Back

Page builders vs. coding when creating WordPress websites

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Pros and cons of using Page Builder Plugins on WordPress websites

You may be wondering which is the best way to create your WordPress website — with a page builder or WordPress coding. That depends on your budget, skill set, and the features that you need. Here is some information to help you decide what route is right for you!

WordPress(.org) is it’s an open-source platform that allows any developer to create a theme, and offer it to other WordPress users for installation. When building websites with WordPress, we can either select one of these themes available, create our own theme by writing code or simply use a page builder plugin.

Page builders are getting really popular among web developers because they are rather easy to use and they allow quick editing possibilities to website clients who are not really tech-savvy. You can visually edit your pages without having to switch between the editor and preview panels.

But is it really the best option to build a website with a page builder? In this article, we will list down some page builder options, and the pros and cons of using page builders on WordPress.

What are the drag-and-drop page builders on WordPress?

As we mentioned above, a page builder is a plugin or component of a theme that lets you design and build pages with minimal effort and time. These plugins allow you to create mobile-friendly websites and let you access their pre-built template libraries.

These drag-and-drop page builder plugins on WordPress shouldn’t be mixed with drag-and-drop website builders like Wix or Squarespace. WordPress is an open-source content management system which is highly customizable, and free and there are unlimited options for what you can do with WordPress websites. So when you build sites on hosted platforms like Wix or Squarespace, you don’t own your website which makes it hard to move to another platform. Read our previous article to understand more about hosted and self-hosted platforms.

In our previous blog post, we explained all the details about our favourite WordPress page builder plugin, Elementor. However, Elementor is not our only option when it comes to page builder plugins on WordPress.

Some of the popular page builder plugins are ElementorSeedProdBeaver BuilderWPBakeryOxygenDivi and Themify Builder. Some of these come with free versions, and some like Divi has starting prices.

elementor banner


Why shouldn’t I use a page builder when creating WordPress websites?

It’s a fact that not everyone likes page builders. Page builders may allow you to create beautiful pages but they may cause a messy code structure in the backend of your website.

In addition, it requires extra work to build a site with a page builder. It requires lots of mouse clicking! Some developers don’t like this and they just want to write the code without even having to use the mouse.

Last but not the least, page builders may conflict with other themes and plugins. For example, they often conflict with caching plugins and some of these caching plugins could be essential.

Why should I use a page builder when creating WordPress websites?

With a page builder plugin, you can add any type of content to a page using drag-and-drop web content elements such as blocks, modules, or widgets. You can create beautiful pages and you would still be able to optimise your images, adapt your content for SEO and download performance or caching plugins.

However, this doesn’t mean that page builder plugins are for beginners who don’t understand anything about web design or technical details. If you don’t understand how the web design elements work, page builder plugins will not save your life. Page builders also help developers speed up their processes when creating custom designs. In addition, a web developer should always be able to play with the codes, do CSS styling even if they use page builder plugins.

So if you want a (rather) quick solution to build your website but still want to own your website (unlike hosted platforms), you should go for a WordPress website page builder option.

Final Thoughts

Whether you go for the coding option, a ready WordPress theme or a WordPress page builder plugin, you still need to understand and be able to read, write and edit codes when you need to do so.

Neither of the options makes you an expert in web design. Web professionals exist for a reason and there are so many other elements that go into a professional, secure and high-performing website. This means if you have no idea about web design and online user experience, you can still mess up the website you build with a page builder plugin.

What do you think about WordPress page builder plugins? Let us know in the comments below.

Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase we may earn a commission.

Social Influence

Damla is the founder of Social Influence. She has spent over a decade working and leading digital marketing positions for some of the world’s most exciting and forward-thinking brands. She writes about digital marketing, websites, entrepreneurship and more.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *