Easily Create a Professional Website with Elementor and WordPress: The Ultimate Guide for Developers and Coders

WordPress powers over 40% of the entire internet, making it by far the world‘s most popular website platform. Since its initial release in 2003, WordPress has evolved from a simple blogging tool to a flexible and fully-featured content management system (CMS).

One of the key factors driving WordPress‘ dominance is its extensibility. Both the core software and thousands of plugins are open source, allowing developers to fully customize their sites and build powerful web applications.

But historically, customizing WordPress sites required significant coding skills. Page builder plugins emerged to make designing and layouting pages more accessible. Elementor has quickly become the leading WordPress page builder, active on over 5 million websites.

Why WordPress and Elementor are the Perfect Combo for Developers

For developers and coders, the combination of WordPress and Elementor is incredibly powerful:

• WordPress provides a robust and flexible content management foundation
• The WordPress REST API enables integrating with web applications and external services
• Elementor‘s visual builder speeds up development of complex page layouts
• Elementor‘s open source developer API allows extending the builder to meet custom needs
• A huge library of pre-built templates provides starting points for faster development
• Integrations with popular plugins like WooCommerce, ACF, and Toolset streamline building advanced sites

In short, WordPress and Elementor give developers the tools to build anything from simple websites to complex web apps in less time. Let‘s take a closer look at some key benefits and features.

WordPress Dominates the CMS Market

WordPress‘s market share and growth is staggering. According to W3Techs, as of May 2021, WordPress powers 41.4% of the top 10 million websites. This is a 4.1% increase from just one year ago.

WordPress has a 64.1% share of the content management system market. For comparison, the second most popular CMS, Shopify, has only a 5.2% market share.

Rapidly Growing Elementor Community

Elementor has seen impressive growth and adoption:

• Over 5 million active installations of the free Elementor plugin
• Elementor Pro paid version has over 1 million users
• 4.7/5 average rating from over 5,500 user reviews
• 108,600 members in official Elementor Facebook community

One key factor in Elementor‘s success has been its freemium business model. The core Elementor plugin is free and open source. It provides all the essential page building features that most users need.

Elementor Pro is a paid add-on that includes more advanced features for professionals and developers. This strategy has allowed Elementor to build a massive user base while generating over $10 million in annual recurring revenue.

Developer Features in Elementor Pro

Elementor Pro is packed with features that make life easier for developers and power users:

• Theme Builder to visually design and customize every part of a WordPress theme
• Dynamic content to pull in data from custom fields, WordPress content types, and APIs
• WooCommerce Builder to completely customize ecommerce product and shop pages
• Custom CSS to add your own styles and override default Elementor styling
• Popup Builder to create advanced modal popups and fly-ins
• Visual Form Builder to drag and drop your way to creating custom forms
• Custom fonts and icons to ensure a perfect match with your visual branding
• Role manager to control access to Elementor settings, pages, and widgets

These features allow developers to create pixel-perfect designs and advanced functionality without ever leaving the visual Elementor interface. Of course, full code editing capabilities are still available when needed. It‘s the perfect balance of efficiency and flexibility.

Elementor Developer API and Widgets

Elementor provides a full developer API and widget framework for extending its functionality. Using the API, developers can:

• Register custom Elementor widgets with custom controls and settings
• Extend existing Elementor elements and widgets with new controls and features
• Customize the content, style, and attributes of Elementor widgets on the fly
• Register custom field types for use in the Elementor editor interface
• Modify the behavior of the Elementor editor, frontend, and more

The Elementor ecosystem now includes hundreds of third-party add-on plugins built with the developer API. These extensions add everything from new design elements and templates to integrations with popular marketing and ecommerce tools.

By using the API, the design possibilities with Elementor are truly limitless. If you can dream it, you can build it!

