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.