Elementor and Bricks are both visual WordPress page builders. Elementor is more popular, but Bricks is more niche and getting some traction lately.
Let’s see how they compare and which one would be suitable for your next or existing project.
Note: Bricks is not a plugin, but rather a theme with a built-in page builder, so you can’t use it with other WordPress themes. Elementor is a plugin and you can use it with other themes.
Key points
Elementor
• More integrations
• 3rd party templates
• AI features
• Free version available
Bricks
• It’s a theme not a plugin
• Faster editor
• No full website themes
• Developer options
Editing experience
Elementor
Elementor builder provides its proprietary editor. You create a page/post and click on Edit with Elementor button. The editor loads in a new environment and provides its unique functionality.
The editor is based on a grid system where you drag and drop predefined widgets. All the widgets and adjustment settings are available in the left-hand panel. You can also insert pre-made sections and pages.
Seeing the end result is a bit easier as you work in a front-end editor and the page should look the same when you open it in a new browser tab. It might look different though if you’re using a screen with a small resolution.
The editing experience is straightforward and less overwhelming, but the editor could be faster.
They’ve recently released a major new editor called Atomic editor or Editor v.4, which is focused on elements and reusable components, and should provide a more organized editing experience.
Bricks
The Bricks editor works in a similar way. After you click on Edit with Brick button, you open its editor.I find it a bit more crowded, but it works fast and offers lots of options for developers.
The drag and drop experience is smooth. The widgets and their respective options are in the left hand panel just like in Elementor. There is no easy way to get back to the list of all widgets once you edit an element.
Overall, I find the editing experience faster and smoother, but kind of overwhelming for beginners. Front end designers and web developers might find it more familiar.
Features
Elementor
The free version of Elementor builder is packed with plenty of options. However, to unlock its full potential, you’ll need the pro version of the plugin.
The list of features is pretty exhaustive. Here are the most important ones:
- Header and footer builder
- Theme builder (build your own sections, archive pages, ecommerce pages and many more)
- Over 100 widgets
- Popup builder
- Landing page builder
- Contact form builder
- Advanced ecommerce options
- Dynamic content & layouts
- Team collaboration options
- Custom fonts, icons, fields, code, CSS and post types
- Responsive deign editing
- Advanced animations
- Autosave & revision history
They introduced AI capabilities for AI enthusiasts willing to automate their workflow. It allows you to generate images, text and code with the help of artificial intelligence.
There is a handy library with pre-made prompts for you to copy and paste in the editor and let the AI do the magic for you.
Additionally, you can generate whole sections with AI, by simply describing what you want to achieve or even adding a link from the web as a reference, so the system can scan and generate a similar layout.
You get a limited number of credits and options with the free version and 25K credits / month with the One premium plan, which starts at $14.99 / month and is billed annually. Learn more about Elementor AI.
Bricks
Bricks has enough options for users to build more complex websites. Some of the most prominent options are:
- Full site editing
- Menu builder
- WooCommerce builder
- Query loop builder
- Popup builder
- Display conditions
- Custom code
- Interactions
The team is transparent about their future plans and users can vote and suggest new functionality. I also like their footer/header management functionality – it’s easy and straightforward.
There are plans to integrate a new AI Agent tool, allowing you to generate and change the layout inside the editor.
Performance
Elementor
Elementor team has recently changed its focus on performance and trying to optimize things, understanding that it’s an important requirement.
Starting with version 2.9, they have implemented a series of built-in performance features like: local fonts, lazy loading for media files, SVG and WebP formats, reduced size for CSS & JS files.
The latest version 3.27, includes some more speed related options like local loading of Google fonts, cleaner code for widgets, JS files loaded only when they’re required.
The new Atomic editor mentioned earlier should help with site speed. The team promises a lighter editor and a better management.
Additionally, Elementor offers hosting which is powered by Google Cloud and Cloudflare CDN. It’s optimized to provide better page loading times via advanced caching, CDN, SSD storage and other optimizations.
Bricks
The builder is fast and produces clean and semantic code. They use Vanilla JavaScript, a reduced number of scripts, fast loading fonts and other tweaks to make it fast.
The back-end is definitely faster and the front-end is fast too. There are not in-depth speed comparisons between Bricks and Elementor, but I believe that Bricks is faster.
SEO Options
Elementor
Yoast, Rank Math and SEOPress – the top SEO WordPress plugins are supported by Elementor, meaning that you can edit your page’s SEO directly in the editor.
It also allows you to choose specific HTML tags (div, p, span, H1…H6) for text related widgets, section/container widget and other elements.
Bricks
The builder comes with built-in SEO options like:
- Meta title/description management (dynamic data supported)
- Permalink management
- Meta robots
- Open graph tags
They say you won’t need a 3rd party SEO plugin, which isn’t the case actually. Most of the times you would need a plugin like Yoast or Rank Math for more advanced settings and Bricks is not fully integrated with those.
