Have you ever wondered why people wonder about Tesla while buying Lamborghini? It’s a close call between the two premium car companies, right?
Definitely!
Does comparing Gutenberg and Elementor or a battle of Elementor vs Gutenberg page builder plugins resemble this? Both are undefeated champions in their own right.
WordPress’s known fact was that it laid off its old TinyMCE editor in WordPress 5. It then introduced a new block WordPress editor known as WordPress Gutenberg. After the release, Gutenberg became the talk of the town. However, Gutenberg’s massive popularity raises two questions.
- Is the Gutenberg editor deserving of the hype it’s getting?
- Can Gutenberg replace page builders such as Elementor?
Well, WordPress page builders have their own uniqueness. It’s a bit unfair to discuss Gutenberg vs. Elementor. However, users often get confused about the two, and they look for a concrete answer. I’m sure you’re there to find out the same thing.
So, without further ado, let’s compare the recent versions of Gutenberg and Elementor. Let’s dive in:
- Gutenberg vs Elementor: An Overview
- Gutenberg vs Elementor: Major Features
- Important Distinctions Between Gutenberg and Elementor
- Elementor vs Gutenberg – Highlights
- Elementor vs Gutenberg: The Final Verdict
A Brief Intro
If you are a WP user, you might know about Elementor and Gutenberg. Still, we’ll quickly go through to demonstrate a brief intro about Gutenberg vs. Elementor to clear the air:
Gutenberg vs Elementor: An Overview
What is Gutenberg?
Gutenberg is the new text-based block editor (code name) on all WordPress sites. The curtain was raised on Gutenberg at WordCamp 2017 by Matt Mullenweg. It has gained respect as a powerful WordPress block editor that enables the user to have an aesthetic layout.
You can embed widgets, texts, shortcodes, custom posts, and other content in a single file. It creates entire jargon and isn’t removable. On the flip side, Gutenberg can tackle content using blocks. There are different blocks catering to various elements with unique layout settings. Some renowned blocks are image, gallery, shortcode, list, paragraph, and heading.
The best part is that you can use multiple Gutenberg page builders for customization options.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a WordPress page builder based on drag-and-drop functionality. Elementor made its mark based on its ability to design web pages with complex styling or advanced layout. It doesn’t demand any coding knowledge. Creating entire WordPress eCommerce templates is doable through Elementor Pro.
Elementor offers developers a lot of built-in widgets, personalized designs, and content layouts. Therefore, there is no need to build a website from scratch with Elementor. This page builder lets you integrate pre-made elements and designs for your WordPress site that professionals usually develop.
Moreover, you can make your website development process manageable through Elementor’s drag and drop facility. All you need to do is pick an element, drop it on your webpage, and see the change go live.3.
Gutenberg vs Elementor: Major Features
Before you can get into the Elementor vs. Gutenberg debate, you need to know what these two huge WordPress plugins are.So, let’s go through that:
Gutenberg: Key Features for Online Stores
1. User-Friendly
As compared to Elementor, Gutenberg is more user-friendly. After writing a page with Gutenberg Editor, you can use different tools to take a guide and go through the entire process.
2. Page Creator for Free
Gutenberg is 100% free, and it is packed into WordPress. Thus, it’s easy to use. Also, you should know that you can get plenty of extensions and plugins to enhance its functionality.
3. Intuitive Interface
Unlike the old WordPress versions, Gutenberg offers an intuitive content creation interface. This is in line with contemporary sensibilities, which are simple to learn and use by beginners.
4. Full-Screen Mode and Spotlight Mode
If you feel the Gutenberg workspace is distracting, the Fullscreen and Spotlight mode features can work as a blessing for you. You can enable or disable these two features by clicking the three dots in the top right corner of your screen.
5. Blocks Are Reusable
The writing blocks in Gutenberg is reusable. You can use the same blocks by copying and pasting them wherever you want.
Why is Gutenberg so popular?
Here are why people go crazy over Gutenberg:
Comfort:
When comfort is in question, there is no better solution than Gutenberg. For a smooth, superficial, and buttery writing experience, bloggers find this plugin as their best partner. Gutenberg is intuitive too.
Well Organized:
Gutenberg can be seen as a mirror image of blocks. The blocks help you organize your web page elements and feel like you are erecting a building from ground zero. These blocks work as the core ingredients, such as sand or clay.
Easy Formatting:
You can format your product as per your wishes through Gutenberg. Some key features you get are text and background color, block alignment, text settings, margin, and much more.
Simple Layout:
Gutenberg offers you the simplest of layout designs among its peer content editors. You stay away from complex or unnecessary elements or functions.
Metadata:
Through Gutenberg, it is easy to check excerpts, feature photos, categories, or page attributes. Also, it is simple to track revisions and content status as well.
Elementor: Key Features for Online Stores
1. Editor with Drag and Drop
You can build and visually personalize every website component without writing any code. Also, you can create a dream website with custom positioning, responsive design for every site element, and global colors and fonts. View your WP site as you build it. Drag and drop the widgets onto your canvas.
2. 300+ Templates
Elementor helps you to use designer-made 300+ templates. You can pick an aesthetically crafted template developed to fit different industries’ needs and demands. Every template is always responsive and completely customizable.
3. Pixel-perfect Designs
With powerful design features, you can design distinct and show-stopping WordPress websites. Also, you can adjust every element’s margin, positioning, spacing, and padding as per your brief, down to the last pixel. This level of customization allows you to create unique and branded WordPress websites for your clients, leveraging the benefits of white label WordPress development services.
4. 100% Responsive
Flawlessly adjust the presentation and content of your site to every gadget. Using Custom Breakpoints, you can offer a seamless optimized experience for every website visitor, whether they are watching your site on a wide screen, mobile, tablet, desktop, or more.
