In this article I’m going to answer the question “Can I use Elementor for free”?
In general there’s a bit of confusion about the page builder Elementor. What is paid feature and what is free? So when do you have to pay when you use Elementor?
What’s in the free version of Elementor
Anyone can download and use the free version of Elementor. And you do so from within a WordPress website.
More specifically, the plugin section of a WordPress website, because as far as I can see you can’t actually download the plugin from the Elementor site itself.
Alternatively you could download the plugin from the WordPress repository.
When this free version of the Elementor plugin is activated on your site you have access to page builder functionality within the main content area of any page.
Not the header. Not the footer. Not the sidebar.
Now let’s answer the question “Can I use Elementor for free?”. And to be able to answer that question we’re first going to look at what’s in the free version of Elementor and what comes with Elementor Pro.
Free Elementor Features
So let’s see what Elementor Features are free:
| Inner section | Basic | Used |
| Heading | Basic | Used |
| Image | Basic | Used |
| Text Editor | Basic | Used |
| Video | Basic | Used |
| Button | Basic | Used |
| Divider | Basic | Never used |
| Spacer | Basic | Never used |
| Google Maps | Basic | Used |
| Icon | Basic | Used |
| Image Box | General | Used |
| Icon Box | General | Used |
| Star Rating | General | Used |
| Image Carousel | General | Never used |
| Basic Gallery | General | Used |
| Icon List | General | Never used |
| Counter | General | Never used |
| Progress Bar | General | Never used |
| Testimonial | General | Used |
| Tabs | General | Never used |
| Accordion | General | Used |
| Toggle | General | Never used |
| Social Icons | General | Never used |
| Alert | General | Never used |
| Soundcloud | General | Never used |
| Shortcode | General | Never used |
| HTML | General | Never used |
| Menu Anchor | General | Never used |
| Sidebar | General | Never used |
| Read More | General | Never used |
| Pages | WordPress | Never used |
| Calendar | WordPress | Never used |
| Archives | WordPress | Never used |
| Audio | WordPress | Never used |
| Image | WordPress | Never used |
| Gallery | WordPress | Never used |
| Video | WordPress | Never used |
| Meta | WordPress | Never used |
| Search | WordPress | Never used |
| Text | WordPress | Never used |
| Categories | WordPress | Never used |
| Recent Posts | WordPress | Never used |
| Recent Comments | WordPress | Never used |
| RSS | WordPress | Never used |
| Tag Cloud | WordPress | Never used |
| Navigation Menu | WordPress | Never used |
| Custom HTML | WordPress | Never used |
Then there are a number of other site settings features I always use
- Global Colors
- Global Fonts
- Typography
Pro Elementor Features
And these are the pro Elementor elements
| Posts | Pro | Used |
| Portfolio | Pro | Never Used |
| Gallery | Pro | Used |
| Form | Pro | Used |
| Login | Pro | Never Used |
| Slides | Pro | Used |
| Nav Menu | Pro | Used |
| Animated Headline | Pro | Never Used |
| Price List | Pro | Never Used |
| Price Table | Pro | Never Used |
| Flip Box | Pro | Never Used |
| Call to Action | Pro | Never Used |
| Media Carousel | Pro | Never Used |
| Testimonial Carousel | Pro | Never Used |
| Reviews | Pro | Never Used |
| Table of Contents | Pro | Never Used |
| Countdown | Pro | Never Used |
| Share Buttons | Pro | Never Used |
| Blockquote | Pro | Never Used |
| Facebook Button | Pro | Never Used |
| Facebook Comments | Pro | Never Used |
| Facebook Embed | Pro | Never Used |
| Facebook Page | Pro | Never Used |
| Template | Pro | Never Used |
| Nav Menu | Site | Never Used |
| Table of Contents | Site | Never Used |
| Search Form | Site | Never Used |
| Author Box | Site | Never Used |
| Post Comments | Site | Never Used |
| Post Navigation | Site | Never Used |
| Post Info | Site | Never Used |
| Sitemap | Site | Never Used |
| Breadcrumbs | Site | Never Used |
| Menu Cart | Site | Never Used |
| Site Logo | Site | Used |
| Site Title | Site | Never Used |
| Page Title | Site | Never Used |
| Post Title | Site | Used |
| Post Excerpt | Site | Never Used |
| Featured Image | Site | Never Used |
| Archive Title | Site | Never Used |
| Archive Posts | Site | Never Used |
| Archive Products | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Archive Description | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Products | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| WooCommerce Breadcrumbs | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Custom Add To Cart | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| WooCommerce Pages | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Categories | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Menu Cart | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Title | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Images | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Price | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Add To Cart | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Rating | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Stock | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Meta | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Short Description | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Data Tabs | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Additional Information | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Product Related | WooCommerce | d.n.a. |
| Upsells | d.n.a. |
These are other Elementor Pro features I literally always use:
- Custom Header
- Custom Footer
- Custom Sidebar
- Custom Archive
- Custom 404
Third Party Plugins to enhance Elementor
There’s one plugin I often use to add a single extra element to the sidebar. This is the free version of Essential Addons for Elementor.
The only reason I use this plugin is for the table element which is missing for both Elementor and Elementor Pro.
It’s definitely a unwieldy element to create something as as simple as a table, but it does the job.
Concluding remarks on “Can I use Elementor for free?”
The quick answer to this question is obviously “yes”. Elementor offers a free version of their plugin for anyone to use.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not it’ll get you far in building the website you want for yourself or your client.
As of now you can see that apart from e-commerce sites, which I haven’t built yet, I always use Elementor Pro features. Especially since I want to rely on as little theme functionality as possible and also want to use as little plugins as possible.
Being able to do basically everything I want to do within Elementor and an interface I’m familiar with is a tremendous advantage worth the premium.