We built three complete websites with Elementor Pro — a portfolio, a WooCommerce store, and a coaching landing page. Here's our full, honest breakdown.
Elementor is the world's most popular WordPress page builder, used on over 10 million websites. The free version handles basic page building; Elementor Pro ($59/yr) adds 60+ premium widgets, a full Theme Builder, WooCommerce Builder, popup builder, dynamic content, and priority support. For WordPress site owners who want design freedom without writing code, it's the industry benchmark.
The core value proposition of Elementor Pro is control. You can replace your entire WordPress theme — header, footer, blog archives, single post templates, 404 page — with custom-designed Elementor layouts. Nothing is off-limits. This is the feature that separates it from Divi, Beaver Builder, and Bricks.
Elementor Pro is less suitable for pure performance sites (it adds ~150kb to page weight), or for developers who prefer clean code over visual builder output.
Theme Builder is Elementor Pro's most powerful feature. You design custom templates for every part of your WordPress theme: header, footer, single post, archive, search results, and 404 page. These templates are then assigned using conditions (show this header on all posts tagged "category X"). Combined with dynamic content tags, you can pull post titles, dates, featured images, and custom fields directly into your templates — creating a fully automated design system.
Elementor Pro's WooCommerce Builder lets you design custom product pages, shop archives, cart, and checkout pages using drag-and-drop. The Product Upsell and Related Products widgets boost AOV without plugins. In our ecommerce test build, we converted a default WooCommerce store into a conversion-optimised layout in 4 hours — work that would have required a custom theme developer previously.
The Popup Builder is a Pro exclusive that replaces OptinMonster or Sumo for most use cases. Trigger popups by scroll depth, time on page, exit intent, or click — with full display conditions. In our A/B tests, an Elementor exit-intent popup drove a 2.8% email list conversion rate on a blog post — competitive with dedicated popup tools.
| Feature | Free | Essential ($59/yr) | Expert ($199/yr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widgets & Design | |||
| Basic Widgets | 40+ | 40+ Basic | 40+ Basic |
| Pro Widgets | ✕ | 60+ Pro | 60+ Pro |
| Global Widgets | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Builder Features | |||
| Theme Builder | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| WooCommerce Builder | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Popup Builder | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dynamic Content | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support & Licenses | |||
| Websites | 1 | 1 | 25 |
| Support | Community | Priority Email | VIP Support |
| Updates | Lifetime | 1 Year | 1 Year |
Elementor Pro is billed annually only. License covers 1 year of updates and support; after that the plugin continues to work but loses new features and security patches unless renewed.
Common Questions