In this article, we're going to look at Elementor vs WPBakery visual page builders. These WordPress plugins are popular with content creators around the world. We'll be taking a look at both tools to understand the similarities and differences between the two, and help you answer the question of "which is best in 2025"?

Introduction

Have you wondered why WordPress is one of the most popular CMS (content management systems? The ease and accessibility of WordPress make it incredibly popular around the world. With this CMS, you can create beautiful websites/webpages with ease. And best of all, it is available free of cost. 

However, even with its incredible ease of use, it can be cumbersome for a beginner web designer to create a website. Coders and developers spend years learning website designing/development. WordPress boasts dozens of widgets and customization features. But most of these require you to play with custom css & HTML, aka, coding.

This is where page builders come into the picture. With page builders such as Elementor and WPBakery, you can easily create a beautiful wordpress website without writing a single line of code.

There are several page builders for WordPress out there. Finding the right one can be confusing at times. In this post, we will focus on two great page builders- Elementor and WPBakery. By the end of this in-depth review, you will be better equipped to understand who wins in the Elementor vs WPBakery battle.

Elementor vs WPBakery: Overview

Elementor Overview

Did you know that 44% of websites use WordPress, and around 7% of them use Elementor as their page builder?

In recent years, Elementor has grown in popularity, especially with young web designers.

Elementor has made it easy for everyone to create beautiful websites.

When I first tried this page builder, I was blown away by its customization levels.

I started with its free version to understand whether it is worth the hype.

Later, I upgraded to the Elementor Pro to add more features and customization capabilities.

Elementor page builder is available as a WordPress plugin. With this page builder, you can edit the website and see changes in real-time, thanks to its live mode.

A unique feature about Elementor is that it shows you a history of the edits you have made. This is particularly useful if you want to review your edits.

Elementor: The Good and Bad

One of the reasons I love Elementor is its amazing UI (user interface). The depth of customization in Elementor is amazing. WordPress users love Elementor's massive template library of beautiful templates and blocks.

The downside of Elementor (at least for the free version) is that you do not have many choices when it comes to customizing the header on a website. Secondly, this page builder does not offer a white-label option. In other words, “powered by Elementor” stays on your website.

WPBakery Page Builder Overview

If the WPBakery name does not resonate with you, the Visual Composer name might.

This is because WPBakery was previously marketed by the name Visual Composer website builder.

You might be aware (or not) that WPBakery is one of the first WordPress page builders.

With the WPBakery Page Builder plugin, you get access to unique content blocks to design webpages. For clarity, blocks are also known as widgets or modules. In WPBakery, the blocks are referred to as content elements.

The cool thing about these content elements is that you can drag and drop them anywhere on the web page.

You get more than forty content elements in WPBakery. These include text blocks, charts, video players, social media buttons, image carousels, and more. The WPBakery allows you to tweak the front-end using the live site editor.

Another cool thing about WPBakery is that it offers several add-ons. These come in handy if you want to use more content blocks, and customize the website further.

WPBakery: The Good and Bad

I enjoy the wide array of assets in the template library available with WPBakery page builder.

One of the reasons why thousands of designers and developers prefer the WPBakery page builder is due to its high level of customization options.

However, when we have too many choices, confusion is often the byproduct.

The WPBakery page builder is no exception in this regard.

Given its wide range of customization options, it is bound to confuse or overwhelm the average person (especially if you are new to the world of web development).

Another downside of WPBakery is that it does not offer a free version. 

The biggest downside of WPBakery is that it leaves its trail, aka, a pile of shortcodes even after you deactivate the plugin. And finally (and maybe because of the shortcodes), it is slower than some of the other page builders.

WPBakery vs Elementor: User Interface

In most cases, a page builder is not a set and forget kind of a thing. People spend a lot of time using these page builders, even after the website is up and running. Tweaking the website is important for conversions (marketing). 

This is why you should go for a page builder that is easy to navigate and offers you a host of features. Elementor has done a good job with its user interface.

When you open its editor you will see a sidebar on the left with all the elements arranged in a neat fashion. The interface offers drag and drop functionality, so you can easily use elements.

Finding new elements inside the user interface in Elementor is easy. WPBakery, on the other hand, uses a plus icon to help you find elements. This is a little different approach than the one in Elementor. Personally, I prefer Elementor’s approach.

Talking about inline editing functionality, these two web pages builders have a different take.

For instance, Elementor allows you to activate the inline editing functionality to edit the elements.

WPBakery, however, works using a popup in this context. No inline editing here. This could be annoying for some.

An important thing to note here is that with WPBakery, you can change both the frontend and the backend of the website. With Elementor, this is not the case.

This is why I believe that Elementor wins in terms of frontend editing, while WPBakery does a good job in terms of backend editing.

WPBakery vs Elementor: Content Elements

Page builders, without a vast library of elements, make no sense.