Templates
Elementor
Elementor also allows you to add predesigned blocks, pages and full website templates (called website kits). It currently offers more than 100 website templates.
Importing design elements is simple, just open the template Library in Elementor editor and choose the desired block, page or template.
Things get more complicated when you want to switch your website kit. There is no simple way to do it without messing up your existing design. In other words, it’s not easy to switch designs as in WordPress.
I also find the old design kits a bit outdated, but it’s a matter of preference.
In any case, you have the option to use or buy 3rd party themes created to work with Elementor. For example, Astra has plenty of starter templates for Elementor.
Bricks
This is where the builder is inferior to Elementor. There are only 5 pre-built templates and you can’t import a full website design at once, you have to import the page templates individually.
The design of the templates is nice but not exceptional.
There are no 3rd party premium templates available, meaning that you can’t buy them anywhere.
Integrations
Elementor
The builder has an impressive list of integrations. It’s compatible with lots of apps/tools:
- ActiveCampaign
- MailChimp
- MailPoet
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
- Campaign Monitor
- Zapier
- Hubspot
- Drip
- GetResponse
- ACF
- Toolset
- Tutor LMS
- Adobe TypeKit
- reCAPTCHA
- Facebook SDK
- Slack
- MailerLite
- Discord
- Font Awesome 5
The full list of integrations is available here. In addition, there are dozens of 3rd party integrations (called add-ons) to further enhance your website.
Bricks
Briks integrates with the most popular custom fields plugins, such as: ACF, Meta Box, JetEngine, Toolset, Pods, ACPT. It’s also integrated with WooCommerce. That’s pretty much it when it comes to integrations.
Price
Elementor
Elementor Pro provides a complete set of options to build, adjust and improve your website. Here are some examples of premium items:
- Over 100 free and premium widgets
- WooCommerce builder
- Popup builder
- Form builder
- Header/footer builder
- Marketing tools
- Motion effects
- Slides & carousels
- Custom CSS and HTML
- Sticky elements
- Dynamic content
- Custom fields
The price for the premium plugin starts at $60 per website. If you have multiple websites, you need to get the Advanced plan or any of the Agency plans. Here are the existing pricing plans:
| Essential | Advanced Solo | Advanced | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| $60 / year | $84 / year | $99 / year | $168 / year (offer) |
| For 1 Site | For 1 Site | For 3 Sites | For 1 Site |
| 0 Credits | 0 Credits | 0 Credits | 25K Credits |
| 57 Pro Widgets | 85 Pro Widgets | 85 Pro Widgets | 85 Pro Widgets |
| 10 Cloud Templates | 20 Cloud Templates | 30 Cloud Templates | 30 Cloud Templates |
| Theme Builder | Theme Builder | Theme Builder | Theme Builder |
| Form Builder | Form Builder | Form Builder | Form Builder |
| Dynamic Content | Dynamic Content | Dynamic Content | Dynamic Content |
| Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year |
| Updates for 1 Year | Updates for 1 Year | Updates for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year |
| Popup Builder | Popup Builder | Popup Builder | |
| WooCommerce Builder | WooCommerce Builder | WooCommerce Builder | |
| Custom Code | Custom Code | Custom Code | |
| Collaboration Options | Collaboration Options | Collaboration Options | |
| Image Optimization | |||
| Site Accessibility | |||
| Site Management |
Elementor One is a newly introduced plan that includes credits which you can use across multiple tools like AI layout generation, AI site planner, image optimization, etc.
If you need a hosting and all the tools under one account, it’s worth considering Elementor hosting which starts at $14.99 / month for the 1st year (billed annually). Learn more about Elementor hosting.
Bricks
Bricks does not provide a free version, but you can try it for free if you register. You’ll get a testing site with Bricks installed, where you can experience the product.
There are 4 premium plans:
| Starter | Business | Agency | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| $79 / year | $149 / year | $249 / year | $599 / one time |
| For 1 website | For 3 websites | Unlimited websites | Unlimited websites |
| All features | All features | All features | All features |
| Updates | Updates | Updates | Updates |
| Support | Support | Support | Support |
| All future updates | |||
| Lifetime updates & support |
Local and staging sites do not count, so you can use your license on your live website, without paying extra.
They offer a 60-day money back guarantee, which is handy.
Support
Elementor
Elementor provides multiple support options:
- Email ticket system
- Knowledge base
- Online chat
- Facebook group
- Elementor Academy
- FAQ
Since Elementor is used by a big community there are lots of online resources to learn from. As for premium support, seems like the in-house team is doing good (they score 4.5 in Trustpilot).
Bricks
The team provides the following support options:
- Email support
- Forum
- Academy
- Facebook group
It’s not clear how is the support team doing and whether the clients are fully satisfied with their service.
Check out this quick video overview of these 2 website builders:
Which one to choose?
If you need more templates, integrations, hosting options, good support, AI features and performance is not your top priority then go for Elementor.
If you want a faster editor/website, more developer options, are ok to use only one theme and pay a little more, then choose Bricks.
