Elementor and Bricks are the two page builders we design for every week, so we see their strengths and annoyances up close. Neither is “best”. They suit different people and different projects. This comparison sticks to the differences that actually change your day-to-day work.
The short answer
- Choose Elementor if you hand sites to clients who will edit them, need a free starting point, or rely on a large add-on ecosystem.
- Choose Bricks if you care most about clean front-end output and speed, are comfortable with CSS concepts, and build dynamic sites with custom fields and query loops.
At a glance
| Elementor | Bricks Builder | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A plugin that works with almost any theme | A theme with a built-in visual builder |
| Free version | Yes (Elementor on WordPress.org) | No, paid only |
| Paid model | Elementor Pro, renewed yearly | Licence with a lifetime option |
| Headers, footers, templates | Theme Builder (Pro) | Built in, with template conditions |
| Learning curve | Gentle, very visual | Steeper, closer to how CSS works |
| Front-end output | Heavier by default, improved in recent versions | Lean HTML and CSS |
| Dynamic data and loops | Pro, plus add-ons for advanced cases | Built in (query loops, dynamic tags) |
| Ecosystem | Huge: add-ons, tutorials, templates | Smaller but growing fast |
Check each vendor’s site for current prices. They change, and both run regular sales.
Ease of use
Elementor is the easier tool to pick up. Its widgets map to things clients understand (“Heading”, “Image”, “Testimonial”), and the editor hides most layout decisions. That is why it is the safer choice when a non-technical client will log in and change content.
Bricks asks you to think in containers, blocks and classes, closer to how a developer would build the page. That takes longer to learn, but once it clicks, layouts are more predictable and easier to keep consistent across a large site.
Performance
Bricks has a strong reputation for lean output: fewer wrapper elements and less CSS and JavaScript on each page. Elementor has improved a lot (flexbox containers and on-demand assets help), but a heavy Elementor page with several add-ons still tends to ship more code.
In practice, both can score well on Core Web Vitals if you keep images optimised, avoid piling on add-ons, and do not load every font weight.
Headers, footers and site structure
In Elementor, custom headers, footers and archive templates need Elementor Pro’s Theme Builder. On free Elementor you rely on your theme’s header or a separate plugin.
Bricks includes this out of the box. Any template can be a header, footer, single or archive template, and template conditions decide where it shows. See How to Import Bricks Builder Templates for how conditions work.
Dynamic content
If your site pulls data from custom fields, custom post types or WooCommerce, Bricks feels built for it: query loops and dynamic tags are core features. Elementor Pro covers the common cases (Loop Grid, dynamic tags), and add-ons fill the gaps for advanced work.
Templates and reuse
Both builders import templates as .json files and let you save your own sections for reuse. This is where a good template library pays off most: designing a pricing table once and reusing it across ten client sites saves hours.
We publish every design for both builders, built natively in each (no converted or “compatible” exports), so you can switch builders without losing your design system:
Our recommendation
- Agency or freelancer building for non-technical clients: Elementor.
- Developer-minded builder who wants speed and control: Bricks.
- You work with both: keep one design system in both builders. The Complete Bundle includes every Elementor and Bricks kit for $59, so the same headers, heroes and pricing tables are ready in either builder.
