If you are getting into website building and need to learn how to design the best-looking homepage with plugin. Then these plugins might help you.
They are called page builders that help you create the design you will like the most. In this article, I’m going to talk about the essential differences between Beaver Builder Vs Elementor.
Since having an engaging and interactive landing page is important because it’s the first interaction with the user, having it well made is essential. And what better ways to do that than working with a page builder? Pick one that is simple to learn and to use even if you don’t have coding experience.
Beaver Builder and Elementor, I have used both of them in a professional capacity, and I have been generally pleased by their features. There are some key differences and specific highlights that make them stand out from one another, and I will show you those down the line. Hopefully, my explanation will help you choose which is the right one for you.
What is a Page Builder?
Before I go further with the article, let’s quickly explain what a page builder is. These plugins are created to make the designing of your page a lot easier without getting into complicated stuff like coding.
These tools make sure that everything is from a back-end point of view is done automatically, so you just need to click and drag. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are added to the elements by these plugins and you don’t need to know anything about those languages.
Literally, a beginner can create a website landing page or design without the technical knowledge of a programmer or web developer. You can create the landing page of your dreams without needing to learn how to code, and this opens the possibility of people getting into this line of job tremendously.
A few years ago, you needed a web developer or programmer to make a website for you, but nowadays, everything has changed with the addition of tools like these. However, if you want a fully customized and more complete website.
You should still choose web developers. At the end of the day, these tools will also be useful to designers and web developers since it makes their job more comfortable, and they can work more efficiently.
There will always be the need for these people since a single plugin will not take over their life’s work, so I like to think that there’s a symbiotic relationship.
However, the topic of this article is Beaver Builder vs Elementor, so I will focus on why you would want to use these plugins instead of designers or even agencies that perform these jobs.
Why Use a Page Builder?
Using a page builder is beneficial for a number of reasons, and I suggest that people use them more and more. A complete beginner can start working on a page builder since their interface usually has a click and drag feature. Another reason why you would want to use a page builder is that they are complete with features.
That means that if you want to do a slideshow or contact form, gallery, social sharing buttons like facebook , and many more, you would want the premium option for them to get the best result. So if they are all separated, the fees start to add up and can be too much.
On the contrary, a page builder has almost all of the tools and features you would need to create a wonderful website in one place. This way you will find all the tools that you would need in one place and it would cost less for the premium but also will be more convenient for you.
The third reason, which by no means is less important, is the ability to edit and modify the templates and themes already made on WordPress like video themes , news themes, travel blogs themes. When looking for a theme for your website, you should search for certain things, and most of them you will find.
But in the majority of cases, you would need some edits to be made to the theme so that it fits your vision. That’s why many people use page builders like the Beaver Builder or Elementor and even theme designers use it too.
The possibilities with these plugins are almost endless. it’s just a matter of how you use them and your creativity to make the best-looking website.
Introduction to Beaver Builder
The Beaver Builder was first introduced in the WordPress plugin marketplace in 2014 by Robby McCullough. His agency was receiving an increased number of requests for the client to modify the theme themselves so that’s why he had the idea to create this plugin.
It was formerly named FastLine Page Builder and was on a Premium subscription. Then some changes and updates were made, so it was named as we know it today: Beaver Builder.
This decision turned out for the better, and now this plugin has an enormous user base and has been updating ever since. A lot of themes have added support, especially for the Beaver Builder plugin and this is what makes the two of them in combination really great.
You would get the majority of the theme ready and the things that you don’t like or need to edit slightly you can do with the page builder. A win-win situation that has benefited a large number of people across the globe.
Introduction to Elementor
The Elementor page builder was released to the WordPress marketplace two years after the Beaver Build, in 2016. The founders of Elementor had a design agency where they created WordPress themes.
They figured that WordPress was lacking behind in terms of interface and page building from competitors such as WIX website builder and Weebly website builder. The company took it upon themselves to fill in the gap in this space and create the best page builder plugin that offered so much more than the others available at the time.
