Elementor Pro Review
“Is This Popular WordPress Page Builder Really All It's Cracked Up To Be?”
Have you been looking into Elementor Pro in the hopes that this WordPress page builder might be exactly what you've been after for your page design or funnel building needs?
Have you been looking into Elementor Pro in the hopes that this WordPress page builder might be exactly what you've been after for your page design or funnel building needs?
With so many options out there these days, you've probably been wondering if Elementor Pro really is the best choice for your marketing business. Is this right?
I know I was. When I'd first got wind of how bat crazy popular Elementor was getting among pro WP site builders I knew I had to take this puppy for a ride myself.
Perhaps, you've been asking yourself something like…
“Hmm, I wonder if I could use a solution like this instead of paying the agonizing monthly fees that come with things like Clickfunnels or Builderall?”
Well, in this Elementor Pro review below, we'll be answering all of those questions above PLUS a whole lot more.
It's my hope that with the information I'll be providing for you, you'll be able to move ahead with everything you'll need to make a wise decision for your current needs of your marketing journey.
The New Age Of Page Builders:
You've Come A Long Way Baby!
Before we dive in, I think it's important for you to understand just how far we've come when it comes to WordPress “page builders” through the years.
Yes, I guess some people could say I'm a bit of an old dog when it comes to working with WordPress and it's hundreds of various types of plug-ins (Shhh, but don't tell anyone – Has it really been since 2007? Holy snikeys…).
Seriously though, I remember when some of these page builders for WP first came out. Man, many of them were a downright disastrous pain in the ass.
I remember a few of them were such HUGE resource hogs that they would literally freeze your entire site up, while you were trying to build a damn page literally leaving you stranded and having to force your browser closed. Not fun!
So to say that I'm thankful that coding and everything else that goes into building a solid plug-in and platform for building pages yourself has come such a long ways through the years, would be a vast understatement.
Compared to the old days, we're now coming into an age of being able to get the ‘cream of the crop'.
Yeah baby… So with that, let's strap in and get rockin' with this whole thing!
The Quick Breakdown & Overview
First off, the base version of Elementor is available for FREE.
This is really nothing new, as most WordPress plug-ins like to get your foot through the door with a no-cost version and then to get the really sweet goodies offered usually requires an upgrade.
In this sense, the Elementor suite is no different.
In fact, the base version of Elementor and the Pro version are actually two separate plug-ins.
However, you do need to have the base version installed first no matter which way you want to spin it.
It lays out all of the foundational coding and functionality for the platform, and of course Pro opens up all of the enhancements and most sought after features peeps are usually after.
Elementor is aimed at the DIY market and out-of-the-box it's base version is pretty damn impressive within itself.
Of course though, if you're a serious marketer (like most of us are) and are wanting to build your business most effectively for the long term, then you're gonna want the Pro version dude!
It includes all of the ever important integration for building your list, creating scarcity, animations, popups, and so much more… but, we'll get more into that in just a bit.
Essentially, Elementor was created and designed to be an exceptional “drag & drop” page building system for bloggers and/or online marketers who are looking to have the convenience of having everything you need in one place.
It's also for those who want full control of their content and systems they utilize for building their business (more on the importance of this later on).
Here's a little taste of what you can expect from Elementor
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In a sense, Elementor is almost like it's own separate platform that lives
within the rest of your WordPress site.
Each of the posts or pages that you create can look entirely unique and customized to your liking without inheriting any of the current look or style of your installed WordPress theme. - It has it's own user interface which doesn't require you to have any PHP, CSS, or HTML skills of your own which is very sweet.
- With a small amount of practice you'll discover that it's “drag & drop” user interface is simple and easy to use.
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Elementor allows you to see all of the changes you are making to your
posts or pages in “real time” in true WYSIWIG (What You See Is What
You Get) fashion.
This is nice for making quick changes on the fly until you get the look and feel you're after. -
The design capabilities you can achieve are seemingly endless.
