Elementor vs Gutenberg Comparison 2024: Which Is Better?

Are you stuck deciding which is better between Elementor vs Gutenberg? Then you came to the right place.

Elementor is among the most popular page builders on the market. If you’ve been using WordPress for a long, you’re definitely familiar with Elementor.

It is used by over 10.1% of all websites, and its popularity has surged recently.

However, WordPress 5 features a new page builder called Gutenberg straight out of the box. Gutenberg is a block-based editor that you may already be familiar with.

But which is better? As a developer, you should choose something that is flexible enough to meet your requirements.

In this article, we’ll compare Gutenberg vs Elementor and help you decide which is better for your website.

Let’s get started with a brief introduction to both editors.

Elementor vs Gutenberg: Quick Introduction

To start our comparison of Gutenberg editor vs Elementor, let’s look over the basics of both builders.

Elementor

Elementor is a most popular WordPress page builder plugins, with more than 8 million installs globally. It allows you to customize your site using a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to create pages and posts without coding skills.

Elementor comes with several widgets that allow you to add various functionality to your site. If this isn’t enough, many Elementor add-ons are available that allow you to add more widgets and style options.

However, the most noble feature of Elementor is its design abilities. You may set custom positions, change padding margins, and create global rules for color and typography.

Furthermore, Elementor offers both free and pro versions. Elementor’s free version comes with 40+ basic widgets and 30+ templates. The Elementor Pro version offers an extra 90+ widgets, 300+ templates, website builder kits, premium support, and other features.

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Gutenberg

Gutenberg is the default WordPress page builder. It was released in 2018 and then superseded by the WordPress classic editor, which was the original rich text/HTML content editor with no drag-and-drop functionality.

The advantage of Gutenberg is that you don’t have to write any HTML code or CSS. It’s a basic block-based editor that allows you to drag and drop blocks and customize them to whatever you see suitable. Moreover, most WordPress themes work well with Gutenberg.

Since Gutenberg is the default editor in WordPress, it’s also complemented by an array of add-ons and extensions that further enhance its functionality.

For example, Spectra extends the Gutenberg editor’s functionality by offering a more than 50 blocks collection.

Difference Between Page Builder vs Block Editor

Elementor is a page builder, while Gutenberg is a block editor.

But wait. What’s the difference between a page builder and a block editor? In practice, not much, especially for the average user.

However, there is a difference.

Page builders, for starters, give more functionality. They let you customize every part of your website as you see fit. Gutenberg, on the other hand, is highly dependent on the WordPress theme you are using.

A page builder is a tool that allows you to create a page from the ground up. Block editors, on the other hand, customize items based on the functionality built into your theme.

For example, you may change the fonts, colors, themes, or any other aspect of your website without being limited by the possibilities provided by your WordPress theme.

Now, let’s look at the in-depth comparison of WordPress Elementor vs Block Editor in the next section.

Elementor vs Gutenberg – A Detailed Comparison

Here is a detailed comparison of Elementor and Gutenberg and how they fare in different departments.

Gutenberg vs Elementor: Ease Of Use

Let’s see how easy Elementor and Gutenberg are to use.

Elementor

Regarding ease of use, Elementor is no stranger to making things easier. However, there is a learning curve due to the extensive list of features provided.

In the editor, you get a replica of a page’s frontend as the editor. Every Elementor content widget in the library may be dragged and edited.

The widgets are organized under Basic, Pro, General, Site, WooCommerce, and WordPress. There is also a Favorites tab where you can save custom widgets to use later.

Elementor’s simplicity of use comes from its grid-based editor, which lets you drag and drop elements almost anywhere on the page. Additionally, by clicking, you can add sections, remove sections, and drag entire sections within the editor.

Furthermore, you can also have easy access to the blocks and templates library. Plus, custom templates can be saved for later use, or use professionally designed blocks and page templates. Many of them are designed for specific purposes, such as creating a 404 page or a customized WooCommerce cart.

The biggest disadvantage of the Elementor interface is that it is third-party. You need to install a plugin to make it active on WordPress. Even so, you need to click the “Edit With Elementor” button every time since Gutenberg is still installed in the background.

