WordPress WYSIWYG – Quick Explanation of the Term:

In simple words, WordPress WYSIWYG Editor is a plugin that eliminates the pain of dealing with code and allows you to build on WordPress based on “what you see is what you get” model.

WYSIWYG concept is also well explained in this Divi video. For more information on WYSIWYG please see these sections below.

Today WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the World. 53% of all websites on the entire Internet use WordPress as their CMS.

Hands down, WordPress has tons of advantages – that’s true.

However, it has also one significant disadvantage: unlike DIY website builders WordPress is not the easiest solution if you are not tech savvy.

That’s the exact reason why we have WYSIWYG WordPress Editors.

In this post, we have gathered and compared the best WordPress page builders with WYSIWYG functionality available today on the market.

Let’s dive in.

Contents:

1. WP Front End Editors – Comparative Table
2. Divi Builder
3. Beaver Builder
4. Elementor
5. Themify
6. Thrive Architect
7. Visual Composer
8. WordPress Page Builder by SiteOrigin
9. Oxygen
10. Gutenberg WordPress Editor
11. Live Composer
12. What is WordPress WYSIWYG Editor – Detailed Explanation
13. How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Editor

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we might receive an affiliate commission. Commissions are given at no extra cost to you and they do not influence our opinion on products.

Quick WordPress Front End Editors Table

1. Divi Builder

Divi is probably the most popular drag and drop WordPress builder out there. It’s super easy to use, beautifully designed and extremely functional. Building a website with Divi is a breeze. There is probably nothing you can’t build with it.

Plus, Divi comes with hundreds of professionally designed layouts accessible right from the Divi builder in your WordPress panel. Some of these layouts are complete website packs which means that all you need to do is to pick one and add your content. If you are not planning to have something very special on your website, this is an excellent option for building your website from scratch literally in the blink of an eye.

If you want to see how the real-life website built with Divi Builder looks like we have a good news for you!

Our website has been built with Divi, so you are currently browsing a real-life Divi website. This is exactly what Divi looks and feels like for end users.

Now let’s look how Divi looks behind the scenes when you build on WordPress with it.

Here is a quick video that explains Divi in detail:

There are two ways of building websites with Divi Builder:

The first one is Divi Visual Builder where you edit your website on the front-end (right on your website like in the screenshot below). This a true WYSIWYG solution for WordPress.

The second option is the Back-end Builder –  where you work in your WordPress dashboard with Divi modules like in the screenshot below:

*After the introduction of Gutenberg Editor for this option to work you need to have WordPress Classic Editor plugin installed.

Both options are great. It’s a mere matter of personal preference what option you use.

Divi Builder Main Features:

• WYSIWYG WordPress front-end and back-end functionality
• No Coding Skills Required
• Easy Setup
• Intuitive User Interface
• Works with any WordPress theme
• Responsiveness
• Awesome 24/7 Support
• Huge User Community (including Divi centered forums, websites, and communities with countless tutorials on everything you might need)
• Amazing Bloom & Monarch Plugins Included as a bonus

Additional Features:

• 100+ Complete Website Packs
• 800+ Pre-made Designs
• 40+ Website Elements
• Divi Library where you can save your custom designs, modules and layouts
• Global Elements
• Split Testing Functionality
• Inline Text Editing
• Bulk Editing
• Animations
• Undo/Redo Functionality
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Searchable & Filterable Settings
• Custom CSS Control
• Nice intergation with WooCommerce (WooBuilder)
• History, Backups and Autosave
• Export/Import Options

How Much Does Divi Cost?

There are two pricing options for Divi Builder. One is yearly access which renews every year and the other one is lifetime access with single time payment. Here are the current pricing information for both options:

Yearly access is $89
Lifetime access: $249

What is included:

• Complete access to all themes, plugins and features
• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited users
• Premium support
• 30-day no questions asked money back guarantee

*Divi comes with 30 Days No-Questions-Asked Money Back Guarantee

2. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is one of the best drag and drop WordPress builders on the market.

Nice and neat front-end editor allows users to work on their WordPress pages without using a single line of code.

With Beaver Builder your coding skills do not matter and creating a stunning website is possible with simple drag and drop manipulations.

Beaver Builder has an intuitive and clear interface which makes working with this editor easy for anyone. Over 500,000 WordPress websites have been built with Beaver Builder so far and this number is ever growing.