Once you get the swing of things you can pretty much create any type of page or post you can imagine, though it does come with tons of pre-designed templates that will save you heaps of time if you choose. -
Elementor boasts working with any WordPress theme out there
which allows you to get all of the benefits from it without making
any changes to your current setup at all.
That said, they do have some recommended themes for it's users if you choose to go that route. Personally, I love using it along with Astra (a recommended theme).
All in all, the greatest benefit of becoming an Elementor user is having the ability to create kick-ass pages and layouts without being a professional web designer or having much experience at all in the first place.
If you're somebody that's on a tight budget this is a smokin' solution for you. It can save you thousands as compared to hiring this type of work out to a professional.
I really like Elementor just for this reason alone, as it's an excellent option for the students that I personally coach.
In fact, this review and most of this site is created using Elementor Pro!
At the time of this writing there are now over 5,000,000 users worldwide.
This says a lot about how much the Elementor phenomenon has caught on in a relatively short amount of time.
Sure, it's been around a few years now, but it's growth is certainly consistent as more and more people continue to discover how powerful it is.
Now let's start taking a closer look at the features and benefits of Elementor.
We'll check out the Free version, and of course the Pro version too.
Mighty Features & Benefits Of Elementor
First, I'd like to mention quickly that Elementor is easy to install.
You can simply use the ‘Add Plug-in' feature from within WordPress itself, and it works just fine.
The reason I mention this is because with some of these types of page building plug-ins from the past, the files were so large that the built in up-loader in WP would time out.
Some of them would require you to use FTP.
Thankfully, that's not the case with Elementor (base plug-in) or the Pro version.
They installed just fine – quick and ‘easy peasy'. Just the way we like things to be.
- Next, is the powerful functionality of the page builder itself. As mentioned before it's “drag & drop” which in really handy. With this type of simplicity you can just grab the element you want to place into your page by dragging it across the screen. Nice...
- If your thing is E-Commerce then I have some good news. The Pro version of Elementor comes with full Woo Commerce integration. This is a feature sure to please those of you who like to sell physical products.
- In total, there are in excess of 90 elements/modules for the most discerning of designers. A few of these include: progress bars, buttons, social icons, counters, HTML code widgets, star ratings, testimonials, pop up builders, Google maps, animated headlines, and many more...
- Not surprisingly, the posts and pages you create are responsive (phone) and SEO friendly.
- Elementor comes with an excellent library of pre-made templates. At the moment they have 30+ basic templates for the free version, and over 300+ templates if you're a PRO user.
- One of the big advantages of the Pro version is the Theme Builder. This means that you're able to design the core features of your template. This includes your header, footer, blog archives, single post template etc. It's another feature which is very popular with loyal Elementor users.
- As mentioned earlier, the WYSIWIG editor is great. What you see on your screen whether your in mobile, tablet, or full screen mode is exactly what your visitors will see. It sure beats the old days of having to know HTML or CSS that's for sure!
Elementor BASIC
As I mentioned before, with what you'll find inside of the core system itself is quite impressive.
One of the nicest elements I found handy with the Free version was the ability for creating impressive buttons quick and easy.
Of course there's several excellent features available in this version… however, having this option at your finger tips is fantastic as it ‘s not something you can usually simply do with most WordPress themes out of the box – without adding some type of other specific “button” type of plug-in.
By adding the plug-in Elementor though, you have that feature PLUS a whole ton of other superb benefits built right in fast.
Elementor PRO
Next – as you can see, when you upgrade to the Pro version it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for you.
The Pro version contains the most compelling parts of smart marketing which are crucial for building your business for the long term.
By stating this, I'm talking about giving you the options to effectively build your email list (which most of us know is absolutely critical) with the inclusion of integration with many of the top ESP's (Email Service Providers), the power to create scarcity with Countdown timers, Call to Actions, the ability to embed Facebook comments etc.
