It’s time to pick the best WordPress landing page builder for your next project in 2024, and we’re here to guide you through that decision with a thorough comparison between two popular options: Elementor and Beaver Builder.
A lot has changed since these two builders were released many years ago, and they’ve fought to keep up with the ever-changing world of web design & development. In some areas, they’ve been successful, while in others they have fallen a bit short.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly what you need to know about Elementor vs Beaver Builder so you can choose the best WordPress landing page builder for your next project.
Here’s a quick preview of our findings on both Elementor and Beaver Builder:
| Features | Elementor | Beaver Builder |
| UI and UX | Modern, user friendly. | Dated, slightly more complex. |
| Speed and Performance | 80 | 86 |
| Pre-Built Templates | 300+ | 170+ |
| Widgets And Modules | 113 | 39 |
| Theme Building | Comprehensive, included. | Limited, requires paid add-on (Beaver Themer.) |
| Pricing And Plans | $59 - $399 per year. Limited sites. | $99 - $546 per year. Unlimited sites. |
Let’s dive in and figure out which of these is the best WordPress landing page builder for you.
Basic Introductions to Elementor and Beaver Builder
Before we start the detailed comparison of Elementor vs Beaver Builder in terms of which one is the best landing page builder, it’s important to know a bit more about our contenders in general.
Let’s take a quick, high-level look at both Elementor and Beaver Builder so that we have a better understanding of what kind of tools they are, who they’re for, and where their strengths lie.
Elementor Overview
Elementor is a visual site builder aimed at the masses. Since its launch in 2016, it has tried to position itself as the go-to builder for DIYers, business owners, and designers.
With a streamlined UI and plenty of built-in elements, as well as a healthy number of pre-built templates, it’s a sound choice if you’re looking to build WordPress landing pages in 2024.
Like any tool, Elementor has its strengths and weaknesses. With ease of use comes limited flexibility, and some more advanced features (like Advanced Custom Fields Repeater compatibility and PHP code) are out of reach entirely without paid add-ons.
Beaver Builder Overview
Beaver Builder is a visual site builder that’s often used by businesses and some agencies, though having launched in 2014, its foothold in the market is not quite as strong as some other competitors.
Often touted as a stable, safe choice, Beaver Builder tends to be more sparse in its features and options. Its UI resembles Divi, with inline buttons and floating panels.
When it comes to Beaver Builder, it’s a much more slowly moving product than most other page builders on the market today. While it will work fine for building basic landing pages, you shouldn’t come to Beaver Builder looking for all the latest bells and whistles.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Hands-On with the Visual Builders
Now that we know the products we’re dealing with, let’s dive in with a hands on comparison to start determining which of these visual site builders is the best WordPress landing page builder.
Elementor Builder Interface
Elementor’s interface resembles most modern tools, with a fixed sidebar that contains most of the controls you’ll need to add and edit widgets (Elementor’s term for elements) in your designs.
In the left side panel, you’ll find a button that exposes a searchable widget list. From here, you can click and drag any widget you want into your design.
Once you’ve selected a widget, the left side panel shows the controls for that widget instead. These controls are segmented into three tabs. In the Content tab, you can edit things like the content for your text widgets and some other settings. In the Style tab, you’ll find controls for visual aspects of the widget such as typography and colors. Finally, in the Advanced tab, you’ll be able to tweak the widget’s layout, add motion effects, masks, adjust borders, and much more.
Elementor also has a floating tree-view panel called the Navigator, which gives you an easy overview of the structure of your landing page.
Beaver Builder Interface
Beaver Builder’s interface is much more dated, resembling Divi builder’s interface quite strongly. Instead of a fixed sidebar, Beaver Builder features a number of floating panels that are shown and hidden based on what you have selected.
To edit a module (Beaver Builder’s term for elements), you’ll need to hover over the module, revealing a toolbar. The toolbar allows you to duplicate, edit, and move the module.
