There are so many page builders that promise to be easy to use and great for beginners. So, how do you choose the best one? There are factors to consider like cost, support, and speed. Additionally, you might also want to know which one offers the best templates for your business or which one has more customisability. This article pits two amazing page builders against each other: WPBakery vs Elementor. We’ve considered all the factors and picked a winner. 

TL;DR: Elementor is better than WPBakery because it is faster and more economical. Elementor is also better for beginners and has a larger library of widgets and templates. This makes designing a page easy too. 

In this article we’ll cover a variety of features ranging from price, ease of use to support. But, before we dive into the comparison, let’s take a look at the features of each page builder.

Elementor and WPBakery at a glance

Elementor and WPBakery are both powerful page builders that focus on no-code design for WordPress sites. Since many of the elements that are required for a site are the same, to choose between the two you need to look at other differentiators between the two plugins. 

WPBakery is one of the oldest page builder plugins that started out life as Visual Composer. Elementor, on the other hand, is the new superstar kid on the block with millions of downloads and considerable market share. In this article, we’ll take you through all the small differences between the two to help you make the best decision for your site. 

WPBakery

With over 4,300,000 active users, WPBakery, formerly called Visual Composer, laid a foundation for the level of creativity we’re awarded today. They boast of an intuitive drag-and-drop builder that enables you to build your dream site in just a few minutes. It’s amazing for beginners who want full control of their site design. 

Key features

• Developer-friendly
• Responsive designs
• Built-in skin builder which allows you to customize your color themes
• Great support
• Advanced Grid Builder which allows you to edit grid templates
• RTL support

Elementor

Elementor is a drag-and-drop editor that is backed by an easy-to-use interface, a massive library of templates and designs, and a great community of support and help. It’s also available for almost any WordPress theme and powers over a million sites. Site design is so much easier with Elementor. 

Key features

• No coding
• Live editing
• Amazing community
• Available in 50+ languages
• Responsive designs
• Easy workflow management
• Large library of templates and widgets

WPBakery vs Elementor: Summary of Comparison

You’ll notice that, in terms of features, objectives, and description, Elementor and WPBakery are very similar. The table below will help you understand the differences (and similarities) better. 

Feature	WPBakery	Elementor
Ease of Use	Developer-friendly and intuitive	Designed for beginners
Support	Great support	Great support
Speed	15% faster	Slower than WPBakery
Elements/Widgets	50+ content elements + addons	30 free & more pro license widgets
SEO	Not as good as Elementor	Great for SEO
Template Library	100+ templates	300+ page templates 100+ website kits 50+ widgets
Compatibility	Equally compatible	Equally compatible
Price	2 plans: regular or extended	4 plans for different number of sites

WPBakery vs Elementor: Head-to-head feature comparison

WPBakery and Elementor are comparable when talking about page builders. They have very similar features and a few differences. WPBakery is great for developers with their code and advanced features. Elementor is great for beginners with no coding experience. Here is a head to head comparison of different features. 

Ease of use: Which is more beginner-friendly?

Verdict: Elementor is easier to use than WPBakery.

Elementor is designed with beginners in mind. Their interface is intuitive and comes with added benefits like easy undo or redo functionality. It has a less intimidating editor than WPBakery that allows you to quickly edit any page, without coding. 

WPBakery may be a classic in the field of page builders and is also beginner-friendly. However, there is a decided advantage if you can code. You’ll find that there is far more flexibility. 

Overall, we would like to have all the features available to us, even if we can’t code. So Elementor wins on this front. 

Support: Which has better support?

Verdict: They both have quality support.

There is nothing more comforting than knowing that if you need help, there is a community of developers and users to reach out to. Both WPBakery and Elementor have a great support system for every problem you may have. You can reach out to their support team or community or browse through their library of resources.

Speed: Which loads faster?

Verdict: Elementor is faster than WPBakery.

WPBakery can come across as an old plugin but they do try and stay up to date with current tech trends. Despite that, it is a little slow. Elementor is faster because of its clean code which is much lighter. This means that sites built by Elementor load faster than those by WPBakery. This is an important consideration for SEO and user experience, as speed is synonymous with performance. 

Elements and widgets: Which has better options?

Verdict: Elementor has more widgets.

In this scenario, elements and widgets are two words for the same thing. They refer to the modules you drag and drop into your page template to add a certain type of content. Your entire site is made up of different elements or widgets like text or images.

WPBakery comes with only around 50 elements. These are the essentials for any site building. They’re all fully customisable to make your site exactly how you’d like. 

