7 Top Drag & Drop Page Builder Plugins for WordPress

While WordPress has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, one thing has remained more or less the same(barring Calypso)… it’s the same old boring WYSIWIG editor. With it, if you have no coding skills, you are mostly limited to writing text, and trying to spice it up with images every now and then. That’s where WordPress page builder plugins come in.

If you end up using one of the page builder plugins in this comparison below, please let us know in the comments.

01. Themify Builder

Themify is one of the older page building plugins, and it shows in some ways. The interface is not the most cutting edge, but it is clean and intuitive, and most importantly, it just works as it should.

It does it’s job well, and if you’re looking for a design anything like the premade themes that they offer, you can get a theme along with the page builder.

Features

• Frontend and backend builder.
• Layout Parts (You can save certain groups of modules to make reusing designs for many posts and pages easy.)
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site
• 40+ Layouts(Templates)

First Impressions

Upon first opening, the backend builder, feels kind of squashed into the regular WordPress backend. There are also considerably fewer module options compared to many other builders.

Dropping in the modules doesn’t take a long time even on a slow computer/connection/bad server.

Moving onto the frontend builder, the interface becomes a lot more pleasing. Although the modules don’t change, just the fact that you can see how everything looks from the minute you change it, is a big deal.

Interface

There’s a back end and a front end editor. The back-end editor leaves some to be desired, and the front-end, while accurate in it’s display of what things look like, and not as slow as others, it offers a few less modules than other builders.

The way the builder works is intuitive, simply drag and drop modules(as with any drag and drop builder). You can adjust row elements for amount of columns. By clicking the top left corner of the row, you can see the options. You can also see a Themify custom panel of options if you are using one of their themes with more optiosn for changing the design.

Another great thing is that you can easily switch view modes from computer, to mobile or tablet.

Something else that is not as great, is the way that you set up layouts. You have to go outside of the builder, find a layout and then import the layout into the builder.

All things considered, the user experience is quite good.

Pros

• Fast and intuitive front end builder.
• Layout Parts are intuitive and easy to use.
• Can use on old posts and pages.
• Can get a beautiful premium theme and the builder for less than some page builders.
• Beautiful layouts

Cons

• Kind of clunky process with the layouts if you only want the builder, and already have a theme.
• Not as many modules.
• No content is left on pages after deactivation.

Price

39$ For only the plugin, or you can get it included with any of Themify’s themes for free.

(Themes cost 49$)

If you want to take the builder for a spin for free, you can also try Themify’s free theme Basic, that includes the builder.

Get Themify Builder

02. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder has gone from the new kid on the block, to one of the most popular page builders out there over the last few years.

With a smooth, true front-end, drag-and-drop interface, tons of useful modules and beautiful templates for everything from landing to non-profit pages, it’s easy to see why.

Features

• Frontend and backend builder.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site (only on more expensive plans
• 10+ beautiful templates

First Impressions

Opening Beaver Builder for the first time, you are greeted by a short and to-the-point tutorial. The builder itself is very self-explanatory, so even if you don’t take the time, it is intuitive enough for anyone to be able to build something with it fairly quickly.

Finding appropriate modules is easy, and the scrolling is a lot better than clicking through one and one like in Live Composer.

Actual drag-and-drop, actual front-end editing, the smoothness of the builder’s interface leaves a great first impression on any first time user.

Interface

The builder mainly makes use of it’s front-end editor. It is smooth and shows nothing unnecessary. Just exactly how the page will look, and options for dropping in and changing modules or applying a template. There are a lot of beautiful templates.

The different modules are divided into only two categories, advanced and basic, but there are few things that they won’t be able to do.

Where the interface really impresses though, is the able to customize and do more with each module. From easily adding video backgrounds, changing margins or making complex slideshows with calls to action, most of the great points of Beaver Builder are showcased here.

The only modules you might miss are the very page specific ones about teams and projects, and you can use the included templates to get those kinds of modules anyway.

One small downside is that there is no way to switch between viewports. Even though the design is automatically responsive, being able to click between screen sizes and double check as you are designing is quite useful.

Pros

• Stellar support
• True focus on code quality
• Content is actually left behind on deactivation, though unstyled.
• Great community
• Fully fledged 100% free(no sign-up required) demo available
• Even the cheapest license allows use on unlimited sites

Cons

• Most expensive page builder by a wide margin.