RELATED: Beaver Builder vs Divi | Beaver Builder vs Elementor

Here is a quick introduction video to Beaver Builder:

Beaver Builder Main Features:

• WYSIWYG WordPress front-end builder
• No coding skills required
• Intuitive interface
• Responsiveness
• Compatible with any WordPress theme
• Helpful community
• Awesome pre-made templates

Beaver Builder Additional Features:

• WooCommerce Support
• Save & Reuse Options
• Shortcode Support
• Widget Support
• Import & Export Functions
• Translation friendly
• Social Buttons

Beaver Builder Pricing

Beaver Builder comes in three different yearly packages. The packages are Standard, Pro and Agency. Here is what each package includes:

Standard Package – $99

• Beaver Page Builder is included
• Beaver Builder Theme is not included

Pro Package – $199

• Beaver Page Builder is included
• Beaver Builder Theme is included
• Multisite Capability

Agency Package – $399

• Everything that two above packages include plus Multisite Network Settings and White Labeling

All three packages come with 1 year support and are valid for unlimited number of websites.

3. Elementor

Elementor is another widely popular WordPress WYSIWYG plugin known for its ease of use, clean code and speed (both in terms of plugin’s work and the speed of websites built with Elementor).

As a plugin Elementor has great reviews on WordPress (4.9 stars out of 5 based on 5051 reviews at the time of writing this post):

It also comes with over 80 design elements including image, text, video, map, icons and more.

Elementor works great with most WordPress themes and plugins and is available in over 50 languages.

RELATED: Divi vs Elementor | Beaver Builder vs Elementor

Here is how building with Elementor looks like:

Elementor Main Features

• High speed
• 24/7 Support (Pro version)
• Auto Save functionality
• Redo/Undo functionality
• Responsiveness
• Role Manager

Additional Features

• 150+ Elementor Kits and Templates
• Easy integration with major marketing tools and platforms
• Visual Form Builder
• Advanced Pop-up Builder (includes 100+ pre-made pop-up templates)
• WooCommerce Builder
• Content Lock Functionality
• Cool motion effects and animations
• Powerful Custom Positioning
• Shape Dividers
• Lightbox Overlay
• Social Icons & Share Buttons
• Star Rating and Reviews
• Sticky Elements
• Evergreen Countdown
• Tutorials and other learning materials
• Developer-Friendly

Elementor Pricing

The free basic version of Elementor includes 30 basic widgets and WordPress Drag and Drop Page Builder.

Their Pro version comes with 50+ advanced widgets and every other feature that makes Elementor one of the best WordPress WYSIWYG solutions on the market. This includes Elementor Theme Builder, Pop-up Builder, Visual Form Builder, Advanced visual effects and WooCommerce Builder.

Elementor Pro costs $49 for a single website, $99 for three websites and $199 for 1,000 websites. All plans include 1 year support and updates.

4. Themify

Themify is a well-known WordPress back-end and front-end visual editor that comes with Themify theme. However, Themify drag and drop editor can also be downloaded independently as a plugin if you are using a different WordPress theme.

Similar to Divi Builder, Themify also provides two editing options:

• Backend editing
• Frontend editing

So, depending on your personal preferences you can use any of these options and comfortably switch between them. With Themify backend builder you will be able to easily drag and drop different modules on your WordPress backend to build your pages. Themify frontend interface at the same time will provide you the classic WYSIWYG building experience, so you will be able to visually see what you do in real time.

Themify comes with over 40 professionally designed layouts which you can simply import and build your own pages based on them. Stunning web pages on many different topics can be created literally in minutes with these pre-made layouts.

With Themify you can create amazing animation effects too:

Additionally, Themify builder includes its own caching system that helps to reduce server resources and makes page processing faster.

Themify Builder Main Features:

• Back-end and front-end builder
• Mobile responsiveness
• Multi-site support
• Can be extended further with add-ons
• Works with any WordPress theme

Themify Builder Additional Features:

• Undo/Redo functions
• Import/Export functions
• Easy duplicating
• Flexible rows and columns combinations
• Layout parts
• 60+ animation effects
• Custom styling

Themify WordPress Page Editor Pricing:

The basic version of Themify WordPress Builder is free. Builder Pro that comes with all 25 builder addons costs $69. However, you can also buy the addons separately for $39.

5. Thrive Architect

As the builder positions itself, Thrive Architect is a “click to edit” solution (as they also call this “truly visual WordPress page builder”). Similar to other WordPress WYSIWYG plugins, Thrive Architect adds a real front-end editor to your WordPress meaning that you do not have to deal with WordPress back-end to build your pages.

This aligns well with Thrive Architect’s promise about truly visual WordPress experience. If you want to edit something using Thrive Architect the only thing you need to do is to click on it and all possible editing options will pop up.

You can click and edit anything you have on your back-end right on the front-end where you actually see what you edit (as you know this is not possible when you work on the back-end).

