WPBakery Page Builder Review PROS & CONS (Formerly Visual Composer) | Best WordPress Page Builder?

WPBakery Page Builder

7.1

Easy to use

6.5/10

Features

8.5/10

Price

8.2/10

Overall quality

5.0/10

Pros

  • You can save templates for later use
  • Works with most themes
  • Multilingual interface
  • Various content blocks
  • Many addons available for it
  • User role access control

Cons

  • There is a learning curve
  • It can have conflicts with other plugins
  • Once deactivated leaves shortcodes on pages
  • Not easy to use and straightforward
  • Can impact page speed

WordPress page builder plugin can turn your WordPress site pages and posts into an amazing looking website. In this WPBakery Page Builder review I will be dissecting features of this very popular plugin.

These WordPress page builders allow you to create, edit, and customize your site layout without writing any code. Many WordPress beginners find it difficult to change or customize page layouts on their site.

While today many premium WordPress themes come with different page layouts, those are often hard to customize. There are several great drag and drop page builder plugins available for WordPress. They allow you to customize mostly every component on your posts and pages.

These components can be anything like adding multiple columns, parallax backgrounds, full width images, content slider, etc. Users can use these components as blocks to build their own layouts within their WordPress themes.

The page builder market is very competitive today. But one page builder plugin pops out almost on every corner. It is WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress.

It is a very popular plugin with more than 94 000 sold copies and an average rating of 4.7. More than 500 000 websites around the world have this plugin installed. There are many page builder plugins for WordPress available. Both free and paid. But this one is recommended by most WordPress users.

NOTE: I have also compared WPBakery vs Elementor, so check that comparison if you are interested to see differences.

 

Why Was Visual Composer Rebranded To WPBakery Page Builder?

WPBakery Page Builder used to be called Visual Composer page builder and is one of the original page builders for WordPress. The Visual Composer trademark has since been used for an entirely different project: a full-fledged website builder – Visual Composer Website Builder. Check Visual Composer review for more info.

While CodeCanyon still sells the original WPBakery Page Builder, the Visual Composer Website Builder is a separate plugin and sold on its official website. You can check Visual Composer vs WPBakery comparison to see differences.

 

WPBakery vs Visual Composer Differences

blank-page
  • Name
  • Price
  • Free version
  • Drag and Drop editor
  • Frontend editor
  • Tree view mode
  • Backend editor
  • Mobile editing
  • Inline text editor
  • Instant save
  • Header editor
  • Footer editor
  • Sidebar editor
  • Page layouts
  • Global header and footer
  • Works with any WordPress theme
  • Custom Post Type support
  • Multisite support
  • Multilanguage ready
  • RTL compatible
  • Template management
  • Blocks templates
  • Element presets
  • Templatera/Global Templates (Reusable templates)
  • Template Export/Import
  • Design Options
  • Copy/Paste
  • Element clone
  • Element custom name
  • Grid Builder
  • Hide element
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Recent colors
  • Undo/Redo
  • Blank Page Wizard
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom JavaScript
  • Element replace
  • Role manager
  • Icon libraries
  • Google fonts
  • Instagram-like filters
  • Parallax effects
  • Gradient background
  • Slideshow background
  • Carousel background
  • Zoom In/Out background
  • Video background
  • Element animations
  • Background image position
  • Shape divider
  • Box Shadow
  • Instant column resize
  • Column stacking
  • Reverse column stacking
  • Row full width/height
  • Responsive preview mode
  • Automatic responsiveness
  • Custom row responsiveness
  • Yoast SEO support
  • Shortcode support
  • WordPress widget support
  • Gutenberg element
  • Block for Gutenberg
  • Custom widget support
  • Unsplash Stock Images
  • API
  • Staging activation
  • 3rd party Add-ons
  • WooCommerce Support
  • Cloud library
  • Menu elements
  • Theme integration
  • Developers License
visual composer website builder vs wpbakery page builder
  • VISUAL COMPOSER WEBSITE BUILDER
  • $59 for single site
    $59 single site premium license for unlimited access to all of its elements and customer support, a $149 for 3 websites license, and Developers license (for unlimited usage) for $349.
wpbakery vs visual composer
  • WPBAKERY PAGE BUILDER
  • $45 for single site
    $45 single site license (one time payment) and a $245 extended license for Saas applications

SHORT SUMMARY: Visual Composer Website Builder and WPBakery Page Builder are both independent products. They can’t be replaced merely one by another.