Once you’ve chosen to edit a module, a floating panel appears with all of the controls you’ll need for tweaking the module’s settings. Note that this floating panel can be docked on the left or right side of the screen if you want. The controls are divided into three tabs. In the General tab, you’ll find content-focused controls, such as a text editor for text elements. In the Style tab you’ll find visual styling controls for things like colors and typography. In the Advanced tab is where you’ll find controls for margins, breakpoint-based visibility, conditional logic (if you have Beaver Themer), and more.
Like Elementor, Beaver Builder also has a tree view that can be opened by clicking a button on the top bar. This tree view gives you a clear overview of the page’s structure at a glance, and allows you to drag and drop to rearrange your modules.
Overall, Elementor’s interface is more inline with modern tools, giving you a more familiar experience overall. While Beaver Builder’s interface does the job, it is dated and less intuitive.
Winner: Elementor 🏅.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Speed and Performance
If you’re looking for the best WordPress landing page builder, it has to be fast.
Slow loading pages can impact everything from conversions, to bounce rate, to overall SEO health. And let’s face it, a landing page that doesn’t convert isn’t much of a landing page at all.
That’s why it’s critical to evaluate your landing page builder not only based on visual design tools and capabilities, but also on the performance of the pages it generates.
We put Elementor vs Beaver Builder head to head on some performance tests to see which one comes out ahead. Here are the baseline results from a blank page before we added any elements to it. Note that the tests were performed using Pingdom and Google Page Speed Insights on InstaWP.
| Page Builders | Page Size | Requests | Desktop | Mobile |
| Elementor | 530.5 KB | 14 | 89 | 87 |
| Beaver Builder | 576.7 KB | 18 | 86 | 100 |
With a baseline established, it’s time to put some elements on the page and see how the performance is impacted. Let’s take a look.
Elementor Speed and Performance
For this test, we added a few basic elements to the page and then re-ran our performance tests. The elements we added were:
- Heading
- Text
- Button
- Image
- A couple of Image boxes
And here are the Elementor performance results after adding those elements:
| Performance Results | Page Size | Requests | Desktop | Mobile |
| Elementor | 828.1 KB | 32 | 80 | 91 |
As you can see, the page size increased significantly, and the number of requests doubled. This does not bode well for Elementor’s performance on any sizable site or complex landing page. If just a few basic elements cause the page size to increase this amount, what will happen if you build a long one-page site or a multi-page blog?
Beaver Builder Speed and Performance
To keep things fair, we added the exact same elements to the Beaver Builder page. Note that though Beaver Builder doesn’t have a built-in Image Box module, we constructed one out of a basic container, image, and text elements to match the structure of the Image Box in Elementor. Here’s what we added:
- Heading
- Text
- Button
- Image
- A couple of Image boxes
Next, let’s take a look at the Beaver Builder performance results after adding a few basic elements:
| Performance Results | Page Size | Requests | Desktop | Mobile |
| Beaver Builder | 652.0 KB | 19 | 86 | 97 |
The results are quite impressive on Beaver Builder’s part, with basically no increase in requests and only a slight increase in page size, which can be mostly attributed to the image. Similarly, we see no significant drop in Desktop or Mobile performance.
Overall, it appears that Beaver Builder is likely to build more performant WordPress landing pages than Elementor.
Winner: Beaver Builder 🏅.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Pre-Built Templates
When it comes to building WordPress landing pages, having a healthy selection of pre-made templates can speed things up significantly.
This is especially important if you’re spinning up lots of unique landing pages for different businesses, services, or products.
By having a large amount of pre-built templates to choose from, you save yourself hours of design work and instead just have to tweak a few settings to make sure the template is customized to your liking.
Let’s take a look at how Elementor and Beaver Builder stack up when it comes to pre-built templates.
Elementor Template Library
Elementor takes a solid swing at best WordPress landing page builder when it comes to pre-built templates. With 40 block templates and around 30 full-page templates at last count (August 2024) in the free version alone, it has a decent library to choose from.
