Do You Need Elementor Pro or Crocoblock?
I love all these developing technologies because nowadays you don’t need to be a coder to make a website. Just get some drag & drop editor and assemble the website like a building set. Yet, the variety of them and addons they are often packed with can be confusing. Not to make you feel puzzled, I’ll focus on the Elementor Pro vs Crocoblock competition. You might hear something about both of them. I’ve tested some Crocoblock plugins (they appeared nice) and compared them to other WordPress products. But now, I think, it’s time to compare Crocoblock with a Final Boss — Elementor vs Crocoblock, three, two, one!
Some Entry Insights
Let’s start with Elementor Pro. It is a more advanced version of Elementor drag & drop editor for WordPress that turns this CMS into a powerful site designer. So, Elementor Pro is based on Elementor Page Builder that is based on WordPress (how rad am I in making recursions!).
With Elementor, you can assemble web pages by simply dragging and dropping the finished items. It is a typical example of the No-code platform — a tool that allows you to create interfaces without coding. Elementor Pro installation doesn’t change the WordPress administrative panel. The only thing that is added is the “Edit in Elementor” button inside the page editor. When you click on it, you go to the visual editor, where you can assemble the interface from elements, blocks, and templates.
In turn, Crocoblock is a set of plugins (add-ons) for Elementor Page Builder that can be a worthy alternative to Elementor Pro. You can create everything — landings, corporate sites, WooCommerce stores, blogs, WP directory websites completely, using only Crocoblock plugins. For instance, use JetElements widgets to add amazing effects; make your website content compact with JetTabs; integrate JetReviews to increase the visitors’ engagement or style; enhance WooCommerce shop with JetWooBuilder; apply advanced filtering functionality with JetSmartFilters, and so on. The Crocoblock package also includes the WordPress theme builder — JetThemeCore, using which you can create the parts of the theme.
As you can see, both Crocoblock and Elementor Pro have something to be proud of and can enhance any WordPress website insanely. Yet, let’s dive deeper into the Elementor Pro vs Crocoblock contest to find out where and why to use both of them.
Elementor Pro vs Crocoblock: Main Features Comparison
Elementor features
Templates library
The Elementor library contains more than 300 beautifully designed templates, created for any industry and niche. After selecting a template, Elementor drag & drop editor gives you complete control over each style part. You can save and reuse templates and page designs, and export them for use on other websites.
Elementor blocks
Blocks are essentially the pre-designed sections that can create complete pages. View and filter the various design options available, and then add the appropriate blocks to each website page with one button click. It gives you more flexibility than page templates but still provides enough design support to save your time. Each block can be customized to transform content and quickly turn your thoughts and ideas into a website. In addition, blocks come with pre-created widgets and layout settings, so you can simply focus on the design process and not worry about the technical aspects of creating a page.
Theme builder
Elementor Pro has expanded the concept of templates and introduced new types of templates for headers, footers, and other website areas. Elementor Pro Theme Builder works with any WordPress theme and gives the possibility to design and customize all aspects of your website. Using dynamic templates, you can create a framework for your content and then apply it to your site. Templates are then filled with dynamic content from your website with one click.
Widgets
Elementor Pro provides a complete set of widgets for smooth web creation. These widgets work inside a drag & drop editor, allowing you to add endless design capabilities to your pages. Use a Portfolio widget to demonstrate your best practices, add Slides to highlight something important on the website, incorporate Form to get users’ feedback, insert Animated Headline, Flip Box, or Media Carousel. Overall, you have 25+ widgets in Elementor Pro to enhance your WordPress Website.
WooCommerce integration
Elementor Pro supports WooCommerce that gives powerful control over the design of any WooCommerce store, product pages, and other e-commerce items. Some useful Woo widgets as follows:
- Product Widget — display and filter WooCommerce products on your website;
- Category Widget — select which product categories to display;
- Woo Elements Widget — add eCommerce pages to your website, including a shopping cart page, a single product page, a checkout page, and more.
- Woo Add to Cart Widget — showcase the Add to Cart button.
