Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Which is the Best Page Builder?

Trying to select between Beaver Builder vs Elementor as page builders for your WordPress sites?

These are the two best WordPress page builder plugins, so you’ve clearly cut down your options.

But, considering that both Elementor and Beaver Builder are popular, high-quality, and well-reviewed tools, how can you select which one is best for your site?

I’ll help you answer that question by diving further into these tools. By the end of this Elementor vs Beaver Builder comparison, you should have a clear idea of which page builder is best for your needs!

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Overview

Just to give you a short overview, these are WordPress plugins that make it simple to create WordPress websites. Beaver Builder and Elementor make it simple to develop and design beautiful websites using the WordPress interface. Both plugins have a drag-and-drop interface as well as a visual interface.

Elementor

Since its first release in 2016, Elementor has quickly grown to become a popular WordPress page builder plugin by a wide margin. It is active on over five million sites, which is the highest honor at WordPress.org. That means it’s not simply the most popular page builder plugin; it’s one of the most popular WordPress plugins overall.

The free core Elementor plugin is available on WordPress.org, whereas Elementor Pro is a paid add-on that expands the core plugin with additional features.

People like Elementor because of its advanced features and design options. The Elementor development team is always adding new features, which means you’ll always have access to fresh delights for your site.

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a little older. It launched in 2014. Although it hasn’t achieved the massive success that Elementor has, it still has a very large and friendly fan base.

In general, Beaver Builder takes a different approach than Elementor. Rather than continuously adding new features, as Elementor Pro does, Beaver Builder focused on doing the core page-building experience really well.

This means you won’t have as many features and design options as with Elementor Pro, but Beaver Builder is solid and lightweight, which is why many WordPress developers choose it.

Some people prioritize stability and a lightweight approach above having access to as many features as possible. That is why Beaver Builder has also been so popular.

Beaver Builder vs Elementor: In-Depth Comparison

When two leading page builders compete, it all comes down to their features and services.

While both Beaver Builder and Elementor have innovative features, each tool has some limitations. Similarly, each of these page builders has benefits over the others.

We compared both in several areas to find which page builder is the best to help you make the right decision.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: The Interface

Both Elementor and Beaver Builder are visual drag-and-drop page builders, but their interfaces appear and work differently. Since you’ll spend most of your time learning and using the plugin’s interface, it should be simple to use. Let’s compare each interface below to help you decide which is a better match.

Elementor Interface

With Elementor’s interface, you get a large preview of your design on the right side and a fixed sidebar on the left where you can add new content and adjust settings. If you want a full-screen preview, you can collapse the sidebar:

You may add widgets by dragging them from the sidebar. You can click and type on the page to edit a widget’s text. Further, to change its settings, click on it to view its options in the sidebar.

In comparison to Beaver Builder, Elementor offers some useful interface features.

The first is right-click support, which Beaver Builder does not offer. In Elementor, you may open some options by right-clicking on any element. The ability to copy/paste complete widgets or simply styles between them is the most helpful option:

Another useful feature is Elementor’s Navigator, which offers a high-level overview of your page’s structure. You can easily open an element’s settings by clicking on it, and you may rename it to help you keep track of things:

Elementor also offers undo and redo functionality as well as a detailed history log for reverting changes:

Beaver Builder Interface

Beaver Builder’s interface layout is more configurable than Elementor’s, although it lacks several of Elementor’s key functions, such as right-click support.

It offers a full-width preview of your design with a top bar:

To add content, click the + button to expand a menu:

To edit the settings of a row, column, or module, click on it to open a popup. This popup is resizable and draggable:

If you want a fixed interface, drag the popup to either side to create a fixed sidebar on the left or right.

This flexibility is useful since it allows you to customize the interface to your specific needs, which Beaver Builder offers over Elementor.

However, Beaver Builder lacks right-click support, making it impossible to copy/paste content. You can clone modules and copy styles from a module’s settings area. However, it’s not as efficient as Elementor since you have to access a module’s whole settings area every time you want to copy and paste the style.

