How to Choose a Page Builder for your Website Project

You no longer have to be a coder or web designer to create a website – there are lots of platforms out there that make building your website simple. Each one is suited to different strategies, budgets and levels of skills and experience. There are basic, hosting-powered website builders, static website generators, while Startup, for example, is a traditional bootstrap builder. Or you could choose a professional CMS theme from ThemeForest.

However, currently the most popular web development platforms are WordPress page builders. That’s because page builders allow you to launch a website quickly and easily. Creating a new suite of landing pages for marketing campaigns, for example, can take just days to launch, rather than weeks. WordPress page builders are versatile and powerful, and can be used by businesses of all sizes to achieve their marketing goals. 

The biggest advantage of using page builders is the freedom to create whatever you want – whether that’s a stunning homepage to impress first-time visitors, a persuasive portfolio to demonstrate skills and expertise, a product section to showcase what you sell, or a landing page to drive conversions. 

Page builders work like this: choose what you’d like to use from a library of pre-made page elements, drop them in, then arrange and rearrange them as you wish. It’s as easy as that!

Unlike other solutions, page builders can be entirely flexible to fit your workflow; there’s no commitment to a single theme, plugin or development. And there are other benefits, too:  

You don’t need professional design skills to create pages that look beautiful. Pre-made elements are updated regularly, so you can always stay up to date with the latest web design trends, helping to keep your brand’s visuals looking current and fresh. And you won’t need external support, either; page builders are designed to be intuitive and easy to use, so you can do the whole thing yourself – without the costs of a professional developer or agency.

Website page builders aren’t a major investment; they’re available with pricing suitable for budgets of all sizes. Some of them come with free plans, and others, like Static.app, offer reliable hosting services at bargain prices. For just $9 per month, you can get trustworthy hosting, a free domain name and sub-domains, 24/7 customer support, free HTTPS, unlimited data, and some other perks.

When working with a freelancer or an agency, creating a website from scratch can take up to six months. Keeping the whole thing in-house, though, means you’re in complete control of the timings; you can create a basic, functional page in just a few hours.

You can use existing templates to shape your idea within minutes. Testing your campaigns with pre-made layouts and themes can give you a huge advantage.

All websites need ongoing updates to make sure they’re still fit for purpose. Page builders do all the hard work for you. 

Page builders aren’t always perfect. Here are a couple of the issues you might run into, and how to deal with them: 

WordPress sites are known to load slower than other sites, and using a page builder can compound the problem. So, it’s essential to use website optimization plug-ins, which speed things up by minimizing the work a browser needs to do to display the page.

Support for Schema and advanced structured data is poor or non-existent. Again, the way out is to use SEO plugins.

Although page builders do offer lots of flexibility, you have to use components from libraries which typically provide only the most popular items, solutions, features, and customization options. So it can sometimes be difficult to stand out from the crowd. In those circumstances, you can still hire a developer or designer, or use shortcodes and third-party plugins if the page builder supports them.

Like free Bootstrap builders that offer different solutions for business owners to generate a bootstrap theme or create a full website, WordPress page builders come in all shapes and sizes. A good page builder should have the following: 

Most well-established WordPress page builders meet these criteria as a rule, though they may differ in contents and customization options. So, how to choose the best page builder for your website? Follow this 8-step process.

Do you need a page builder to create landing pages to A/B test marketing campaigns, or do you need a page builder with WooCommerce features to sell your products?

How advanced does your website need to be to meet the expectations of your prospects? Should it have carousels with adorable transition effects and extravagant details, or should it win over clients with a serious atmosphere, neutral design, and banal yet comprehensible functionality?

Do you have the skills to create your own code and design, or do you need one of those ready themes to get down to business?

Are you up to fast deployment, or are you willing to wait until you get a satisfactory result by mixing and matching blocks and playing with customization options?

It is crucial to assess the final price of the product. Note, some builders may charge an extra fee for additional functionality like WooCommerce or pro widgets.  

