Top 10 ‘Drag n Drop’ WordPress Page Builders for Non-Coding Users
The Techworld is rapidly evolving— whether for worse or for good (quite debatable), but yet the fact remains that digital content is being produced at a massive and mind-boggling rate.
Right back in March 2019, a research showed that about 4.4 million blog posts are published every day! And it doesn’t just end here. WordPress claims that over a 400 million people read more than 20 billion pages every month of the year! This only emphasizes more on the need to not only create websites but great quality creative content likewise.
With websites and blogs being produced massively, there exists a dilemma that holds back most of us— the dilemma that we do not have a development background or any coding expertise. But getting around that is even not that of a brainer anymore!
Page Builder plugins have considerably changed the dynamics of webpage creation for good. These plugins are ideal for non-coding users and professional developers alike. The market is flooding with many impressive plug-in choices for both beginners and intermediate- level content creators.
Things You Should Know About WordPress Page Builders
At times, you may have hopelessly wondered how to create and manage your blog. You may have had bleak moments believing that only a hefty budget could help save your website ambition. But it’s all up in the head!
One can create and manage their own customized, piece-of an-art blog all by themselves owed to the WordPress page builders. These page builders are easily accessible plugins that can be installed and used with their ‘drag and drop’ distinction. These advanced page editors have a different outlook than the default page editor in the WordPress.
The ready-to-use widgets, content blocks and modules allow users to not trouble themselves with the confounding ‘text view’ of the HTML, or even messing around with visual modes of the content preview.
Today, we’ll dig deeply into WordPress page builder plug-ins that are not only wide-ranging in functionality but also great in terms of responsiveness and an overall immaculate and cohesive brand design.
We’ve shortlisted 10 best ‘drag n’ drop’ WordPress page builders that come free along with their additional premium versions.
- Elementor
- Divi Builder
- Beaver Builder
- SiteOrigin Page Builder
- WPBakery Page Builder
- Live Composer
- Themify Builder
- Cornerstone
- Page Builder Sandwich
- MotoPress Content Editor
Elementor
Accessibility:
Free
Premium Package- $49 for one website
(Images Source: Elementor )
Elementor is a great WP webpage builder for beginners and developers alike since it provides live editing and previewing of the webpage hand-in-hand. Though it was initiated of recent (back in 2016), it has garnered quite a popularity over the course of time with its 1,000,000 active installs! It comprises of 28 diverse and highly responsive widgets and add-ons to help you create highly appealing webpages. The plugin allows user to simultaneously incorporate pre-existing, standardized WordPress widgets along with the custom widgets of the theme.
Strengths
- Comprehensive customization by complete control over width and height of sections, padding and margin setting, and column gap.
- Extensive library of templates featuring 20+ highly professional and unique samples. Users can customize these templates and save them for future usage
- Specific design adjustments and versions for different devices like tablets and smartphones
Shortcomings
- Owed to a wide array of widgets and options, users may tend to clutter and overuse the provided elements. This may result in a website that will not only perform sluggishly but also look sloppy.
- The plugin is only accessible with the WordPress version 4.4 and the 5.4 version of PHP.
Divi Builder
Accessibility:
Premium Package- Yearly access for $89
Divi Builder by the Elegant Themes is a highly intuitive ‘drag n drop’ plugin based on the Divi Theme which is a great choice for both developers and intermediate non-coding users. It lets users to customize content utilizing both the visual front-end interface as well as back-end interface.
Strengths
- Higher levels of creativity through 40+ perfectly designed content blocks and modules. It also has 20+ free ready-to-use layouts that help you customize your own unique landing page in a matter of seconds!
- Users can play around with CSS codes owed to the customization of CSS made available.
Shortcomings
- Expensive and bounding access owed to the pricey and yearly premium package.
- Not for beginners due to complex functionality and multiplicity of content modules.
Beaver Builder
Accessibility:
Free
Premium Standard Package- $99
(Image Source: Beaver Builder)
Beaver Builder is an advanced page builder that helps both non-coding users and developers to edit the visual front-end interface with real time, live preview. Users can access its free as well as premium version to help customize their webpages to a great extent. One can extensively edit rows and columns while reordering or rearranging them. This page editor also helps users to incorporate audio, video, images, text editor and HTML as basic module whisle sidebars could be added as an advanced module.
Strengths
- Websites and pages built with Beaver Builder are highly mobile friendly with great web performance.
- E-commerce websites could be easily customized with the Beaver Builder since it shares integration with the WooCommerce plug-in.
- It allows user to customize templates and reuse them for future use by saving them.
Shortcomings
- An expensive premium plan that starts from $99
- Basic plan just have a limited choice of 6 content modules
Page Builder By SiteOrigin
Accessibility:
Free
(Image Source: athemes.com)
This is perhaps the most loved and sought for WordPress page builder! The Page Builder by SiteOrigin is an ideal choice for beginners and developers alike. It has around 1 million active installs! This is the best plugin to play and experiment with certain elements since it’s absolutely free!