Beaver Builder does provide a high-level look at the interface, comparable to Elementor’s navigator. However, you do not have the option to rename elements:

Like Elementor, you also get a history and revision log.

The Verdict

When comparing the interfaces of Beaver Builder vs Elementor, it’s clear that they both function similarly. They are easy to use and suitable for beginners.

However, Elementor will be easier to use because of its intuitive design and familiar shortcuts. Beaver Builder’s interface is a little more complicated; therefore, we recommend it for more tech-savvy users.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Modules And Sections

Whether you call these elements widgets or modules, sections or rows, they serve as the foundation for your design. For instance, Elementor calls them widgets, while Beaver Builder calls them modules. They are exactly the same thing, though.

This section will compare how each page builder handles these elements.

Elementor Widgets

Elementor offers three elements, each having a hierarchy:

• Sections – These are at the top of the element hierarchy. A section organizes columns and widgets and allows you to change anything inside it.
• Columns – Columns are the second level of the hierarchy. They fit within sections and divide your design vertically.
• Widgets – Widgets are the third level of the hierarchy. These build up the actual content of your site. Widgets can be text, images, a price table, etc.

Elementor’s free version allows you to create designs with 28 widgets. With Elementor Pro, you will get access to over 50 premium widgets to give your design even more flexibility.

Elementor also allows you to add extra widgets using third-party Elementor addon plugins. For instance, the Ultimate Addons For Elementor plugin adds over 50 new widgets to your designs.

Beaver Builder Modules

Beaver Builder follows a similar approach, although with different terminology:

• Rows – Rows, similar to Sections in Elementor, are at the top of the hierarchy. You can use rows to add consistent space and background to the content.
• Columns – Columns fit within rows and let you divide your page vertically.
• Modules – These are the actual contents of your website. They will contain your text, images, buttons, etc.

Beaver Builder’s free version offers six modules. However, the premium version gives you access to a total of 50 modules.

Like Elementor, you may extend this further with third-party Beaver Builder Addons. For instance, the Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder plugin adds more than 60 new modules.

The Verdict

Elementor and Beaver Builder both offer most of the features needed for a website. Both offer great options for the free versions and a much wider range for the premium.

Elementor seems to have the upper hand here. The free version offers more than Beaver Builder, and the premium version provides much more. Third-party widgets are also more popular for Elementor at the moment.

Beaver Builder vs Elementor: Styling Options

After you’ve set up your modules and sections, you want to style everything to make it look exactly perfect.

Let’s see which page builders have the best design options.

Elementor Styling Options

Elementor uses its own global styles for your content by default, which you may customize as needed.

However, by visiting the plugin’s settings, you may disable this feature and instead use the styles from your WordPress theme:

However, this is a useful feature if you’re using the Astra theme. You can use Astra’s detailed Customizer options to set the styles for your entire site.

Once you’ve done so, your Elementor content will use the same styling as your normal WordPress content, providing consistency throughout your site.

Of course, if you want to change these global styles or style your design in different ways, Elementor provides you with lots of options.

For each section, column, or widget, you have three tabs to adjust how it looks and functions:

• Content – basic things like alignment and size.
• Style – colors, typography, etc.
• Advanced – custom margin and padding, animation, responsive controls, etc.

Aside from custom margins and padding, two very useful features are:

• Responsive controls – These allow you to hide content on certain devices such as mobiles or tablets.
• Custom CSS – These allow you to apply custom CSS styles to individual widgets or sections. (Elementor Pro).

Finally, for many of the style settings, you may use the device icon to apply various styles to different types of devices:

This is great for mobile-first design and may help you optimize your sites for different devices.

Beaver Builder Styling Options

By default, Beaver Builder applies your theme’s global styles rather than applying its own, as Elementor does. In our view, this is a preferable method of handling things.

When you click on a row or module, the tabs that show in the popup allow you to customize it.

