WordPress has so many in-built themes. The content management system’s theme library has more than eleven thousand themes that are either free or paid. Whatever site you want to build – a portfolio for fashion designing or photography, a blog or magazine website – there are numerous themes for you to choose from. However, what if you do not want to use an existing theme and want to build something unique? You can always use a WordPress theme builder.
Also see: 20 Free & Premium Consulting Business WordPress Themes 2023
What is a WordPress Theme Builder?
A WordPress theme builder is a blank canvas. On it, you can add different elements like text, images, videos, maps, timelines, social media buttons and other modules to your site. This way you will be able to design a unique layout for your website.
With a WordPress theme builder, you can create a custom theme for your entire website. The theme build then integrates your layout to all the pages and posts. Moreover, there is no need to know CSS and PHP coding to do this. That is one of the benefits of using a theme builder.
What are the advantages of using a WordPress theme builder?
As mentioned above, theme builders are fairly easy to use. You do not need to know any coding or have some advanced technical skills. Even if you are new to WordPress, using it is straightforward. In most theme builders, you will have to drag and drop the elements onto your desired position on the page.
It is not just about adding modules. You can also change text colours and background colours.
Given that you can add whatever available element wherever you want, theme builders give you the liberty to design as you like. When you use a custom theme from the WordPress themes collection, your website’s look changes to that design. If you want to change it, you will have to know coding to do it. For instances, say the header image height is small on the theme you chose. It is not simple to resize it. You will have to crop your header image to match that height. That is unless you have knowledge of coding.
Why rethink before installing a WordPress Theme builder?
To install a theme to WordPress, you should be using a WordPress Business plan. On the Personal and Premium plan, you cannot install a theme or a plugin. Although there are free theme builders, you would not be able to use them unless you have subscribed to the Business plan.
Being able to create a layout from scratch on a blank canvas is a great thing. However, at the same time, it can also be a drawback. You should spend some time creating the layout for your site or you will have to plan a layout in advance.
Say at some point you choose to unsubscribe from the Business plan and decide to switch to the Personal or Premium plans. You will automatically lose all the layouts you designed using the theme builder. Moreover, if you used the theme builder to create your posts, you will lose that too. All that left will be a bunch of codes.
How to install a WordPress theme builder?
Theme builders come as an individual plugin and as part of a theme. If you want to use a theme from WordPress and use a theme builder along with it, you can. Or else, you can install a new theme and use the integrated theme builder. Some themes do not come with a built-in theme builder and must be installed separately if needed.
Installing a theme builder
Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Select Plugins.
Choose the Add New option.
Click on the Upload Plugin option.
Upload the theme builder plugin as the zip file you downloaded.
Press on the Install Now button.
Once installed, click on Activate.
The theme builder will get added to your Dashboard menu.
Installing a theme
Go to your WordPress dashboard.
Go to Appearance and select Add New Theme.
Click on the Install Theme option and choose Upload Themes.
Upload the Theme zip file you previously downloaded.
Press on the Install Now button.
Once installed, click on Activate.
The theme will get added to your site’s sidebar menu.
You will see the theme builder option when you press on the new theme option.
Make sure that the theme is up to date. Also, check that the theme builder option is enabled. For this, open a page, click on the Screen Options menu and ensure that the theme builder checkbox is ticked.
Note that the exact steps after you install the plugin or theme may vary a bit for different theme builders.
What are the best WordPress Theme Builders?
Divi
This theme builder from Elegant Themes is one of the most popular ones out there. The best thing about Divi is that you can either edit your site on the backend or on the front end. This will allow you to get a real-time preview of what your site will look like when you publish it. You can use Divi to check how your site will appear on a desktop, mobile phone or a tab. This allows you to edit how your site looks on different screens. Besides, if you have any trouble while using the theme builder, you can always chat with the Divi support team.
Pricing: When you buy an Elegant Themes license, Divi comes as part of it. The license is priced at US$ 89 per year and US$ 249 for lifetime access. Along with Divi, you will also get other themes and plugins such as Extra, Monarch and Bloom.
Elementor
Elementor is yet another WordPress theme builder with the option to edit your site’s preview on the front end. With Elementor, you can edit how you want all your posts to look. You can use it to customise the header and footer. The theme builder lets you access different modules such as posts, site title, author box and more. Using these modules, you will be able to create a layout for your website posts, pages and projects.
Pricing: Elementor has a free plan with which you can use the website builder and more than 40 widgets. To access all the other features like WooCommerce builder and motion effects, you should subscribe to Elementor Pro. The paid plan starts at US$ 49 per year for one site.
Thrive
According to Thrive’s official website, over 50 thousand users are using this theme on their WordPress site. This is probably because the theme builder is user-friendly. If you are creating a website from scratch, Thrive has a wizard that lets you easily create the website step by step. The theme builder has hundreds of tools and modules to choose from.
Pricing: The Thrive theme builder comes as part of the Thrive Suite that is priced at US$ 228 per year. The suite comes with features such as A/B testing, quiz builder and more.