The pre-made widgets help customize websites with increased responsiveness. These widgets can be incorporated with preexisting WordPress widgets and other standardized widgets specified in a theme. These widgets are also customizable and could be edited into three aspects; attributes, layout and design of the widget. Users can play around with padding, column spacing and background colors.
Strengths
- A highly convenient and simplified interface with no coding involved.
- Absolutely free.
- Highly compatible widgets.
- Users can access live editing previews while also being able to replay and view the changes back and forth through the history tools incorporated in the plugin
Shortcomings
- It features basic live editing previews as compared to the other competitive and premium plugins that provide more advanced live page editing previews.
- A very limited number of widgets which eventually force a user to download additional plugins for a greater variety and availability of widgets.
WPBakery Page Builder
Accessibility:
Premium Standard Package- $64
(Image Source: CodeCanyon)
Formerly known as Visual Composer, the WPBakery Page Builder is one of the most loved premium plugins ever! It is the only plugin to power over 2 million websites on the internet! WP Bakery is also renowned for its vast variety of ThemeForest themes, and live front-end and back-end editing like the Divi Builder. It also incorporates third-party add-ons and features a massive count of over 250+ add-ons, for example, WP Bakery Page Builder Add-ons
Strengths
- Just like the Beaver Builder, it is compatible with the WooCommerce plugin, meaning a highly responsive and customized Ecommerce website.
- It also happens to be compatible with the Yoast SEO plugin which ensures the website to be SEO friendly.
Shortcomings
- Just like the Divi Builder, WP Bakery tends to leave shortcodes behind in the events of the deactivation of the plugin.
- This plugin is not made for beginners and may confuse non-coding users since it involves a lot of complex content modules.
Live Composer
Accessibility:
Free
(Image Source: Live Composer)
Live Composer is a highly great quality WordPress page builder that is absolutely free of cost! It incorporates advanced functionality with the visual front-end content editing with live previews.
Strengths
- It provides 30 amazing content modules to explore and experiment with.
- Completely drag-and-drop support
- Custom CSS box is also incorporated for developers and designers.
- Layouts and sections can be exported and imported to other pages to expedite the task and help deliver uniform results.
Shortcomings
- Very complex and advanced for beginners, esp. non-coding users.
- The notification bar at the bottom may also distract or irritate users since it displays Live Composer ads.
Themify Builder
Accessibility:
Free
Premium Package- $59
(Image Source: Themify)
Just like the Divi Builder, Themify Builder helps access live preview of both front-end and back-end editing. It comes with a premium version in addition to the basic free plugin. Users can create highly responsive websites utilizing 20 mind-blowing content modules and premium add-ons.
Strengths
- Cleaner and simplified interface to accommodate beginners.
- Export and Import of modules, layouts and sections.
- Custom styling including Google Fonts, padding, borders, margins, background colors, etc.
- Visibility of elements on certain devices per the user’s choice.
Shortcomings
- Very limited customization in the free version of the plugin.
Cornerstone
Accessibility:
Premium Package- $39
(Image Source: Cornerstone)
Cornerstone by THEMECO is an entirely premium plugin which incorporates 40+ elements to deliver creativity and uniqueness. It enables users to access live preview of front end editing with its drag and drop support.
Strengths
- A professional web designer can play around with live CSS editing by adding CSS styles with live preview.
- Intuitive, app-like interface to inspire creative and novel ideas
Shortcomings
- Lesser customization owed to limited element options
- Leaves behind shortcodes
Page Builder Sandwich
Accessibility:
Free
Premium Package- $39
(Image Source: Page Builder Sandwich)
Page Builder Sandwich offers myriad widgets that are compatible with other pre-existing widgets, while featuring advanced modules in its premium version.
It also incorporates global shortcode mapping with famous WordPress plugins like, WooCommerce and JetPack to let you add and customize webpages on the go.
Strengths
- Highly convenient live preview of editing options that are based on the drag and drop support
- No coding required whatsoever
Shortcomings
- Limited modules and elements in the free version of the plugin
MotoPress Content Editor
Accessibility:
Free
Premium Package- $47
(Image Source: MotoPress Content Editor)
MotoPress Content Editor is a front end editor with a much cleaner interface. And it incorporates over 30 premade content modules.
Strengths
- No coding background required to use the plugin.
- Highly mobile responsive layouts which are ready to use.
- Much organized arrangement of content modules
Shortcomings
- Inflexible customization and styling options of the modules.
Conclusion
Now wrapping up the comprehensive dissection of the shortlisted WordPress plugins, we would like to stress that it’s highly prudent to select an option which rightfully serves the actual purpose of website creation. Moreover, it would be very smart to also designate a specific budget to avoid spending on useless and impractical alternatives.
This is the age of empowerment and we advise and encourage our readers to go out and explore their creativity with prudence!