You want a tool that offers a wide range of elements using which you can create different web pages to your taste.

However, just the sheer number of elements is not enough in the absence of good functionality.

Both WPBakery and Elementor offer a huge number of elements to create beautiful web pages. For example, the Pro version of Elementor offers more than 50 elements that you can use to design a beautiful website.

And if those are not enough, you can subscribe to Elementor add-ons to add more features. Like Elementor, WPBakery offers over 50 elements as well.

And if you turn towards the add-on community of WPBakery, you will have access to over 200+ elements.

In this regard, WPBakery has a slight edge, simply because it's older.

I recommend trying both these page builders to assess if you need so many elements in the first place.

Elementor vs WPBakery: Styling & Templates

Most websites share basic common features. It is custom styling that gives your website a unique look and feel.

Elementor offers you styling across two tabs - Style and Advanced.

The Style tab allows you to tweak color, alignment, and other basic aspects of the website. With the Advanced tab, you can do much more- padding, margins, borders, and even animations. This tab also lets you integrate custom CSS into specific elements.

WPBakery Page Builder is a bit different in terms of styling. I feel it is more complex. You can certainly add padding, margins, and backgrounds to an element. But if you want to use more styling options, you will have to edit a row or a column.

I find WPBakery to be rather limited in terms of editing basic elements. Other than tweaking the padding, margins, and background, you do not get much.

However, you can always edit a row/column to access more styling options, such as adding responsive design, parallax view, etc.

 I love templates, especially when I do not have much time to design forms from scratch.

Alternatively, you can use a template and tweak it to your liking.

With the Elementor page builder, you get over 100 templates. WPBakery offers around 90 or so.

In terms of template types, Elementor has the upper hand. I enjoy the variety Elementor offers when it comes to templates.

Elementor vs WPBakery: Theme Builder

Headers, footers, archives, and single blog posts are theme-defined content.

These are dependent on the WordPress theme you are currently using.

And most page or theme builders do not allow you to tweak these content types.

Thanks to Elementor, this issue is no longer there.

Elementor has a Theme Builder that lets you customize headers, footers, and other theme-defined content. You have the freedom to either work on these from scratch or use pre-defined ready-made templates.

I find the theme builder interface in Elementor user-friendly. You can easily customize the header section regardless of the WP theme.

This area allows you to tweak your site logo, headers, and more.

Sadly, WPBakery page builder does not offer a theme editor feature.

However, there is a way around this.

You can add the Visual Composer Website Builder plugin to enable the theme editor in WPBakery.

One of the reasons I also like Elementor is that they keep innovating.

Recently, they added a cool feature called “Embed Anywhere.”

With this feature, you can add shortcodes to embed saved templates when using the theme builder.

This allows you to tweak various sections of the website, such as the footer and sidebar.

With Elementor, you also get a Global Widget that gives you full control over a widget put in multiple places on your website. For instance, let’s assume you have edited and designed a Testimonial widget on one page of your site. And you want to have the same element on other pages as well. All you have to do is save that element as a Global Widget and drag that widget wherever you want it on a new page.

The Pro version of Elementor gives you a pop-up builder. 

Popups are CTA (call to action) modal windows that overlay a webpage. The idea behind a popup is to engage the user and have them take a specific action.

With the Elementor popup builder, you can create hello bars, full-screen displays, and more.

It is good to have different roles inside a page builder. Thanks to the Role Manager feature in WPBakery Page Builder, you can control access to different sections of the page builder’s UI.

This is a level up from Elementor’s singular user permissions.

Another unique aspect of WPBakery is its massive add-on library. Please note that the add-ons are a paid feature.

Elementor vs WPBakery: Pricing

Let's talk about elementor vs wpbakery from a pricing perspective.

You can download Elementor’s free version from WordPress plugin library.

The Elementor Pro is a paid version of this page builder with added features.

The Pro plan is available for $49/year for one website, $99/year for 3 sites, and $199/year for 1,000 sites. The $199/year is generally chosen by website design agencies working with several clients.

Unlike Elementor, WPBakery page builder does not offer a free plan.

WPBakery costs a one-time fee of $56/website.

In terms of pricing, Elementor is a better option if you want more than one website.

However, if all you need is a single website, the WPBakery page builder is a good choice.

Conclusion

So, who wins between Elementor vs WPBakery page builder?

I always maintain that your personal preference plays a big role in choosing a product or tool.

In terms of styling and speed of implementation, Elementor is a clear winner.

I have observed WPBakery to be a bit glitchy at times. It is also not as intuitive as Elementor.

Elementor is also a more modern and innovative company.

They release updates and improvements more frequently than WPBakery.

WPBakery offers more elements than Elementor.

One of the biggest issues with using the WPBakery page builder is that it leaves a mess when you deactivate the plugin. The shortcodes are hard to clean, and they make your website slower.

Other than that, both these page builders have great features and reviews.