Elementor is one of the most popular drag and drop WordPress page builders available online, being installed on over 5 million active WordPress websites. Its advanced front-page editor can be used to create beautiful pages in minutes using dozens of content elements, blocks and templates.
The free version of Elementor is a fantastic solution in its own right, boasting over 40 content elements and dozens of pre-made blocks and templates. Elementor Pro increases this to around 90 content blocks and over 300 pre-made templates and also adds builders for themes, forms, WooCommerce and pop-ups.
↪️ Note: interested in seeing what Elementor can do? Here’s 25 examples of real-life websites using Elementor.
There are dozens of amazing WordPress plugins available for Elementor that give you additional content blocks, templates and features. These compliment the core version of Elementor and the $49 per year pro version.
What I would like to do for you all in this article is share what I consider to be five of the best plugin extensions available for Elementor.
Table of Contents
1. Starter Templates
Installed on over one million WordPress websites, Starter Templates is a fantastic WordPress plugin that gives you access to around 300 professional pre-made website templates.
Developed by Brainstorm Force, Starter Templates is closely associated with their flagship WordPress theme Astra (which is why it was originally called Astra Sites). It offers templates for four WordPress editors: Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy and the default WordPress editor (Gutenberg).
A total of 169 templates were designed specifically for Elementor. 82 of these templates are available free of charge, whilst 87 are made available to those that upgrade to Astra Pro.
Astra Pro retails from $47 per year. If you have read my detailed comparisons of Astra and Avada and Astra and OceanWP, you’ll know that the Astra WordPress theme has many great features, but there’s so many great designs available free of charge in Starter Templates that you probably won’t need to upgrade.
Starter Templates lets you import specific templates or a complete website. Before the design is imported, you are asked whether you want to delete the previously imported design and whether you want to import the design’s content, plugins and widgets.
Once a design has been imported, you can modify it using Elementor and save custom templates using Brainstorm Force’s Header, Footer & Blocks WordPress plugin.
I’m a big fan of Starter Templates as it boasts hundreds of high-quality Elementor templates and they can all be imported to your website with just a couple of clicks. I recommend checking it out.
Starter Templates: Official Website | Download From WordPress.org
2. Essential Addons for Elementor
The same company that created popular WordPress plugins such as Disable Comments, BetterDocs and EmbedPress, also created Essential Addons for Elementor.
Essential Addons for Elementor adds 43 additional content elements to Elementor including post grids, forms, pricing tables, feature lists and more. Plugin extensions are also available within the plugin for a reading progress bar, table of contents, post duplicator and custom Javascript.
The pro version of the plugin is available from $39.97 per year. This version adds a further 29 content elements and includes plugin extensions for content protection, tooltips, particle effects and parallax scrolling.
All content elements can be activated and de-activated from the Essential Addons settings area. Content elements can also be previewed from this page. Alternatively, you can browse available elements from the Essential Addons Demo page
In the setup wizard for Essential Addons for Elementor, the developers encourage you to activate Templately. This is a separate WordPress plugin that offers 781 pre-made Elementor page templates and blocks. 379 additional layouts are available if you upgrade to Templately Pro, which retails at only $5.99.
Essential Addons boasts a great selection of high-quality content elements and they all feature useful customisation options.
Essential Addons: Official Website | Download From WordPress.org
3. Premium Addons for Elementor
Another WordPress plugin that greatly enhances Elementor is Premium Addons for Elementor. It adds 57 content elements and hundreds of templates to Elementor.
The free version of the plugin adds 24 new content elements to Elementor and a further 33 elements are unlocked if you upgrade to the pro version, which is available from $39 per year. Content elements include Google Maps, team members, headings, video boxes, testimonials and charts.
The developer calls content elements “Widgets”. Widgets can be activated and de-activated at any time and there is a detailed tutorial for each one that shows you how it works.
Widgets can be previewed from the settings area or from the Premium Addons website, but the best way to familiarise yourself with what each one can do is to add it them a page and customise it.
In the settings area, you’ll see an option to enable “Premium Templates”. This feature adds a new button in your posts and pages to launch a large gallery of pre-made content elements and designs.
At the time of writing, a total of 312 templates are available and over one hundred of these are available free of charge.
Premium Addons for Elementor adds many fantastic content elements and pre-made designs to Elementor. The pro version retails from $39 per year and unlocks more content elements and hundreds of additional templates.
Premium Addons for Elementor: Official Website | Download From WordPress.org
4. Elements Kit
Elements Kit is a versatile plugin for Elementor that adds new content elements, a header and footer builder, a mega menu builder and a large layout library.
42 content elements are available in the free version of Elements Kit. There are elements for blog posts, headings, videos, tables and more. 30 more elements are made available if you upgrade to Elements Kit Pro, which retails from $39 per year.
The header and footer builder lets you create unique templates in Elementor and save them as header and footer templates. This feature is limited in the free version of Elements Kit as you can only apply the templates sitewide, however the pro version allows you to add display conditions to each template. This can be used to display different headers and footers in different areas of your website.
Another great feature is the widget builder, which allows you to use Elementor to create unique widgets for your website.
Several hundred pre-made templates can be found within Elements Kit. This includes full page templates, headers, footers, sections and pre-configured elements.
The majority of layouts are only available to those who upgrade. There are free templates you can use, but annoyingly, you need to hover over each template to see if it’s a premium template or not.
With a nice collection of elements and layouts, there’s a lot to love about Elements Kit, but be sure to upgrade to the full version to get access to the full layout library and gain the option to choose where header and footer templates are displayed.
Elements Kit: Official Website | Download From WordPress.org
5. Style Kits
My last plugin recommendation for Elementor users is Style Kits. It adds pre-made theme style presets to Elementor in addition to a library of blocks and templates.
95 pre-made block templates are available to all users, however, full-page templates are only available to those who purchase Style Kits Pro, which retails from $49 per year for a personal license.
Six style kits are available to those who use the free version of Style Kits and a further 12 are available to those who upgrade.
Before importing a style kit, you can preview the kit in order to see its typography, colours, buttons and padding.
Style Kits can be found within the Site Settings area of the Elementor user-interface. From here, you can modify background colours, accent colours, font sizes, button sizes, forms, padding and column gaps.
All style kits can be saved and exported in CSS.
If you’re looking for more control over your website’s styling and colours, Style Kits is worth checking out.
Style Kits: Official Website | Download From WordPress.org
Final Thoughts
The core version of Elementor has an impressive selection of content elementors and features, however you can improve the page builder significantly by installing one of the many Elementor plugin extensions available online.
These plugins can be used to add additional content elements, new blocks, new page templates and new customisation options. My recommendation is to try them all as it is important to review all elements and layouts to see which items suit your needs.
Used/using any of these extensions? Thoughts and experiences with each? Know of any others worthy of the list?
