It’s been three weeks since the launch of Elementor, and even though we came across a few unexpected events, like the surprise addition to Product Hunt we wrote about, Elementor is spreading at a very pleasing rate, already with over 13,000 downloads and over 3,000 active installs.

Since launching Elementor, we’ve been getting the same questions time and time again: “Why another page builder?”, “Is it really free?”, “How are you planning to make money?” and “What will the paid plan look like?”.

This is why we decided to release this roadmap post, to give you a clearer view of where we are coming from and where we’re headed.

01. Why another page builder?

We decided to develop Elementor after working in the WordPress industry for several years. We couldn’t understand why other DIY platforms like Wix, SquareSpace and Weebly offered such great page builder interfaces, and WordPress did not.

Isn’t it only logical to assume that the most popular website CMS in the world would offer a convenient way for users to build beautiful website pages? The technology was there, just not offered in WordPress. We decided to create this solution, so every WordPress user can easily build their website in the best possible way.

Yes, there are many page builders for WordPress. Sadly, we found none of them offered a truly satisfying solution. In fact, the reason there are so many page builders is exactly because none of them has excelled to become the standard.

With Elementor, we tried to set a product that would become the new standard, as the most popular and widespread page builder plugin.

With Elementor, we tried to set a product that would become the new standard, as the most popular and widespread page builder plugin.

Among the areas it excels at:

1. Response. With its instant drag and drop, you are able to add widgets to the page with absolute no waiting for loading.

2. Frontend. Real live page editing, without the need to press on preview.

3. UI. A well crafted user interface, with every control positioned after careful thought and consideration.

4. Pixel perfect. Every widget comes with many customization options that allow to create unique designs.

5. Free & Open Source. The final excelling point is giving it away. This serves both as a means to spread the plugin to a wider user base, as well as a way to encourage developers to contribute and further extend the plugin.

02. Elementor is free forever

We’ve gotten a lot of questions on this, so once and for all: there’s no catch. no hook. no twist.

As I already mentioned, we wanted to create a worthy competitor of DIY builders, and make this competitor as widespread as possible. This is the key reason why we decided to release it as a free and open source plugin. It was more than a marketing technique.

At the time when we decided to develop this plugin, we already had a successful theme company that only focused on premium paid themes and offered no free plan. We knew the paid business model inside out. Going with a whole different model of GPL was much more difficult and unfamiliar, but we chose to go this way anyway, in order to make our vision of a great page builder for WordPress come true.

No other page builder has ever released as many features in the free open source plugin plan. We decided to do so, because we believe it is a win win for everyone. Obviously for the users getting an excellent plugin for free, but also for the future paying users, that will enjoy the community contribution to the plugin. Open source is also a win for us, because we benefit from the larger audience and lower marketing costs.

03. How are you planning to make money?

There will definitely be a paid plan. There, I said it.

We will be charging money for Elementor Pro, which is already in development. It’s hard to give an exact date for release, but in the next two to three months we expect to release it. The focus for Elementor Pro will be features that are related to promotion, conversion and engagement.

The focus for Elementor Pro will be features that are related to promotion, conversion and engagement.

We will never take out any design feature or widget that we currently have on Elementor. Moreover, we will keep adding new widgets and features to the free plan, like the two new widgets we just released, and the upcoming animation feature we will soon add to all our widgets and elements.

04. Join our journey

Our goal is to get as many websites as possible made in Elementor (#MadeInElementor). We could really use your help. We’ve already gotten a lot of support and positive feedback from the WordPress community, and a lot of inquiries into how to join in and become Elementor contributors. Right now, we could use help from three main contributors:

1. Developers. Our plan is for developers to add extensions and improve Elementor in every way possible. We also encourage theme developers to include Elementor as the page builder in their theme. We are planning to publish a tutorial for developers who want to incorporate their own widgets and plugins within Elementor. In the meantime, you can suggest new ideas on our GitHub page.

2. Designers. We set out to develop a solution that is first and foremost intended to help designers in their day to day work. This is why we are inviting designers to join the discussion on GitHub and contribute their ideas, needs, wants and thoughts. In the future we have more ways we plan to incorporate designers, but this is something still to come.

3. Translators. We’ve built Elementor to be truly multilingual, and we are glad a lot of translators have already started working on translating it to various languages, including German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese and Greek. To translate it, you don’t need to use any program. It’s all done online through the translation page. Here is a guide we recently published explaining how to translate Elementor.

How to add your own widgets?

We will be soon releasing a guide for adding widgets. Basically widgets are added to the Elementor panel automatically, so you can simply drag and drop the widget. You can also use shortcodes in the text widget. We are also working on an API which will set a standard process for contributing to Elementor and extending it.

I hope this article answers some of the queries you had about Elementor. If you have other questions, I encourage you to comment on this post.