Price

• Starts at 99$

Conclusion

If you care about code quality, not overloading your page with unnecessary JS and great support, Beaver Builder is the best choice for you.

If the price point is the most important to you, another option might be better.

Get Beaver Builder

03. MotoPress

Another oldie, yet goodie, MotoPress has been around since front end editing was considered all but groundbreaking in the WordPress realm.

While a lot has changed since then, and a lot of page builders have grown, MotoPress as grown along with the times into the full-bred page building tool it is today.

Features

• Frontend and backend builder.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site (only on more expensive plans

First Impressions

Compared to other builders, Motopress seems to take a little longer to load, but once you’re there, the editor is beautiful.

Once again, true to life front end and real drag-and-drop makes the experience of building new pages easy as pie.

Interface

The front end page builder itself is clean and sleek, and if your page has nothing on it, it shows instructions for how to proceed.

All you need to do is, drag and drop one of the well-designed, complex modules onto the page, and you’ve started building something awesome.

The different modules are separated neatly into different categories. Text, images, buttons, video, others and WordPress widgets.

It includes things like countdown times, pricing tables, charts, google maps and even splash screens.

MotoPress also allows for a lot of customization on each individual module. You can change the styles, without needing to code, colors, set video backgrounds and much more.

And again, MotoPress offers an easy option to change your viewport from computer to phone or tablet, to check how your design looks on other screens.

Pros

• Great interface
• Many great, complex modules
• A completely free(no sign-up) demo is available

Cons

• Nothing will be left of your content after you deactivate the plugin.

Price

• 29$.

Conclusion

If you have a healthy focus budget, but still want to tick all the boxes as far versatility, code quality or page builder interface, MotoPress is probably the right choice for you. With the cheapest license only being 29$ you truly get a lt of bang for your buck.

Get MotoPress

04. Visual Composer

Perhaps the most well known drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress, Visual Composer has been around for years, and has made it’s presence felt through being included in some of the most popular themes of all time.

Features

• 50+ templates for different pages and sections.
• Works with any theme
• Backend builder.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site

First Impressions

After installing and activating, and heading over to a page, this page builder also seemed to take a fair amount of time to load.

Once it does, I am introduced to a highly functional but not as sleek or beautiful interface as that of some of the others.

Also, it is not true font-end editing, as it’s still happening in the back end, and the styles seem to be different compared to some of the real thing. Nevertheless, it shows a better representation than the normal WordPress “wysiwig” editor.

Interface

As mentioned in the first impressions, the interface is not ‘true front-end editor, but that’s where the problems end.

It’s easy to use, although somme point-and-click is necessary to choose modules, it’s still an easy to use drag and drop builder.

While there are some styling options, there doesn’t offer as many as some of the other options like MotoPress or Beaver Builder.

The real strength comes in the larger building blocks, big, complex modules and the long list of different templates.

Because it’s not necessarily a real front-end builder, it makes the process a little more tedius than for the other builders, because you have to check your ids first.

Pros

• Lots of templates for pages and sections
• Old and experienced developers

Cons

• No front end builder.
• Relatively slow loading.
• Not the cleanest design.
• Not the cleanestder

Price

• 34$

Conclusion

Visual composer has been around for a long time, but it has gradually turned into something that is definitely worthwhile taking advantage of if it’s part of your theme.

The theme is suitable for someone who is able to use their imagination what a site will look like after making changes.

Get Visual Composer

05. SiteOrigin Page Builder

SiteOrigin’s Page Builder is by far the most popular free alternative, and has long been a stalwart amongst the WordPress page builders. Not only is it free, but it has a reputation for high quality output code,and serves up more or less the same features as many of the paid options.

Features

• Works with any theme
• Backend builder/live preview.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site

First Impressions

After installing the plugin and activating, and heading over to a page and activating the builder, the difference in user interface strikes me. Rather than true front-end editor, like most plugins on this list offer, it shows a split screen live view, with your boxes on one hand, and how they look on the other hand.

It also strikes me how few modules(widgets) siteorigin offers compared to the other choices.

The interface is also not technically drag and drop, more click and select. And seems to be a little bit harder to get into than the others have been.

Interface

You have two options for the interface, either a straight up, backend builder, where you are assembling squares and playing guessing games as to what the final site will look like, or you can do a split screen view with live preview of the same box array on the left.

As mentioned in the first impressions, it’s not technically drag and drop, it’s more like point, click, select and edit. Although it’s technically not too much more time consuming, it’s somehow a less satisfying mechanic for working with.