The tabs you see are determined by the module. In general, you’ll have options for:

• Style – controls the content’s orientation, colors, width, and height, among other parameters.
• Advanced – adjusts animations, responsive settings, responsive controls, responsive CSS, and configurable margins.

Similar to Elementor, you may use the device icons to apply various styles to different devices.

While you can just add CSS classes and IDs to single elements, Beaver Builder makes it simple to apply actual CSS styles at the page level (but not at the element level):

Furthermore, one unique feature of Beaver Builder is the ability to specify custom responsive breakpoints inside the global settings (these breakpoints apply to all of your Beaver Builder content).

The Verdict

Both Elementor and Beaver Builder give you a lot of control over each page element. In terms of options and convenience of use, the two are extremely similar, and both provide complete control over everything on the website.

Again, there isn’t much to choose between them here.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Templates

Templates might help you save a lot of time. These might be pre-designed templates or your own templates that you create from scratch.

In any case, the ability to put templates into your web pages is a game changer. It improves your productivity and workflow.

Let’s compare which page builder offers the best templates.

Elementor Templates

Elementor’s templates are grouped into block templates and page templates. A block template lets you create specific sections of your website. However, a page template is a full-page template that you may apply to the entire page rather than just a specific section.

Elementor’s free version has over 40-page templates and a larger number of blocks.

However, Elementor Pro offers you access to over 200 premium pages and block templates.

Furthermore, if you cannot find the template of your choice among the available options, you may build a custom page template and store it in the library for future use.

Must Read: Best Elementor Themes and Templates.

Beaver Builder Templates

Similar to Elementor, Beaver Builder also provides templates. However, it only includes page templates and not block templates. Beaver Builder divides its templates into landing pages and content pages.

As the name suggests, landing page templates are used to create creative and eye-catching landing pages. In contrast, content page templates are used to create content-based pages or blog posts.

Furthermore, Beaver Builder only provides these templates in its premium edition, so if you are a freebie, you will have to start from scratch.

Beaver Builder, like Elementor, allows you to store your preferred templates for later use. Beaver Builder also allows you to import external templates.

The Verdict

In terms of quality, Elementor and Beaver Builder provide top-tier, professionally created templates and styling options.

In terms of quantity, the Elementor page builder provides over 200 template designs for its users to pick from.

Beaver Builder does provide extra solutions for large-scale projects, but you must purchase them individually.

Beaver Builder vs Elementor: Theme Builder

Elementor and Beaver Builder allow you to create individual pages and complete websites. They do this using a ‘theme builder,’ which allows you to create basic components such as headers, footers, single posts, and so on. These components are then used across your website to create a theme with your branding.

So, which builder has a better theme builder: Elementor or Beaver Builder? Let’s check out.

Elementor Theme Builder

The Theme Builder in Elementor allows you to create a full site. It includes a variety of site components such as a header, footer, single page, single post, and so on:

It uses the same interface that you use to create pages and posts. However, the only difference is that you get dynamic theme widgets to create your design.

You may also use the Dynamic Tags functionality to add dynamic content from your site or a custom field you’ve created.

You can use dynamic content to populate text, images, links, and so on, giving you a great deal of flexibility when creating custom content sites:

Before you publish a template, you may choose whether you will use it for your entire site or just for certain content, such as a specific category of blog posts:

Beaver Builder Beaver Themer

Beaver Builder also offers a theme builder called Beaver Themer. However, Beaver Themer is a separate add-on that is not included with the premium version of Beaver Builder.

Beaver Themer uses the same interface as Beaver Builder to build individual pages and posts.

You may use Beaver Themer to create any sitewide element, such as the header, footer, archive, single post, 404 pages, and so on.

Beaver Themer uses WordPress hooks to inject content into certain areas of your website.

Beaver Themer’s rules-based customization allows you a lot of control and freedom when it comes to customizing your website. It uses conditional logic to fine-tune where and when Themer layouts or sections of Beaver Builder layouts are shown.