Gutenberg

Getting started with Gutenberg is as easy as using WordPress. This is so because Gutenberg is integrated right away into the WordPress dashboard. There is no need to install a plugin or add-on. Simply open the page or post editor, and Gutenberg will go to work.

You can search and add blocks by clicking on the “+” buttons scattered around the editor. It has a search bar with tabs for Blocks, Patterns, and Media.

Furthermore, the Page tab has publishing and page-specific options, such as tools for featured images, excerpts, and comments.

Click on the Block tab opens up the unique customization features for your selected block.

Overall, Gutenberg is easy to use. However, there’s nothing like working with Elementor. It’s sleek and enjoyable to use, and once you get the hang of it, it can do far more than Gutenberg.

Elementor vs Gutenberg: Templates

Both are popular page-building solutions for WordPress, but they approach templates and design differently.

Elementor

Elementor’s Theme Builder offers hundreds of starter templates.

The Elementor templates include:

• Headers
• Footers
• Single pages
• Single posts
• Archives
• Search results pages
• Product pages
• Product archives
• 404 pages

Elementor templates need a paid subscription, which is reasonable and superior to Gutenberg’s offerings.

Gutenberg

Gutenberg, on the other hand, does not have pre-made templates. The Patterns tab includes several useful section templates, but that’s about it.

However, you may install third-party plugins that include starter templates for pages and whole websites. Plugins such as Gutentor, Twentig, and Otter Blocks are all good.

Gutenberg vs Elementor: Styling Options

Let’s check the styling options available in Gutenberg or Elementor.

Elementor

Styling options in Elementor are contained in three tabs when a widget is selected.

• Content: This lets you tweak options like title, link, size, and alignment.
• Style: Allows you to edit options like typography, colors, opacity, borders, etc.
• Advanced: lets you control settings like custom margins/padding, z-index, animation, CSS, etc.

And if you have the Elementor Pro version, you can directly apply custom CSS to individual elements for even more control.

Gutenberg

Gutenberg’s styling features enable for quick customization in the right-side Block panel—after choosing the block you want to edit.

The style settings are quite basic when compared to Elementor, but the essentials are almost always there. These include changing image borders and size, color, typography, and margin settings for paragraph blocks.

In addition, when you click on a block, you will see a hovering toolbar in addition to custom CSS for all blocks. This section covers text style, HTML editing, copying that styling, and duplicating.

Overall, Elementor provides a more robust set of style features than Gutenberg. However, those looking for the ultimate simplicity will feel right at home with Gutenberg-style features.

Gutenberg Block Editor vs Elementor: WooCommerce Support

WooCommerce is a third-party plugin that converts any WordPress website into an online store. When used with a page builder, WooCommerce blocks allow greater customization of the shopping cart, product pages, and more.

Elementor

Elementor works well with WooCommerce. However, it comes at a cost. You must have an Elementor Pro subscription to access any of the WooCommerce content widgets or page templates. Having said that, Elementor Pro is reasonably priced, and the blocks offer more powerful style options than Gutenberg.

At the time of this article, 24 WooCommerce blocks were available through Elementor. The list includes product breadcrumbs, product images, add-to-cart, product ratings, upsells, my account, etc.

Gutenberg

Gutenberg is no exception. When you install WooCommerce, a plethora of Gutenberg blocks appear to help improve the appearance of your WooCommerce store.

There are product search blocks, best-selling product blocks, cart blocks, checkout blocks, etc. We counted 30 Gutenberg/WooCommerce blocks, and there are many third-party plugins available to expand this list.

Elementor vs Gutenberg: Speed & Performance

Page builders provide a wide range of features. This might result in a bulky set of tools that conflict with plugins and themes while also slowing page load times. When looking at user reviews, both appear to operate well when using the right optimization tools and a fast host.

In our test, we install Gutenberg and Elementor on different servers. We also used the same theme with demo content to ensure that the testing was as fair as possible.