Just like other builders listed above, Thrive Architect requires no coding skills. It comes with pre-made conversion elements such as buttons, testimonials, lead generation forms, and countdown timers.

In contrast with other WordPress website builders, Thrive Architect makes a special accent on being built for business and conversions focused websites.

On top of that, 329 different landing page templates are available in Thrive Architect library to use at the moment of writing this post.

Thrive Architect Main Features:

• Full front-end editing
• Designed to speed up the page building process
• Desktop, smartphone and tablet previews
• Mobile responsiveness
• Works with any WordPress theme

Thrive Architect Additional Features:

• 329 pre-designed and conversion focused landing page templates that are also fully customizable
• Plus ready made pages for all your other marketing needs including webinar and product launch pages
• Additional conversion focused elements (buttons, countdown timers, forms, testimonials etc.)
• Easy integration with the major marketing tools
• Simple landing pages designed to quickly validate business ideas
• Blog post layouts and elements designed for higher user engagement
• Font customization
• Full width layouts
• Hover effects
• Advanced mobile customization options
• Animations

Thrive Architect WP Drag and Drop Plugin Pricing:

Thrive Architect comes at three different pricing options:

1. Thrive Monthly Membership at $19 per month which includes access to all Thrive plugins and themes and can be installed on up to 25 different websites. This plan comes with unlimited support and product updates.

2. Thrive Architect single license costs $67 which is a one off payment that gets you Thrive Architect WordPress Builder for one website and full year of support.

3. You can buy 5 license pack of Thrive Architect for a single payment of $97. This option also includes one full year of support and Thrive Architect WordPress page editor plugin that can be installed on 5 different websites.

6. Visual Composer

Visual Composer is a massively popular WYSIWYG editor for WordPress that requires no coding. It allows users to edit pages in real time on the front-end and view the end-results before hitting the publish button.

Design options include control over background, spaces, borders, parallax effects and more right from the editor.

Hundreds of content elements are available in Visual Composer (some of them are available with Premium access to Visual Composer Hub only).

Visual Composer works with any WordPress theme and you do not lose your design layouts when you switch the themes.

Main Features:

• WordPress widgets support
• Custom CSS
• Global templates
• Responsive design
• Compatibility with Yoast SEO plugin

7. Page Builder by SiteOrigin

The most popular WordPress WYSIWYG plugin out there that is totally free but powerful. It offers back-end and front-end editing options based on widgets.

Page Builder by SiteOrigin works with any theme and keeps your layout and content in place when you change your WordPress theme. 

Page Builder by SiteOrigin does not require any coding to build beautiful WordPress websites and pages that are fully responsive. It’s easy enough to edit WordPress pages with this editor both on the back-end and front end.

Although its functionality is not as rich as the premium options above the Page Builder by SiteOrigin does its job effectively and with ease.

Main Features:

• Based on widgets
• Front-end and back-end functionality
• Works with any WordPress theme
• Useful history browser that lets to roll forward and back through your edits

8. Oxygen

Launched in 2016 by Soflyy, Oxygen page builder has managed to attract a lot of users from the WordPress community.

It is a WYSIWYG editor that lets you build powerful WordPress websites with a combination of pre-built templates and other basic elements.

The Oxygen Builder is a full drag & drop visual builder that supports theme editing too. So if you’re looking for a theme builder or an alternative to Divi or Elementor, Oxygen is a great option to consider.

If you use WooCommerce on your website, you can use Oxygen to create and customize all the shop pages such as products page, checkout page, and product category pages. It also supports WooCommerce styles such as buttons, links, widgets, texts, notifications, and more.

Oxygen Builder Main Features:

• Drag & drop visual editor
• Fully responsive editing
• Flexbox layout engine
• Scroll animations
• Full WooCommerce support
• Global colors
• SEO-friendly
• Supports dynamic data
• Built-in Gutenberg support

Oxygen Builder Pricing:

The best thing about Oxygen is that unlike other page builders, Oxygen only has one-time plans, so you don’t have to pay every year, and all the plans include lifetime updates, lifetime support, and unlimited installations.

The three pricing plans Oxygen offers are:

• Basic plan – costs $99 and covers only the primary Oxygen page builder.
• WooCommerce plan – costs $149 and includes the primary page builder plus WooCommerce integration.
• Agency plan – costs $169 and covers basic, WooCommerce, and the Gutenberg block editor.

As the Oxygen page builder is relatively new and trying to establish it’s presence in the market, they have very competitive prices, so if you like the page builder, it’s best to buy the WooCommerce or the Agency plan before they increase their price to match the other costlier page builders.

9. Gutenberg WordPress Editor

WordPress has recently launched a new visual builder called Gutenberg, which is designed to ease the workflow for the users and give powerful styling options built-in in the editor.