But building it was a challenge since the team needed to find the ideal focus group. There were the designers, who didn’t want to code but wanted to control the outlook of every single detail of the website.
The Developers, who were focused on hardcoding the elements of the theme. Lastly, the client who didn’t want to code or to control every single element. They just wanted to build the website in a simple manner without too much of a headache.
With all of these in mind, the team managed to produce the page builder that we know today. It’s downloaded more than one million times from the plugin marketplace and it receives updates regularly whether for performance upgrades or for new features added.
You can create and import elementor blog template that already build pages to your website with Elementor Page Builder in seconds!
The Interface Differences
This is an important section since the interface is what you will see the most when using the plugin and it should be as smooth and simple as possible. It should also be very responsive and intuitive so that you don’t waste unnecessary time.
You won’t find any major difference in those aspects since Beaver Builder vs Elementor of them are solid choices but the main one will be the approach to the interface. And there is no right or wrong answer for that too. It just comes down to personal preference.
Beaver Builder Interface
With Beaver Builder, the interface is the full length of the screen and you can edit a specific element or section by hovering over it and clicking the buttons. Normally you wouldn’t see the settings or options since the live view of the page takes the most space. You will see just a top bar that is permanently there.
By clicking the + button that’s on the said top bar you will be able to add modules or rows to your page. It loads the main panel and there you will find all the elements available. You can drag and drop these elements where you want on the page.
If you don’t like the idea of pressing the + button every time you want to add a new element then you can pin it to the side of the screen easily. The modules can be edited and modified individually very easily since now this plugin supports the inline text editing feature.
It’s suggested that you pin the main menu to the side since it helps with inline editing. This makes for a simplistic approach to modifying the theme and helps you a lot.
Elementor Builder Interface
The Elementor page builder comes with a different interface from the Beaver Builder. It has the main menu on the left side and the live preview on the right side.
At the left sidebar, you will find everything that this plugin has to offer from, buttons, video players, post carousels, Google maps integration, and many more.
They are just a drag and drop away from going to your website. When you hover over different elements of the page you can see the options to modify them.
You can get a full view of your page any time you want; just press the hide button from the side panel and there you have it. Elementor also offers an inline text editor and you can modify the text from the module or from the left sidebar the choice is yours.
One key feature of this plugin is the ability to undo or redo an action that you perform. It goes deeper than that. It has the ability to show a full history of actions for the current session and even for saved revisions.
This is a huge deal! Let’s face it, we are all human and mistakes are part of our lives so it would be nice if we can correct them with a single undo button.
This article will help you to know about Elementor Vs Visual Composer which page builder are good for implement a corporate website.
Which One Has a Better Interface?
That’s a tricky question since Beaver Builder vs Elementor of these page builders offer solid features and smooth performance. They have in common the ability to help you with ready-made tools to make your designing life easier and better.
Elementor has a lot more customization options and has a distinct interface. On the other hand, the Beaver Builder interface is easier to navigate around, and since it also offers inline text editing it has almost the same features.
It will truly depend on the preference that you have, but I suggest that you try them out Beaver Builder vs Elementor and get a feel for them. This is really important since you need to be comfortable using the page builder before dedicating much time to it.
A key difference, however, is the ability to undo and redo actions in the process of building the page. If that’s not a deal-breaker for you then all that’s left is the hands-on experience. Although in my personal opinion that’s such an important feature to have on your page builder.
Widgets, Modules, and Sections
It doesn’t matter what you call them: widgets, modules, or sections- these elements help shape up your website and are the core pieces for the design.
When making the design for your website the first rule is to create and separate the rows and columns that you are going to use which is the basic layout of your page.
Then you fill those spaces in with modules or widgets so that you can fill it in with content later. One difference between these two plugins is the name that they use for these.
On Elementor they call them widgets while on the other hand, on the Beaver Builder they are called modules.
Basically, they are the same thing and work the same way but it’s just the naming difference. Let’s look at what makes them differentiate more in this aspect.
