Elementor is undoubtedly the most popular WordPress page builder plugin.
To give you an idea about the popularity of WordPress page builder plugins – I recently conducted several interviews for a WordPress designer-developer vacancy.
Of the 8 interviews I took, each of the designers said that they use page builder plugins for building websites.
In fact, none of them knew code. All of them named Elementor as one of the page builders they are familiar with.
However, there are some strong contenders in the market, with better features and other advantages.
In this post, we explore top Elementor alternatives in detail.
Why go for Elementor alternatives?
The alternatives and competitors to a great product usually have a lot of advantages :
- They are built to be a strong contender to the already popular product, with similar features offered at a lesser price.
- They contain some innovative features that popular products lack. These features in the new product might be the ones your business needs.
- The alternative products help stabilize the market, remove monopoly, and make several pricing tiers available for smaller businesses to use these products, too.
After careful consideration, I have zeroed in on 5 top alternatives for Elementor. They are:
- Thrive Architect
- Brizy
- OptimizePress
- Beaver Builder
- Divi Builder
Apart from Elementor, my team and I have personally used Brizy, Divi, and Beaver for building websites for our clients.
WordPress page builder plugins let you create websites and landing pages with the help of drag-and-drop features.
The foremost reason WordPress page builder plugins are popular is that they do not require knowledge of coding. Anyone, with a basic knowledge of the internet, can build a website with the help of a page builder.
No code software is a revolution, and a successful one too. The purpose is to make tech simple and enable DIY availability in something considered so complex as website building, app-building, etc.
And not just basic simple websites. You can create huge eCommerce sites with the help of no-code page builders.
A lot of customization options and 3rd party app integrations make these page builders commendable to entrepreneurs and bloggers who are looking for software that they can manage themselves.
Let us now read about each of the Elementor alternatives listed above and their special features.
1. Brizy
Brizy is breezy (pun intended) with its easy-to-use, easy-to-understand drag-and-drop interface.
The first thing I noticed about Brizy after using some of the better-known page builders is how the front-end editor is not intimidating.
Page builders are for everyone, and that means that you cannot be too techy in your approach to the software. Brizy is just that.
With a good number of features and functionalities available, Brizy manages to keep it simple, yet scalable enough for agencies and designers to use for client projects.
Brizy has a builder plugin as well as a builder and hosting plan whereby you can host your website in Brizy Cloud.
Features of Brizy
Mobile optimized templates
There are around 100+ templates – a good number to get started with looking for references for your design within Brizy.
If you feel nothing is to your liking in the templates, go for a blank template and build it up from scratch. All templates are mobile optimized.
Blocks and elements
You can drag and drop a block and start using elements like forms, maps, text, etc.
Designing
Global style settings and global block settings make designing pages on Brizy faster. Global settings refer to sections that can be used on multiple pages and areas of a website.
You can add animations, hover, and transition effects.
Other design features include –
- You can create custom template pages for posts, products, and 404 error pages. You can also custom create templates for header and footer, search bar, blog archives, authors and other pages.
- Custom fonts and 4000+ premium icons are available.
- Advanced image editing and positioning of elements are available.
- Shape dividers for adding in backgrounds or for section dividing.
WooCommerce support
Brizy has 14+ elements to support eCommerce and shop creation. Elements include customization of product page, related products feature, add to cart button customization, image gallery, and so on.
Notable dynamic elements include upselling elements, ratings, excerpts, additional info, SKU, etc.
Other notable features
- Editing history is available.
- Megamenu feature for multi-columned menus.
- Content sync (pages, pop-ups, etc.) from different sites using the sync feature.
- Lightweight code, your site speed will not be compromised.
- All major marketing and optimization app integrations are available.
- You can create membership sites whereby you can have paid content. A great feature for coaching and online courses websites.
Pricing
Brizy has a forever-free plan for the page builder plugin. Other plans have a monthly and a one-time option.
Personal plan: $49 per year | $149 for using on 1 website.
Freelancer plan: $99 per year | $299 one-time for usage on 100 websites.
Agency plan: $199 per year | $399 one time for usage on 500 websites.
Brizy Cloud plans have a month to month pay option and a yearly pay option –
Brizy Cloud Personal: $9 per month | $79 per year
Brizy Cloud Freelancer: $29 per month | $299 per year
Brizy Cloud Agency: $39 per month | $379 per year
Where does Brizy score over Elementor?
- More user friendly.
- Enough features yet not overcrowded. Doesn’t kill the interest to build with too many features.
- Has cloud hosting feature, which means a more secure option to host websites.
- The website is remarkable in using global blocks and settings. It also clearly specifies how freelancers, agencies, resellers and personal users can use it for their purposes.