These integrations will make Elementor Pro a nice and effective tool for developing an eCommerce site that meets your needs.
Optimization and promotion
Elementor Pro doesn’t directly affect page promotion and doesn’t contain SEO settings. But with it, you can create well-designed containers for content (individual sections, templates, and entire pages), which affects the site ranking.
For search optimization of WordPress sites, built-in general settings and separate specialized plugins like Yoast SEO are used. Elementor generates good quality code, the pages are adaptive, which also influences ranking positively, and subject to the general rules of competent SEO optimization.
Custom CSS
Elementor Pro gives you the possibility to add your own code and see how it works in a live editor. Nice feature, if you have some coding skills and want to upgrade website designs and add some styling features.
Crocoblock features
Plugins for everything
Here I have to say that Crocoblock really has plugins for everything. It includes 18 plugins to create any website you can imagine and integrate extended functionality in it. Create dynamic content effortlessly with JetEngine; provide advanced filtering by post types, taxonomies, etc. with JetSmartFilters; implement booking capabilities for rental websites or else with JetBooking; incorporate hourly booking in your services websites with Jet Appointment; design popups to make promotions and sales with JetPopups; create a custom mega menu for mobile and desktop devices with JetMenu; add fast AJAX search with JetSearch; design each and every element of your theme with JetThemeCore…well, I’m tired to list them all and to explain which virtually limitless possibilities your website will get with Crocoblock. You just need to try it by yourself.
Dynamic templates
Dynamic templates are pre-coded websites, which are powered by JetPlugins and fully supported by them. They cover various business niches, like medical or spa services, car rentals, vacation property booking, hotel websites, book store, etc. Crocoblock provides 10+ dynamic templates at the moment, and this library is constantly updated.
Dynamic templates offer designed archive templates, adjusted taxonomies, built-in AJAX filters, and WooCommerce integration. So, they are ready to use instantly right after installation. Crocoblock is about functionality, so you will find only the necessary tools and clean design, which is easily customizable according to your requirements. You don’t need any third-party widgets or here, and the interaction of elements is flawless.
WooCommerce integration
Like in case with Elementor, Crocoblock also provides WooCommerce integration to use it in conjunction with JetPlugins and transform your website into a marketplace. Crocoblock provides 60+ Elementor WooCommerce widgets within JetWooBuilder plugin, and some free widgets to cover basic online store functionality. Try them out, and you won’t be upset.
Lightweight Kava theme
The Kava theme is now advanced and airy, no kidding. It is free, and all those 50+ blog layouts are also free. Probably, the best thing about Kava is its user-friendliness and page loading speed. Kava allows you to switch between options easily, so you can customize the theme directly from the dashboard in a blink of an eye. Last but not least, its speed score is A98%, according to the GTmetrix. I think it’s insane.
Gutenberg bundle
Crocoblock has 6 plugins compatible with Gutenberg editor. You can put that great functionality into motion with JetEngine, JetSmartFilters, JetGridBuilder, JetBooking, JetAppointment, and JetStyleManager. The last one is the real find for those who want to add some stylization to the WordPress website because Gutenberg is not that flexible in terms of styling, compared to Elementor. You might know what Gutenberg loses and what it wins, so feel free to read Elementor vs Gutenberg comprehensive comparison.
Interactive popup library
Interactive popup library is a self-explanatory thing — it is a real library with more than 50 bright and entertaining popup templates for Elementor. If you want to gamify the website content, highlight some info about sales or products, or provide discounts, use those eye-catching popups. You can cover any event humanity thought up — holidays (Christmas, Easter, Halloween), Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays, season sales, etc.
Powerful JetEngine plugin
JetEngine is a kinda standalone plugin, and it has to be mentioned separately. I think this plugin is a must for those wanting to develop websites with complex structures. It provides everything for dynamic content, the dynamic widgets that will simplify the workflow. Also, you can create any type of website using just JetEngine because it is capable of replacing 10+ third-party plugins.