Beaver Builder Widgets, Modules and Sections
Beaver Builder splits its elements into three categories and calls them Rows, Columns, and Modules. The first two serve for layout purposes and are not visible in the view of the website as a normal user.
These elements follow a hierarchy and it goes like this, the highest are the rows, then right after come the columns which are placed inside of the rows.
And lastly, modules which are the actual content that you are going to show to your site go inside the columns.
You should remember here that if you apply a style to a row then the said style will be applied to the columns inside of it and the modules as well so it follows the hierarchy as well.
- Rows: The first element in the hierarchy that helps divide the website into sections. It is generally used to apply backgrounds and add spacing.
- Columns: These elements fit inside of rows and separate the page in vertical sections.
- Modules: Here is what we call the actual content of your website since this element can contain text, images, videos, buttons, and anything that you would want to use.
There is a slight difference between the free version and the premium version of this plugin and it’s the availability of the modules. You will have only 6 modules available in the free version of the plugin.
If you want to get the full 50 modules that they offer then you have to pay the fee. It’s understandable and a good way to make business since it allows users to get a feel for the software and if they like it they get the full thing.
Elementor Builder Widgets, Modules and Sections
The Elementor page builder follows the same logic as the Beaver Builder and splits its elements into three different categories. Here they also follow a hierarchy and it’s the same as the first two elements on the Beaver Builder that are purely for layout purposes.
The highest place on the hierarchy goes to the sections followed by the columns that are placed inside of them. And lastly, the widgets that are placed inside the columns and are the way your content is displayed on the page.
- Sections: These elements help you group columns and widgets together and it’s for layout purposes. It’s the same as Rows in the Beaver Builder page builder.
- Columns: These elements fit inside of sections and help divide your web page vertically.
- Widgets: The last on the hierarchy ranking but this is where the content that you put to your site goes into. Sample of widgets are the videos, images, price tables, and even text. It’s the same as Modules in the Beaver Builder page builder.
Elementor has the same plugin distribution strategy as the Beaver Builder plugin. It has a free version and a paid one. In the free version, you get 28 Widgets. which is considerably more. And with the addition of other plugins like Elementor Essential Addons.
You can have an additional 45 widgets at your disposal for free. You can use Elementor Pro which is the paid version and get the 50 other Widgets which are built by the same team that has made the plugin.
You can also check here the best WordPress widgets , that’s very effective for your websites.
Which One Has the Widgets, Modules, and Sections Better?
Beaver Builder vs Elementor plugins, follow a similar way of dividing their elements and offer all that you would need when building a web page. They are really solid choices and other than a few naming differences there isn’t a lot you can say about them. Well, other than the availability of the widgets or modules that these plugins offer for the free versions, that is.
Here, Elementor has the edge since it offers a lot more and has the ability to support other plugins to add even more free widgets. If we base everything in this category just on the number of free widgets offered, we can say that Elementor is a clear victor here.
Styling
After finishing setting up the modules and sections you will need to figure out what you are going to do about styling. Sometimes it’s best if you leave the default options that the theme you are using offers but if you want to make custom changes you easily can.
Beaver Builder vs Elementor of the page builders that we are featuring in this article have this option available and you can achieve some truly amazing things with it. Styling it’s important to get the page look that extra bit special just like you envisioned it.
You can change small things like the typography for each specific widget or module and that’s what it can bring your design to life. That accompanied by the different stylistic choices that you can make like for example the background color or the text color, animation, etc. will make the design stand out just be careful not to overdo it.
Beaver Builder Styling
The Beaver Builder adopts your theme’s global styles by default, so if you want to make some changes you will need to disable that option from the settings. You can use a theme with its styles and easily make changes to different modules just by clicking it and a tab will appear in the popup. The options that you will see depend on the module that you select but usually you get these three options:
- Style: This is where you control the content’s height, width, color, and other general style settings.
- Typography: This is where you can choose a different font and font settings.
- Advanced: This is where you will find more advanced style settings like the custom CSS, responsive controls, animations, and more.