A couple of the key things that separates the core version from the Pro version that also make it so much more flexible are the following:
THEME ELEMENTS
The Theme elements of Elementor give you everything you need to customize a theme for your blog or site exactly the way you want it to be.
I touched on this earlier and it's sensational for designing the parts of your site that generally remain constant throughout giving you the look, feel, and branding you wish to get across to your visitors consistently.
You can make a single change and have it affect multiple areas of your site.
There is also what is known as ‘display conditions'. This cool feature allows for setting specific parameters as well for where you may want to display certain portions of your site. See below:
For instance, let's say that you only want your Header and Footer to display on certain categories or post types.
You can set the conditions for that in this section.
Or perhaps you don't want them to appear on your 404 Error page, and instead you would just like to have it display as an offer type of page.
Again, you can set the conditions for that here.
It's just one more level of control that you have at your fingertips which could result in the better overall engagement with your site.
I love this this type of feature, and I know you'll enjoy the benefits of it too. 🙂
The WooCommerce Element
Well if you know anything about WooCommerce, then you're well aware that it's one of the most well respected platforms for creating E-commerce style websites on the entire internet.
Of course we've all heard of Shopify, however WooCommerce has it's own cult following of loyal fans as well.
If you've ever dreamed of having your own E-commerce store then now you'll have all of the capabilities of doing just that.
One of the main differences apart from a platform like Shopify though, is that WooCommerce utilizes WordPress for much of it's base platform.
Once again, if you're the type of person who likes to maintain control of your own properties, then this should be attractive to you. More on that coming up soon…
Working Inside The Elementor Interface
Now that we've taken a peak and overview look of what's included with Elementor, let's see what it's like working with it. Here's how we get started working with Elementor.
First, there is a Settings tab that you may want to check out when you get started with Elementor.
Inside of here you'll see that there's a few different tabs that you'll want to pay attention to depending on what you're desired use of Elementor is going to be out of the gate.
I'm not going to get “in-depth” with each of these tabs here as you'll get a pretty good idea quickly of what they're about once you click into them yourself.
If you plan on using the Integrations available along with Elementor though, then you're going to want to pay special attention to that tab. You'll want to set these things set up prior to getting too involved with creating your pages etc.
This is the portion that allows you to connect to your ESP (Email Service Provider), Facebook, Re-Captcha, and a couple of font integrations.
For example, the ESP's the Elementor currently integrates with are Mailchimp, Drip, Active Campaign, Get Response, Convert Kit, and MailerLite.
You'll want to get the API key for the service you intend to use in there before you get started, as it could save you a bit of a headache later on when you are getting serious about your designing.
(Quick Tip) For other integrations not installed natively, Elementor Pro also integrates with Zapier which of course has integrates with 100's of platforms.
The Elementor User Interface
Getting started building your pages (or posts) and accessing the User Interface of Elementor is quite easy. It's a simple as adding a page through WordPress.
Right from the ‘get-go' you'll see the option to Edit with Elementor.
Normally, I'll first add the Page Title and publish it. After that, from there I'll enter into the interface by clicking “Edit with Elementor”.
Here's what we'll see:
On the left you'll see the ‘widgets/elements' that you can just start dragging into the Canvas area (on the right).
I'll drag a couple over just to give you an idea…
Above, I simply dragged over the Heading element, the Button element, and also the Video element.
To edit each of these sections you'll just need to hover over the element, and you'll see that an Edit button and Icon available to you.
Likewise, if you wanted to start your page with one of the included Templates you would simply click on the Folder icon inside of the interface to get started.
Once clicked, this is what you'll see:
From there you'll simply want to start scrolling through all of the available templates that are included. Remember, with the Pro version you'll have access to a whopping 300+ of them!
Also, you can get Elementor Kits too. These include collections of templates that all follow the same design aesthetic that allow you to create full sites very quickly if you wanted.
