The 10 best WordPress editor plugins for 2023 (free and paid)

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) around, powering over 43.2% of websites. One of the big reasons behind its popularity is that it’s so easy to use.

Another reason WordPress is so popular is the editor. It enables you to change everything you see on the page with simple controls. However, the default editor is limited in the features it offers.

That’s where WordPress editor plugins come in.

They plug into WordPress and increase the number of customizations you can make and improve the default editor in a variety of ways.

These plugins are designed and developed to help you build a website with easy drag and drop functionality or blocks that you can save and use throughout a website design.

They offer ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) features to let you preview your website and see changes as you make them. It’s a very fluid way to build pages

In this article, we share the 10 best WordPress editor plugins that stood out to us on the basis of features, layouts, compatibility, flexibility, support and price.

We will also discuss why you might want to use a WordPress editor plugin in the first place.

Why should you use a WordPress editor plugin?

Adding posts and creating pages using the WordPress dashboard isn’t the most intuitive. Fortunately, there are a few WordPress editor plugins that simplify the process for you.

You can create content, customize layouts, and everything without ever touching the back end.

Here are some reasons you should try a WordPress editor plugin on your website:

To create a custom website without hiring a developer

The importance of owning a website can’t be overstated. But if you’re tight on budget, you may not be able to hire a web designer or a developer.

With WordPress, you can build a unique, fully functional website with minimal effort and with no coding knowledge.

In fact, the main reason behind using an editor plugin is to build a website without having to code.

WordPress editor plugins allow you to edit and customize your website in the easiest way possible.

They can also offer professional website templates, making it simple to create a unique website. This helps you save in terms of cost, time, and effort.

Save time designing your website

WordPress editor plugins can come with a library of professionally designed templates, blocks, layouts, and elements. You can use them on your website within a few clicks.

When you don’t have to do the designing part from scratch, it saves a lot of time.

All you have to do is, select the best template and import. Then you can add elements like testimonials, a call to action button, social share buttons and design your website the way you want.

Key elements of a responsive WordPress editor plugin

How do you select the best WordPress editor plugin for your website? How do you know that the plugin is the best option?

Here are some features we think every WordPress editor plugin should have:

• Ease of use: The plugin should be easy to use and allow you to add posts and pages and customize them without having to code.
• Compatibility: The editor should be compatible with the theme and plugins you’re using on your website.
• Flexibility: The plugin should be flexible and allow you to create pages however you like.
• Price: The editor plugin you select for your WordPress website should be affordable and offer good value for money. Most plugins offer a free version and few are completely free.
• Support: If you face problems while using the plugin, having support on hand is a definite benefit.
• Updates: An up to date plugin helps you keep your website safe and secure. The editor plugin should be regularly updated to keep up with the latest versions of WordPress.

Top 10 best WordPress editor plugins

One of the best things about WordPress is the easy to use editor. With the 5.0 update, WordPress has introduced a new editor called Gutenberg, now called the block editor.

It’s a ‘what you see is what you get editor’ and makes it easy to see what you’re doing and the effect your changes will have, eliminating the need to hire a web designer or a developer.

While the WordPress editor is easy to use, it is limited in terms of features and customization options. That’s where editor plugins come into their own.

We’ve shortlisted the 10 best WordPress editor plugins that we think are worth checking out.

Spectra

Spectra is one of the most popular page builders that works with the default WordPress editor.

The plugin is 100% beginner friendly and enhances the functionality of the default block editor.

We love the plugin for its compatibility with the native WordPress editor. It is a fast and stable solution.

The plugin is developed using clean code with the latest standards maximizing the security and workflow.

Spectra is the same as your default editor, something you are familiar with which makes it a super intuitive plugin to use.

Getting started with the plugin is easy. Simply select from a prebuilt template, customize and personalize it, and add pages and posts to the website as required.

The professionally designed pre-built templates make editing simple.

You can enjoy the ultimate performance, speed, usability and compatibility at its core with Spectra.

Major features of Spectra:

• 100+ professionally designed templates, wireframes and patterns
• Just in time assets with super fast editing
• Advanced website design options not available with the default editor
• Organized navigation and collapsable tabs in block settings
• Complete control over typography and colors
• Library of unique and creative blocks
• Option to design websites as you want with detailed customization options
• Endless flexibility
• Maintain design consistency by copying and pasting block styles
• Full and seamless integration with third party tools
• Detailed documentation and friendly support

Pricing

Spectra is a free WordPress editor plugin.

Elementor

When it comes to building and editing a website, Elementor is another great option. The free version of the plugin helps you edit your website with ease.

The plugin offers powerful drag and drop functionality to your website and has over 4 million active installations.

Thanks to its user-friendly interface and features, the plugin makes it super easy for you to create, add, and customize pages on a website.

Elementor also has a vast library of templates, blocks, modules, and shortcodes. You can create a beautiful website without having to learn to code.

The well written code helps you design a website that is clean, and efficient, resulting in improved SEO.

Elementor integrates well with third party tools and is compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins out there.

