Digital marketing is a fast-paced business. Being agile and able to respond quickly and efficiently to market changes or customer needs can have a real impact on the success of your marketing efforts.
WordPress page builders empower marketing teams to create and modify web content without having to rely heavily on a developer. Two standout tools for building your landing pages, campaign pages, and other conversion optimization content on WordPress are Beaver Builder and Elementor.
This article will compare Beaver Builder and Elementor, focusing on key features and functionalities most relevant to marketing teams to help you choose the best tool to support your digital marketing goals.
Page builder tools deliver a great deal of value to marketing teams.
Beaver Builder and Elementor share a number of features that allow for a direct comparison between these WordPress page builders. This section details how each one differs from the other.
The user interface is the most important feature to look at since this is where you will spend most of your time interacting with either page builder. You want to determine how quickly and easily a non-developer can build a page.
Beaver Builder: Offers frontend editing, has a clean interface, feels slightly more traditional, and is known for its stability.
Elementor: Also offers frontend editing, is highly visual, and has a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) set up with extensive drag-and-drop functionality.
Marketers need to be able to quickly launch a campaign and deliver results that are consistent across all the pages. Templates and pre-designed content make this much easier.
Beaver Builder: Provides good selection of templates, but generally has fewer than Elementor, and allows third-party add-ons.
Elementor: Gives you access to a vast library of pre-designed templates (pages, blocks, kits), and also allows third-party add-ons.
Marketers need easy access and a simple way to set up campaign elements, as well as develop lead generation capabilities and generate urgency within their clients’ audience. The plugin’s marketing and conversion features provide the direct means for marketers to practice their craft.
Beaver Builder: Integrates well with dedicated form plugins but has less native pop-up form building options, and it requires Beaver Themer for more dynamic layouts.
Elementor: Provides a pop-up builder, form builder, dynamic content support, specific widgets for calls-to-action, and countdown timers.
Marketing teams need to be able to support automated campaigns and manage seamless data flow to run them. Being able to easily integrate into the marketing team’s tech stack is an important consideration for a page builder.
Beaver Builder and Elementor are fairly equal in their ability to integrate into tech stacks. Both provide extensive integrations with email marketing services (MailChimp, ConvertKit), CRMs (HubSpot), and analytics (Google Analytics).
Search engine optimization (SEO) and the overall user experience are impacted by page load speed. Clean code improves the overall page load. So marketing teams want a page builder that delivers clean, efficient code.
Both Beaver Builder and Elementor create relatively clean code. So page performance is more impacted by other optimizations (hosting provider, image treatment, caching). But they do differ in other ways.
Beaver Builder: Delivers a slightly leaner experience, is potentially faster out of the box, but offers less native features, which means more reliance on other plugins.
Elementor: If not optimized, it can be prone to slower loading times due to more features and code, and it also has an active community for access to optimization tips.
Pricing considerations can’t be ignored. Depending on the budget available, one of these page builders may more appropriately fit your needs.
Beaver Builder: No free version is offered, but a free Lite version is accessible for basic use. Different tiers (Unlimited, Professional, Plus, Starter) are available with an annual subscription.
Elementor: A free version (Basic) is offered. The Pro version offers tiered licenses (Essential, Advanced Solo, Advanced, Expert) with a monthly subscription.
Stepping back for a more holistic view, here’s a rundown of each WordPress page builder’s advantages and drawbacks.
Beaver Builder Pros: Known for its stability and clean code, ideal for consistent, structured sites, and offers a lighter experience.
Beaver Builder Cons: Offers fewer native marketing features, a smaller template library, and can feel less intuitive for pure visual editors.
Elementor Pros: Provides extensive features out-of-the-box, a vast template library, intuitive visual editing, and access to a strong community.
Elementor Cons: Can be resource-intensive if not properly optimized, and has a steeper learning curve for advanced features.
Beaver Builder: Your team values rock-solid stability, cleaner code, a slightly more structured approach, and is comfortable integrating with other specialized marketing plugins (for forms and pop-ups).
Elementor: Your marketing team prioritizes rapid prototyping, vast design options, a built-in pop-up/form builder, and wants to do a lot natively within the page builder.
If you’re looking for a WordPress page builder that provides a lighter experience, delivers clean code, and makes it easy to develop consistent, structured sites, Beaver Builder might be the better fit for you.
If you are more design-minded, want access to more features out-of-the-box, and are looking to support more advanced page details, Elementor might be the better option for you.
Remember that “better” is relative and unique to each marketing team’s specific workflow, technical comfort level, budget, and desired feature set.
Have a clear idea of what your needs are and see how they align with the strengths of Beaver Builder and Elementor to empower your team and their content and conversion strategies.
Pressable supports WordPress page builder plugins, including Beaver Builder and Elementor. We provide a hosting foundation that delivers industry-leading speed, security, and reliability. Your site’s page loads are optimized to deliver an efficient and consistent experience to your client’s visitors. We give you the technical confidence you need to focus your attention on managing the other elements of your marketing team’s digital marketing campaigns on behalf of your clients.
Pressable—part of the Automattic family that also includes WordPress.com, WordPress VIP, and WooCommerce—is staffed by WordPress experts with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage your WordPress site. If you’re thinking about switching to managed WordPress hosting, schedule a demo to see how Pressable can support your continued optimization and growth.
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