Gutenberg has an inline editor, which feels natural to use. Additionally, you can paste long text with basic formatting into the visual builder. Gutenberg is capable of automatically creating the paragraphs, headings and lists. You don’t need to create any element before. Very handy.

Available elements ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Gutenberg calls its elements blocks. Adding a new block is super easy, and there are more ways to do it. First, there’s one at the top left part of the fixed toolbar. Additionally, you can find one plus icon right below every block you added.

Styling options ⭐⭐

Gutenberg offers minimal styling options for the elements. You can adjust the font size, color, and background color. But apart from these, there aren’t many options you can tweak. Nonetheless, they’re useful and nice to have, but it would be great if more were available. For example, I would have loved to be able to adjust the font family of the content I added. Unfortunately, Gutenberg offers no way to do that, it can only inherit it from the theme.

Templates ⭐⭐

Gutenberg offers a few selections of block templates under the Pattern tab. These are simple, but great looking layouts that can give you a head start. The designs are simple and there’s not much you can choose from. Nonetheless, they help you save time when you build your page.

Final thoughts about Gutenberg

Gutenberg is a simple, but easy to use tool WordPress offers to create nice looking pages. It works best with a theme, that does the heavy lifting when it comes to styling the page. Paired with such a theme, Gutenberg can beat any competition. However, if you pair it with a minimal theme, you’ll probably have a hard time creating the designs you want.

Elementor – the most popular free page builder plugin

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Elementor is the most popular page builder in WordPress.org’s repository. In fact, it’s one of the most popular WordPress plugins. Right now, the repository has only 7 plugins which have more than 5 million installations. And Elementor is one of these super popular plugins. Having so many users, Elementor managed to keep an impressive 5-star rating out of 5,465 reviews.

Interface of Elementor ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Elementor offers a visual frontend editor to create pages. Many users prefer frontend editing, because they can see how the page is going to look like while they edit it. So, frontend editing saves time, because it removes two editing steps. You don’t need to save and refresh every time you want to take a look at the page you’re working on. Additionally, you can edit textual layers inline which is a great addition.

The editor is divided into two main sections. First, there is the Elementor panel on the left side, where you can find the configuration options. For example, this is where you can name your page. Then there’s the wider section, which is the actual editing screen. This is the place you can drag widgets to from the left panel and see what you’ve created.

The Elementor panel has a handy search field to quickly find widgets. This helps speeding up the workflow, as you won’t need to locate the widget you want. Although, you might need to be a little familiar with the elements to use it effectively.

Available Elements ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Page builders need to provide at least the most basic elements to fit into a modern website. Since Elementor is one of the best free WordPress page builder plugins, it offers them. You can create headings, add text, images, and buttons. Additionally, you have other handy widgets at your disposal. For example, the image carousel, counter, progress bar or tabs at your disposal. So Elementor doesn’t only offer the most basic widgets, it gives so much more.

There’s a huge list of widgets you can choose from to create your amazing looking Elementor page. These elements will help you create beautiful pages for your website in the long run. Additionally, if you would need more widgets, there are many plugins that offer them. Moreover, there are plenty of these plugins which are available free of charge.

Styling options ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Have you installed Elementor on your site for the very first time? I recommend setting up the typographies first. You can find them at Elementor Editor’s Settings Panel > Hamburger Menu > Site Settings. After that you can select these at any widget you add, speeding up your workflow.

There are many options you can use to style every element to your heart’s content. Although there are many settings, they are easy to understand. Even if you aren’t sure what an option does, you can try it with confidence and undo the change if you wouldn’t like them. While there are many styling options, there were a few things which I missed being able to set. For example, the line height can only be a pixel or em value. I’d have loved to simply set it to 1.5, but I couldn’t. The custom CSS giving option would have been a workaround for this. But that option is available in Elementor Pro only.