The main category of templates you’ll be interested in if you’re building landing pages is the “complete page template” category. This group includes full page templates that can be imported on a per-page basis, allowing you to create bespoke landing page designs much more quickly.
If you need something more custom, you build your landing page by mixing and matching Elementor’s block templates.
By purchasing Elementor Pro, you get access to a huge number of additional templates. This includes 35 template kits that target a number of niches, as well as bringing the full-page template count up to over 300. There are also additional block/section templates available in the Pro version.
Beaver Builder Template Library
With over 170 responsive page templates, Beaver Builder also packs a punch in the area of pre-built templates. It doesn’t have full-site kits like Elementor, though that doesn’t matter much for individual landing pages.
With a heavy focus on landing page templates and “micro page” templates, Beaver Builder offers some more focused options that serve the needs of those looking for the best WordPress landing page builder.
In the landing page and micro page categories you’ll find conversion-focused designs that are perfect for building one-off landing pages for side projects, clients, and more.
There are around 27 landing page templates and 7 micro page templates in Beaver Builder at last count (August 2024.)
In this particular showdown, both builders stack up about the same. Elementor may have a slight edge on pure volume, but Beaver Builder’s focus on landing page specific designs makes it a strong contender.
Winner: Tie.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Widgets and Modules
To build the best WordPress landing page, you need a builder with plenty of elements.
Both Elementor and Beaver Builder have a healthy number of elements (called widgets and modules, respectively), but let's take a look at which one offers the most comprehensive package in this regard.
Elementor Widgets
We went ahead and counted how many widgets Elementor ships with, and it came out to around 113. 52 of these widgets require the Pro version in order to be unlocked, but are only required if you’re building more advanced pages.
With four categories of widgets (Basic Widgets, Pro Widgets, Theme Builder Widgets, and WooCommerce Widgets), Elementor covers most of the bases you’ll need to build effective landing pages.
It’s also important to note that Elementor has a healthy third-party add-on ecosystem, meaning you can gain access to a wide array of additional widgets if you’re willing to pay extra.
Beaver Builder modules
Beaver Builder’s module count is more humble, with only 39 available in core Beaver Builder.
There are seven categories in total, including:
- Basic: Headings, text, etc.
- Box: Containers and grids.
- Media: Icons, maps, and galleries.
- Actions: Menus, CTAs, etc.
- Layout: Accordions, tabs, sidebars.
- Info: Countdown and Number Counters.
- Posts: Blog modules such as Post Carousels.
Beaver Builder offers everything you’ll need for building basic WordPress landing pages, but for more advanced features you’ll likely find yourself reaching for a third-party add-on.
Beaver Builder offers a much smaller, more focused set of modules with only 39 available out of the box.
Winner: Elementor 🏅.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder: Theme Builder
The theme builder feature in a visual site builder allows you to design custom headers, footers, and templates that apply across your entire site. This feature can save you hours of work and help you get a more consistent look.
For individual landing pages, this doesn’t have a huge impact. But if all of your landing pages need to have the same header and footer, the theme builder feature is critically important.
Let’s take a look at Elementor vs Beaver Builder in the context of theme builder features.
Elementor Theme Builder
In Elementor Pro, you’ll find the fairly advanced theme builder interface. This area allows you to modify the layout of your site on a site-wide basis.
In the Theme Builder, you’re able to create templates for many portions of your site, applying them site-wide and saving yourself tons of work. Here are some areas the theme builder covers:
- Headers
- Footers
- Single Post templates
- Single Page templates
- Archive templates
- Search results templates
- Single product templates (WooCommerce)
- Products Archive templates (WooCommerce)
- Loop Item templates
- 404 Templates
The Elementor theme builder feature covers most areas of your site, giving you an easy way to control the look and layout of archives, posts, and pages without duplicated effort. This mostly comes into play if you’re building more than just a landing page and are branching out into a full blog or WooCommerce store.
Beaver Builder Theme Builder
Unfortunately, Beaver Builder’s theme builder functionality is only included via a paid add-on called Beaver Themer. It is included with the Ultimate plan, but otherwise it’s around $147 per year to buy Beaver Themer.
