We get a lot of questions concerning the prominent display of Elementor and Elementor Templates on our website.
We’ve decided to bundle the questions in one article (this one) and answer them. Some of the questions were originally posted in our Facebook group.
This article can also serve as a reference if someone asks similar questions.
Q: Is the move to the Elementor page builder a company direction to phase out your original theme designs over the long term?
Yes. We’ve been a theme provider for almost a decade. The biggest issues arise not because our themes don’t work. Some clients have used them for years without any issues at all.
The biggest issues arise when other website components create compatibility issues. And through the years we’ve seen this with
- third party integrations like Google Maps, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc.
- web server software (PHP 7 and up)
- WordPress (recent 5.6 and 5.7)
- WodPress plugins
We feel our core expertise lies in offering you as diverse a design catalog as possible so you can quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively create a high-quality website for your clients.
Compatibility issues are a costly distraction for you and us. And we feel the move towards Elementor will among others:
- free up more of our time (in the long run) to redistribute creating more value in what we do best: creating the best website templates for web designers
- reduces compatibility issues
- increase functionality like e-commerce compatibility and multi-language support
- reduce costs since all images are included in the price instead of the optional photopack (a 55 USD).
- increase the amount of support available for your specific question
Q: How long are you going to keep supporting the Nexus framework themes with updates?
If we want to be here for another ten years we need to be ready for the future. And we feel that also offering our catalog wrapped in the most popular page builder in the world is a sound, long-term strategic choice. But we are still in the early stages of this strategy, so making a statement about our Nexus catalog would be premature.
So, we don’t know for sure, but we do give our clients ample time to make a decision about what they want to do with their website, and offer a comparable template version that’s using the Elementor page builder as an excellent starting point for a potential site rebuild.
Our clients are already given the choice of using the Elementor version when their yearly license is up for renewal. It’s understandable that for the short term you might choose to opt for the original Nexus version.
But I do foresee a point where the Nexus version is either simply not made available anymore, or even it was available it would be incompatible with third party software like the one running on your web server or WordPress itself. It would mean that we’ve given our clients about a 2 year window before that happens. We’ve started this process August of 2020. We thus sunset the Nexus Page Builder. The official end date of the support and updates is 1-1-2023.
Our themes will not simply shut down. They never have. We’ve had clients who’ve been running our themes for 6 years or longer without ever updating. But we acknowledge that it’s the client’s responsibility of deciding not updating a core piece of software on their website for that many years!
Q: Are there any other compatibility issues between switching from the Nexus themes to the Elementor templates?
In general, content created with page builders is incompatible with each other. Whether it’s Divi, Beaver Builder, Elementor, WPbakery or any of the other builders out there.
The same goes for the Nexus framework. None of the content built with the Nexus framework can be automatically shown with the Elementor page builder WordPress plugin. This means you cannot activate Elementor on a website built with a Nexus theme and expect the content and layout to remain intact.
If you want to recreate a website using the Nexus framework into an Elementor version you have to do so manually.
Q: Can use another page builder plugin instead of Elementor, for instance WPBakery?
No content created with any particular page builder (ours, Elementor, WPBakery, etc.) can be shown with another page builder.
Our templates created with either the Nexus page builder or Elementor cannot be shown using any other page builder (like the WPBakery plugin), unless you would port the content and the design. For the porting of the content itself, see the nxs-nexustohtml plugin below. The porting of the design need to be done manually.
Q: What are the implications of converting a Nexus theme into an Elementor template?
Elementor cannot show content with a Nexus ID because the plugin doesn’t know what Nexus content is. It doesn’t mean the Nexus content is gone from the database, it simply means the content will not be displayed on the page using any other theme than the Nexus theme.
nxs-nexustohtml plugin
If you want to be able to show Nexus content with Elementor you’ll first have to convert it to WordPress content. We have a free plugin for that called “nxs-nexustohtml“.
NOTE: Before using that plugin be sure to have a backup of you site; the moment you use the plugin it will copy the content of the widgets of the nexus front end editor to the wp backend (only way to reverse this would be to either manually remove the content of the wp backend, or obviously to restore a backup of your site if you make a backup beforehand).
After you install the plugin, go to the WP backend of your site and there you will see a new menu is added to the wp backend menu. Follow the instructions there to attempt to convert the content of the widgets (so basically that is texts and images) into the wp backend of the corresponding posts and pages. Once you do so, the content will still also be in the front end. So if you would browse a page or post after using that plugin, you will see all content twice (the content from the front end, followed by the content of the backend).
NOTE: This plugin only converts Nexus content into native WordPress content. Once the content is in the wp backend from there you will have to design the post or page to match your needs using the page builder which you prefer (like the Divi page builder, WP Bakery/Visual Composer, Elementor, Beaver Builder, the classic WP editor, the new Gutenberg editor, or any otherm whichever you prefer).
This plugin is mostly useful for converting blog / article content into the WP block editor, where design matters little, but of course it will also help on other pages, like for example your homepage or a contact page, assuming those contain content you want to keep.
It might also be useful to have the content available in a website where you manually redesign the layout from a Nexus version into an Elementor version.
Q: Do you provide documentation on how to use Elementor?
No. Elementor has over 5 million active installs and there are hundreds, if not thousands of videos out there detailing every individual feature Elementor has to offer.
A good place to start is Ferdy Korpershoek’s Elementor tutorials.
Q: What support is included with an Elementor template?
Clients who purchase an Elementor Template will receive support on the installation instructions of the Template. They may also expect the Elementor Template to work with the latest versions of the products necessary for the installation of the Elementor Template.