 

WPBakery Page Builder Review

WPBakery Page Builder plugin allows you to design unique pages using building blocks of content. Some page builder plugins call these blocks modules while some refer to them as widgets. WPBakery calls them “Content Elements.” They all refer to blocks of content that can be dragged and dropped into any part of a page.

Over 40 content elements are packaged with WPBakery. This includes text blocks, social media buttons, video players, image carousels, post grids, charts, etc. WPBakery Page Builder allows you to style your pages on both the front-end (your live website) and the backend (the WordPress admin area).

You install and activate it like any other WordPress plugin. You may need to enable WPBakery Page Builder plugin for posts in its settings as for me it was unticked by default. Except that, there is not much work in settings of the plugin.

At the top of the page, you can choose which post types WPBakery Builder can be used with. Posts, pages or any other active post types. They all can be enabled or disabled. You can also select Google fonts and disable responsive content elements.

You can choose whether a specific user group can use both WPBakery Page Builder and the default WordPress editor or restrict usage. For example, you could only allow use of WPBakery to administrators and editors.

Specific content elements can also be disabled for each user group. Go to create pages or posts and there you will see new options. You may have more or fewer elements to add depending which plugins you have installed and which theme you use.

Drag and drop page builders usually let you style pages in the backend (i.e., the post editor) or the front-end (i.e., the live website). WPBakery Page Builder allows you to do both. You choose or combine depending on how is easier for you.

Don’t worry if you had content before. You will not lose anything. In fact you can make your previous content even better and more appealing. WPBakery Page Builder will work with any WordPress theme so there shouldn’t be any conflicts. It supports multiple languages and is compatible with the WordPress translation plugins like WPML (check WPML review).

It has a responsive design which means content will look great on mobile devices. You can check out how the website will look on mobile devices during the page building process.

 

How WPBakery Builder Works?

Once you’ve activated WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress on your website, you will see two buttons added to your post editor. One allows you to style pages using the backend editor. The other will take you to the front-end editor.

Clicking on the backend editor button will switch the default WordPress editor to WPBakery backend editor. There are four buttons at the top of the interface. The plus symbol lets you add a new content element — the grey box with a white T inside loads the template box.

The cog symbol will load up a custom CSS box that lets you define CSS classes for that specific page. The last button will take you to the front-end editor. When you first load the backend editor, a welcome page will be displayed that offers shortcuts to common choices.

You can add a new element, add a text block (a type of content element), or choose from one of six pre-defined layouts (i.e., load a template). These templates are a great starting point from creating pages such as landing pages. Loading a default template will add the layout below your existing customizations. You can then replace the dummy text with your own content.

 

visual-composer-frontend-editor
WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress Content Elements

 

WPBakery Builder plugin for WordPress lets you customize each content element. The settings that are available to you will depend on the type of content element you are modifying.

Simple content elements only allow you to define the size of the button, while more advanced content elements may offer many different options and settings.

New rows can be added by clicking on the plus symbol in the row header. Next to that is an option to place content into multiple columns. There are 11 column layouts are available. For example 2/3 + 1/3, 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/4, and 5/6 + 1/6. Or you can create your custom layout.

Once you have added columns, you can freely move content elements from other rows and columns into the new columns you created. WPBakery WordPress Page Builder allows you to customize the look and feel of columns and rows.

The general tab allows you to change the default font color and define additional CSS classes. The size of borders, padding, margins can be defined in the design options tab. You can also change the color of borders and backgrounds.

The backend editor is very simple to use. Like most WordPress plugins it may take you some time to get accustomed to how everything works. Once you get the hang of it, you will be in a position to create stylish pages that are truly unique.

 

ultimate-addons-for-visual-composer

WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress Backend Editor

 

Don’t worry; you can always switch to frontend and vice versa. Or even back to WordPress classic mode. But classic mode will show WPBakery elements like in the picture below. Still, it is editable if you know what you are doing.

