Recently I’ve been asked to rebuild a number of websites and a high percentage of them seem to have one thing in common – they are designed using the Elementor website builder by people who clearly have no clue about web programming.  Each project worked up to a point and then was abandoned by the developers who didn’t have the knowledge or understanding to take things to the level the client required.

So what is Elementor?

Elementor is one of the most popular page builders for WordPress, widely praised for its drag-and-drop interface and ease of use. However, beneath the surface, there are several compelling reasons why it may not be the ideal choice for building a WordPress website, particularly for those looking to create a professional, long-lasting, and optimised online presence.

One of the primary concerns with using Elementor is performance. Websites built with Elementor often suffer from slower loading times due to the additional code the builder injects into the page. This can be detrimental to user experience and search engine rankings, particularly as speed becomes an increasingly important factor in SEO. Elementor’s reliance on heavy scripts and stylesheets can create a bloated website that struggles to load quickly, especially on mobile devices or in areas with poor internet connectivity.

Another issue relates to long-term scalability and maintainability. Elementor websites can be difficult to manage as they grow. The visual editor might make it easy to design pages at the outset, but it can become cumbersome when trying to implement consistent changes across a larger site. Furthermore, updates to the Elementor plugin itself can sometimes break layouts or cause compatibility issues with themes and other plugins. This creates a dependency on a third-party tool that, while powerful, is not always stable or predictable in the long term.

The use of proprietary shortcodes and non-standard HTML markup by Elementor also means that switching away from the builder in the future is no simple task. If a user decides to deactivate Elementor, much of the content may not display correctly or at all. This lack of portability ties the website to the builder indefinitely, limiting flexibility and making future migrations unnecessarily complex and time-consuming.

From a design perspective, Elementor may encourage users to focus more on aesthetic flourishes than on sound user experience or accessibility principles. While the freedom it offers is attractive, it often leads to inconsistent design decisions, especially in the hands of those without a strong understanding of web design fundamentals. This can result in a website that looks impressive but performs poorly in terms of usability, readability, and accessibility.

There is also a financial consideration. While the free version of Elementor offers basic functionality, many of the advanced features that users expect from a modern website — such as theme building, dynamic content, and marketing integrations — are locked behind the Pro version. This adds a recurring cost that may not be justifiable when there are leaner, more efficient alternatives available, such as native WordPress features or lightweight theme frameworks.

So while Elementor offers convenience and visual control, it comes at the cost of speed, flexibility, and long-term viability. For those looking to build a WordPress website that is robust, optimised, and easy to maintain, relying on Elementor may not be the wisest decision and you should contact a web programmer instead to have a bespoke website developed with performance and scalability in mind.