You can use the device’s different icons to apply the styles to different devices and this is really important. Beaver Builder has one unique feature that is the ability to set the custom responsive breakpoints and it applies to all your content.
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Elementor Builder Styling
Elementor differently from the Beaver Builder plugin applies its own global styles to your content by default. Depending on how you are going to design and style your website this can be an annoying feature or the perfect one. Either way, you can disable it on the settings of the plugin easily.
When you disable it the entire site’s content will be using the theme’s style so you will have that consistency going for your site. However, you can still modify the style of specific widgets inside your page and make them look however you want without impacting other areas.
Elementor has the best styling options out of any page builder. That you will use since it goes so much in-depth. For each element of your page you get three tabs to change the styling and the functions of it:
- Content: Here you can modify the basic things of your content like the size, alignment, etc.
- Style: Here you have the most options like the colors, typography, CSS, and many more.
- Advanced: Here you will be able to add animations, control the margin and padding of the element, and much more.
Just like in the Beaver Builder plugin you can change the style for different devices. It’s an important feature that offers a lot of options in terms of optimizing your website for a variety of devices.
Template Functionality
Starting from scratch when building an entire website can become a really overwhelming and frustrating task without even starting it. That’s why these page builders offer functionality and support with some templates making it so that you can easily tweak certain aspects of them.
You can easily modify the landing page without having to fix anything for the other pages of a theme and that’s really important. A lot of theme builders nowadays are advertising the ability to support certain page builders so that users feel more drawn toward it. It’s a good thing in general and I’m glad they are adapting to the new trends.
Beaver Builder Template Functionality
This plugin doesn’t offer any pre-built templates in the free version. Paid version has a number of templates that are grouped into two parts, the landing pages, and content pages. You can also create a template by yourself and save it for re use to other websites.
- Landing Pages: Here are grouped a number of landing pages with a different and unique design that covers many niches.
- Content Pages: Here are grouped the designs and styles of inner pages. With these pre-built templates, you can complete your website.
This page builder makes it really easy to import your template to other sites. You can get a lot of free ones by installing third-party plugins. For example, the Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder plugin adds at least 100 new page templates. It helps users who want to try out free features before vomiting to buying the full package.
Elementor Template Functionality
Unlike the Beaver Builder, the Elementor plugin offers at least 40 pre-built templates for the free version. This is a huge bonus since it shows the plugin’s full features to a free user. In case you were curious about the paid version you would have more than 200 templates.
The Elementor plugin also divides its templates into two groups:
- Pages: Here you will find designs that are fully functional and complete. You will also need to change the content of what’s inside of them.
- Blocks: Here you will find specific sections of a page and you can re-use these blocks in different pages and sites as well. You can also create yourself a block and have it saved for later use.
Elementor also offers adaptability and support for third-party plugins that have their own pre-built templates and also blocks. By accessing the left sidebar, you could have every template and block. That you would ever imagine available to you. That’s why this feature is really important and help designers with their projects.
Theme Building
Theme building it’s an important feature that luckily Beaver Builder vs Elementor these page builders offer but how they do it it’s a bit different. This feature allows you to modify and design the entire look of your WordPress website.
You can control the global styles of the site from one place and make the changes that you see fit. You can have your vision come to reality and build a theme easily with the page builders. I have mentioned in this article before.
Elementor helps you create your ideal theme with the simplicity of its drag and drop and other features that it has. You can get the theme builder for Elementor when you upgrade to the Pro / paid version of the plugin.
On the other hand, Beaver Builder requires you to download and purchase another plugin called the Beaver Themer. Let’s look at what this feature has to offer in Beaver Builder vs Elementor of these plugins.
Beaver Builder Theme Building Capabilities
Before start you have to install the Beaver Theme plugin. After done, you can start customizing each aspect of your theme by selecting Beaver Builder.
You will see the options of which part of the theme you want to modify. You can modify and design all these aspects of the theme:
Headers – Footers – Pages – Single Post – And many more
After you select one of the above options, you will see two dropdown features.