The interface is simplistic, which tere are some people who will greatly appreciate. It is meant to be a simply page builder and it doesn’t try to be more than that.

Pros

• Free
• Can user WordPress Widgets
• Code quality
• Supportive community

Cons

• Clunky interface
• No true front-end editor
• Few unique modules

Price

• Free!

Conclusion

If you don’t want to pay any money for a plugin, and you want to work with a solid plugin? This could be your best choice.

Get SiteOrigin

06. Live Composer

Live composer is another free option, sporting a real, live frontend drag and drop builder. This makes it a viable option for people who prioritize that a lot.

It has a fair amount of different modules, and the premade layouts are quite nice, although there are not too many of them.

Features

• Works with any theme
• Backend and frontend builder.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site
• Ability to make and use post/content templates that overrule theme templates to some extent
• Good workflow for advanced content modules
• Lots of unique, well-designed modules that are useful for creating different kinds of sites and pages.
• Good customizability on modules, no coding required.

First Impressions

After installing the plugin, you can go to any page or post and just click “View in live composer” to open open it with the plugin.

That takes you to the front-end builer, that has a very minimal design. On the first few use, having to scroll through the single line menu at the bottom of the page, can be a little tedious, and the categories they are separated into aren’t specific enough to be that helpful.

Looking at the layouts, my first impression is that they are decent, but that there are not many of them.

Interface

The interface itself is sleek and relatively easy to use. Once you know where to find the modules, it’s a very smooth process.

Another good thing about the interface, is that you have different layout alternatives and modules that make use of different custom post types.

This means you have seperate options for entering in different kinds of content relevant for the builder, straight in your normal WordPress admin area, as seen in the menu sidebar.

But not only does this make everything a lot more neat, and easier to work with, but a lot of your content will be saved separately from the plugin, and will still remain available in the database even after you uninstall the plugin.

You can also create and style templates for posts without messing with code and even remove default theme styles and set it templates as default for all posts.

Pros

• It’s free!
• Good workflow for complex content
• Good choice of modules, with useful ones like progress bar.
• Good customization options for each module.
• (Some content remains accessible after plugin disable, but not in the actual pages.)

Cons

• Not as fluid interface as some other builders.
• Few layouts
• Content disappears from pages after plugin is disabled.

Price

• Free!

Conclusion

With an infinitely superior front end editor it’s hard to argue against the case of Live Composer. If you are looking for something cheap and also well designed, sleek and powerful, this is for you.

Get Live Composer

07. Divi Builder

Divi is perhaps the biggest drag and drop building theme for WordPress, and now they have taken the Builder alone and released it as a standalone plugin.

So if you have experience using the theme Divi on some sites, you may want to work with the plugin on other sites where you are stuck with a theme.

Features

• 60+ templates for different pages and sections.
• Works with any theme
• Backend builder.
• Templates available for saving
• No CSS/HTML knowledge required.
• Animations
• Custom styling
• Caching included
• Supports multi-site
• Split testing!

First Impressions

After the plugin has been installed and activated, and a page opened up, the first thing you see is a dark blue square. After clicking it you can see the actual live editor, and while it’s very colorful, it’s not replacement for a frontend editor.

The backend editor however, is well designed, works fluidly, and it’s absolutely filled to the max with layouts and interesting modules.

Interface

The interface is colorful, yet clean and simple. Again using the builder itself is very very easy, there is no way that a person cannot do it without previous practice.

One of the interesting things about this plugin as well, is just how many settings you are able to change for different modules and elements, without ever having to use any HTML or CSS.

Which brings us to the next great part, which is the very over the top amount of different templates that exist for the theme.

All in all, simply because it is not a front end builder, means that it’s a deal that

Pros

• Many great layouts.
• Many great modules.
• Split testing functionality!

Cons

• No front end editor.
• Quite expensive if you are not an EG member already.

Price

• 89$ (along with all other Elegant Themes plugins and themes)

Conclusion

While Divi the theme offers a lot in terms of interface and the versatility of the builder, the Divi builder is just OK in those areas. Where it shines are it’s premade layouts and modules, and the fact that it actually includes split testing.

The Divi Page builder is the right choice for someone who doesn’t value a front-end editor too much, but rather cares about things like, gorgeous layouts and modules, and split testing functionality.

Get Divi Builder

What page builder do you use?

Did this comparison help you pick one? Or have you already been using and loving one? Let us know in the comments!