Honest Review of Elementor from a Developer’s Perspective: Should You Use Elementor in 2025?

An honest review of Elementor, from the view of a full stack developer. No hype, just my real experience, pros and cons, and whether I think you should use Elementor.

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Elementor Page Builder

If you’ve spent any time building websites with WordPress, you’ve probably heard of the name, Elementor.

Elementor is known as one of the most popular page builders ever created, but with so many new tools and the ever-evolving Gutenberg core editor, many people are asking… Is Elementor still worth it in 2025?

As a WordPress developer with over 15 years of experience building custom themes and plugins… I’ve experienced working with basically all of the popular page builders build for WordPress.

I’ve built websites from scratch, optimized WooCommerce stores, and experimented with dozens of different tools, so I have experience on optimizing websites and build for speed and performance, mobile responsiveness and everything else that Google (and other search engines) takes into consideration when ranking a website.

In this post, I’ll explain more on Elementor, and share my honest Elementor review from a developer’s perspective.

No hype, just my real experience, the pros and the cons, and whether I think you should use Elementor for your next website.

What Is Elementor? An Overview of the WordPress Page Builder

Elementor Page Builder

For anyone new to WordPress, Elementor is a visual drag-and-drop page builder that allows you to fully design and customize WordPress websites without needing to touch a line of code.

You can simply drag widgets (like headings, buttons, images, or forms) onto your page and further style them to look exactly as you want, all within the live preview environment.

When Elementor first launched, it was just an in content page builder.

Today, Elementor Page Builder and it’s Premium version, has evolved into a complete website design platform that lets you:

  • Build custom headers, footers, and templates
  • Design WooCommerce stores and product pages
  • Add dynamic content using ACF, Pods, or custom fields
  • Build popups, lead forms, and landing pages
  • Even host your entire site with Elementor Hosting

It’s gone from being a page builder to being a full-fledged website creation system, and they now also offer WordPress hosting and a few other tools for site optimization, emails, accessibility and more.

They’ve really taken the web-world by storm!

My Honest Experience as a Developer Using Elementor

Yes, I use Elementor myself!

Having built hundreds of websites, not in WordPress, with WordPress and with Elementor… I’ve seen where Elementor really shines.

Where it works best, and where it doesn’t.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

The Pros: Why I Still Recommend Elementor

1. First off… Clients Love It!

And that’s an important one!

Elementor gives non-technical clients the freedom to edit and build onto their own websites. They can drag content around, change headings, or swap images all.

As a developer building my own projects, I prefer handing over a websites that clients are happy with and can manage themselves going forward.

2. Incredible Design Flexibility

With Elementor, you’re not limited by your theme anymore.

Elementor lets you tweak every pixel, margins, padding, colors, animations, and typography.

Even if you’re not a designer, Elementor makes you feel like one, and you can use Elementor’s templates and global design settings to create something that looks beautiful and consistent.

3. It’s Fast and Efficient

With Elementor, the speed of building a website is a massive win for small businesses, freelancers, and clients needing a budget friendly, professional website.

If your goal is to get a professional site online quickly, Elementor is one of the fastest tools to build with.

4. Elementor Pro Is Worth Every Cent!

While the free version of Elementor is excellent for basic pages, Elementor Pro unlocks the real power, like theme builder, form builder, dynamic content, and WooCommerce integration.

Elementor Pro gives you everything you need to build a professional website, and starts at only $59 per year… As a business expense, that is minimal!

The Cons: What’s wrong with Elementor

I used to say Elementor was starting to feel a little slower and getting a bit heavy at times, especially if you stack too many widgets or add-ons, but in the past few updates, Elementor have really improved on performance and speed, changed to use flexbox containers, lazy loading, and advanced CSS optimizations.

👉 Pro Tip: Pair Elementor with a lightweight theme (like Hello Theme or one of our themes) and use a caching plugin, that combo will help even more!

Other than that, I can’t really fault Elementor on their page builder.

Why I Still Recommend Elementor (Even as a Developer)

Even as someone who builds custom WordPress themes and plugins, I still use and recommend Elementor (Pro) all the time.

Why?

Because not every project needs a fully custom solution.

Many clients just need a professional site that’s fast to launch, easy to update, and looks beautiful… And Elementor delivers all of that.

Here’s who I think Elementor is perfect for:

  • Freelancers and agencies building websites for clients
  • Small businesses who want a professional site quickly
  • Developers who want a faster workflow
  • Beginners who don’t want to learn code

It’s not about replacing developers, it’s about working smarter or getting yourself online quick and looking professional.

Elementor handles the layout and visuals while you focus on structure, content, and performance.

Elementor vs Gutenberg (2025): Which WordPress Builder Is Better for You?

This is one of the most common debates: Elementor vs Gutenberg (the WordPress core block editor).

  • Gutenberg is maybe slightly faster and lighter, and it’s improving slowly with every release, but it’s not nearly as powerful as Elementor in features, yet.
  • Elementor is great if you want fully flexibility designing custom pages, animations, marketing layouts, or eCommerce designs and making sure your website is responsive.

For now… Elementor wins hands down!

You can actually use both, I’ve often used Elementor for the full site design, and Gutenberg just for the blog and single post pages.

Elementor Page Builder

Is Elementor Worth It in 2025?

Absolutely… Elementor is still worth it in 2025.

The Pro version starts at about $59 per year for one website, which is incredible value when you consider what you get:

  • Theme Builder
  • Form & Popup Builder
  • WooCommerce Builder
  • Loop Builder
  • Dynamic content integrations
  • Global widgets and templates
  • and now, Elementor AI, for generating text and images directly inside the editor
  • And lots more!

Add to that Elementor Hosting, which combines WordPress, CDN, and automatic optimization into one platform, and you’ve got an all-in-one solution that’s hard to beat.

Whether you’re a developer, freelancer, or small business owner, Elementor helps you launch faster and design smarter.

Final Thoughts: Should You Use Elementor?

If you’ve made it this far, here’s my honest developer verdict:

Yes… Elementor is still one of the best WordPress page builders you can use in 2025.

It’s fast, powerful, and backed by a massive community.

It’s flexible enough for professionals and it’s friendly enough for beginners.

As someone who still builds custom WordPress themes and plugins, I can confidently say that Elementor complements development, it doesn’t replace it.

It’s the perfect tool when you want:

  • Design freedom
  • Rapid development
  • Happy, self-sufficient clients
  • Consistent, beautiful layouts

So if you’re still wondering, “Should I use Elementor?“… my answer is yes!

Try the free version first, then upgrade to Elementor Pro once you’re ready to unlock everything it offers.

You’ll immediately see why it’s remained the #1 WordPress page builder year after year.

FAQ’s: Elementor Review in 2025

Is Elementor still good in 2025?

Yes, Elementor remains one of the top page builders for WordPress.

It’s constantly updated, includes performance improvements, and integrates well with modern tools and themes.

Is Elementor free?

Yes, Elementor has a free version with essential widgets.

For advanced features like theme builder, popups, and dynamic content, you’ll need Elementor Pro.

Is Elementor worth paying for?

Definitely.

Elementor Pro offers excellent value with its advanced templates, integrations, and design freedom.

It easily pays for itself after one project.

Can developers customize Elementor?

Yes.

Developers can extend Elementor using hooks, custom CSS, and custom widgets.

It’s flexible enough for both beginners and advanced users.

Is Elementor better than Gutenberg?

At the moment, yes!

It also depends on your goals.

Gutenberg is lightweight and great for content, but Elementor offers advanced design tools and flexibility, perfect for full professional websites or WooCommerce Stores.


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