Looking to easily build and customize your WordPress website? As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience, I highly recommend using a drag-and-drop page builder plugin. These tools allow you to create, edit and customize your website layout without writing any code.
In this in-depth guide, I‘ll compare the top 6 drag-and-drop page builders for WordPress based on ease of use, flexibility, features, and design capabilities. I‘ve used all of these plugins extensively, so I can provide expert advice to help you choose the right solution.
Contents
- Why Use a Drag and Drop Page Builder for WordPress?
- 1. SeedProd – Best Overall
- 2. Thrive Architect – Most Intuitive
- 3. Beaver Builder – Most Beginner Friendly
- 4. Divi – Best Value
- 5. Elementor Pro – Most Popular
- 6. Visual Composer – Best for Advanced Users
- Which Is the Best WordPress Page Builder for You?
- Do You Still Need a Page Builder with WordPress Gutenberg?
Why Use a Drag and Drop Page Builder for WordPress?
For beginners starting a blog, customizing WordPress page layouts can be tricky. While premium themes offer different layouts, most are hard to customize without HTML/CSS skills.
This is why I often get questions like:
- "How can I make WordPress drag and drop?"
- "Is there an easy drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress?"
Users switching from Weebly or Wix to WordPress often wish it had a drag-and-drop website builder.
The good news is there are several excellent drag-and-drop page builder plugins for WordPress. These tools allow you to create completely custom website designs without writing any code.
With over 5 million active installs, page builders are some of the most popular plugins available. And with good reason – they can save you tons of time and effort in designing your website.
Since there are so many options, I‘ve taken the time to thoroughly test and compare the top page builders so you can find the right solution.
My criteria for ranking them are ease of use, flexibility, features, and design capabilities. Let‘s dive in and explore the best drag-and-drop page builders for WordPress.
1. SeedProd – Best Overall
SeedProd is my top choice for a premium WordPress theme and page builder plugin. Unlike others, it lets you create completely custom WordPress themes from scratch without writing any code.
You can choose from over 500 beautiful pre-made templates, or build a fully custom website with the easy drag-and-drop visual builder.
It offers 150+ website kits and templates for landing pages, sales pages, webinar registration, coming soon pages, maintenance mode, 404 pages, eCommerce product layouts, and more.
Every template detail can be customized using the front-end visual editor. Simply click to edit, move or delete any element on the page.
You can also quickly add pre-made conversion elements like call-to-action buttons, testimonials, countdown timers, and more to your pages.
One of my favorite parts of SeedProd is the speed. It‘s built to ensure your pages load as fast as possible, helping improve your SEO rankings.
It has a smart design system to save time by re-using elements instead of repetitive work. You can define color schemes, save font combinations, reusable sections, page templates, and custom blocks.
SeedProd has all the expected blocks and features like opt-in forms, social profiles, countdowns, contact forms, buttons, content blocks, and more.
Many of these blocks even have pre-made templates to speed up design by adapting pre-built block layouts with one click.
The custom domain mapping feature can create micro-sites within WordPress. I often use this to manage multiple client landing pages from a single WordPress site.
SeedProd works seamlessly with all popular WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce. It even has custom WooCommerce blocks so you can customize checkout, cart, product pages, and more.
| SeedProd | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $39.50 per year for one site. There‘s also a free version with limited features.
My Rating: A++
Why I Love It: SeedProd is hands down the fastest page builder and WordPress theme I‘ve used. It‘s also very affordable compared to rivals. The massive library of templates and powerful blocks saves me tremendous time in designing websites. I highly recommend SeedProd for any WordPress user.
2. Thrive Architect – Most Intuitive
Thrive Architect is a powerful, fast and easy page builder plugin for WordPress. It lets you create beautiful pages, layouts and content without touching code.
The plugin includes over 350 pre-designed conversion-focused templates for homepages, sales pages, webinars, lead gen pages, application forms, and more.
Every template detail can be customized using the front-end visual editor. Easily edit, move or delete any element by clicking on the page.
You can quickly add high-converting elements like call-to-action buttons, testimonials, scarcity timers, guarantees, and more to your pages.
One of my favorite features is the ability to create custom blog post layouts. You can add stylized elements like highlight boxes, styled lists, opt-in forms, and click-to-tweet boxes to boost engagement.
Thrive Architect also provides other helpful design elements like flexible column layouts, hover effects, dynamic text sizing, and total font control.
You can connect it with Thrive Optimize to A/B test your pages and find the highest converting version.
| Thrive Architect | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $99 per year standalone. Get the full Thrive Suite with the Thrive Theme Builder starting at $299 per year.
My Rating: A+
Why I Love It: Thrive Architect is incredibly intuitive even for beginners. The massive template library and fast front-end editor make it simple to create custom WordPress pages and layouts quickly.
3. Beaver Builder – Most Beginner Friendly
Beaver Builder is a popular drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress.
The interface is easy to learn, even for total beginners. It has a built-in onboarding tour that will help you familiarize yourself with the editor.
Beaver Builder features a live drag-and-drop editor where you can see changes rendered in real-time. Simply drag page elements from the sidebar and drop them onto your page. Click on any element to edit its properties.
It comes with a wide array of content modules that let you add just about anything you may want. This includes sliders, carousels, background overlays, call-to-action buttons, pricing tables, and more.
Beaver Builder also provides over 30 professionally designed templates for landing pages, about pages, services layouts, and more. These make it fast and simple to create beautiful pages.
We‘ve published a detailed tutorial showing how to create custom WordPress layouts with Beaver Builder if you want to learn more.