Templates ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Elementor offers a huge template library, but first, you need to create a free account at them. After that, you’ll have access to a bunch of great looking designs. You can import full pages which then you can customize to your heart’s content. Or you can import separate blocks and assemble the page piece by piece.

There’s an incredible amount of beautiful designs you can choose from. It can be time-consuming to look at all available templates. Luckily, there’s a search option so you can try to find blocks or pages by related keywords. Additionally, at the right side of the Block templates, there’s a category selector. If you’re looking for contact or pricing sections, you can choose it there and see what’s available.

But there is one thing I don’t like about the templates popup. It’s the fact that pro templates are seamlessly mixed with the free ones. You can’t filter for the Pro or Free ones only. As a result, you can spend too much time trying to find a template you both like and can import.

You can also save your own designs as templates which you can easily import later. It’s handy when you have the same looking elements across your site, like a subscription or contact block.

Final thoughts about Elementor

Elementor is an exceptional page builder. It’s easy to learn to use, although it might take some time to master. In any case, Elementor allows you to build modern and great looking websites. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or a professional

Beaver Builder – one of the best free WordPress page builder plugins

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Beaver Builder is another popular free WordPress page builder plugin. It powers over 300.000 websites, and has an impressive 5-star rating on WordPress.org out of 342 reviews. So, a lot of people use and like this plugin. Let’s see what the hype is all about!

The interface of Beaver Builder ⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can use Beaver Builder to build pages for your site in two ways. The first way is using the floating Content panel which you can drag anywhere. The second way is sticking the Content panel to the left or right sides of the browser. As a result, you can add and configure the elements on the left side, and see the result on the right.

Beaver Builder offers inline editing, which is very convenient to use. It’s easy to figure out how to add new elements, and configuring them is just as effortless. However, adding a new element makes a loading icon appear in the area where you drop it. Although it only lasts for a few seconds, I found it irritating. Additionally, I felt it was interrupting the editing process. Also, the drag’n’dropping of the modules sometimes produced interesting movements.

Available Elements ⭐⭐

Beaver Builder offers the bare minimum of elements, or modules as they call them. There’s only 5 available: audio, HTML, photo, text editor and video. Additionally, you can create rows to place content into. The WordPress widgets are also available to choose at Beaver Builder. This gives slightly more tools to work with. Still, this free WordPress page builder plugin has very few elements to offer.

You can use the Text editor to create headings, so you can structure your content properly. What’s more frustrating is that there’s no button module, at least in the Lite version. That’s a bummer because CTA plays an important role in a website’s conversion. Of course, if you have coding knowledge, you can create buttons using the HTML or Text Editor modules. But let’s face it: if you wanted to write code to have a button, you wouldn’t have used a page builder.

Styling options ⭐⭐⭐

Beaver Builder seems to expect the styling to be done from the theme’s end. By default, it inherits the layout the theme sets nicely. If you want to create a custom layout, you can use Beaver Builder’s options to do so. However, there’s no global, or page level styling. At the rows or columns you can only set text colors, but not font specific options, like size or family.

Templates

Many WordPress plugins offer quick access to some templates, which users can use to get a head start. It’s useful for those who are new to the plugin, or don’t have much design knowledge, or are in short of time. In Beaver Builder, templates are available only after purchasing a paid plan. So users of the Free plugin won’t be able to import any templates.

Final thoughts on Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a nice and easy to use free WordPress page builder plugin. However, it seems it’s aimed for developers, rather than the average WordPress users. In the free version, it’s not possible to create a Hero header, because there’s no option to create a button. Unless you code the button yourself, and I don’t think that’s acceptable from a visual builder in 2020.

Brizy – innovative free page builder plugin

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Brizy is a relatively new plugin, released in April 2018. The page builder plugin market is full of big fish like Elementor or Beaver Builder. On the paid front, there are plugins like Divi or Visual Composer. So new plugins need to offer something more, something new to be able to attract users. And that’s not an easy task.