Clients may expect support on the specific configuration used to create the look-and-feel of the Elementor Template.
Example: “How do I remove the copyright notice in the footer of the Elementor template?”
We may decline to provide support on questions concerning the general usage of third-party products necessary for the installation of the Elementor Template.
Example: “I’ve never worked with Elementor before, how do I configure the slider to look like this website [paste URL here]?”
We may decline to provide support on conflicts arising from products necessary for the installation of the Elementor Template.
Example: “I’m trying to get my website to work with the ‘Header, Footer & Blocks Template‘ plugin but now my website has dissappeared!”
In general we’re very generous in providing support. But you do have to understand that we also receive a huge amount of non-theme related questions. In a sense we sometimes decline to provide further support so we can invest our support resources in clients who do ask product related questions.
Q: Will a site designed with Elementor look the same as a site designed with the Nexus framework when its the same title?
Yes, within the boundaries of what both builders have to offer. Take a look at the following to screenshots and decide for yourself.
I think we can safely state you can expect the same high-quality designs from us irrespective of the page builder being used.
Background slider
The Nexus page builder offered two slider options: a classic inline slider and a page background slider.
Although Elementor does offer an inline slider, it does not offer a background slider. Should you wish to use a background slider, you have to resort using a plugin.
Q: Would I need an Elementor Pro license if I purchased one of your templates?
Elementor offers a premium plugin called “Elementor Pro” that extends the functionality of the free page builder.
All Elementor templates include pro features that will not be available if you decide to not use the Elementor Pro plugin. Pro features that can be part of a template are:
- posts
- gallery
- form
- slides
- nav menu
- site logo
- post title
- Custom Header
- Custom Footer
- Custom Sidebar
- Custom Archive
- Custom 404
Q: How can I get the Elementor Pro plugin?
As of 13 april 2022 Elementor currently offers 4 premium options:
- 49 USD license for 1 site for 1 year
- 199 USD license for 25 sites for 1 year
- 499 USD license for 100 sites for 1 year
- 999 USD license for 1000 sites for 1 year
After the license expires Elementor Pro updates are no longer available and it’s up to the client to decide to optionally renew the Elementor license. The Elementor Pro plugin will not stop working after the license expires, much like our themes.
Q: I get the error: “The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet.”
If you get this error that likely means you attempt to install the all-in-one-wp-migration zip file (which contains the exported content of the design for the Elementor page builder) as a theme; that zip file is
indeed not a theme so it makes sense you get the issue. To resolve the issue, please ensure you are using the proper file for the page builder you want to use. For the design based on the Nexus page builder, you will be able to find the download of the theme in the portal (https://my.nexusthemes.com) after you select the order. If you are looking for the design based on the Elementor page builder, then follow-up on the instructions which you can find here; https://nexusthemes.com/support/how-to-install-an-elementor-template/.
Q: Can I create a website with one of your Elementor templates without using Elementor Pro?
Yes. All features that are created using Elementor Pro can be replaced with free plugins. We’ve already seen clients not using Elementor Pro and moving forward in a way that suits their style.
And a lot of Elementor template kits sold on marketplaces like Themeforest force you to install plugins to keep the price (extremely) low.
However, you will not find a plethora of plugins needed to run a website with our Elementor templates. We have not chosen this route we feel detracts from the quality of the product.
The reason we have not chosen this path is that introducing multiple third party plugin dependancies and increasing the installation complexity is not something we want for our clients. It immediately increases the amount of support and the risk each added plugin naturally brings with it.
Our products have always been extremely robust and not very prone to breaking and we would like to keep it that way. After a decade in this business we’re are extremely aware of long-term worst-case scenarios for clients’ websites triggered by short-term decisions that could’ve been easily prevented (backup your website!)
Q: What is OceanWP, is it a WordPress theme?
OceanWP is a very popular (5 star rating) free WordPress theme. Its used very frequently in combination with the Elementor. Our kits require the OceanWP theme to run, as well as Elementor (Pro).
Q: I purchased a WordPress Theme, but i got the OceanWP theme, can you help?
We offer our designs for two page builders. When you make a purchase of one of our WordPress themes you get access to both, assuming we have that design available for both (see the portal https://my.nexusthemes.com for the downloads).
- The one based on the Nexus page builder is packaged as one file and it installs as a theme (that one includes the initial content, as well as the code of the page builder).
- The other one, based on the Elementor page builder, consists of multiple seperate files. The Elementor design’s content is not stored in a theme, but in a .zipped backup we provide (the initial contents). That Elementor design also needs a theme since WordPress requires this. All our Elementor designs are based on the very popular (and free) OceanWP. It has well over 700.000 active installs and 5 star ratings. You can download it for free; https://wordpress.org/themes/oceanwp/. Follow the instructions provided to get the design you purchased (assuming you want to build the website based on Elementor). If you want to build the website with the Nexus page builder, use the other download.
Q: Can I install WooCommerce with the Elementor designs?
See here; https://elementor.com/help/is-elementor-compatible-with-woocommerce-and-easy-digital-downloads/
Q: Can you upgrade my Nexus page builder website to Elementor for me?
Upgrading a Nexus page builder site to Elementor is a manual process. Contact a webdesigner and ask him/her to re-build your website with Elementor. For example you could consider to ask Dale (see this post where he announces the services he offers). Alternatively on the website of Elementor you will find a marketplace where webdesigners from all around the world offer their servicies and expertise. Use the filters in the sidebar on that website to find webdesigners in a location near you, or filter by language or price range.
Q: Does Elementor have lookup tables, like the Nexus page builder has?
Not out of the box, but you can use plugins. See the suggestions made here by the community in this FaceBook post.