while others only work for in-editor content.
• Integrations — do you want to connect your page builder to another plugin on your site? Some have official or third-party integrations, like the ability to design forms from your favorite form plugin using the page builder’s interface.
• Price — some have functional free versions, while other plugins require you to crack open your wallet.

With those ideas in mind, let’s dig into the best WordPress page builder plugins…

Top 7 Best WordPress Page Builder Plugins

1. Elementor

Since its initial release in 2016, Elementor has grown to become one of the most popular WordPress page builders. According to WordPress.org, it’s active on over three million WordPress sites and it has a stellar 4.9-star rating on over 4,100 reviews.

Elementor offers an intuitive front-end editing experience that lets you build your content with drag-and-drop on a live preview of your site. To edit text, you can just click on the page and start typing.

To help you build your content, Elementor comes with a range of built-in widgets for everything from simple images to testimonials, pricing tables, forms, and more. And if that’s not enough, there’s a vibrant third-party Elementor extension marketplace that can add a bunch of new design options.

Finally, with the premium version, Elementor can do a lot more than just design page and post content. You can use it to design your entire theme, including your headers, footers, posts/pages, custom post types, and more. You can even include dynamic data from custom fields in your templates.

Beyond that, you can also use the same visual interface to create stylish popups that you display anywhere on your site.

Elementor works great with all the WPZOOM themes and is one of our recommended page builders.

Key Features

• Generous free version at WordPress.org.
• Visual, drag & drop interface.
• Inline text editing — you can just click on the page and type.
• Auto-save so that you don’t lose your work.
• Responsive designs and detailed responsive controls.
• 29 free widgets.
• 23 general premium widgets.
• Hundreds of pre-built page and block templates that you can import.
• Theme builder — design your entire theme, including headers, footers, and content templates, using Elementor (Pro).
• Display Elementor templates anywhere with shortcodes (Pro).
• 14 theme elements to use with the theme builder (Pro).
• 18 dedicated WooCommerce widgets to help you design your WooCommerce store (Pro).
• Dynamic content integrations for ACF, Toolset, Pods, and more (Pro).
• Popup builder — design popups and display them anywhere on your site using the same visual interface (Pro).
• Add custom CSS at a page-level (free) or directly to individual widgets (Pro).
• Shape dividers.

Interface

When you launch the Elementor interface, you’ll see a sidebar on the left and a live preview of your site on the right, including the spot where your Elementor content will go.

To add a widget to your page, all you do is drag it from the left sidebar to the live preview:

If you select an individual section or widget, the sidebar will let you manage the settings for that piece of content, across three tabs:

Pricing

Elementor comes in both a free version at WordPress.org as well as a premium add-on plugin from the developer.

In terms of features, the free version of Elementor is one of the most generous free WordPress page builders that you’ll find, so it’s a great choice if you’re looking for the best free WordPress page builder plugin.

To add the premium functionality, like 23 new general content widgets, theme builder, popup builder, and more, you’ll need Elementor Pro. Elementor Pro has three pricing plans:

• 1 site — $49
• 3 sites — $99
• 1,000 sites — $199

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2. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is another high-quality open-source WordPress page builders that work great with WPZOOM themes.

It offers a fast, visual editor complete with drag-and-drop and inline text editing. You can easily create your own column-based layout, have full control over how your content looks on different devices, and plenty more.

Beaver Builder works with posts, pages, and custom post types. And, with the Beaver Themer extension from the same developer, you can also use the Beaver Builder interface to design your entire theme, including headers, footers, and content templates.

Beaver Builder Lite is active on over 500,000 WordPress websites with a 4.8-star rating on over 300 reviews.

Key Features

• Visual, drag-and-drop editor.
• Inline text editing.
• Responsive design and responsive design controls.
• 6 free content modules.
• 21 Pro content modules.
• 40+ importable page layouts (Pro).
• 100+ importable row templates (Pro).
• Dedicated Beaver Builder theme (Pro)
• White-labeling, which lets you replace Beaver Builder branding with your own (Pro).
• Theme building via the separate Beaver Themer extension.
• SEO-friendly for Google rankings. For example, you can still configure Yoast SEO.

Interface

When you launch the Beaver Builder editor, you’ll see a full-width preview of your page along with a collapsible sidebar.

To add new content modules, you just drag them over from that sidebar:

To edit individual modules or sections, you can either work in a popup or pin the popup to the sidebar. Like Elementor, the settings are divided into three tabs:

Pricing

Beaver Builder has a limited free version at WordPress.org. It’s great for experimenting with the interface, but its limitations make it tough to use for anything beyond the most basic content. The free version only gives you six content modules:

1. HTML
2. Photo
3. Text editor
4. Audio
5. Video
6. Sidebar

If you want to unlock all of the other modules, along with the other premium features, Beaver Builder starts at $99 for use on unlimited sites. There are also higher pricing tiers that unlock access to the Beaver Builder theme and white-labeling.

Or you can extend the free version with additional modules included in plugins like our own Beaver Builder Addons by WPZOOM.

If you want theme building, you’ll also need to purchase the Beaver Themer extension, which costs $147.