5. Elementor has a strong community
Elementor is robust. You can get your queries resolved and share knowledge with community members. On Facebook, Elementor has 120K members. You can go there and see countless tutorials and get feedback for your scenario.
6. Developer API
Elementor is an open-source platform. Therefore, developers can extend their capabilities and explore different resources to get started.
Why Do Developers Choose Elementor?
Community:
Elementor as a plugin enjoys the massive support of its fanbase, with an active 100K+ members on its Facebook community. The users of Elementor grow together by helping each other professionally. Through its effective support group, every rising problem gets solved quickly (maximum 30 minutes).
Tutorials:
According to research, 72% of people prefer video tutorials to learn about certain products or services. Elementor took this stat quite seriously. Elementor has more tutorial resources than Gutenberg. They regularly upload videos on YouTube and improve their chances of serving their users by problem-solving. You don’t need to look anywhere else, as there is a real possibility that Elementor has a video for you.
All WordPress Themes are Compatible With:
You may wonder about the compatibility issues, as Elementor is a 3rd-party plugin. However, you don’t need to worry about this as the Elementor page builder is adjustable with almost every WordPress theme. Moreover, this plugin adds additional functionality to your theme.
Elementor Addons:
Elementor is self-sufficient when it comes to designing a webpage. However, you can add other add-ons to explore the core of Elementor. Some renowned add-ons are Croco Block, MetForm, ShopEngine, ElementsKit, etc.
Track Revision:
Your little mistake can destroy your website. That’s why most webmasters feel reluctant to make changes to their websites. However, history revision can keep you at bay. Through revision tracking, you can undo your mistakes and return to the previous session.
Real WYSIWYG:
Elementor functions on the front panel. Thus, you get the true essence of ‘what you see is what you get.’ You can also incorporate different changes and track the same using the front panel. You see the live changes and get rid of the preview hassle.
Important Distinctions Between Gutenberg and Elementor
Now we know what these two plugins do. Although the two have similar functions, some factors set them apart.
The Drag and Drop Feature
Elementor offers drag-and-drop functionality. It enables you to drag widgets or blocks and drop them onto your page. Also, you can create different columns inside the blocks. Another important aspect of the Elementor page builder is that it allows you to adjust the height and width.
On the flip side, Gutenberg lacks a drag and drop facility. However, you can do a lot of customization through blocks, but you need to do this manually. Also, you can’t change the height and width through Gutenberg. Also, you can’t customize complicated layouts with rows and columns.
Live Editing
Gutenberg appears to be a WYSIWYG editor, but it cannot deliver the full WYSIWYG experience.Also, racking changes by clicking the preview button is a safe option. Imagine you need to click 100 times to make a perfect image, which gives you the feeling as if you are a website visitor.
On the flip side, Elementor is the 180-degree opposite. It shows your changes immediately. It saves you time and energy.
Backend vs. Frontend Editing
Gutenberg functions on the backend of the editing policy. During editing, Gutenberg doesn’t allow you to see your design’s preview. A preview is necessary. Otherwise, you need to do everything without knowing about the applied changes. Experts can track changes while editing in the editor, but normal users can’t.
On the flip side, elementor enables you to see live previews of the changes made on the web pages. Because Elementor users make modifications on the front panel, it’s much easier to double-check the design.
Advanced Formatting
Both Elementor and Gutenberg give you advanced formatting settings. However, the formatting style is different in both plugins. Gutenberg enables the user to apply advanced tweaking like customized lists and photos. You will have to insert custom CSS into your selected block for critical personalization.
On the flip side, Elementor allows simple formatting compared to Gutenberg. Elementor’s front panel has all the formatting styles. You can tweak heights or widths by sliding, block formatting, etc. Elementor also lets you change things like styles, photos, background color, text color, and more.
Responsiveness
You may be surprised that over 52% of people browse the internet on mobile devices. So, if your customers can’t find you on the website, they will leave you immediately. Thus, the chances of losing potential customers increase.
Unfortunately, the Gutenberg block editor can’t adjust your content for particular screens. Depending on your WP theme, the editor also greatly impacts it.
On the flip side, you can control the display settings through Elementor. Also, it is possible to insert various styling elements by maintaining responsiveness. You also have a few ways to make it your own, like choosing the content size, alignment, padding, etc.
Elementor vs Gutenberg – Highlights
Gutenberg
- You get the drag-and-drop facility with Gutenberg to import product images directly to your computer.
- You can use one block several times for multiple WordPress websites.
- To save time, Gutenberg allows you to copy-paste your product description along with images directly from Google Docs.
- Gutenberg allows you to delete, redo, or edit the blocks to give you complete control over them.
- You can jump links or insert HTML anchor links with Gutenberg.
Elementor
- 300+ templates for every niche.
- You can use over 90 widgets or elements for content or product description creation.
- For responsive editing, you can personalize every aspect of the element to make it device-friendly.
- You get various marketing tools with Elementor for higher traffic and conversion rates.
- Elementor enables you to create landing pages for free, without any coding knowledge.
- You get 100+ templates for pop-up designs to attract more viewers to your online store.
Elementor vs Gutenberg: The Final Verdict
We have gone through all the nitty-gritty these two giant WordPress plugins offer. However, the question remains as to which is your best bet: Elementor or Gutenberg?
Well, it all depends on your needs!
Gutenberg is the first choice for any WordPress site. However, if you need functionality over page speed, go for Elementor. Moreover, Gutenberg could be your safest bet if you are comfortable with a simple layout design. Furthermore, you will be restricted to the default features. Gutenberg costs a bit too much. If a functionality-rich package attracts you, pick Elementor. If you are interested how
Elementor compares to other builders, you can check Elementor vs Oxygen.
The choice is yours!