And yes, Beaver Builder is fully compatible with the latest WordPress 6.1 version. It also works great with the new WordPress block editor Gutenberg.
| Beaver Builder | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $99 per year for use on unlimited sites.
My Rating: A+
Why I Love It: Beaver Builder is one of the most beginner friendly page builder plugins available. The interface is intuitive and easy to learn. Many web professionals use it to create sites for clients thanks to the beautiful templates and flexible editing options.
4. Divi – Best Value
Divi is a professional drag-and-drop theme and page builder plugin created by Elegant Themes. It‘s extremely easy to use and comes with hundreds of layout packs for different types of websites.
Like Beaver Builder and SeedProd, Divi offers true visual editing with live page building and drag-and-drop functionality.
You can directly click on your page and start editing in real-time with a live preview of changes. There‘s no need to constantly save drafts and preview your work.
Divi comes with over 50 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere on your layout. It provides multiple row types and section types to arrange these modules, with full customization for each element.
In my experience, you can create virtually any type of custom page layout within minutes using Divi. You can then save and easily reuse these Divi layouts in the future. Layouts can also be exported from one Divi site and imported into another.
The Divi Builder works seamlessly with any WordPress theme. This lets you switch themes without losing the custom layouts created with Divi.
For one low price, you get the Divi theme, the Divi Builder plugin, and access to all other Elegant Themes products like Extra and Bloom. You can either use the Divi theme or just install the Divi Builder on other themes.
| Divi | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $89 per year. Lifetime access is available for $249 one-time.
My Rating: A
Why I Love It: Divi offers endless customization possibilities at a great price. It‘s easy to use and fast to create professional designs. The lifetime plan makes this one of the best deals on the market in my opinion.
5. Elementor Pro – Most Popular
Elementor Pro is a very popular drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. It‘s a live page builder so you see changes as you edit them in real-time.
The workflow starts by creating a section, then selecting the number of columns you want for that section. Next you drag and drop widgets from the left panel into your column.
Elementor comes packed with a massive library of widgets. This covers all the most commonly used website elements. You get everything from basic image and text widgets to advanced elements like accordions, carousels, sliders, testimonials, icons, social media feeds, tabs, and more.
Each widget works independently and has its own customization settings. You can even add widgets created by 3rd party developers to extend functionality.
Don‘t want to build a layout from scratch? Elementor offers hundreds of pre-made page templates that you can insert anywhere. Just point and click to edit anything on the template to fit your needs.
| Elementor Pro | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $49 per year for use on a single site.
My Rating: A
Why I Love It: Elementor is easy to use and has a huge library of widgets and templates. There‘s also a large ecosystem of 3rd party extensions and integrations available. It‘s undoubtedly one of the most popular page builders for WordPress. The main downsides are slower page speeds compared to competitors.
6. Visual Composer – Best for Advanced Users
Visual Composer is a powerful drag-and-drop website builder for WordPress.
It comes with a front-end editor for designing directly on your live site. There are tons of content elements, professional templates, and advanced features for full website customization.
Similar to other top options, Visual Composer offers real-time design with drag-and-drop functionality.
One advantage over basic page builders is the ability to edit all aspects of your site including headers, footers, sidebars, menus, and global layout. This makes Visual Composer more of a true website builder rather than just a page builder.
The plugin has robust design options to customize any element‘s appearance. You can easily add animated backgrounds, parallax effects, gradient overlays, slideshows, video backgrounds, and more.
It also comes with a responsive grid system with flexible rows and columns for creating desktop and mobile layouts.
In my testing, Visual Composer worked very well with all the WordPress themes I tried it on. You can switch themes without losing customizations made with the builder.
| Visual Composer | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Features | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Speed | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Pricing: Starts at $49 per year for use on a single site.
My Rating: A-
Why I Love It: Visual Composer is a great choice for users with some WordPress experience. It simplifies full website building with a real-time editor. My only gripe is the interface feels slightly overwhelming and unintuitive for complete beginners. But overall it‘s a very powerful plugin.
Which Is the Best WordPress Page Builder for You?
After comparing the top options, a few favorites stand out:
- SeedProd – Best overall page builder plugin for WordPress. Fast, affordable, tons of templates.
- Thrive Architect – Most intuitive for beginners to start with. Easy to create designs.
- Beaver Builder – Best for simplicity and ease of use. Very beginner friendly.
- Divi – Best value option. Tons of features at a great price.
Elementor and Visual Composer are also excellent drag-and-drop page builders for WordPress.
My advice is to invest a little money into a premium plugin for the best experience. You won‘t regret it.
These professional tools will save you a ton of time and frustration in building your WordPress site.
Do You Still Need a Page Builder with WordPress Gutenberg?
The new WordPress block editor Gutenberg was recently launched as the default editor. It uses blocks to create content similarly to some page builders.
This leads many users to ask:
- Is Gutenberg a page builder replacement?
- Do I still need a page builder plugin if using Gutenberg?
The short answer is yes, you definitely want a dedicated page builder plugin if you want maximum design flexibility and control when building your WordPress website.
While Gutenberg is a big improvement over the classic WordPress editor, it lacks many of the powerful features and design capabilities a true page builder plugin provides.
In my experience, plugins like SeedProd, Thrive Architect, and Beaver Builder are far superior when it comes to drag-and-drop flexibility and building custom site designs.
You can use a plugin like CSS Hero along with Gutenberg to add some additional styling options. But for full custom layouts, you‘ll want a dedicated page builder.
I hope this detailed comparison helped you find the ideal drag-and-drop WordPress page builder plugin for your needs! Let me know if you have any other questions.
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