What is WPBakery Page Builder (Formerly Visual Composer) for WordPress?

WordPress is incredibly easy to use out of the box. Add to that the sheer amount of available themes, kits and plugins, and you can see how almost anyone can create a beautiful website for themselves or their business in a short amount of time.

But, there is one more thing that contributes to the ease of use when it comes to WordPress: various page builder plugins.

Page builders have become popular because they allow even non-coders to quickly design and style their websites exactly the way they want. With a simple drag and drop, you can add columns, text blocks, images, accordions, calls to action, and much more.

Even though there is a number of page builder plugins on the market, one of the most popular is WPBakery Page Builder (formerly Visual Composer).

WPBakery Page Builder is the best-selling plugin on CodeCanyon. Aside from having the standard drag and drop functionality, the latest version of the plugin comes with 60 predefined layouts, allowing you to create beautiful layouts even faster.

In this article, we’ll go through the most important features of the plugin, take a look at some examples of it in use, and share useful resources to help you get the most out of this powerful plugin.

The beauty of WPBakery Page Builder is that it works with any theme. It packs quite a punch when it comes to features, the most notable being the drag and drop functionality.

There are more than 40 content elements that you can add to any page. They are divided into four categories: Content, Social, Structure, and the standard WordPress widgets. You can add columns, rows, text blocks, accordions, Facebook like boxes, image galleries, even raw HTML code.

Each element has its own settings where you can tweak the appearance of that particular element.

You can also use any of their pre-built page templates to speed up your design time. Templates range from About pages to Service and Landing pages.

A neat ability is the skin builder feature which allows you to tweak WPBakery Page Builder design options and elements styling, to integrate them with your brand perfectly.

What makes WPBakery Page Builder stand out is the ability to edit and style the pages on both the backend and the frontend of your site, which means you can see the changes take place instantly.

All of these features are paired with an extensible API which allows you to add new elements to extend the functionality of the plugin even more. On top of that, the plugin also comes with lifetime updates and professional support.

Finally, you can enable the plugin for all the posts and custom post types in the settings area. This gives you even more control over the design of your website and ensures no part looks off-brand.

As we mentioned before, WPBakery Page Builder works with any theme and if you’re a theme developer, you can include the plugin into your theme to give your clients more control over the design and layout of their pages.

Many ThemeForest authors choose to bundle WPBakery Page Builder with their themes to provide anyone the ease of creating an attractive site without having to spend time dealing with code.

One of the best selling themes on the market, X The Theme comes bundled with WPBakery Page Builder. This theme gives new meaning to the word powerhouse when it comes to themes, as there is almost nothing you can’t achieve. Four individual stacks include more than 10 pre-defined layouts each, along with specialized templates and layouts that make this theme suitable for a variety of niches. On top of that, it’s highly customizable and includes integration with WooCommerce, MailChimp, Revolution Slider, and much more.

Along with the WPBakery Page Builder plugin, the Bridge theme comes packed with over 200 demos and numerous shortcodes that give you complete control over the design of your website. You can also choose any of the Google Fonts to style your typography and take advantage of the WooCommerce integration to create a beautiful online store. As if that’s not enough, this theme comes with complete social media integration, SEO optimized code, and smooth transition effects that are sure to take your site to the next level.

If you’re on the lookout for a theme focused on building a community with BuddyPress and bbPress integration, look no further than Kleo. One of the highlights of the theme is WPBakery Page Builder integration, of course, so you can organize your pages exactly the way you want. There is also an option to use various pre-designed layouts to speed up the setup time and customization options to integrate your brand into your site more effectively.

Freelance designers and design agencies can enjoy all the benefits of WPBakery Page Builder thanks to the Kalium theme. This theme puts a high focus on the visual elements with plenty of opportunity to showcase your best work and attract new clients. This theme also includes extensive integration with various font providers, including Google Fonts, Adobe Typekit, and Font Squirrel. The Kalium theme is also compatible with the WPML plugin, so you can translate your website into any language and expand your client base internationally.

Try out the Newspaper theme if you’re interested in building an online magazine. The WPBakery Page Builder integration will give you plenty of customization options for creating the layout of your articles and the social features are certain to give your magazine more exposure on social media. This theme also integrates with BuddyPress and bbPress and includes support for responsive Google AdSense ads.

Even though WPBakery Page Builder is rather straightforward to use, there are always tips and tricks you can learn to take it to the next level. The following articles will help you master the plugin in virtually no time at all:

This tutorial will guide you through the most important features of the plugin and the steps necessary to install and configure it. You’ll also learn about using VC with posts and pages on both the backend and the frontend of your website.

If you’ve toyed with the idea of making your own theme, don’t miss this tutorial which explains how to integrate WPBakery Page Builder in order to give you more control over the design. This guide also covers obtaining the right license and the steps needed to make Visual Composer a part of your theme.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of the plugin, why not add custom content elements to it? Thanks to the API, it’s easy to add your own elements to WPBakery Page Builder and this tutorial walks you through the entire process.

WPBakery Page Builder is a powerful plugin that allows anyone to create an attractive site. But, the plugin itself can also be used by theme developers to speed up their design processes and leave their clients with a theme that’s easy to use.

For more creative inspiration, head over to the Envato Blog to read up on the latest web design trends, tips, interviews and roundups!