- Location: Here you can choose where you want to display the template that you made. It can be a specific category, post, or whatever option is on there.
- Users: Here you can choose who you want your design to be visible to. This works best if there are multiple users with different roles on the site.
To start designing your theme press the Launch Beaver Builder button. The interface will be very intuitive and you can understand what each element does. All you need to do is to start designing. You will get Themer Modules group that helps to add your site’s content.
Elementor Builder Theme Building Capabilities
This page builder just needs you to upgrade to the pro version to get the ability to modify your theme. You can do that from the ‘My Templates’ section and there you start the journey. When creating a new theme you first need to name it.
Then select the type of template that you want to work on. It can be a brand new theme. You can choose from the different blocks, that you have already made previously. The interface for the theme builder is the same as the page builder.
You just have a couple of options such as the Theme Elements, that will help you with the design. A great feature of these Theme Elements is that they allow you to add dynamic content from your website.
Such dynamic information can be the Post Title and Post Content elements. When you add them they pull this information from your site’s database. Then display the correct title and content in this case.
After finish the design you can choose where you want to use it. You can choose to use it everywhere on your theme or just specific aspects of it like:
Categories – Footer – Specific – Page – Custom post
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Which Theme Builder is Better?
Beaver Builder vs Elementor page builders offer great tools to help build a theme easily and are very powerful but the slight advantage in my opinion goes to the Elementor plugin.
The Beaver Builder requires you to install & pay for an additional plugin to be able to use this theme builder functionally.
Elementor page builder just requires you to have the Pro or Paid version. That makes it more convenient for the users since it brings everything together in one place.
Pricing
I have mentioned briefly the differences between the paid and free versions of these plugins. I will go more in-depth about them. You will find which one is the best for purely free. Also which one has the most to offer when it’s the paid version.
There are some apparent differences that hopefully will help you determine which one is the best for your needs. Beaver Builder vs Elementor plugins offer a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days.
Elementor Pricing
You can install the free version of Elementor by the plugin marketplace in your WordPress dashboard. Elementor offers all of its functionality is free. Anyone can check it out as soon as they create their new website.
Also, you will get a huge widget library that will fill in the needs of your basic designs completely. However, has a lot more benefits but the price steadily increases for each option.
Let’s look at the Elementor Pro plans:
- Personal: with this plan you can use the plugin for one website only and it costs $49 per year, or around $4 each month.
- Plus: with this plan, you can use the plugin for 3 websites and it costs $99 per year, or around $8.25 each month.
- Expert: with this plan you can use the plugin for 1000 websites and it costs $199 per year, or around $16.5 each month.
Beaver Builder Pricing
Beaver Builder’s free version is also available in the WordPress plugin marketplace. It doesn’t offer all the features that this plugin has to offer. So the premium plans are essential in a way if you want to experience it fully.
This plugin doesn’t have a website limit so in theory, you can use it on unlimited websites. However, the differences come at the features offered for each plan.
Let’s look at the premium plans offered by the Beaver Builder:
- Standard: with this plan you have unlimited websites as well as some premium modules and templates. It costs $99 per year or around $8.25 each month.
- Pro: with this plan you have unlimited websites, the beaver builder theme, and the ability to multisite. It costs $199 per year or around $16.5 each month.
- Agency: with this plan you have unlimited websites, all of the previous plan features, and ads white labeling. It costs $399 per year or around $33.25 each month.
It’s an additional $147 fee , if you want to use it unlimited sites so there’s that to think about too.
Closing Thoughts
Beaver Builder Vs Elementor both are the best page builders that you will find out there. They have their differences in how they operate certain aspects and some similarities as well. Elementor is built with designers in mind also the Beaver Builder is for the developers but this is subjective.
Having used both of them I can clearly find myself drawn toward one instead of the other. I suggest you try out the free versions. Before committing to buying the premium since that will help you get a feel about the plugin.
The free software keeps getting updated constantly so that your experience with trying them would be pleasant. I hope this article has made your decision easier and that you can see the benefits of each. For any question that you might have, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments down below.