Yet, Brizy has managed to earn more than 60.000 people’s trust in just two years. Additionally, it promises to offer a new and intuitive way of visual page building. This makes me curious to see if this free WordPress page builder can keep its promise.

Interface of Brizy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Like the other page builders, Brizy also has a visual frontend editor. It has a narrow panel on the left side of the browser window. This is where you can add new elements, adjust the order of the added blocks, or set the styling. The large right-hand side is for placing the content. As a result, the interface offers plenty of space to see the content you’re creating.

Brizy has inline text editing by default, which is very convenient to use. In fact, Brizy’s solution feels as natural as Gutenberg’s. And that’s a big achievement. I’ve tested Elementor, which also has inline editing, but it doesn’t feel as seamless.

Available Elements ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Brizy offers a handful of elements to create content with. You can create headings or paragraphs with the text module, or add a button to your page. You can also add images, icons, or videos. There are cool extras, like the counter or Google map elements. To sum it up, Brizy has all elements you’ll need to create a content rich website.

Styling options ⭐⭐⭐

Before you start creating your pages with Brizy, make sure you set up colors and text styles first. This will make the editing experience faster. In the text settings, you can find the most essential options. You can set the font size, family, weight, line height and letter spacing. Other options, such as the text-align, are available at the text element.

Templates ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The page creation in Brizy starts with adding a new block. First, you need to choose whether you want to start from a template or create an empty block. In case you chose to add with an empty block, you can build your content from scratch. But even if you start with a template, you’ll be able to tweak anything you want.

There’s a total of 502 blocks you can choose from, and you can use them to build your page piece by piece. There are also 41 full-page layouts ready for importing. The only downside is that pro and free templates are totally mixed. As a result, it can take time to find what you can import in the free page builder.

Final thoughts on Brizy

Brizy is easy to use whether you have any developer knowledge or not. Additionally, its inline editing feels like a breeze and is very easy to get used to. Of course, there’s plenty of room for improvement. For example, I’d love to have more styling options. Nonetheless, I feel Brizy has created something unique.

Speed of the best free WordPress page builders compared

There are three key factors for creating a successful site. These are: a good copy, an eye-catching design, and a fast loading time. Most plugins you add to your site have an impact on your website’s speed. So you need to choose what you install carefully.

When you choose a page builder for your site you need to consider how much impact it has on your page’s loading time. A resource heavy plugin will have a negative impact on your site’s speed. And you haven’t even added your content yet.

To help you find the best free WordPress page builder plugin, I’ll compare their loading speed. In other words, I’ll check how fast the page you create with these plugins loads. Additionally, I’ll test how much weight they add to the page speed, and how many requests they make.

Testing environment

I wanted to run the speed test on a page that had the same content. So I built the layout of the Healthcare template in each page builder. I run the test using the Hello Elementor theme. When I run the tests, no other were active at the same time but the one I was testing. All images and fonts were the same in each builder. Additionally, I’ve cleared the cache before each speed test.

First I ran the speed test on the WordPress Sample page, to give you an idea about Hello Elementor theme’s speed. The internet speed used for the tests was 10Mb/s.

Speed test results

Gutenberg is an obvious winner here. It loads faster than any of its competitors, weighs less and makes fewer requests. Of course, it’s much more limited than any of the other plugins in this article in terms of styling. So, based on its speed alone, Gutenberg is the best free WordPress page builder plugin.

But we should look deeper than the page speed. Take the styling options and available elements into account as well. In this case, Gutenberg won’t keep its first place. With these in mind, the best free WordPress page builder plugin is either Elementor or Brizy. Elementor loads slower, but it weighs less. Brizy, on the other hand, is faster, but heavier. So, if you need a good page builder for your site, I recommend giving Elementor or Brizy a try.

Which one is the best free WordPress page builder plugin?