 

classic-mode-visual-composer
WPBakery Page Builder generates many shortcodes

 

WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress Front-end Editor

The front-end editor allows you to style pages on your live website. You can switch to the front-end editor from the backend and vice versa at any time. Be sure to save changes you have made to your page before switching the editing mode or you could lose your changes.

Backend editor is better for structuring a page initially, and the front-end editor is better for tweaking pages afterward. Clicking on a content block will bring you the same options you would see using the backend editor.

This includes options to add new rows and columns and the option to add, edit or delete content elements. At the top of the page, you will see options to add new elements, launch the templating system, adjust page settings, save a draft, publish the article, etc.

There is an option to preview how your page will look in five different sizes of devices. This includes desktops, tablets and smartphones. Very useful option.

WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress features:

  • Light and easy to use interface
  • Frontend and Backend editor
  • Multilingual ready
  • You can save templates for later use
  • Great look on desktop and mobile devices
  • Included content elements
  • Object-oriented code

Plugin content elements can be modified directly from the theme functions.php file and you can also add your own shortcodes. There are also a huge number of addons for WPBakery to enhance its options even more and many more WordPress plugins that work in conjunction with it.

 

WPBakery Page Builder Review Summary

While WPBakery WordPress Page Builder was useful page building plugin for our beloved WordPress, I don’t think it is anymore as there are far better options now. You really can create beautiful pages but I don’t agree that it can be done in few minutes. If you are new, it will take some time to get acquainted.

I found the transition to the front-end editor to be a little problematic at times. Sometimes it refused to load; sometimes it would load correctly. It was frustrating to have a problem with such an important feature.

Content can be enriched. I discovered that writing new posts was less time-consuming when I didn’t have WPBakery Builder installed. Now there are so more options calling me to add them, and I spend more time including them than writing text.

One thing that bugs me the most. Let’s say you buy WPBakery Page Builder. You are creating a bunch of new posts using its features. Time passes by, and one day you decide you don’t want to use it anymore.

Maybe you switched theme, add a new plugin, discovered that your favorite WordPress theme or plugin conflicts with WPBakery plugin. Maybe the author stopped supporting it (doubt that is going to happen), new better page builder showed up or some other scenario.

What then? Deactivating plugin will show a lot of “vcrow”. There is no way of fixing that except manually editing all posts. If you have a lot of them, it will be a week or maybe even months.

I want to say; when you start using WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress, there is no coming back. Can’t say that is something good. Correct me if I am wrong.

If you don’t care much about style, effects, settings, layout, and other options, then you can live happily without it. Price is $64 on Codecanyon.

It has few bugs and sometimes it will not let you use frontend depending on which theme you use. You may have problems switching from the backend editor to the front-end editor, or frequently it will not load correctly and just display the loading icon indefinitely.

I did some research on this issue and found that other users have had the same problem, but were able to resolve the issue. It appears that the front-end editor sometimes fails to load due to various issues relating to the preloader.

WPBakery Page Builder offers good value for money. It is an advanced WordPress plugin with tons of functionality. It also includes a wide range of content elements. This includes social media buttons, multimedia elements for videos and images, content related elements such as post grids, post carousels, and post sliders.

Separators and empty space can also be integrated into pages to help structure a page. You will also find support for buttons and call to actions. All content elements are responsive. The plugin also allows you to customize each content element to your liking. You can easily change borders, margins or padding.

Font colors and background colors can be changed through the settings box, too. Custom CSS can also be added to style elements even further.

 

 

wordpress-page-builder-plugin-review-visual-composer

 

Don’t expect to create perfect pages right from the start. Although it is easy to use, it will take you a few hours before you will feel comfortable creating the pages you want.

The pre-packaged templates that are included with the plugin help speed up this process. By loading a default template and then spending time moving things around and tweaking content elements will definitely help.

WPBakery Page Builder has been available for years, yet the plugin is still regularly updated with new features. As the best-selling plugin on CodeCanyon, you can be sure it will be actively supported for many years to come.

There are no yearly fees. Therefore, once you purchase the plugin, you will receive lifetime support and updates. WPBakery Page Builder has been designed so that necessary Javascript files are only loaded if they are being used by a particular content element.