Pros and Cons
Elementor
Pros
✔ WooCommerce compatibility — can be edited in visual mode of the product card.
✔ A built-in CSS editor that allows you to insert custom styles.
✔ Global templates that you can use on different pages and change flexibly.
✔ Keep up to date and add new features.
✔ A large number of training materials: articles, tutorials, video courses.
Cons
✘ Low site download speed due to excessive CSS code.
✘ There may be conflicts with some WordPress themes.
✘ You cannot change the checkout page and cart using Elementor, these items can be edited only with WooCommerce.
✘ No Lifetime subscription
Crocoblock
Pros
✔ Flawless WooCommerce integration
✔ Compatible both with Elementor and Gutenberg
✔ Free and lightweight Kava theme
✔ Nicely pre-designed dynamic templates
✔ Header\Footer builder
✔ Regular updates and new useful features
✔ 24/7 technical support
Cons
✘ Some plugins can cause performance issues
✘ Dynamic templates cannot be purchased separately
✘ No trial period
Customer Support
A few words about customer support are needed. In the case of Elementor, the type of customer support is changed according to the plan you purchased. For Essential, Advanced, and Expert, you get Premium support (with a 1-day average response time for one member). Studio and Agency plans allow VIP support with Live Chat (for 5 and 10 members accordingly).
On the contrary, Crocoblock provides 24/7 customer support for all clients, no matter what plan they purchased. You can contact the support team, using tickets, Facebook, and Telegram messengers, and even schedule a Live Zoom call. Crocoblock’s support rocks.
Pricing
Both Corcoblock and Elementor stick to the flexible pricing policy. Let’s see what Elementor Pro can offer in terms of pricing.
Elementor provides five pricing plans to choose from, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The plans Essential ($49/year) and Advanced ($99/year) opens access to the following functionality:
- 90+ Widgets
- 300+ Templates
- 10+ Full Website Template Kits
- Theme Builder
- Form Builder
- WooCommerce Builder
- Popup Builder
- Regular Updates
- Premium Support
With the Essential plan, you can build and support one website, and with Advanced — three websites.
The plans Expert ($199), Studio ($499), and Agency ($999) allow you to create 25, 100, and 1000 websites, accordingly. Also, an additional feature appears — Elementor Experts Network Profile and the Live Chat with Support team becomes available. However, when the year subscription ends, you’ll need to renew it and pay the same amount of money.
Speaking about Crocoblock, its pricing policy seems more flexible to me. First, you can set your own custom subscription and choose the plugins you are interested in. The price will fluctuate depending on the plugins you select. The price range is from $15 to $26 per year for one plugin (JetEngine is the most expensive).
Also, you can purchase All-Inclusive, All-Inclusive Unlimited, or Lifetime memberships. All-Inclusive costs $130 per year for 1 website; it includes 18 JetPlugins, 10+ dynamic templates, and a bunch of other handy features. All product updates and support during this period are guaranteed, like when you buy one or several plugins.
All-Inclusive Unlimited costs $265 per year for unlimited websites. During the year, you can launch as many websites as you want and get all updates and support. This plan also requires yearly renewal.
The Lifetime plan seems to be very reasonable because you pay $750 once and get all 18 plugins, dynamic templates, and other tools for unlimited websites with support and product updates forever.
The 30-day money-back guarantee is also available.
When to Use Crocoblock and Elementor Pro
If you want a simple website with a blog layout, then Elementor Pro and default WP functionality are enough. In case you need to create a portfolio website with dynamic content, you will need Crocoblock because it allows designing a more complex website structure. With it, you can add new custom post types, custom fields and customize the skin not to make it look like a blog. Moreover, Crocoblock JetPlugins allows you to create custom listings (necessary for any WP directory website), apply advanced filtering and booking systems, provide WooCommerce customizations and search options, which are not available in Elementor.
LivingWithPixels video gives more insights on why and when to use Elementor Pro or Crocoblock, check it out
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That’s it for my Crocoblock vs Elementor Pro contest! It you have any thoughts to share, feel free to do this in the comments section.
xoxo, Lana