Where does Brizy score below Elementor?
- Less features compared to Elementor.
I am not sure if it counts as a real back draw, but the fact that Brizy does not have a sticky menu did make me impatient.
Having had to scroll up all the way from the bottom of the long pages just to click on the next page of the Brizy website, made me feel grateful to whoever invented the sticky menu feature.
2. Thrive Architect
Thrive Architect, a product of Thrive Themes, was launched in 2013. It is a part of Thrive Suite.
Thrive Suite is a toolset aimed at meeting the marketing, conversion, and sales needs of websites.
Features of Thrive Architect
Templates
Thrive Architect has more than 300 pre-made templates to choose from.
Whether you are building a landing page or a sales page, a product or a webinar page, you’ll get almost every kind of page template in this page builder.
Easy drag-and-drop
Thrive Architect drag-and-drop features and front-end visuals make it easy to build websites and make changes on the go. For ease of use, you can just take a template that is closest to the design you have in mind and then go about editing it.
All edits are saved in real-time.
There are a lot of elements or building blocks that help in creating beautiful pages. You get custom menus, data tables, responsive video embeds, Google maps, and other elements.
You can also custom create elements using the custom HTML and CSS options.
Sales and conversion features
Thrive Architect markets itself as the most conversion and sales-friendly WordPress builder. It fills in the holes left by conventional WordPress editors. Sales and conversion features include :
- Content-filled sales page templates make copywriting for websites easy.
- Pre-made landing page templates that are optimized for a growing mailing list.
- Live webinar and product launch page templates available.
- Call-to-action buttons, lead generation forms and content reveal elements make selling easy.
Content-specific and blogging websites
Thrive elements contain content block features that make the formatting of text easier.
Blogging specific features include highlight boxes, styled lists, click-to-tweet quotes, and media addition features.
Mobile responsiveness
With Thrive Architect, you can make your website design specifically tailored for different device sizes. What fits in the desktop version might not always look good on mobile, and you can change aspects of the design in the mobile version of your website.
You can toggle off the visibility of elements in mobile device sizes if you want to. Your element positioning and size can be made different for different device sizes.
This is a great feature and something that even some popular platforms like Squarespace lack.
Other notable features
- Flexible column layouts that can be dragged to the desired width.
- 700+ font options.
- Advanced styling options like full-width sections and one-edge rounded buttons, etc.
- Animation and hover effects are available.
- More than 40 third-party integrations, including Zapier, are available.
Pricing
Pricing-wise, Thrive Architect is built for teams and designers. Pricing is simple, in fact, there is only one pricing model for it.
Thrive Architect cannot be purchased as a standalone product but comes together in the bundle of Thrive Suite.
Thrive Suite is $19 per month when paid yearly, and $30 per month when paid quarterly. You can install one license on up to 25 websites!
There is no free trial. Thrive Architect offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Other Thrive Suite products include – Thrive Theme Builder, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Leads, Thrive Suite, Thrive Ovation, Thrive Comments, Thrive Optimize, Thrive Ultimatum, Thrive Apprentice and Thrive Automator.
Where does Thrive Architect score over Elementor?
- It comes with an army of toolsets to make sales and conversions more accessible.
- It is more affordable for small businesses and teams. One license is good for 25 websites.
Where does Thrive Architect score below Elementor?
- Pricing options in Elementor are better suited for individuals. The pricing structure is such that it can accommodate the scaling needs of a business.
- Thrive Architect does not come as a standalone product, and cannot be brought in without buying the whole Thrive Suite.
- Thrive Architect does not have a forever free version to use and experiment with for a longer time. It does provide a 30-day money-back guarantee. But that might not suffice for some of us who are complete novices or have time to experiment with page builders only on weekends.
3. Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder started in 2014, and almost immediately sprang to prominence thanks to its elite clientele that includes GoDaddy and WP Engine.
Apart from a page builder plugin. Beaver also offers a drag-and-drop theme (much like customizable themes like Avada) and Beaver Themer, which is an add-on to the Beaver Builder Theme.
Beaver Builder also offers another add-on plugin called Assistant Pro, that enables storage of design and website elements to the cloud. Assistant Pro can be used with multiple website page builders, including Elementor.
Features of Beaver Builder
Page builder features
- Pre-built templates of landing pages and content pages.
- All important drag-and-drop features like edit history, global settings, pre-built rows, custom post types, copy-pasting styles, and saving designed modules and templates are available.
- Offers translation and multisite features.
- Custom fonts and custom styling through HTML/CSS are available.
- Has a client editor mode.
Beaver Themer add on
Beaver page builder has an add-on product called Beaver Themer. It costs $147 and adds the following to a standard Beaver Builder plan:
- Templates on header, footer, 404 pages, posts and post archives and search pages.