Elementor has 30 free modules/widgets and nearly 100 widgets if you have a pro license. The free widgets can be more than enough. The pro license is great for WooCommerce sites though. 

SEO: Which is more SEO-friendly?

Verdict: Elementor is better because it has clean code.

There is one big difference between Elementor and WPBakery on the SEO front. WPBakery doesn’t use clean code. This means that if you deactivate the plugin, your site is a complete mess of broken shortcodes. This significantly affects SEO and traffic. 

Elementor prides itself on being focussed on clean code. This not only means that it’s faster than SEO, but even if you deactivate the plugin, your page is left functional but without the designs. So your site isn’t damaged. You can just edit the pages with whatever page builder you’d prefer. 

Template library: Which has a better template library?

Verdict: Elementor has a larger library.

Elementor is popular for their large library of templates.The library consists of two types of templates: page and block. Some of them are free and others require a Pro license. In fact the Elementor Pro license adds 100+ website kits and 50 widget templates to design with. 

In contrast, WPBakery offers 100+ free templates. Like any template, you can either use them as is or change the settings to fit your aesthetic. 

Compatibility: Do they work with all WordPress plugins and themes?

Verdict: They’re equally compatible. 

Not all page builders work with all themes or plugins. But, this time you’re in luck. Both Elementor and WPBakery are with all well written plugins and themes. You can customize any theme with either page builder and they don’t affect the other plugins you’re using. 

Price: Which is of better value?

Verdict: Elementor is more economical and flexible.

WPBakery licenses are of two options of one-time payments: a regular plan for $56 and an extended plan that costs $299. The regular plan is for a single site and the extended plan is for a single SaaS application. If you’re an agency that manages over 20 sites, you can get in touch with their support team for bulk discounts. 

Elementor has a free version with limited customisability. They have 4 plans: Essential, Expert, Studio, and Agency. They differ in the number of sites you can use them for. An Essential plan costs $49 a year and works for one website. The Expert plan works with 25 websites and costs $199 a year. Elementor’s Studio Plan lets you build 100 websites and costs only $499 a year. Lastly, an Agency is for 1000 websites and costs $999 a year. 

Alternatives to WPBakery and Elementor

If neither WPBakery nor Elementor seem like the right fit, here are some alternatives:

• Beaver Builder: Beaver Builder was built by a former WordPress site building agency and was designed to make designing a site easy and quick. They have over 500,000 users and are very popular. We have an article comparing Beaver Builder with Elementor.
• SeedProd: A great drag-and-drop page builder, SeedProd can be a good alternative. It comes with great support with marketing tools, pre-built themes, and more. 
• Brizy: Their React-based interface makes them the next big thing in the world of page builders. This feature allows the interface to never slow down. 
• Spectra: Spectra integrates into the WordPress block editor and adds new building blocks, wireframes, templates and block patterns. It’s fast, easy to use and works with most WordPress templates. As it integrates into the editor, there’s nothing new to learn and you’ll find the blocks and resources alongside the default ones.

Other WordPress necessities

Design? You’ve got it under control. So, now let’s talk about other site necessities. Here are our recommendations:

• BlogVault: The only backup plugin you will ever need. BlogVault takes both automated and on-demand backups and makes sure your site is always protected.
• MalCare: Fighting malware can be grueling without a plugin. With MalCare though, scanning for and clearing malware has never been easier. It only takes a few clicks. 
• Google Analytics: Integrating Google Analytics to your WordPress site is key to understanding your audience and creating a site that works well for them. We’ve got a helpful tutorial on how to do so.

Final thoughts

With Elementor, there are more templates, layouts, and widgets to use. It’s faster and easier to use. While WPBakery is a one-time investment, Elementor has more flexible plans. So there is no pressure to use Elementor forever. So, while WPBakery has been around for a while, you’re better off using a page builder like Elementor.

FAQs

Is WPBakery faster than Elementor?

No. Elementor is faster than WPBakery. But it is only slightly faster. 

Is WPBakery the same as Visual Composer?

Yes. In 2017, Visual Composer, a plugin that allows you to edit both the front and backend of your page, became the WPBakery we love today. 

What is better than Elementor?

Divi is a great alternative. But, we think Elementor is the best page builder option right now. It’s cost-friendly, beginner-friendly, and backed by a large library of templates and layouts. 

Can you change from WPBakery to Elementor?

No. You can’t. WPBakery uses a lot of short code that breaks when you deactivate the plugin. This means that your site is left broken and non functional.