Major features of Elementor:

• Live drag and drop editor with 100+ widgets
• Select from an extensive library of 100+ website kits
• Edit landing pages, eCommerce stores and anything you like
• Mobile friendly, responsive design, custom CSS and more
• Consistent web experience including global colors and fonts
• Supercharge the power of WordPress with limitless capabilities

Pricing

Elementor has a free and paid version. You can purchase the premium version from $49 per year.

Beaver Builder

If you’re a beginner just getting started with websites, Beaver Builder is a great option.

The plugin has over 1 million active installations and is a powerful drag and drop builder editor plugin for WordPress. The plugin aims to help you build fast and efficient pages with minimal effort.

Beaver Builder offers friendly support which makes the plugin stand out from the others. It also features live front and back end editors working in real time. You can preview the changes as you make them, which makes customizing pages very intuitive..

The plugin offers many templates, modules, and demos. It has a huge library of responsive and customizable templates making it easy for you to customize your website in no time.

Beaver builder is built with clean code that makes your site SEO friendly. It is compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins too.

Major features of Beaver Builder:

• Live front end editing without having to refresh to preview the changes
• Offers drag and drop functionality for quickly building websites
• Clean code, stable platform and well documented
• Compatible with WordPress themes and plugins
• Mobile responsive, loads fast and is SEO friendly
• Professionally designed prebuilt templates
• Offers shortcodes and widgets
• Translation ready

Pricing

Beaver Builder is a free WordPress editor plugin with a premium version starting at $99 per year.

Divi Builder

Divi is a popular WordPress visual builder that allows you to build and customize a website using drag and drop functionality.

The plugin is very powerful and comes with tons of design features. It helps you to create a beautiful looking page with ease.

Divi offers the fastest and simplest way to build a website. The plugin comes with 40+ content modules like a call to action button, sliders, galleries, forms, blogs, testimonials, and others.

Divi has the option to edit and customize your page from scratch. Divi offers full control over the layout of the page. You can easily tweak, blend and edit every aspect of your website.

Major features of Divi:

• Helps you create, design, and customize your website with ease
• Advanced visual builder technology
• Power to create a spectacular designs with ease and efficiency
• WYSIWYG features with drag and drop building
• Custom CSS control
• Responsive editing
• Option to save and manage your designs
• Offers global elements and styles
• 200+ website elements to select from
• Complete design control over everything

Pricing

Divi is a premium plugin available for $89 per year.

Thrive Architect

Thrive Architect is a WordPress editor plugin similar to Elementor. It allows you to create beautiful pages on your website with easy drag and drop.

Whether you’re creating a landing page or a blog post, Thrive Architect offers extensive features to make your pages stand out.

The drag and drop functionality of the plugin helps you select elements and place them on the page with ease. You can edit the widgets, designs, and elements on the page without having to use a single line of code.

The plugin has 20+ widgets such as text, heading, background section, toggles, table of contents, and others to help you create pages.

Thrive Architect helps you design pages that convert. It offers features like A/B landing page testing and tools to help measure and refine your designs.

The plugin offers full control over the design, layout, customization and mobile responsive features that help your website perform better in terms of SEO.

Major features of Thrive Architect:

• Helps to create a conversion-focused site
• Professional templates available with a few clicks
• Small learning curve
• Offers dynamic global color settings, centralized font management
• Effortless control over all the elements
• Fully mobile responsive
• 100’s of design and site building elements
• Integrates with third party tools
• Compatible with WordPress themes and plugins
• Option to build custom page and blog layout templates to save and reuse them later

Pricing

Thrive Architect is a premium plugin available for $97 per year.

WPBakery

WPBakery is a WordPress editor plugin that provides full control over your website. You can easily build any layout you can imagine with an easy drag and drop builder.

The plugin makes it simple for you to add and design pages without any coding knowledge required.

The plugin offers intuitive front end and back end editing options and is compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins.

What we love about the plugin is its availability of content elements, templates, and addons to help you set up a website in minutes.

It offers friendly support as well.

WP Bakery is designed to be SEO friendly. The plugin is multilingual ready, WooCommerce compatible and offers a parallax effect. All things that make creating websites simple!

Major features of WPBakery:

• Popular WYSIWYG editor with an intuitive front end editing option to see changes as they happen
• Award-winning backend editor to build your pages, posts and custom posts
• Compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins
• Unique template repository with well-designed layouts
• 50+ content elements
• Allows you to create posts and pages by dragging and dropping elements
• 200+ unique addons
• Create your skins with design options
• Offers responsive design
• Has grid builder for posts, media, portfolios, and other page elements
• SEO friendly
• Professional support

Pricing

WPBakery is a premium plugin that allows you to build your website like a pro for $56 per year.

Ultimate Blocks

Ultimate Blocks, as the name says, is a Gutenberg block plugin designed to extend the functionality of the default WordPress editor.

The plugin adds unique and exciting blocks to the block editor. Using these blocks, you can create posts and pages to engage and deliver the experience you’re looking for.

Being built based on a block editor, the plugin is very similar to use.

Ultimate Blocks is focused on helping you create engaging posts, blogs, and pages. But, the main focus of the plugin solely lies in creating blog posts.