This ensures that pages load fast and bandwidth is reduced. For example, the Javascript that is necessary to display a post carousel is only loaded if you have added a post carousel to that particular page.

Many fast loading websites use WPBakery Builder. Therefore you don’t need to be concerned about the plugin slowing down your website.

If you want even more from this page builder then check out extensions and addons:

In a wide market of drag and drop WordPress page builders, WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress is one of options available to WordPress users. But I would recommend that you rather choose any other page builder.

Other popular page builder plugins include Beaver Builder (check Beaver Builder review), Elementor (check Elementor free vs pro), Divi (check Divi vs Elementor), Visual Composer, Brizy, Oxygen, WPOnepager PRO, etc.


DISCLOSURE: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, I might get a small commission, without any extra cost to you. Read more about it here.

31 thoughts on “WPBakery Page Builder Review PROS & CONS (Formerly Visual Composer) | Best WordPress Page Builder?”

  1. I want to rant here. HAHA!
    Creating a website from scratch with WPBakery is suicide! We developers can modified CSS. but here in WPBakery, is total BS. Blocks and other elements will give you unknown margins and paddings. causing your design not aligned. The [Responsive Pro] tab also is bullsheeeet! it has there the alignment for text, colors, padding, height and many more. but it doesnt work! and sometimes the look in the live editor is fvckeeng soo diferent in the front-end.

    and plus you cannot modified the look in responsiveness with WPBakery! making you feel BullShiteddd!

    Im ranting because my employer is using this editor. and I can’t get away. HAHA

    1. Hi,

      I came here as I was completely shocked when I read the review and wanted to know if I am the only one who feels that wpbakery is absolutely nothing like it has been promoted!

      Everything you mentioned concerning the block, elements, editing of spaces etc works at the back but does not necessarily respond likewise in the front end. Plus, a really irritating white sheet covers the front end and even after various recommendations, it still will not work! Thank God I am partly a coder and can work independently from the backend . it would have been a total nightmare!

      The plugin seriously needs to be reviewed! I also use elementor, which is absolutely amazing, the time I have spent using wpbakery I could have wacked out numerous websites using elementor!

  2. WPBakery Page Builder was probably the worst I’ve ever used. In fact, I introduced it to a fellow designer about 2 years ago and she was turned off by the interface immediately. While you make a lot of great points, I feel like this plugin was decent years ago when it had little competition. Now, with Elementor and a few other less popular competitors, I couldn’t wait to ditch WPBakery. Like another commentor said, what you see is definitely not what shows up. I feel like the controls are complex, and the drag&drop is ridiculously clunky. The frontend was impossible for me to figure out especially with constant overlaps so I worked on the backend where you’re not able to see everything live. My website had horrible padding for years with WPBakery since I could never figure out how to set padding properly without having to modify every single element/block’s padding. The mobile and tablet support is horrible. I installed Elementor earlier yesterday evening, and by default, the first page I created had correct padding for mobile, desktop and tablet and I didn’t have to do a single thing. I uninstalled WPBakery Page Builder right after as I never want to touch that plugin ever again. I refused to make changes on any websites using WPBakery. Elementor is far superior and much quicker to work with.

    1. Hi Lisa,

      Yes, I agree with you. Now there are far better page builder options and it seems WPBakery is not able to compete with them.

  3. WPBakery is the third WP editor I’ve used, and I’ve truly never seen such a profoundly unusable interface in ANY software.

    What you see is NOT what you get, with significant layout changes occuring between the editor and the live page. Control panels are constantly being overlapped by other elements, making it impossible to edit or move some items once they’re created. Sometimes you can’t use an element’s control panel AT ALL, because when you mouse over the element its controls appear on the other side of the window, then disappear when you move your mouse to click on them. Many interface components are unintuitively named and inadequately described (“Card: A card for progressive layouts” What does that even mean???). Dragging and dropping is a nightmare, with containers jumping around and changing shape as you drag the element over them.

    I actually had to abandon the WYSIWYG editor because it was impossible to make some of the edits I needed to. The plain editor isn’t much better either, with relevant settings being buried in a mess of confusing pop up windows.

    1. Hi Aaron,

      Thank you for sharing your feedback in WPBakery usage. I agree with your review. There are far better options than WPBakery.

