Searching for the best Elementor alternative? 🤔
While Elementor has grown to become the most popular WordPress website builder, it’s not the right tool for everyone. If that’s the case with you, don’t worry. There are plenty of proper Elementor alternatives out there.
Depending on your use case, these could be WordPress themes or they could be other WordPress 🏗️ builder plugins.
In this post, we’ll introduce you to five of the best Elementor alternatives. But before we do that, let’s quickly run over the difference between using a theme or a plugin as your Elementor alternative.
Elementor alternative: should you use a theme or plugin?
Below, we’ll be sharing both themes and plugins as Elementor alternatives. But, before we get there, it’s important to understand what each option brings to the table.
When to use a theme as an Elementor alternative…
In general, WordPress themes can be a good Elementor alternative if you’re primarily looking for an alternative to Elementor Theme Builder. A customizable one can give you a similar level of flexibility in a simpler package. Some, like the Neve theme on our list, even offer lightweight drag-and-drop header and footer builders.
By increasing your site’s loading speed, a good theme can also help you create a more performance-optimized foundation than what Elementor offers.
The tradeoff, though, is that even the most flexible WordPress theme still won’t give you 100% control like Elementor.
When to use a plugin as an Elementor alternative…
In general, visual builder plugins can be a good Elementor alternative if you still want to use a visual, drag-and-drop design interface for everything. You might want this functionality for landing pages, or you might want full theme-building support like you get with Elementor Pro Theme Builder.
One of the main downsides of choosing a visual builder plugin, though, is that it has the same performance tradeoffs as Elementor. That is, it will add some extra weight to your designs versus using a lightweight theme as your alternative.
With that out of the way, let’s get into our picks…
Five Elementor alternatives to help you build stunning WordPress websites
1. Neve
Neve is a lightweight WordPress theme that makes a great alternative for Elementor thanks to its flexible customization options and pre-made templates built with the native WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg).
⚙️ Key features:
- Highly customizable
- Easy to use
- Integrates with the native WordPress block editor, especially if you combine it with the free Otter plugin (which adds more powerful design to the native editor)
- Offers simple drag-and-drop header and footer builder
- Offers impressive WooCommerce booster features for your store
- Free and premium options for different needs
Overall, Neve is a great alternative if you want to fully customize your site using built-in options rather than using a drag-and-drop builder for everything. You still get flexible design thanks to the upgrades to the native WordPress editor that Otter offers.
And because of Neve’s lightweight foundation, a site built with Neve will typically load faster than a site built with Elementor.
💵 Pricing:
- Free plan available in WordPress directory
- Personal (Perfect for when you’re just getting started): $69 per year
- Business (For online shops): $149 per year
- Agency (For freelancers and agencies): $259 per year
2. Divi
Divi is a popular Elementor alternative that comes in both theme and plugin versions.
The Divi Theme is a WordPress theme that includes the visual builder, while the Divi Builder plugin is a standalone page builder plugin that you can use with any WordPress theme.
⚙️ Key features:
- Simple drag-and-drop editor
- Customizable CSS
- Modules help you customize page layouts
- Responsive designs
- Inline text editing
- Full theme building support (like Elementor Pro Theme Builder)
Divi is developed by the Elegant Themes team and offers similar design components to Elementor.
Divi helps you create your web pages through “modules.” In a nutshell, these are content blocks (each with different settings) that you can drag and drop where you please and build the layout you want.
💵 Pricing:
Divi has two paying subscription options. Both allow you access to not only Divi, but also Extra, Bloom, and Monarch.
- Free plan available in WordPress
- Annual: $89 per year
- Lifetime (one-time payment fee): $249
3. Brizy
The alternative that closely resembles Elementor may be the Brizy plugin. Many of the plugin’s features are comparable to those offered by Elementor. However, Brizy stands out for a few specific characteristics, which we’ll discuss.
⚙️ Key features:
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Responsive design
- Inline text editing
- Clutter-free interface that’s easy to navigate
- WooCommerce integrations
Brizy is a drag-and-drop builder with a lot of customization options. It has many features, including Unlimited layouts, sidebars, header styles, and content types for your different needs.
Similar to Elementor, Brizy provides a sizable free version on WordPress.org, followed by a paid edition that adds more functionality, including theme creation, popup creation, a form element, and others.
Brizy is different in that it isn’t just for WordPress. Instead, there is a standalone hosted version in addition to the WordPress plugin, which can be a suitable choice if you’re interested in creating landing pages or websites when you don’t require all of WordPress’s functionality.
💵 Pricing:
- Free plan available for WordPress
- Personal plan (for three hosted domains): $49 per year
- Studio plan (for unlimited hosted domains): $99 per year
4. Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is a WordPress plugin that enables users to make responsive websites quickly. With its drag-and-drop interface, you can modify your website’s content without any coding experience.
⚙️ Key features:
- Large template library
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Optimized for performance, so website pages load quickly
- Offers free and premium templates
- Full theme building support via the official Beaver Themer extension
Beaver Builder comes with a library of pre-made templates that you may use as-is or change to meet your needs, and there are lots of third-party add-ons and templates, as well.
One advantage of Beaver Builder over Elementor is that its designs are generally a little more performance friendly. All things equal, a design built with Beaver Builder will usually be a bit more lightweight than one built with Elementor.
💵 Pricing:
- Standard plan: $99 per year
- Pro plan (includes Beaver Builder Theme): $199 per year
- Agency plan: $399 per year
- Ultimate plan: $546 per year
5. Oxygen
Oxygen is a powerful and feature-rich alternative to Elementor for advanced users who want full theme building.
While Oxygen is technically a WordPress plugin, it completely replaces your theme and lets you build everything via Oxygen’s visual builder.
⚙️ While Oxygen does offer a visual builder, it uses more an approach that will feel more logical to developers. For example, it still uses terminology like <div> and flexbox.
- Clean code
- WordPress website builder
- Allows you to create Gutenberg blocks
- Responsive website designs
- Easy to customize different elements
- Strong support for dynamic content
- Lets you customize repeater loops
If you’re specifically seeking an alternative to Elementor’s Theme Builder, then Oxygen is an excellent Elementor substitute. However, if you’re trying to design specific pieces of content because it’s a whole website builder rather than just a page builder.
Oxygen also features a large selection of template designs that are easy enough for beginners but professional enough for advanced users looking for something more sophisticated.
💵 Pricing:
- Basic (lifetime plan): $129 one-time payment
- Ultimate plan (lifetime plan that includes WooCommerce integration): $149 one-time payment
Find the right alternative for you and your needs
Elementor is a great product, but it has its limitations. We hope we’ve provided you with great alternatives from the above list.
Before settling on any product, remember to evaluate your unique needs to find the best solution for you.
👉 If you’re interested in the easiest way to build a quick-loading website, you might prefer the Neve theme.
On the other hand, if you still want visual, drag-and-drop editing, you might prefer an alternative like Brizy or Beaver Builder.
Do you still have any questions about picking the best Elementor alternative for your needs? Let us know in the comments!
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