As WordPress gains in popularity, the need for a more user-friendly approach to web design has been on the rise as well.
The more time passes, the more technology and great minds have managed to come together to produce famous page builder « drag and drop ". Now that there are several on the market, a question still lingers in our minds: Which one is better?
For this tutorial, I will look at three builders' Drag and drop On WordPress, while presenting their features and their advantages and disadvantages.
From there, I think you can easily make a choice.
1 - Divi: The elegant builder (By ElegantTheme)
Back in the summer of 2013, Elegant Theme announced that they will be releasing a new theme called “Divi”, which will be unlike anything they have created until then. They were right. With the release of the theme " Divi »And especially with the Divi 2.0 update a few months ago, Divi quickly gained the attention of the WordPress community.
After its release, we put the theme to the test and we have to admit that it lives up to its reputation. Although the idea of a " drag and drop In a theme is not new, Divi offers exactly what you expect with features that will suit you.
Le page builder allows you to use either a pre-designed layout, or the ability to create a layout from scratch.
You then use what they call " Modules » to add different types of content to your website. About the page builder, Divi's idea is similar to many other builders on the market, but my opinion is that your designs have a smooth finish.
With 20 layouts of different columns, and more than 30 modules to choose from, the design options given to you are pretty much inexhaustible.
Benefits
Practical : Perfect for ' Non-developers ". Divi is a great theme for anyone who wants to build a site without coding, or for research web designers looking to speed up their content.
Infinite possibilities: Layout selection and module options let you create, or recreate content as you can imagine.
19 Template preconceived: If you do not want to design from scratch, no worries! Pre-designed layouts will help you get started.
Constant evolution: The Elegant Theme team improves Divi permanently. It is the flagship product of this company. He has a bright future ahead of him.
Drawbacks
Learning curve: Given the possibilities offered by the theme, mastering everything will take time and patience.
Price : the base price for Divi is 69 $ (not bad at first), but this price is billed annually. The only good thing about this is the fact that you get all the themes of Elegant Theme for this price. So, technically speaking, Divi only costs 0,79 ¢ (Penny or hundred)… Maybe it's not that bad after all.
The page generator : is only available with Divi Theme. Divi is a drag and drop theme, and the in-theme page builder is only available with the latter.
The Builder: only works in the dashboard. There is no front-end editing with Divi.
2 - Themify Builder - Builder by Themefy
Themify is a store of WordPress theme which focuses on the Drag and Drop ". Not only do they offer a wide selection of themes that are powered by their page builder " Drag and Drop , But they also sell their Builder separately (As a plugin). The "Builder" has a few features (it is responsive and optimized for SEO), offers a live publisher.
Unlike the Divi theme that requires you to build pages in the backend, the " Builder From Themify allows you to use the live build interface.
It's a huge time saver! Because like almost all WordPress themes in the market today, you usually have to make your changes in the back-end and then you have to preview the final result in real time. This usually leads to more tweaking and more previewing which results in more time.
Benefits
Easy to learn: The interface is quite intuitive so you won't need to spend a lot of time learning how it works.
Reasonable : The price of the plugin alone is $ 49, however, you also have the option of purchasing 2 themes for the same price. The builder is designed for each theme.
Compatibility : Works on most WordPress themes current. The plugin transforms your classic theme into a "Drag and Drop" theme, with a full-fledged interface!
Stretch : Lots of layouts and modules. The " Builder Themify comes with 8 pre-built templates, and 16 modules to choose from.
Drawbacks
Little functionality : Although this constructor " drag and drop Is user-friendly, it is not that powerful compared to Divi ...
A slight learning curve: Which is really not a big inconvenience. Each theme « drag and drop Or plugin has that learning curve, so don't let that put you off.
3 - Visual Composer
We couldn't really talk about Drag and Drop without talking about Visual Composer. With more than 100.000 websites using it, and boasting of being the # 1 drag and drop on the market, Visual Composer is a plugin that has so far proven its worth.
The evolution of Visual Composer can allow us to be optimistic, because it was not the case at first. The most impressive feature of Visual Composer is that you have the ability to both edit on the dashboard and live.
The way Visual Composer works mirrors how the other two previous plugins worked: Create columns, add modules (or elements, as they call them on Visual Composer), insert your content. Visual Composer offers more than 40 different elements that you can use to build your pages.
Benefits
Price : The price for the VC plugin is only $ 28. With all the features available, which is a pretty good deal!
The publisher live: Design and modification in real time. You have the opportunity to edit in the dashboard or in real time.
User-friendly interface: Visual Composer has a style similar to " Builder Of Themify, which makes it easier to learn.
The extensions: Extensions are a way to extend the functionality offered by Visual Composer.
Compatibility : Works with all WordPress themes. We have already had to test the plugin with most WordPress themes. While it is probably true that you can use this plugin with any theme, the fact remains that compatibility is better with a dedicated theme.
Disadvantages
Learning : Extensions increase the learning curve. The learning time will increase as you install extensions. Extensions increase the power and functionality of the plugin, but that means you will have to pay more money.
Generated code : The fact that it is a drag and drop plugin means that we are in the presence of a plugin that generates code automatically. Sometimes you will have long codes for a small page.
Finally
The choice of an extension will be up to you, depending on your ease of using one that offers live editing or not. For my part, I recommend Visual Composer. It is a plugin that I have several times tested and used in production on my sites.