As you can see in this review, I'm simply covering a few of the basics of working within the Elementor interface.
There would be far too much to cover if I climbed into every part in detail. For now though, just know that you have entire control over the design of each section that you're using in a page.
This includes Styling, colors, element sizes, backgrounds, Z-index settings, and much more…
One thing I will say about Elementor for sure, is that they've left no stone unturned as far as giving you all of the options you'll ever wish for when designing each section of your pages.
You'll soon discover just how simple and powerful Elementor can be once you start working with it for yourself.
As I often say… “It's a great piece of kit!”
What's The Pricing Of Elementor?
Considering everything that you get with the Pro Version of Elementor, the pricing is very reasonable.
These are yearly subscription rates, so if you're used to paying monthly subscription rates for some services, most of us won't balk much of an eye at these prices!
Can Elementor Pro Replace Something Like Click Funnels For Creating Funnels?
I mentioned this at the start of this review, and I did it for good reason.
One of the things that really gets under my skin sometimes is seeing people who are just getting started blowing a ton-load of money on things that they simply just don't need.
At least, in the beginning stages of their business some things really aren't necessary (unless you've got money to burn, and don't care) at all.
You have to remember that a “funnel” is nothing more than a collection of pages.
So yes, since you can build all the custom pages you'll ever need with Elementor Pro, you could safely replace a service like Click Funnels with it (which at minimum is $97 per month), and save yourself a lot of money over time.
Perhaps good old Russell Brunson wouldn't care for me saying that, but it's absolutely true.
Honestly, for the budget minded person out there, then Elementor Pro is a fabulous alternative.
You may not have all of the bells and whistles that having a Click Funnels account has, however… you have everything you need to get started, no question about that.
A few of you out there reading might be thinking something like:
“Yeah, but I wanted to create a Membership site which is a option within Click Funnels that I can do…”
Well guess what?
Since you'll already be using WordPress as your core system with Elementor, you can easily install another plug-in like S2 Member for Free.
Boom! You'll now be able to have a Membership site with each of your created Elementor pages if you wanted.
Yes, it really can be that simple.
Having full control of your own entities is important too. I kind of mentioned this earlier, and it's one of the main reasons many people prefer using WordPress over something like Click Funnels.
There's been many times that I've clicked on a certain page where the owner of the page had designed it using Click Funnels, only to find that the page doesn't come up at all since Click Funnels was currently having some technical issues.
Now I don't know about you, but for me, I'd much rather have control of my own pages than relying on a third party service to fix up the issues if my pages happen to go down. Just saying…
PRO's Of Elementor:
- You can get started for Free. It is impressive on it's own. Of course, the Pro version will be a desired Upgrade to open up it's full potential.
- Elementor has an exceptionally vast array of features for the most discerning of designers.
- The WYSYIWYG Editor allows you to do everything without the need for knowing HTML, CSS, or PHP. Also, it let's you see things in each different type of view including: desktop, mobile, and tablet
- The pricing to upgrade is extremely reasonable for what you're getting.
- There's very detailed settings and control for each element and portion of the pages you're creating.
- Could be used as a replacement for a service like Click Funnels saving you tons of money month after month.
CON's Of Elementor:
- There is a bit of a learning curve. However, this would be true whether using any type of page builder - 3rd party or otherwise
- The margin settings take some getting used to. If you have a section that may have a primary block, a column inside, and then a content element inside of that you might end up slightly confused at first. But you DO get used to it after a few uses.
My Final Verdict Of Elementor:
If you're looking for a great page builder, then Elementor and it's Pro Version are an excellent choice.
I really love the fact that you can upgrade for such a reasonable cost which can really pass savings on to you compared to many of it's competitors.
It's something that I personally use myself (as you've seen on this page), and I have zero hesitation in recommending it to others.
If you're like me (I'm a serious long term business builder), you will want to go straight to the upgraded Pro version.
It's a wise investment, and will quickly pay for itself over and over again.