  4. I had to you use WP Bakery because a company asked me to use it. But for me WP-Bakery is one of worst pagebuilders to work with. Once you are used to Divi or Elementor you don’t want to use WP-Bakery anymore. Waste of money.

    1. WPBakery shit

      This is the very most fucking bad builder all over the world ! I hate this page builder. Compared to divi, I think building one page using this builder is equal to 100 page using divi builder. and also their video tutorials are so fucking shit. they turned off the comment section of their tuts videos so that the viewer will not able to put bad comments.
      To all wordpress developer. 100% I can’t recommend this builder to you.

  5. Great and very helpful article, As per my own experience wpbakery is one of the easy plugin created for those who are not much familiar with code. It has hell lot of composer addon which any one needs for designing page. And most importantly its very easy to add without any external support. I am using this this builder from last 2 months and i am loving it.

  6. I honestly can’t fathom how anyone could have a positive review for WPBakery. I really wonder if you got payed for this review. Compared to something like Elementor it’s an outdated piece of garbage. Divi, and Beaver Builder are also much much better.

    Probably one of the most frustrating things for me is working on client websites that have WPBakery running on them, and there are a lot. I am a developer, so I don’t have a problem getting things done if the page builder doesn’t provide for it but WPBakery just puts so many stupid road blocks in your way.

    It’s super glitchy and has like 30% of the features the other most popular builders have. Why would you recommend this ridiculously bad product!

    1. Hi John,

      I am not saying that WPBakery is best page builder available, that you must use it nor that it doesnt have cons. I even mentioned in conclusion what I dont like about it.

      I agree that Elementor, Divi and Beaver Builder are great choices. But many also prefer using WPBakery.

    2. Hey,

      You should most probably learn how to use it very well. Please try using it more.

      Also, I think it depends upon how the client set up the website. They be using many plugins for everything and that what messes it up.

      The Divi Builder and Elementor sometimes have the same issues.
      – Elementor not loading sometimes.
      – Divi loads slow as hell sometimes on some websites.

      So it usually depends upon the website and the developer/user. This page builder is pretty good and equivalent to other page builders.

      1. FrustratedDesigner

        WP Bakery has the same issue. I’m staring at the stupid baker hat right now. It’s garbage. In fact, I googled “WP Bakery is garbage” and this blog post was the first result. The UI is garbage, the responsive columns are garbage, and good luck trying to click on a small element to edit it. It’s popularity comes from it being bundled with many themes. I don’t know a single designer that installs it by choice. Id rather use Gutenberg or Site Origin than this. At least they are lightweight and not this dumpster fire of a PAID product. Even Layers was marginally better than this. The response that “you should learn to use it better” is exactly the problem, a good UI is intuitive and works the way you expect it to. When it comes to clients, time is money, I need something I can deploy fast, and this ain’t it chief.

        1. I agree that WPBakery Page Builder plugin popularity is due to the fact that it is bundled with many themes, mostly ThemeForest themes.

          Many people have expressed their dissatisfaction when using WPBakery.

          1. FRUSTRATEDDESIGNER

            I mean conceptually it’s not a terrible idea, but you would think with the head start that VC/WPB had, it would be miles ahead of the current gold standards of Elementor and Divi, but it just isn’t. It’s either time for them to reimagine the entire interface or deprecate their product and focus on the stand-alone VC Builder.

          2. Yes, WPBakery was one of the first page builders (if not even the first one). I don’t think developers will change much how WPBakery works in future. But to me it seems they did shifted their main focus on Visual Composer.

  7. I’ve had nothing but problems trying WP Bakery and their support is terrible. I’m currently looking for an alternative product and there seem to be many better ones on the market.

  8. I have used Visual Composer for a long time but decided to change it as there are so many better builders available.

    1. The most frustrating thing regarding Visual Composer is how hard is it to stop using it. Once deactivated it leaves shortcodes on your live pages where you used it. Then you need to manually correct all.

  9. This is one really nice review. Thanks. I tried it and love it – your are right – there are few issues, but support solved them quickly and from all WP page builders this is my top favourite.

  10. It’s in point of fact a great and helpful piece of information. I’m happy that you just shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.

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