It offers elements like content filter, review, testimonial, click to tweet, table of contents, feature box, notification box and lots more.

If you’re looking for an editor plugin to create engaging content, Ultimate Blocks could be the one for you.

Major features of Ultimate Blocks:

• Offers 18 unique blocks to take your content to the next level
• Provides all in one solution to create better content for your blog
• 22 blocks to help you build the perfect website
• Beautiful table of contents
• Responsive elements
• Highly optimized for SEO
• Offers two types of schema
• Developed with speed in mind to deliver the best performance
• Option to enable/disable individuals blocks

Pricing

Ultimate Blocks is a completely free plugin.

Brizy

Brizy is a relatively new WordPress editor plugin worth taking a closer look at. It’s developed by ThemeFuse who are known for creating popular WordPress themes.

Brizy offers both free and premium versions with a handy WordPress editing tool. It’s a next generation website builder that allows you to create a website in minutes. You don’t need coding knowledge to get started with the plugin either.

Brizy is a site editor plugin for nontechies. It offers easy to use yet powerful functionality.

You can build a website with easy drag and drop and visual editing. The plugin offers global colors, fonts, and 36+ powerful elements for you to select.

The elements are fully responsive and clean coded to help you perform well in terms of SEO.

The plugin is translation ready and allows you to translate all the content on the site using the automatic solution.

Brizy integrates with third party tools and is compatible with WordPress themes and plugins.

Major features of Brizy:

• Innovative visual builder to empower and create an awesome modern website
• Fast and intuitive drag and drop editor
• Offers mobile responsive design
• Three different viewports – desktop, tablet, and mobile to preview changes
• Amazing page load speed
• Offers global blocks and multiple pages
• Professionally designed pre built templates, blocks, and elements
• Active support

Pricing

Brizy is a premium editor plugin for WordPress with a free version as well. You can purchase the premium plan for $34 per year.

Visual Composer

Visual Composer is a premium WordPress editor plugin. It allows you to create a professional website in minutes and grow your business website creation.

The plugin uses the drag and drop website builder to create a website fast while letting you design your page as you wish.

It offers templates, blocks, elements, and extensions in a few clicks allowing you to create a stunning website in no time with no coding knowledge required.

The plugin perfectly fits the needs of any website ranging from online stores to designers to marketers.

Visual Composer offers design options for perfect layouts. You can select from hundreds of content elements and edit them as it fits your site.

The plugin uses analysis tools to skyrocket your SEO ranking and performance, covering just about everything you could need.

Major features of Visual Composer:

• Simple and easy to learn WYSIWYG drag and drop editor
• Content elements, templates, stock images, and addons from the Visual Composer hub
• 300+ unique content elements with powerful design options
• Unique and professional prebuilt templates built for various niches
• Choose from the most popular large layouts and design header, footer, and sidebars with ease
• Option to create popups and skyrocket the conversion rates
• Offers mobile friendly and pixel perfect website in no time
• Integrates with your favorite tools and services

Pricing

Visual Composer has no free version. Purchase this plugin starting from $49 per year with a 30 day refund guarantee.

BeBuilder

BeBuilder is a WordPress editor plugin that allows you to build websites and WooCommerce stores like a pro. It is one of the most flexible plugins you can use.

The plugin offers 3000+ pages to import, 100+ predefined sections and 80+ elements to add, edit and build your website.

It is blazingly fast and light with a 100% score on GTmetrix and Google page speed insights. The plugin offers the flexibility to build your layout by dragging and dropping without slowing down pages.

BeBuilder is 100% responsive and allows you to design anything you like by defining the style of the container with a built-in set of options.

You can easily add background videos, background images, colors, gradients, and decorations.

What we love about BeBuilder is its ease of use. It allows you to edit the content inline and auto saves every 5 minutes.

You can easily import and export the elements into your page and copy and paste them anywhere for later use.

Major features of BeBuilder:

• Most flexible page editor for WordPress
• WYSIWYG visual drag and drop editor
• 3000+ pages to import
• 100+ predefined sections
• 80+ elements to add, edit and move the way you like
• 100% blazing fast and light
• Simply drag, drop and customize
• Create global sections and wraps and use them anywhere you like
• 100% responsive to create pixel perfect website
• Has background videos, colors, and gradients
• Options to display content using conditions
• Improve your workflow with no coding knowledge

Pricing

BeBuilder is a premium WordPress editor plugin available for $59 per year.

Wrapping up

This sums up our list of the top 10 best WordPress editor plugins.

In this article, we learned what WordPress editor plugin is, why you should use it, and the key features to look out for in such plugins.

We also mentioned the top 10 list of plugins along with their features and pricing. Most of the plugins in this list have both free and premium versions.

If you’re tight on budget, we suggest getting started with the free version and moving to pro if you need the extra tools. They represent a small investment that could repay you by saving time and effort during projects.

Try one, try them all. There’s bound to be an editor here that fits your needs!

What do you think of these WordPress editor plugins? Which plugin are you using on your website? Think we are missing out on some great plugins? Do let us know!