WPBakery Page Builder is among the most installed plugin for Worpdress and certainly the most used page builder for WordPress websites on the market to date. According to their own data, over +4,300,000 are already using WPBakery Page Builder. But how good is the plugin or the page builder really and is the hype justified?
We have used WPBakery Page Builder for years and tested it intensively. Here is a comprehensive and objective report on all the pros, cons and alternative recommendations.
Functions / Features / Performance
Since WPBakery Page Builder has been on the market for so long, there are a lot of functions and features that you get by purchasing it. By the way, these are available for any website. Any WordPress theme can be combined with WPBakery page builder. Compared to other page builders, this is not so.
Front & Backend Builder
One of the main advantages of WPBakery Page Builder is the front-end & back-end builder. You can edit both in the front end (visible part of the website) and in the background. This can be quite practical. Following the “wysiwyg” (what you see is what you get) principle, you can easily import, move and edit elements. There are also numerous templates which you can create yourself. The complete operation is purely visual and you do not need any programming knowledge or the use of HTML and CSS. However, if you want to do this, you have the option.
Elements & Addons
To make designing the website easy, WPBakery Page Builder currently offers over +50 elements and +250 addons which you can import or insert directly with a mouse click. These pre-built elements help to simplify the whole design process and should replace a large part of the coding (ideally completely – this is also the purpose of a page builder).
The elements are well chosen and the offer definitely contains the most important features to create a modern website.
Template Library
There is also an own template library where you can choose from numerous page templates and sections and import them with a mouse click. This speeds up the whole process enormously, but is already standard in good page builders. Still, the selection is good and a plus for WPBakery Page Builder.
Price / Cost
WPBakery Page Builder’s pricing model couldn’t be simpler. For years there are two packages that you can buy. The Regular for $45 and the Extended version for $245. You get the same product, the Extended version is intended only for SaaS applications. Interestingly, there is no annual billing or ongoing payments. You pay once, get the full version and have lifetime support.
Support
WPBakery Page Builder customer support is available in English and from Monday to Saturday. There is no live support via chat or phone. All you can do is write emails and hope that they will be answered as soon as possible. Usually this happens within a day with relatively satisfactory response.
However, this should not be compared to other page builders that you have to pay monthly or annually. These usually have better and faster support. You get what you pay for, especially in the SaaS area.
Disadvantages
However, WPBakery Page Builder also comes with some disadvantages. Especially when you compare the application with other providers, you notice the difference quite clearly. In any case, you should be aware of this before buying. Here is a brief overview of crucial disadvantages.
Shortcodes
One of the first disadvantages which any developer will immediately notice is that WPBakery Page Builder creates shortcodes. Below is a screenshot which shows these shortcodes with brackets very clearly. This is a problem in that it slows down the page and unnecessarily bloats the source code. Also, you can’t easily export the page and import it to other themes unless you use the WPBakery page builder again.
Operation
The operation of WPBakery Page Builder is not very intuitive and simple compared to other builders. It takes some getting used to. Even if you have been working with it for a while, you will notice that the workflow is slower in comparison. There is no direct right-click function to edit and often there are lags.
If you build many websites as a freelancer or agency this is a big disadvantage that can cost a lot of time and nerves.
Speed
Page builders generally tend to slow down the page a bit especially when compared to directly written HTML5 pages. The WPBakery page builder is definitely one of the slower builders. Page Speed is among the most important conversion & SEO factors in 2021 and ongoing. Of course, the speed issue is due to many factors, but the theme and the installed page builder play a big role.
Functionality
WPBakery Page Builder is still one of the cheapest builders on the market, but you have to make sacrifices in terms of functionality. The creative freedom is severely limited, especially compared to Divi and Elementor. The free positioning as well as animations of certain elements are missing. This takes away any individuality and also the fun of working when you are severely restricted.
In addition, there are no direct integrations with Mailchimp, GetResponse, Klaviyo, etc., which we believe is essential in online marketing.
Experience
We built all our first websites with WPBakery Page Builder. In the meantime, however, we switched to Divi and Elementor a few years ago. You can create simple websites with WPBakery Page Builder, but if you have more professional needs, you should definitely switch. We had these and now we almost only use Elementor Pro. Divi is another page builder which is a much better alternative to WPBakery Page Builder and falls slightly cheaper than Elementor.
However, as an agency, we have the full Elementor Pro package with numerous extensions such as the Envato library and are confident that there is still more to come from both vendors in the future.
Alternative
Currently there are some
WordPress Page Builder
alternatives on the market which are probably better than WPBakery Page Builder. Even though this has been on the market the longest, the least has happened in recent years. Other providers put much more work into the development of page builders and the results are impressive. You can expect a lot from these providers in the future, too, when you see how much has happened in the last few months alone.
Here is an overview of the alternatives to WPBakery Page Builder and best page builder for WordPress on the market.
Divi
Another very popular page builder currently on the market is
Divi
. Similar to Elementor, Divi convinces with an enormously high flexibility and creative freedom while being easy to use. There are a lot of pre-made elements, pages and whole themes. Divi is a versatile page builder with which you can easily implement a wide variety of web projects. Compared to Elementor Pro, there is also a lifetime license.
The builder is also free of shortcodes, lightly coded and very performant both in operation and for the final website based on it.
Elementor Pro
The best page builder on the market today is definitely
Elementor Pro
. Even if you shouldn’t say that as a general rule, in practice it has been shown that Elementor is the best for almost every web project. The enormous functionality as well as design possibilities combined with the ease of use make Elementor Pro unbeatable. If you look at the development of Elementor Pro over the last 12 months, it becomes clear how much development work is currently taking place and will continue in the future.
With Elementor Pro and the easily integrated Envato library, it is possible to create and customize completely professional websites within a few hours. At the beginning, however, it takes a few hours or even days to understand the full functionality of Elementor Pro. Currently the #1 on the market without a doubt.
Especially in combination with the
Astra Theme
you get a very comprehensive WordPress solution.
Summary
The bottom line is that WPBakery Page is currently still the most used page builder on the market. This is probably because it is also the oldest and best-known provider. However, if you learn a bit about page builder, you’ll quickly realize that alternatives like Divi and Elementor are worlds better.
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