- You can customize layouts of specific parts of themes like the announcement bar, header, and footer with the help of Beaver Builder Themer.
- WooCommerce and BigCommerce integrations are offered.
- It can be used on unlimited websites.
Beaver Builder theme features
Beaver Builder Theme, which comes as a part of the Pro and Agency plans, is a fully customizable and adaptable theme that comes with an integrated Bootstrap framework. That means that the theme is fully responsive too, for all device sizes.
- Beaver Builder Theme supports WooCommerce.
- It is SEO optimized.
- The theme can be used on unlimited websites.
You can use Beaver Builder Theme in conjunction with the Beaver page builder or as a standalone product.
Other notable features
- Beaver Page Builder, Beaver Builder Theme and Beaver Themer – all have a demo available for real-time trying and testing out of the features.
- One license of Beaver page builder and theme, and the add-on Beaver Themer can be used on an unlimited number of websites.
- Page builder modules and widgets offer media additions, call-to-action segments, contact forms, number countdowns, and other noteworthy features.
- Mobile responsiveness for different device sizes.
Pricing
There are 3 pricing tiers for Beaver Builder
Standard plan – $99 for a whole year – does not include Beaver Builder Theme.
Pro plan – $199 for a year. Includes Beaver Builder Theme.
Agency plan – $399 for a year. Includes Beaver Builder Theme and white labeling.
Assistant Pro as an add-on comes for $15 for 1 user and $20 for 3 users. It also has a forever-free plan. Beaver Themer, the add-on, costs $147.
Where does Beaver Builder score over Elementor?
- The pricing of Beaver Builder is a huge catch point – $99 for a whole year for unlimited sites is unmatchable.
- No per-site license is needed. One license is good for an unlimited number of websites.
- The page builder is relatively simple and more intuitive. Anything extra comes with add-on pricing. So if your website needs are limited, Beaver Builder is not crowded with features you wouldn’t want to use.
Where does Beaver Builder score below Elementor?
- A limited number of templates, limited options in the Standard plan.
- The Beaver page builder and the Beaver Theme are not very sales-focused. Marketing is important for 99 percent of websites. Having marketing-specific tools within the builder or as easy integrations are helpful.
- Comparatively limited front-end editing features than Elementor.
4. Divi Page Builder
Divi, which is a page builder plus a theme combined into one, is the flagship product of Elegant Themes.
I used it in 2014, barely a few months after it was launched, and have totally been in love with it ever since.
Since its launch, Divi has been updated and refined constantly to keep up with the increasing demands for a better, easier-to-understand drag-and-drop theme and builder.
It is like WordPress sorted. But, since it has so much, it can be a little baffling to deal with the documentation part and learn about using Divi properly. But once grasped, you’ll probably want to recommend it to your colleagues and clients.
Divi is a theme as well as a page builder. The Divi theme and builder are not two separate components like it is with Beaver page builder and Beaver plugin.
Features of Divi
Easy and visually appealing drag-and-drop
The editor at Divi will make you want to use it to move things around on the page. Colourful and sleek editor bars and sections make editing look and feel good.
800+ templates and 100+ full website packs
With so many templates and full website packs (i.e., a complete set of templates with Home, About Us, Contact, Blog, etc. pages) your chances of liking a template within the Divi universe are high.
And, you’ll probably need only embellishments and edits to your chosen templates.
Styling elements
Divi is high on customization. Styling options include –
- Hundreds of web fonts and ability to upload fonts.
- Beautiful hover effects, gradient backgrounds and custom backgrounds.
- Different shaped sections and page dividers.
- Advanced control and transformation effects on elements like axial rotation and skewing.
- Custom code editing.
- Filters and effects on elements, shadows, text shadows and animation.
- Global CSS settings.
- Bulk editing of images, and much more.
Sales and marketing
Divi has inbuilt marketing segments like email opt-ins, conversion insights, and split testing features. Several integrations with third party applications are possible.
Divi is highly compatible with WooCommerce. Selling products gets easier with the product templates available in Divi templates.
Other notable features
- Autosaving, edit history and browser backups are available in Divi. A great feature if a team is involved in creating websites.
- Import and export of elements.
- Header, footer, post and product builders.
- Lots of documentation and technical support to help navigate the builder. Divi also has a one-click remote access feature for the Divi support theme to take a look at any issue that appears while you build your website.
- The Divi plugin works with almost every WordPress theme.
Pricing
Divi has a yearly and a one-time pricing.
The yearly cost is $67 per year. The one-time cost is $187.
One Divi license can be used on an unlimited number of websites.
Where does Divi score over Elementor?
