What is a drag and drop WordPress plugin?
A drag and drop WordPress plugin is a subset of page builders that offers drag and drop functionality and pre-built components for quickly and easily building a custom website. With these plugins, you can customize and arrange elements on the page without needing to code.
These tools were initially developed because the WordPress Classic Editor lacked the functionality and design elements that users expected and needed to build their sites. But some users didn’t want to install a plugin; they wanted the default editor to be redesigned.
Best Drag and Drop WordPress Plugins
The best page builders will not only offer drag and drop functionality — they’ll also offer unique elements and modules, preview options, and more. Below we’ll look at free and premium options so you can find the perfect tool for your budget.
Free Drag and Drop WordPress Plugins
Creating a custom website doesn’t have to be expensive. Let’s look at some free tools that can help you create a beautiful website that looks like it was created by a developer or web designer.
Elementor is a visual drag-and-drop page builder with advanced design capabilities, making it the page builder of choice for over five million WordPress users.
Elementor offers hundreds of templates to choose from. Once you select a template, you can customize it with Elementor’s live editing and switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile previews to create beautiful and responsive pages in real time. You can add forms, sliders, buttons, images, headlines, search bars, and more with the 80+ widgets built into the Elementor interface.
Divi is another WordPress page builder used by millions of users. With Divi, you get a front-end editor so you can drag and drop elements, include special effects, add custom CSS, and see these edits in real time. You also get a lot more.
Two of its most unique features are the split testing system and the Magic Color Manager. With the former, you can create multiple versions of a page with different colors, headlines, or entire layouts and show them to different visitors to determine which variation performs better. Divi’s Magic Color Manager is a dynamic color system that automatically remembers your recently used colors and stores them for easy access and also suggests new colors that match your current palette using an algorithm.
If you purchase the Divi theme, you’ll get the Divi Builder and over 800 pre-designed templates. However, if you decide on another theme, then you can still install the Divi builder on your site.
Beaver Builder is a front-end drag and drop page builder for WordPress used by over 175,000 sites.
Editing a page is quick and easy with this page builder. You can start with a template or a blank page, then drag and drop columns of content onto your page. Once you fill those columns with text, images, and more, you’ll be ready to publish.
Like Divi, you can purchase the Beaver Builder theme and get the Beaver Builder plugin included with your purchase. However, you can use the Beaver Builder plugin with any WordPress theme — thought it will work best with a theme with a full-width layout and minimalist design.