If you still haven’t decided which plugin to pick, here’s how the scores stack up (in order):

Based on these scores, the best Free WordPress page builder is Elementor. But it’s closely followed by Brizy. If you start a new project, I recommend checking these out first. But it’s also worth considering whether Gutenberg would be enough.

Pricing

As mentioned before, I wanted to take a look at the paid version of the best free WordPress page builder plugins. You might want to go pro later, even if you’re satisfied with the plugin now. Or you might upgrade because you want to support the developers of the plugin.

As Gutenberg is part of WordPress core, it has no premium plan you could upgrade to. But if you should need more blocks or templates, you can find a bunch of free or premium plugins to help you with that.

However, there’s a premium version of Elementor, Brizy and Beaver Builder. You can choose from the following pricing options:

What more do you get if you buy the premium plugin?

• Elementor: You get 50 more widgets to build. Also, 300+ more templates, and 10+ full website kits. The Theme, WooCommerce and Popup Builder is also available in one of the paid plans.
• Beaver Builder: Each Beaver Builder package is different. In the cheapest plan you get Premium Modules & Templates, and pro support. Additionally, in the middle package, you get the Beaver Themer and multisite compatibility. What’s more, the highest package offers White Labeling.
• Brizy: The Pro version of Brizy gives you access to 250+ Premium Designs. You can also access Brizy Cloud, where you can get amazing new templates from.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a WordPress page builder plugin for free is never easy. There are just too many options, any not all plugins are equally great. Additionally, they might not be a good fit for your website.

So, what’s the best free WordPress page builder? Either of these four plugins can be the best for your project. If you have a theme with nice styling, Gutenberg would probably be enough for your site. As a result, your site would load faster than with any other plugins I’ve tested for this article.

But if you don’t have such a good theme, or you prefer to create everything by yourself, you still have good options. You can choose Elementor or Brizy as the free page builder for your site. Both plugins offer a great number of features to create an amazing website.

The post Best Free WordPress Page Builder Plugins Compared 2021 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

https://smartslider3.com/blog/smart-slider-and-beaver-builder/ Thu, 14 Dec 2017 09:27:20 +0000 https://smartslider3.com/?post_type=blog&p=5059 Beaver Builder is often referred to as the best page builder plugin for WordPress and after checking it out, it’s hard not to agree. With a popular free plugin that’s been actively installed on over 400,000 websites, as well as the powerful premium version, Beaver Builder is a visual editor for WordPress that can really […]

The post Smart Slider 3 and Beaver Builder 2 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

]]> Beaver Builder is often referred to as the best page builder plugin for WordPress and after checking it out, it’s hard not to agree. With a popular free plugin that’s been actively installed on over 400,000 websites, as well as the powerful premium version, Beaver Builder is a visual editor for WordPress that can really help you create unique content designs for your website.

Although Beaver Builder is packed with useful features, there are still some areas where it can be enhanced by using it alongside a specialist plugin. Creating slideshows is one example of this, and in this guide to using Smart Slider 3 and Beaver Builder 2, we’ll explore how you can add even better slideshows to your website with Beaver Builder and Smart Slider 3.

What Makes Beaver Builder 2 so Great?

Beaver Builder 2 picks up where the first version of this plugin left off and adds even more great features and an improved user interface to the mix.

You still get access to the same great selection of customizable modules, including buttons, callouts, counters, pricing tables, testimonials, and more. However, now the workflow for using those modules is much improved. The same can be said for the page templates. The impressive library of designs can now be edited with even greater ease, thanks to the recent updates to Beaver Builder.

Being able to drag and drop items around the page, then click on an element to start editing, makes Beaver Builder a highly recommended WYSIWYG content editor for WordPress. And as we’re about to see, thanks to the support for third-party plugins, the Beaver Builder slider options just got a whole lot better.

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Creating Beaver Builder Sliders

The free version of Beaver Builder is definitely a good option for upgrading the WordPress editor for those on a budget. However, the limited module selection and lack of page templates make upgrading to the premium version highly recommended.