Here are the results from the Google PageSpeed Insights:

Elementor

• Desktop Performance: 94
• Desktop Accessibility: 100
• Desktop Best Practices: 92
• Desktop SEO: 67
• Mobile Performance: 81
• Mobile Accessibility: 100
• Mobile Best Practices: 92
• Mobile SEO: 71

Gutenberg

• Desktop Performance: 98
• Desktop Accessibility: 100
• Desktop Best Practices: 92
• Desktop SEO: 67
• Mobile Performance: 93
• Mobile Accessibility: 100
• Mobile Best Practices: 92
• Mobile SEO: 71

Gutenberg delivered a higher performance score, lower page size, faster load time, and fewer requests. This might be due to Elementor’s more complex block designs, and Gutenberg is theoretically always installed alongside Elementor. As a result, you’re left with two-page builders operating at the same time, potentially slowing down the site.

Gutenberg vs Elementor: Compatibility With Other Plugins & Themes

Here’s how Gutenberg and Elementor stack up in terms of compatibility with the broader WordPress ecosystem.

Elementor

Elementor works well with almost all WordPress themes. As long as your website runs on the 5.9 version of WordPress or greater or PHP 7.4 or greater, Elementor likely works with it. If you use anything less than the recommended system requirements, you will have problems. Using older WordPress versions will prevent your site from functioning correctly and expose it to security risks and bugs.

Gutenberg

The Gutenberg editor isn’t only compatible with WordPress. It’s WordPress. It is part of the WordPress infrastructure. As a result, Gutenberg outperforms Elementor in terms of WordPress compatibility.

Elementor vs Gutenberg: Pricing

Gutenberg and Elementor are both free to download. The main difference is that Gutenberg is entirely free, forever. Elementor offers an impressive free version of its page builder and many pro plans for those who want additional features.

Elementor

Elementor offers a free version that you can download from WordPress.org. Other than that, it also offers four pro versions:

• Essential: It costs $59/year for a single site usage.
• Advanced: It costs $99/year for up to three sites usage.
• Expert: It costs $199/year for up to 25 sites usage.
• Agency: It costs $399/year for up to 1000 site usage.

All plans include Theme Builder, Dynamic Content, Form Builder, Premium Support, etc.

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Gutenberg

It is free since it is the WordPress editor and is included by default with WordPress.

Gutenberg vs Elementor: Customer Support

Both platforms offer different types of support resources and channels tailored to meet the needs of their user bases. Here’s how they compare in terms of customer support:

Elementor

Elementor paying users will have access to 24/7 premium support via tickets. In addition, Elementor maintains a detailed public knowledge base that shows how to use core features, resolve common issues, and more.

Elementor also has a big official Facebook group where you can find community support from over 2,40,000 members. This is a great option for both free and premium Elementor users.

Gutenberg

The standalone Gutenberg page builder lacks a dedicated customer support line.

You can, however, address the issue at the Gutenberg user forum.

WordPress.com members have access to dedicated support so that you might ask them for help with Gutenberg questions. Unfortunately, WordPress.org users are left to rely on forums and blog posts to do their own research.

Elementor vs Gutenberg: When Should You Use Elementor?

Elementor is a good option for websites where you need to create unique, complex pages.

It gives you more flexibility over the layout of each page. This is because Elementor gives you total design control over any specific page. So, if you need anything like that for a certain page or post, Elementor is a great option.

While Elementor is more sophisticated than Gutenberg and less tied to the WordPress framework, it remains an outstanding builder with a wide range of options.

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Elementor vs Gutenberg: When Should You Use Gutenberg?

In our opinion, Gutenberg is the best overall choice for most websites. It is the default WordPress option, which means the WordPress core developers fully support it.

It’s also easy to use and has a low learning curve.

While Gutenberg may not have as many design possibilities as Elementor, it is sufficient for all but the most advanced users.

And with third-party add-ons, you can also add additional functionality to the Gutenberg block editor.

Start Creating Your Website Today!

Finally, it is up to you whether to build your website with Elementor or Gutenberg. Regardless of the option you select, if you follow website-building best practices, your website will be a success.

We hope our in-depth comparison of Gutenberg Block Editor vs Elementor Page Builder helps you decide which is better for your site.

For more, check out these other helpful resources:

• Divi vs Elementor
• Elementor vs Beaver Builder
• 8 Best Elementor Alternatives

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