This new builder uses a new blocks approach where each paragraph, image, etc. is considered a single block so that you can style everything the way you want without the need for coding.

You can create modern and multimedia heavy layouts with Gutenberg without installing any additional plugin.

But as Gutenberg is new and is geared towards ease of use, it lacks a few advanced features such as wrapping options, padding, and margins, etc. So Gutenberg is best if you are looking to create simple layouts.

Gutenberg Editor Main Features:

• Paragraph block
• Heading block
• Subheading block
• Quotes block
• Image block
• Gallery block
• Cover Image block
• Video block
• Audio block
• Columns
• Lists block
• and, Buttons block

Gutenberg Pricing:

Gutenberg is completely free and is now included in all WordPress 5.0 installations by default. If you haven’t updated to the latest version yet, you can install the Gutenberg plugin from the WordPress repository for free.

10. Live Composer

Live Composer is a free, open-source WordPress site builder and editor plugin that you can use to create and customize your websites.

The plugin offers a 100% front drag & drop interface with more than 30 content modules so you can create unique page designs with ease.

With Live Composer content modules, you can create custom landing pages, blog posts, and other page types (about us, service, homepage, etc.). The builder seamlessly works with all the WordPress themes, so you don’t have to invest in any particular paid theme.

Live Composer Main Features:

• 30+ content modules
• Responsive editing
• Full visual drag & drop builder
• SEO friendly
• Landing page support
• Full WooCommerce customization
• In-built Portfolio presets

Live Composer Pricing:

The basic Live Composer site builder is free with two premium extension plugins to which you can upgrade if you need more customization options.

• The Pro extension pack costs $49 for 1 site and $99 for unlimited sites. This extension offers additional features such as restricted content, contact forms, preloader, breadcrumbs, ACF support, mega menu, and more.
• The Woo extension pack is priced at $49 for 1 site and $99 for unlimited sites. This extension offer full product page customizations, product listing grids, account stylings, checkout, and cart page customizations.

Both extensions include 12 months of support, regular updates, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. In case you don’t like the product, you can easily ask for a full refund.

What is WordPress WYSIWYG Editor – Detailed Explanation

A WYSIWYG editor is what you see is what you get editor that allows to see how the end result will look like in real-time.

All the content types such as text, graphics, and links appear as the final output when edited in a WYSIWYG editor. So there’s no need to write code, and you can use the rich text editor to create and modify all the design elements.

For example, when you edit anything in the WordPress editor, you can style it with all the customization options, and the look in the editor will be almost the same as the look you will get after publishing the document.

Microsoft Word is a great example of WYSIWYG editor. In MS Word you can write and design the content elements, and the elements you see on the screen will be the elements you will get when you print the document.

WYSIWYG editors are designed for non-coders so that everyone can create documents or build web pages in a simple and straightforward way.

How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Editor

The WordPress WYSIWYG editor is powered by a TinyMCE JavaScript software, which enables all the customization options of the editor.

TinyMCE is a web-based editor and an open-source platform built with HTML and JavaScript.

Now to use the WordPress WYSIWYG editor, you can go to your WordPress dashboard, and add a new post or page.

The WordPress editor is the main focus of the page from where you can control almost all the aspects of how your final published page will look like.

A few things you can customize in the WordPress editor are:

• Heading tags — H1, H2, H3, and so on…
• Font styles — bold, italics, and strikethrough
• Lists — bulleted and numbered
• Alignment of the elements
• Text and background colors
• Tables
• and Media — images, videos, etc.

WordPress editor also supports custom styles so you can customize almost anything from all the designs to behavior changes of the pages.

Importantly, the in-built WordPress editor is very different from the third-party WYSIWYG editors mentioned in this article.

The default WordPress editor is designed to keep everything simple and for basic things only … while these third-party editors such as Divi or Elementor take the WordPress WYSIWYG experience to a whole new level and you can use these to create almost any type of layout you want.

Plus, with advanced WordPress WYSIWYG plugins, you can build right on the page (this is called the front end) in real-time instead of building on WordPress dashboard (back end) and constantly switching between editor and preview.

Conclusion

In case dealing with the code is not your strongest skill, WordPress WYSIWYG Editors are very helpful solution that completely solve this issue for you.

What they do is that they literally transform WordPress into a simple and easy website builder.

Of course, it is up to you to decide which of the above is the best WordPress WYSIWYG editor, but one thing is for sure:

With WYSIWYG WordPress Editors you get the full power of WordPress and the ease of WYSIWYG at the same time – two major components combined in one.

This post has been updated on 5 May 2020.