If you do upgrade, you’ll be able to create basic content sliders, slideshows, and post sliders for your WordPress website. Once you’ve dragged one of the slider modules onto your page design, you can then define its display properties.

The Beaver Builder slider modules definitely give you the ability to create your own custom slideshows for display anywhere on your site. The settings let you choose the transition effects, playback speed, cropping options and much more, helping you ensure your slideshow looks and behaves in the way that you want.

You can also create content sliders that can combine text, photos, and videos to help you present a custom message to your audience. The mobile controls make it easy to selectively hide or display slider elements depending on the device they’re being viewed on.

However, as well as these Beaver Builder sliders, you also have the option of installing a third-party slideshow plugin like Smart Slider 3 on your site. As long as you’re using a slideshow plugin that’s compatible with Beaver Builder any sliders you create can be added to your custom page designs.

Using Beaver Builder and Smart Slider 3 Together

If you do want to start incorporating more creative sliders into your Beaver Builder page designs, then the process is very straightforward. One option is to install the Smart Slider 3 free plugin on your WordPress website.

By using the advanced features of Smart Slider 3, you can create slides with multiple layers, add layer animations to your slides, and import any of the pre-built templates from the slideshow library. Once you’ve created a slider with this tool publishing it is easy. Just open the page you’d like to add it to in Beaver Builder.

After opening the page for editing and then revealing the sidebar panel, you can drag and drop the Smart Slider element onto the page. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to choose which slider to insert into your custom page layout.

Now the slider you’ve chosen will be added to your page. Thanks to the integration between these two plugins, the properties of your Beaver Builder slider from Smart Slider 3 can be customized through the page builder settings panel. This includes controlling the position of the slider, settings its visibility status when being viewed on mobile devices, and more.

Depending on the type of slider you created, it could be a full-screen slideshow or a smaller part of your overall page design.

Other Reasons to use Beaver Builder and Smart Slider 3 Together

As we’ve just seen, Beaver Builder 2 has some useful slideshow functionality that helps make it one of the best page builder plugins for WordPress. However, by installing an affordable freemium slider plugin like Smart Slider 3 alongside Beaver Builder, a whole world of creative opportunities opens up.

As well as all the prebuilt slideshows and slide templates you get access to with Smart Slider 3, one feature you’ll appreciate if you’re running an online store is the ability to create ecommerce product sliders and carousels.

Thanks to this feature, you can easily add interactive product displays to anywhere on your website, including custom page designs you’ve created with Beaver Builder.

Creating video slideshows or carousels with Smart Slider 3 isn’t a problem either. With full support for self-hosted videos and content from YouTube, you can easily create video gallery slideshows or insert videos into your multi-media presentations.

Using a powerful slider plugin alongside Beaver builder also gives you the ability to add slideshows to your custom page designs that feature multi-layer animations, the Ken Burns effect, slides with video backgrounds, and that use actions and events. Whether you choose the free or premium version of Smart Slider 3, you’ll be able to upgrade your slideshow creating abilities in no time at all.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a way to create custom page designs that include unique and advanced slideshows, using Beaver Builder and Smart Slider 3 together is a great option. Installing the free or premium version of Smart Slider 3 on a WordPress website with Beaver Builder gives you access to a suite of powerful tools for creating custom content for your website.

Choosing Smart Slider 3 is the quick and easy way to upgrade the Beaver Builder slider capabilities, in just a few clicks!

🎁 Holiday Giveaway 🎄

2018 is around the corner and we wanted to say thank you with a little gift. We will be giving away 2 Beaver Builder Pro licenses and 10 Smart Slider 3 Pro Single licenses.

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Check your mailbox for more information and thanks to everyone who participated and helped make this contest a success! Congratulations for the winners! Have a wonderful Holiday!

The post Smart Slider 3 and Beaver Builder 2 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.