Beaver Builder Pro Review
By Sean Ondes | Last updated: June 25, 2020
Beaver Builder Pro excels as a page builder by giving you powerful ways to build and customize pages. Using it to build WordPress pages is a truly liberating experience. Recently surpassing 1,000,000 active installations, Beaver Builder is arguably the fastest, most stable, and user friendly page builder in the WordPress world. I highly recommend it.
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Beaver Builder Pro Review at a glance
Pros
- Extremely stable
- Feature rich
- Nice looking and very functional UI
- Open Source
Beaver Builder’s developers take a cautious, methodical approach to adding features. This means that when a new version of the plugin is released, there’s a very good chance that it will work exactly as expected and be bug free.
Beaver Builder Pro is a great plugin. When it’s paired up with a good theme and Beaver Themer, you’ll basically have an unstoppable combination that will let you build just about any page design you want.
Cons
- More expensive than the other page builders
- Missing some great features that are present in some other page builders. Hey BB team, when are you going to add an undo feature or copy and pasting styles? C’mon!
- There are a few UI quirks that can be mildly annoying like the text element controls (mentioned below)
You get a lot with Beaver Builder Pro but it’s going to cost more than other page builders. If you think like I do then you’ll quickly decide that the extra cost is more than worth what you get.
Quick Links
Beaver Builder Pro compared to other page builders
Usability
Beaver Builder’s UI is very well organized and easy to navigate
The Beaver Builder layout is crisp and clean. Updates over the past year have dramatically improved the user interface. Even the smaller (annoying but acceptable) quirks in the UI have been fixed.
Sections are broken up in a logical way which makes everything fairly easy to find. I was a little confused about editing rows that are already on the page but I was able to figure it out pretty quickly. As a bonus it also offers a light and dark UI.
The interface is well organized into modules, rows, and templates. After a module is customized, it can be saved for later use.
Modules can also be saved as global modules. This means that when they are updated, every instance where they’ve been used will also be updated. This feature is a huge time saver.
Beaver Builder includes live editing and it is really (I mean really) fast. If you’ve used other page builders that keep you waiting to see your changes take effect, then using Beaver Builder will be a treat.
It’s not all perfect though
Beaver Builder’s UI does have one annoying thing worth mentioning. While inline editing a large body of text, the module options are anchored to the top of the section. Basically, they’re nowhere near where you’re working. They fixed a similar problem that could happen while editing very tall rows by relocating the options to the bottom but haven’t yet addressed it for the text module.
This is in no way a deal breaker but it can lead you to wonder why they haven’t fixed it yet.
The bottom line is that once you familiarize yourself with Beaver Builder, I think you’ll find it pretty easy to use.
Beaver Builder Pro Features
Beaver Builder Pro has all the modules you’ll need (and then some)
Beaver Builder includes a full collection of 30 modules that will satisfy just about any design need you could have. Every module includes a number of customization options so you can make it look how you want. A few other page builders include a larger default library of modules but mostly those extras offer unnecessary flourishes rather than actual benefit to page building.
The only other page builder that I’ve reviewed that surpasses Beaver Builder in features is Elementor Pro. Elementor Pro’s animation and parallax settings are pretty great.
Start nesting your columns
The ability to nest columns within columns is extremely handy. One of the larger updates in 2018 added the ability to drag a split column layout into an existing column. This feature opens the door to even more complex layout patterns.
Added extras included in Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder includes added extra features like page specific CSS and JavaScript, custom responsive breakpoints, conditional visibility rules to display rows, columns, or modules based on specific conditions, and a lot more.
Beaver Builder makes ecommerce easier
Beaver Builder is best integrated with WooCommerce. It includes options to display single and multiple products, full product pages, cart and checkout pages, and a lot more. If you pair Beaver Builder with Beaver Themer, then you can basically take total control over the appearance of your online store.
For any other WordPress ecommerce plugins, as long as the plugin provides shortcodes, then you can use Beaver Builder to build your pages.