Look into reviews, testimonials, ratings, and the reputation of the company.

Compare and contrast their features, custom support, native integration with third-party plugins and WordPress themes, maintenance, and price. 

What are you waiting for? Get that website up and going!  

Here are some of the most popular website page builders out there.

Elementor is ultra-flexible, intuitive, and easy to use. It removes every obstacle between the user and building a content offering where business owners can let their imagination run wild.

Elementor comes with numerous valuable features, such as:

It also offers a flexible pricing plan with 5 different options, so there’s a solution for budgets of all sizes.

Find website templates compatible with Elementor on ThemeForest.

Created by Elegant themes, whose team knows a thing or two about WordPress themes and plugins, this powerful page builder has one of the highest Trustpilot ratings for a page builder, with more than 17,000 reviews. That certainly inspires confidence in the product.

The great thing about Divi is that it’s capable, so there’s no limits on what you can create, but it’s also user-friendly, so even a complete beginner can create something beautiful. 

It comes with features like: 

As for pricing, Divi comes as a part of a bundle that includes numerous perks like hundreds of website packs and WordPress themes. Therefore, it is not the cheapest;  yearly access costs $89. Lifetime access costs $249, while both packages come with a free 30-day trial period.

Blocksy is an excellent choice for users who need the simplest – but still powerful – solution, so they can get started straight away. It is a supercharged WordPress theme that comes with such features as:

Blocksy offers a free version so you can try it out, which has enough functionality to complete smaller projects. For larger ones, you can choose from three affordable pricing plans. 

With an A+ rating from all its customers, Siter is one of the most recommended brand-new online design tools for several reasons. First, it’s entirely cloud-based, meaning easy access to the project for all users regardless of location – well suited for team projects. Secondly, it’s the most intuitive of the page builders out there; it’s designed with user experience in mind first and foremost. And thirdly, it comes with unmatched customer support – the team is always on hand to help you with whatever you need. 

It comes with features including:

The pricing is transparent and, most importantly, pocket-friendly: just $9 per month. This includes hosting, domain, unlimited pages and projects, and transfer ownership.

While Divi boasts more than 767,000 satisfied customers on board, WPBakery has made a staggering 4,300,000 users happy. It’s the most popular WordPress-powered page builder. It is also one of the most affordable solutions out there. Pricing starts at $45 for a single site with free updates and premium support, including a full refund within 15 days for any reason.

WPBakery offers such features as:

The most significant advantage of WPBakery is that it works with every theme you have, whether it comes from a free section in the WordPress directory or a seller from Themeforest.

Visual Composer is one of the oldest players in this arena. It has come a long way since its inception; it now offers an intuitive, flexible, user-friendly environment with many features and API for developers to spice things up. 

Visual Composer hits all the essentials, including

The great thing about Visual Composer is that it has a free version that comprises 30 elements and 10 templates that can be enough for small-scale projects. However, if you want to unlock its full potential, you need to pay a reasonable $49 a year.

Created by none other than Matt Mullenweg, a founder of WordPress, Gutenberg is a perfect solution for all those on a shoestring budget. Although it is not as powerful as premium page composers are, it still comes with basic functionality that is enough to give a business a solid start. 

Among its main features are:

Much like WordPress, Gutenberg already has a vast community of loyal fans and professional developers who are eager to share their experiences, findings, and solutions.

A website is the foundation of any modern business: it builds your brand, drives customer or user engagement, generates traffic, increases conversions, and grows your bottom line. 

But it’s not easy for those without design or coding skills. Luckily, there’s a huge choice of solutions out there: one-click solutions, online design tools, and WordPress page builders that help businesses of all shapes and sizes to achieve their marketing goals.

To choose the best page builder for your own strategy, you need to do your homework: follow our guide, compare which tools have the functionality you need, and try several options to see which one best suits your needs.

Andrian Valeanu is the founder of Designmodo, which together with his team develop online projects for internet professionals. If you have any questions regarding this article you can contact him on Twitter or LinkedIn.