The Verdict

Both builders allow you to customize your complete website using your own templates. Both provide powerful rule-based options for choosing where templates will display on your site.

The key difference between the two theme builders is not in what they perform but in their price.

The Theme Builder for Elementor is available with Elementor Pro. Beaver Themer, on the other hand, is an add-on that costs an additional $147 and does not come with Beaver Builder Pro.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Other Notable Features

Aside from what we’ve already covered, each builder has some unique features. Let’s go through each one.

Elementor

The popup builder is one of Elementor’s standout features. By using the popup builder, you may create various popups, such as modal popups, notification bars, full-screen fillers, slide-ins, and more, all using the same Elementor interface:

Before you publish a popup, you may add detailed targeting and trigger rules that control where and when it appears:

Overall, we believe that Elementor popup builder fully eliminates the need for a third-party popup plugin. The one thing that it lacks is built-in A/B testing and analytics.

Still, this is a useful function that Beaver Builder does not offer.

Beaver Builder

If you create client websites, you might appreciate Beaver Builder’s white labeling feature. Essentially, this allows you to replace all of the Beaver Builder brandings with your own, giving your clients a better-branded website. White labeling is not available with Elementor.

Another area where Beaver Builder outperforms Elementor is WordPress multisite support. Elementor does allow multisite. However, each network site requires an active licensing key, which is a bit of a budget buster.

On the other hand, Beaver Builder simply requires a single license key, allowing you to power your complete multisite network for free.

The Verdict

Elementor and Beaver Builder offer some unique features that one has but the other doesn’t.

Again, there isn’t much to choose between them here.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Pricing

Elementor and Beaver Builder both offer free versions to use. Both may be downloaded and used with any website. However, Elementor’s free version offers more flexibility due to its wider widget collection.

Elementor Pricing

Elementor offers four pro plans:

• Essential – It costs $59/year for one website and offers 50 pro widgets, theme builder, form builder, etc.
• Advanced – It costs $99/year for three websites and offers 82 pro widgets, theme builder, form builder, popup builder, custom CSS, etc.
• Expert – It costs $199/year for 25 websites and offers 82 pro widgets, theme builder, form builder, popup builder, custom CSS, etc.
• Agency – It costs $399/year for 1000 websites and 82 pro widgets, theme builder, form builder, popup builder, custom CSS, etc.

There is no lifetime option. All plans are billed yearly. However, each plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Click Here To Get Started With Elementor Today!

Beaver Builder Pricing

Beaver Builder also offers four pro plans:

• Standard – It costs $99/year for unlimited sites and offers premium modules and templates, support, etc.
• Pro – It costs $199/year for unlimited sites and offers a beaver builder theme, multisite capability, etc.
• Agency – It costs $399/year for unlimited sites and offers a beaver builder theme, multisite capability, white labeling, etc.
• Ultimate – It costs $546/year for unlimited sites and offers beaver themer addon, assistant pro (6-month free), etc.

Like Elementor, there is also no lifetime option. All plans are billed yearly. However, each plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

However, Beaver Builder works differently in site unlimited. Instead, features are limited based on the plan you select.

Click Here To Get Started With Beaver Builder Today!

The Verdict

Both Elementor and Beaver Builder should be praised for giving free versions of their page builder plugins. Both have a range of features that offer great design flexibility.

However, you will only access the full power of each if you purchase premium. Elementor is less costly, but it restricts the number of websites you may use it with. Beaver Builder is more costly, but it does not limit the number of websites.

Different users will find better value based on their situation. Thus, there is no clear winner here.

Beaver Builder vs Elementor: Support

A great customer support service helps users in resolving difficulties. It also offers a knowledge base or community forums where newbies may learn about their page builders from official resources or more experienced users.

We’ll compare Elementor vs. Beaver Builder to see which offers better customer service.