Connect with major email list managers
Beaver Builder includes a customizable subscription form module that connects with MailChimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Ontraport, and many others.
How does Beaver Builder work with Gutenberg?
There’s nothing to report here and that’s a good thing. Beaver Builder Pro has no conflicts with Gutenberg. However the developers warn that switching back and forth between Beaver Builder and Gutenberg is not advised and can result in data loss. There’s no surprise in learning that though.
Layouts and Templates
Beaver Builder Pro comes with 30 landing page themes and 25 content page, and content section templates. The templates are all modern looking and Beaver Builder makes them very easy to install.
Theme Compatibility
How many themes are compatible?
Beaver Builder’s developers claim that their page builder will work with every WordPress theme that adheres to standard coding practices. They offer a 30 day guarantee on every premium package so you can test worry free. They go on to assure that their support team will work with users to address any incompatibilities that might come up.
If you purchase the pro package or above, then you’ll also get the Beaver Builder Theme. It’s a versatile, lightweight theme. Since it’s built by the same team, it will always be compatible.
Installation and Removal
Installing Beaver Builder
Beaver Builder is compatible with all major browsers and operating systems. For the best speed, security, and performance, the developers recommend running the latest versions of WordPress and PHP.
Beaver Builder installs normally as other WordPress plugins. There is a known issue with some shared hosting providers that have set the max allowed file upload size to a small limit. The process for overcoming this is different from one host to the next. A workaround for this limit it to upload the plugin directly to the server using an FTP client like Filezilla.
Extensive documentation is available on the Beaver Builder website should you run into any difficulties.
Lock in
Beaver Builder uninstalls cleanly. Unlike many older page builders, Beaver Builder does not use shortcodes to display page layouts. When it’s removed, it leaves only content behind – not an ugly mess of shortcodes.
Performance and Updates
Page loading speed with Beaver Builder
WordPress loading speed with Beaver Builder Pro installed is only minimally affected. This makes it a great plugin with virtually no performance downside.
Customer Support and Documentation
Does support exist?
- 1 year support included with option to extend support
- Extensive FAQs and knowledge base documentation
How to contact support (email, phone, chat, slack, ticketing system, etc?)
Beaver Builder uses a ticketing system for their support requests. In my experience, they typically respond within 1 business day.
Cost
Beaver Builder pricing tiers
Beaver Builder takes a slightly different approach to their pricing packages than other page builders. The main difference is that every Beaver Builder package comes with unlimited site usage. That means that even with their lowest tier package (Standard) can be used on unlimited sites.
Beaver Builder has three price tiers: Standard, Pro, and Agency.
- Standard $99/year
- Pro $199/year
- Agency $399/year
All Beaver Builder plans are yearly subscriptions that include plugin updates and premium support.
Conclusion
Beaver Builder Pro is a full-featured (and then some), basically easy to use, and overall excellent page builder with exceptional support. With over 1,000,000 installations and a number of active official and unofficial Facebook groups, it’s not surprising that it’s so great! How could all those people be wrong?
Beaver Builder Pro simply feels solid when you use it. You can explore the UI and see that the developers have taken obvious care to design it well.
Though Elementor has come on strong in the past year, the Beaver builder team distinguishes itself by focusing on crafting a powerful, elegant, and stable page builder. I highly recommend Beaver Builder.
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About Me
Sean Ondes
My name is Sean. I've been building websites for more than 15 years. For the last 8 years, I've been working almost exclusively with WordPress and Shopify.
I've read all the blog posts that review the "Best WordPress Page Builders" or the "Top 5 WordPress Page Builders". They can be helpful but after I finished all that reading, I still didn't know which one to choose.
The only thing left to do was try them all. I've spent my own money and hundreds of hours testing every WordPress page builder that I can get my hands on. I'm putting all this together because I personally have needed a resource exactly like this for a long time!
I' don't favor any single page builder over another. I'm not really even promoting WordPress. This guide is for people who have already decided that WordPress is the right fit for them and need the flexibility of using a page builder.