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3. WPBakery Page Builder

WPBakery Page Builder is a popular page builder at Envato, where it’s racked up over 385,000 sales while maintaining a 4.65-star rating on over 10,000 reviews. WPBakery Page Builder was previously known as Visual Composer before the developer rebranded it to launch a new website builder under the Visual Composer name.

Unlike Elementor and Beaver Builder, WPBakery Page Builder allows for both front-end and back-end editing. That means you can design your content using a real-time live preview or using abstract blocks in the WordPress editor.

One of the most powerful things about WPBakery Page Builder is the huge array of third-party add-ons and integrations. You can find a third-party WPBakery Page Builder widget for pretty much anything, which is great for design flexibility.

WPBakery Page Builder does not support inline editing, though — that means you’ll need to edit the text in a popup instead of just clicking and typing.

Whilst their marketing site claims “4,300,000+ people can not be wrong”… they can: Visual Composer was bundled with a lot of WordPress themes, and these users were often locked in because of how the plugin was built.

Key Features

• Front-end visual editor or abstract back-end editor.
• Built-in template library.
• Responsive design and responsive controls.
• ~40 built-in content elements + hundreds of third-party elements.
• Integrations with many other popular plugins.
• Importable template library.

Interface

When you go to create a new page or post with WPBakery Page Builder, you can choose between opening the front-end or back-end editor:

If you launch the backend editor, you’ll build your designs using an abstract set of blocks like this:

If you launch the front-end editor, you’ll see a live preview of your site. You can add new modules from the toolbar at the top and click on existing modules to edit them.

One downside is that WPBakery Page Builder doesn’t support inline text editing, so you’ll need to edit the text in a popup rather than just clicking and typing:

Whilst WPBakery Page Builder has improved a lot in recent years, it has a pretty awful reputation in the WordPress community and we’d recommend sticking with one of our recommendations.

Pricing

WPBakery Page Builder only comes in a premium version. It will cost you $64 at CodeCanyon.

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4. Divi Builder

Divi Builder is a popular WordPress page builder from Elegant Themes that works with any WordPress theme.

Like WPBakery Page Builder, Divi Builder lets you design in your choice of visual front-end interface or abstract back-end interface, though Divi Builder is moving towards an all front-end approach in recent versions.

Either way, you’ll be able to use drag-and-drop to design your content. And if you go with the visual editor, you’ll also get convenient inline text editing.

One unique thing about Divi Builder is that it includes built-in A/B testing to help you optimize your designs. No other page builder on this list includes this feature in the core plugin, though it is possible to run A/B tests with other page builders.

Divi Builder is very popular, but its community is pretty ring-fenced; for a more “WordPress-ey” approach, you probably want Beaver Builder or Elementor.

Key Features

• Abstract back-end editor or visual front-end editor.
• ~40 general content modules.
• Dedicated WooCommerce modules to design your eCommerce store.
• Responsive design and responsive controls.
• 800+ pre-built templates.
• 100+ full website packs (collections of templates that all fit a specific site).
• Add custom CSS to the entire page or individual elements.
• Copy and paste styles and bulk edit modules.
• Built-in A/B testing.
• Shape dividers.

Interface

With the latest version, Divi Builder is trying to move towards an exclusively front-end experience.

In the front-end editor, you’ll see a full-width preview of your page. To add new rows or modules, you can click on the various color-coded “plus” icons:

To edit text, you can just click and type on the page. For more advanced options, you can click on any element to open a settings popup. You can also pin this popup to the side if you prefer that approach:

If you prefer the back-end approach, you can still enable the back-end editor in Divi Builder’s settings to use the abstract back-end interface:

Pricing

The Divi Builder page builder plugin is only available as part of the Elegant Themes membership. You’ll pay $89 for one year of access or $249 for lifetime access.

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5. Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a premium WordPress page builder plugin from Thrive Themes, a developer that makes a number of conversion-focused WordPress plugins.

It offers an easy-to-use visual, drag-and-drop experience. Thrive Architect was also one of the first page builders to incorporate inline content editing, and it still has one of the more seamless inline editing experiences of any page builder.

Thrive Architect’s focus on conversion rates makes it a great tool for building a landing page, growing your email list, or other marketing content.

While Thrive Architect doesn’t have built-in A/B testing like Divi Builder, you can pair it with the Thrive Optimize plugin from the same developer to run A/B tests.

Key Features

• Visual, drag-and-drop editing experience.
• Responsive design and responsive controls.
• Seamless inline text editing.
• 41+ content modules to help you build your content.
• 327+ importable page templates.
• Tight integrations with other Thrive Themes plugins for A/B testing, email opt-ins, and more.

Interface

Like the other visual page builders, Thrive Architect’s interface shows you a real-time preview of your website.

To add new content modules, you can expand the list of elements from the sidebar on the right and drag an element to your desired location. Then, you’ll be able to customize that element in the sidebar on the left:

Pricing

Thrive Architect only comes in a premium version. You’ll pay based on how many sites you want to use the plugin on:

• 1 site — $67
• 5 sites — $97

You can also get Thrive Architect as part of the $19 per month Thrive Themes membership.