Elementor Support

Elementor offers a few types of customer support:

• Help Center: Elementor features a help center where users may look up articles. It contains everything about the plugin, from getting started to tips & tricks.
• Video Tutorials: Hundreds of video tutorials are available on subjects like creating specific web pages, designing using the Elementor theme builder, and even creating your own template.
• Elementor community: The page builder offers community support through a private Facebook group that anybody may join. Connect with Elementor’s user community and learn from their experiences.
• Elementor Pro support: Elementor Pro users get access to live professional support 24/7.

Beaver Builder Support

Beaver Builder does not fall short when it comes to customer support. It offers its customers a selection of channels and resources, including:

• Beaver Builder Knowledge Base: You may get articles and tutorials on various topics, ranging from installing Beaver Builder to advanced developer guides.
• Community forums: Users can sign up for free to share their experiences and help one another solve problems.
• Video Tutorials: Beaver Builder has its own YouTube channel. It includes several expert video tutorials to help you use the page builder.
• Beaver Builder support: Users of the premium version can submit tickets to Beaver Builder support to have an expert help them with their problems.

The Verdict

When comparing Elementor vs. Beaver Builder, both plugins offer excellent customer support to their users. So, there is not a clear winner.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Free vs Pro

Let’s see how each version of the two plugins compares below.

Elementor Free vs Pro

Elementor has a free version available on WordPress.org. Since Elementor’s free version is highly useful, you may be wondering why you should pay for Elementor Pro when the free version is available.

Well, you might not need to. For many people, the free version is enough.

In general, if you simply want a tool that offers you a bit more flexibility than the WordPress block editor, the free version would be enough.

However, if you want to utilize Elementor to design most or all of your site, you’ll need to upgrade to Elementor Pro to have access to the following:

• All of the templates and widgets.
• Theme builder.
• Popup builder.
• More design options, like Motion Effects, slides & carousels, scrolling effects, etc.
• And so on.

You can see the Elementor pro vs free full comparison here.

Beaver Builder Free vs Pro

Beaver Builder, like Elementor, is available in a free version. However, unlike Elementor, the free version of Beaver Builder is limited and not very useful for most individuals, especially now that the WordPress block editor is available.

Generally, the free version of Beaver Builder is good for testing the interface to see whether you like it. However, if you want to use Beaver Builder seriously, you must purchase the premium version.

Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Which One Should You Use?

Now for the biggest question: should you use Elementor or Beaver Builder?

Let’s go over a couple of scenarios because we believe the answer depends on your situation.

If You Are a WordPress User

If you’re a WordPress user searching for a tool to use on your own site, we think you should start with Elementor.

There are various reasons why we believe Elementor is the better option for WordPress users:

• The free version is very functional.
• Elementor Pro is less costly if you only need a tool for a single site.
• It offers more design options.
• You get access to more templates.
• Elementor Pro has more features, such as the popup builder.
• And so on.

If You Are a Web Designer

If you’re a web designer creating client websites, we believe you’ll prefer Elementor because it offers more design options than Beaver Builder. For instance:

• Motion effects & mouse effects.
• Custom positioning.
• Adding CSS directly to elements.
• Sitewide design system.
• And so on.

If You Have a Tight Budget

If you’re on a tight budget, you should definitely use Elementor. The free version of Elementor is far more functional than the lite version of Beaver Builder.

However, if you want advanced features such as theme builder, you will need to purchase the Pro versions. In that situation, here’s what we recommend:

• Building personal sites: If you’re working on a couple of your own sites, Elementor Pro will most likely be less costly.
• Building client sites: If you build client sites, Beaver Builder will be slightly cheaper, even if you also need to buy Beaver Themer.

Final Thoughts on Beaver Builder vs Elementor

Finally, both Elementor and Beaver Builder are outstanding page builder plugins, so you can’t go wrong with either.

However, there are some noticeable disparities in terms of features and cost that we try to highlight in this comparison. These differences may push you in one direction or another, depending on what you value and how much money you have.

The recommendations sections above might help you select the best tool for your needs.

If you want to read more about these plugins, check out our reviews:

• Elementor Review
• Beaver Builder Review

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