WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system. With WordPress, you can create a website even if you have no web programming skills. However, for certain needs, web programming skills are still required. In the context of WordPress, the programming languages you need to master are PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
A page builder plugin eliminates your mandatory to master any web programming language to create a beautiful web page or certain features to your website. A WordPress page builder comes with a live frontend editor, allowing you to directly express what’s on your head. A page builder also comes with sets of design elements/widgets. You can simply drag the widgets to the canvas and make the settings according to what you are going to accomplish.
Take a look at the video below.
The video above is the interface of Elementor, one of the most popular WordPress page builder plugins. Of course, different page builder has a different interface. All page builder plugins have one grand purpose: to help you create a beautiful web page without coding.
Elementor is just one example. There are lots of page builder plugins out there. Some themes like Newspaper and Divi even have their own theme builder.
What you can do with a page builder plugin?
One thing for sure. You can use a page builder plugin to create a beautiful web page on your WordPress site without having to deal with CSS or HTML. In general, here are the things you can do with a page builder plugin.
- Create a beautiful web page
As we mentioned a couple of times above. You can use a page builder plugin to create a beautiful web page on your WordPress site without dealing with CSS or HTML. A page builder offers a visual editor. All you need to do is drag the widgets/design elements to the canvas area and make the settings according to what you want to accomplish.
Before choosing a page builder, you can find out the examples of the web pages created with the associated page builder on its website. Commonly, a page builder plugin has a showcase page that shows the best websites or web pages created with it.
- Create a WordPress theme
WordPress is built with PHP. To create a WordPress theme, you should also master PHP and the supporting languages including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
It was then.
You can now create a WordPress theme without coding. Some WordPress page builder plugins — including Elementor and Divi Builder– have a theme builder feature that allows you to create a WordPress theme using a drag-and-drop visual editor. No coding skills are required.
A WordPress theme typically consists of the following parts:
- Header.
- Footer.
- Single post template.
- Archive page.
- 404 page.
And so on according to the complexity of the theme.
You can use the theme builder feature of a page builder plugin to create the parts above. Once a new part is created and published, it will replace the default part of the currently active theme on your WordPress site. For instance, once you are done creating a single post template with Elementor and publish it, this new single post template will replace the single post template of your current theme.
Not all page builder plugins have a theme builder, though. Elementor and Divi Builder (version 4.0 and above) are two examples of the page builder plugins that have a theme builder feature.
Popular page builder plugins
Elementor and Divi Builder are two examples of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress. In addition to the two, there are also some page builders. WordPress themes like Newspaper and X even have their own page builder. Here are some of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress.
- Elementor
- Divi Builder
- Beaver Builder
- WPBakery
- Visual Composer
- Themify Builder
- Thrive Architect
- Page Builder Sandwich
- MotoPress Content Editor
- Brizy
- tagDiv Composer (only for themes developed by tagDiv: Newspaper and NewsMag)