- More design customization options than Elementor.
- Better animations and transition effects of elements.
- Divi has a theme and a plug in, both.
- Unlimited access in the pricing of one-page builder.
- One-time pricing makes Divi much more affordable than Elementor.
Where does Divi score below Elementor?
- Does not have a hosting included plan like Elementor.
- The yearly pricing for Divi is higher than that of Elementor.
- Elementor has a free version.
5. OptimizePress
I have included OptimizePress in this elite list of Elementor alternatives keeping eCommerce websites in mind.
A lot of product-based websites – both tangible and digital products, SaaS and PaaS websites are created every day, and many page builders do not address core eCommerce needs thoroughly.
OptimizePress is built mainly for the optimization of selling-based websites. There are about 12-24 million websites in the world, excluding those in the People’s Republic of China.
This page builder is focused on selling, and is best suited for businesses and freelancers, digital content creators, and affiliate marketers.
Features of OptimizePress
Conversion-focused Design
Everything in OptimizePress is built to bring you sales. Therefore, you have 250+ conversion-optimized templates to build every kind of page.
All templates are mobile and SEO optimized. There are multiple elements to design your pages. Customization includes click-to-edit sections, font, text, colour, etc.
You can create opt-in landing pages with easy to create forms.
Sales pages are a special focus for OptimizePress, and there are templates for numerous kinds of selling pages. OptimizePress integrates seamlessly with cart pages like SamCart, and ThriveCart, as well as WooCommerce.
You can add sales features to any of your pages like a countdown timer, feature blocks, progress bar, and videos.
Funnels and marketing
Imagine not having to opt for a separate Funnel software, but getting it right with your page builder. Yoo hoo! Most professionals would agree that juggling between software to get a sales process done (read – work smoothly) can be tiring.
You create a WordPress site, buy ClickFunnel or Convertkit; have MailChimp for email lead capturing – all of this takes up precious time.
With OptimizePress sales funnels feature, you can create –
- Launch funnels
- Webinar funnels
- List building funnels and
- Sales funnels
The Funnel feature is available with the Suite plan of OptimizePress.
Easy checkouts
OptimizePress has all major checkout features like upselling, order bumps, customizable checkout forms, discount with coupons, post-sales email customization, secure downloads for digital products, major credit card integration through Stripe integration, and other notable checkout features.
Drag-and-drop
All pages, be it funnels, sales pages, or checkout pages – everything is click-to-edit enabled. OptimizePress has almost all the required design elements needed for a website.
Additionally, it makes sales and eCommerce features that only shopping cart software can boast of.
I would recommend someone looking for a shopping cart + sales-focused page builder to check out OptimizePress for themselves by availing of the 30-day money-back guarantee.
Other notable features
- Split testing feature to test website
- Analytics and reports
- Scarcity alerts feature for products
- 30+ CRM, email and other apps integration
- Fast loading and speed optimized pages
Pricing
OptimizePress has no free plans, but all their plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you happen not to like it.
There are 3 plans, and a customizable enterprise plan.
Essential plan: $99 per year for 1 personal website.
Suite plan: $199 per year for up to 20 personal websites.
Agency Standard plan: $399 per year for up to 20 client sites.
Where does OptimizePress score over Elementor?
- Sales and eCommerce are at the core of OptimizePress.
- Checkout features that are the best in OptimizePress builder.
- Has a Funnel feature that’s unlike all other top page builders.
Where does OptimizePress score below Elementor?
- Not as many design choices as in Elementor.
- Does not have a forever-free plan (you can watch the demo video instead to get an idea).
Conclusion
There you go – the top 5 page builders that are going to rule in 2022 are all listed above with their specific features that make them each other’s contenders, and their special features which make them unique and stand out.
So, if you are thinking of finally putting your business idea to fruition, read through this blog post, and shoot us any questions you may have. We would love to be of help in narrowing down the options for you.
If I have to summarize this blog post to its bare basics, here is it :
Brizy – Good for not too tech-savvy beginners looking for just enough, not too much.
Thrive Architect – For the ones who are concerned with marketing and website building, and want to take control of the sales and website promotion into their own hands, and learn a good many new tools in the process.
Beaver Builder – For the balanced DIY enthusiast who wants a slice of website building and wants to adopt it as a profession by building themes.
Beaver is also for busy professionals who want to have a robust builder, yet something not too overpowering in terms of their time and beginner knowledge of website building.
Divi – For the explorer, who wants to eventually become a pro at website building. Also for the design enthusiast who believes a well-designed website is half the sales battle won.
OptimizePress – For the wholesaler, the retailer, the start-from-home business owners, the garage-business owners, and the digital course creators.
Thank you for reading!
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