With Beaver Themer installed, you get access to some templating options. It allows you to design templates for posts, custom post types, WooCommerce products, and archives. Additionally, you can create global headers and footers for your entire site, as well as apply templates using somewhat advanced conditional logic.
Beaver Themer being a paid add-on means Beaver Builder doesn’t fare so well in this particular part of the comparison. Theme builder options are critically important for WordPress landing pages and more complex sites, so having to pay extra for the theme builder add-on is disappointing.
Winner: Elementor 🏅.
Elementor vs Beaver Builder Pricing
And now we come to one of the last, and probably most important, criteria for choosing the best WordPress landing page builder: price.
Both builders offer different plans, but it’s clear who they’re made for based on the prices offered. Let’s take a closer look at Elementor vs Beaver Builder pricing.
Elementor Pricing Plans
If you’re building your first WordPress landing page, you’re likely to purchase the cheapest plan available, so let’s look at that one first.
The cheapest Elementor plan comes in at $59 per year, which isn’t shockingly expensive. For that price, you get to use Elementor on one site, get 24/7 support, 57 pro widgets, the theme builder features, dynamic content, and the form builder widget. The only things you miss out on are the popup builder, custom code/css, ecommerce features, and collaborative notes.
Admittedly, lacking the popup builder and ecommerce features can be a huge issue if you’re building conversion-focused landing pages and need to offer items for sale or show a call to action in a popup.
To unlock everything Elementor has to offer, you’re looking at spending $99 per year. Again, this isn’t overly expensive, and this plan (Advanced) allows you to use Elementor on up to three sites.
It is a bit of a conundrum. If you need the extra features (popup builder, ecommerce) but only need them on a single site, there’s no plan that’s a perfect fit.
Elementor’s plans scale all the way up to the Agency-focused one at $399, which includes activation in 1000 sites.
Beaver Builder Pricing Plans
Beaver Builder’s pricing is a bit more attractive to people and agencies building a large volume of sites. This is because all of their plans include unlimited sites - that’s right, you can activate Beaver Builder on as many sites as you want with a single plan.
Taking a look at their cheapest plan, you’ll pay $99 per year for all of the basic features. You’ll be missing out on the Beaver Builder theme, Beaver Themer (important!), multisite functionality, and white-labeling.
To be honest, white-labeling and multisite functionality are most likely important for agencies that are building lots of custom sites for clients. For folks looking to build a WordPress landing page, these aren’t critical.
The only major downside to Beaver Builder’s pricing is that to get access to Beaver Themer without an additional yearly subscription, you have to pay $546 per year. This is a hefty fee to access functionality that’s available by default in Elementor Pro and most other visual site builders. On the upside, this is an unlimited site license, meaning you can extract lots of value from it if you build multiple sites for paying clients.
Winner: Tie.
Should You Use Elementor or Beaver Builder?
Which (Elementor vs Beaver Builder) is the best WordPress landing page builder?
That depends on how you like to work. If you’re used to more modern tools, Elementor will feel familiar. If you’re coming from a tool like Divi Builder, Beaver Builder will feel like home while giving you some much needed performance gains.
Overall, it’s a matter of trading more advanced functionality and widgets for performance and stability. Depending on the types of projects you do, Beaver Builder may offer all of the features you need. For most people building WordPress landing pages, however, Elementor will be the better choice between these two.
A Better Alternative to Both Elementor and Beaver Builder
If you would rather get the best of both worlds, it’s worth looking at a third option: Breakdance.
Breakdance is a modern contender in the visual site builder space, and is hands-down the best WordPress landing page builder on the market. With a huge number of elements (145+), fantastic performance, a modern user-friendly interface, a professionally designed template library, and native theme builder features, it is the best of both worlds if you are comparing it to Elementor and Beaver Builder.
And, at only $199/yr for unlimited sites, it’s the most cost effective option if you need to build a large number of landing pages and don’t want to have to pay extra for theme builder options.