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6. Brizy

Brizy is the youngest WordPress page builder on this list.

It offers a unique real-time visual editor that tries to minimize reliance on a sidebar for controlling individual widgets. This streamlines the workflow and lets you customize your designs a little more quickly than some other plugins.

Like many of the other plugins, you can control your layouts using drag-and-drop and edit text by clicking on the page and typing.

Brizy also automatically backs up your changes in the cloud while you edit, which means you won’t lose your work just because you forgot to hit the “save” button.

Key Features

• Visual, drag-and-drop live editing interface.
• Great inline editing experience, including more detailed inline settings.
• Responsive design and responsive controls.
• 22+ free content elements.
• 12+ Pro content elements.
• 150+ pre-built layout and block templates (Pro).
• Dynamic content integrations for ACF, Toolset, Pods, and more (Pro).
• Popup builder to design popups using Brizy and display them anywhere on your site (Pro).
• Header and footer builder (Pro).
• 4,000+ included icons.
• Cloud auto-save.

Interface

When you launch Brizy, you’ll see a live preview of your page with a small sidebar on the left. To add new elements, you can click to expand the element list and drag the elements to your desired location:

Here’s what makes Brizy unique:

For many important element settings, you can configure those settings right in the page, rather than using a sidebar or opening a popup. Brizy does still use a sidebar slide-out for some settings, though:

This approach creates a really streamlined workflow.

You can also change margins by using drag-and-drop, which is another unique convenience that shows Brizy’s focus on creating a truly inline editing experience:

Pricing

The core Brizy page builder is available for free at WordPress.org. Like Elementor, the free version is quite generous with its features and Brizy is definitely one of the better free WordPress page builders.

If you want access to the Pro widgets, as well as advanced features like dynamic content, popup builder, and more, Brizy Pro has three pricing plans:

• 3 sites — $49
• Unlimited sites — $99
• Unlimited sites and lifetime support/updates — $299

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7. Page Builder by SiteOrigin

Page Builder by SiteOrigin is the most lightweight WordPress page builder on this list, which has both pros and cons.

On the pro side, Page Builder by SiteOrigin outputs some of the most streamlined, bloat-less code of any plugin on this list. So if you’re laser-focused on your site’s page load times, that’s definitely something in Page Builder by SiteOrigin’s favor.

However, there’s a big drawback to that approach — you lose a lot of the design flexibility and ease of use that the other page builders offer.

For example, while SiteOrigin Page Builder does now have a limited visual editor, you still can’t directly manipulate the elements on the page (more on this later). Additionally, you don’t have as many styling options for individual widgets, which means you’ll want to at least know your way around the basics of CSS if you use this plugin.

With that being said, Page Builder by SiteOrigin is by no means a bad option and the numbers prove it — it’s active on over one million WordPress sites with a 4.8-star rating on almost 1,000 reviews.

Key Features

• Back-end design interface or limited visual editor.
• Supports all the core WordPress widgets.
• 22+ free design elements via the free SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle companion plugin.
• 10+ premium widgets and effects.
• WordPress block editor integration to add Page Builder by SiteOrigin layouts as individual blocks.
• Clean, bloat-less code.

Interface

Page Builder by SiteOrigin gives you two different interfaces to design your content.

First, you can use the back-end editor with abstract boxes:

Or, if you prefer a more visual approach, you can launch the Live Editor. This editor gives you a live preview of your site, but it’s not the same as other page builders because you still need to design your content using the abstract boxes in the sidebar on the left. That is, you can’t drag-and-drop elements on the live preview:

Again, this is kind of the downside of Page Builder by SiteOrigin’s lightweight approach.

Pricing

The core Page Builder by SiteOrigin plugin is available for free at WordPress.org. The SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle is also available for free at WordPress.org.

Then, SiteOrigin Premium adds support for custom post types, more advanced widgets (like a contact form), WooCommerce support, and more. SiteOrigin Premium has three pricing plans:

• 1 site — $29
• 5 sites — $49
• Unlimited sites — $99

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Elementor and Beaver Builder Are Our Favorite WordPress Page Builder Plugins

That wraps up our collection of the best WordPress page builder plugins.

Let’s run over some quick recommendations if you’re still not sure which WordPress page builder is right for you.

If you’re specifically looking for a free WordPress page builder, Elementor is a great starting point because its free version still has a ton of power. Brizy is also solid, and Page Builder by SiteOrigin is great if you’re happy with its lightweight approach.

If you’re willing to pay for more functionality, some of the best all-purpose premium versions are Elementor Pro and Beaver Builder, though other premium versions also have their own unique benefits.

Or… the new Gutenberg editor for WordPress 5.0+ was launched last year, and it offers an editing experience which is getting closer and closer to a full page builder. WPZOOM themes are compatible, including the Inspiro theme (screenshot below):

Gutenberg uses a block-based editor, which lets plugins add really neat functionality – including our Recipe Card Blocks Pro plugin:

If you want a separate plugin, every page builder plugin on this list pairs perfectly with all of WPZOOM’s themes, so you can never go too far wrong. Enjoy!