Performance and Code Quality

As with any WordPress plugin, performance and code quality should be a top consideration for developers. Elementor follows WordPress coding best practices and offers several built-in performance optimizations:

• Minimizing and combining JavaScript and CSS files for the frontend
• Loading resources only when needed using conditional asset loading
• Implementing infinite scrolling for faster page transitions
• Optimizing the Elementor editor interface for faster loading and responsiveness
• Supporting full page caching with WordPress caching plugins

Of course, creating performant and maintainable designs still requires care and planning from the developer. Some best practices to keep in mind when using Elementor:

• Stick to a consistent naming convention for classes, IDs, and file names
• Regularly audit and remove unused designs, pages, and templates
• Use version control tools like Git to track changes and collaborate with teams
• Only load the minimum scripts and styles needed for each page
• Follow accessibility standards and best practices in your designs
• Implement a solid WordPress backup and security strategy

By following these practices and taking advantage of Elementor‘s many performance features, developers can ensure their sites are fast, maintainable, and scalable over the long run.

The Future of WordPress and Elementor

Both WordPress and Elementor have exciting roadmaps and development plans. As of version 5.7, WordPress has transitioned to a faster release cycle with more incremental improvements. The new Gutenberg block editor continues to mature and add new features with each release.

Elementor recently released version 3.2, which added significant collaboration features for teams and agencies. Future releases on the roadmap include:

• Improved Theme Builder to fully customize headers, footers, and content templates
• More advanced display and visibility conditions for widgets
• Streamlined responsive editing tools and workflow
• Continued performance improvements and bug fixes

The Elementor team is also investing heavily in education and training for users and developers. They recently launched the Elementor Academy learning hub with dozens of in-depth courses on web design, WordPress development, and using Elementor.

All of these developments are nurturing a growing community and ecosystem around WordPress and Elementor. It‘s truly an exciting time to be a WordPress developer!

Careers and Business Opportunities

For developers and coders, the rapid growth of WordPress and Elementor translates into abundant career and business opportunities:

• Full-time employment as a WordPress developer for agencies or product companies
• Freelance web design and development services for small businesses and enterprises
• Building and selling premium WordPress themes and Elementor add-on plugins
• Selling Elementor design kits and templates to other creators
• Creating educational content like courses and tutorials for WordPress and Elementor
• Offering WordPress maintenance and support services to website owners

Whether you want to work as an employee, a freelancer, or an entrepreneur, WordPress and Elementor skills are in high demand. According to data from Indeed, the average salary for a WordPress Developer in the United States is $77,040 per year. Rates for freelancers can range from $30-150 per hour depending on experience and skills.

By staying on top of the latest WordPress and Elementor developments, you can build a rewarding and lucrative career as a developer. Some tips to boost your skills and reputation:

• Build an impressive portfolio website showcasing your best WordPress and Elementor projects
• Contribute to open source WordPress plugins and themes to build your development skills
• Engage with the WordPress and Elementor communities on social media and online forums
• Learn and implement the latest coding standards, best practices, and accessibility guidelines
• Specialize in a particular industry, project type, or add-on tool to stand out
• Never stop learning and level up your skills with courses, certifications, and conferences

Conclusion

WordPress and Elementor are a dynamic duo for building powerful and professional websites. Developers and coders can leverage the flexibility of WordPress and the efficiency of Elementor to create custom web designs and applications.

Whether you‘re building a portfolio site, a business website, a web app, or an ecommerce store, WordPress and Elementor have you covered. By digging into the official documentation and experimenting with the many add-ons and integrations, you can push the boundaries of what‘s possible.

The future is bright for WordPress, Elementor, and the developers who use them. New features and capabilities are being added all the time, creating fresh opportunities and challenges.

To stay ahead of the curve, invest in continuous learning and experimentation. Follow industry blogs and podcasts, join online communities, and attend local WordPress meetups and WordCamps to network and discover best practices.

Above all, have fun and don‘t be afraid to unleash your creativity! With WordPress and Elementor, if you can imagine it, you can build it.