A Roundup of The Best Drag and Drop Builders for WordPress
Creating a website on WordPress has never been easier. It wasn’t that long ago that the learning curve for WordPress was steep and scared lots of people. Nowadays, the amount of easier drag and drop options are quite extensive and very popular. So much so, that WordPress themselves have now integrated their own drag and drop builder, called Gutenberg.
If you love building websites with code from scratch, then this article might not be for you.
First of all, Gutenberg
WordPress has rolled out Gutenberg as a plugin first but will soon be adding it as the default editor. The Gutenberg plug-in a drag and drop editor which resembles the Squarespace builder. Everything is organized in blocks of content and you pick what you want and where to put it. This is a huge change for WordPress and also very smart. The rise of non-developers wanting to create websites is on the rise and WordPress is finally making it easier for them.
Divi Builder
The Divi Builder is one of the favourite builder plugins for WordPress. With lots of customizable options and constant updates, Divi is a favourite with both seasoned developers and newbies in the field. The plugin comes with lots of ready to use templates for an easier building experience. If you buy the Divi Theme, you can use the Visual Builder as well. If you have another theme, it is probably compatible, just check the compatibility first. The Divi community is a plus when using this builder, they love to help out when you get lost and are very supportive.
Elementor
The Elementor Builder plugin is the free and open source, meaning that it’s available to anyone at any time. It is the only free drag and drop builder with lots of easy to use templates and a front end visual builder. Elementor has really good Zapier integrations as well that help with productivity before and after building the site
Beaver Builder
The Beaver Builder plugin has a free and a paid version. The free version is pretty powerful but for more features, it’s best to buy the paid version. Beaver Builder is known as one of the easiest drag and drop builders in existence. It’s compatible with all WordPress themes but you might need to check compatibility with other themes. Beaver builder comes with some ready to customize templates and also includes and front-end builder to help you see the changes as you make them.
Visual Composer
This drag and drop builder is one of the most recognized in the WordPress world. Visual Composer is a premium plugin but also comes included in lots of premium WordPress themes. It’s easy to use, supports WordPress shortcodes and has plenty of ready to use templates as well. This is one of the favourite builders out there but it’s not as powerful as the ones mentioned before.
Themify
The Themify builder is the built-in builder for all Themify themes but works with other themes as well. All WordPress themes are compatible with this builder plugin. The Themify builder has all the basics of a functional drag and drop builder, both backend and frontend. It comes with lots of customizable templates and there are always new ones being added.
Page Builder by Site Origin
This drag and drop builder is another of the favourite WordPress builder plugins. It has been around for a while and has all you need to build a great site in no time. The builder has a live preview function to see how things are changing as you create. There are some customizable templates to try out as well.
Page Builder Sandwich
This page builder plugin is one of the few that let you customize blog posts as stand-alone pages. Most builders are used for pages and the blog posts all stay the same With Page Builder Sandwich, this is not the case. It’s easy to customize the boxes and sections to make them look however you like.
Mobile Optimization and CSS editing
All the drag and drop editors in this list help you optimize for mobile. Some easier than others. They all also let you play with the CSS and most will let you create child themes. All in all, these page builders are extremely versatile and will let you build pretty much any kind of website. To know which one will be better for your needs, just look at each builder’s website to see all they come with and what they are capable.
Conclusion
With the new addition of the Gutenberg editor on WordPress, some people are worried that the page builder plugins won’t be as necessary anymore. But we don’t think that’s true. Each drag and drop builder has its own capabilities. Which page builders have you used in your own web design projects? Did we miss any more great ones? Let us know in the comments.
