Breakdance vs Elementor Compared in 2024
It’s been years since the release of Breakdance Builder (and months since the release of 2.0 version), and along with it, there was a fierce competition with Elementor. Let's go over the benefits of each builder.
Justin Gluska
Updated October 17, 2024
breakdance builder vs elementor, generated with Midjourney
Reading Time: 10 minutes
People were so over it when Breakdance Builder was released, saying: "oh great, another builder?" But since then, it has proved itself to be more than just an alternative to the more popular Elementor page builder.
When Breakdance was originally announced, it was designed to be the page builder that brings it the very best features of the leading market builders into one. Since it's still in the early days of development compared to Elementor (8 years old) – there's still features Breakdance doesn't have.
With WordPress remaining as the biggest content management software for websites across the world, we thought it was time to put these two builders head-to-head in a comparison. Let’s take a look at how Breakdance Builder stacks up against Elementor when it comes to features, speed, cost, capability, and efficiency.
Comparing Breakdance vs Elementor
Elementor has been in the WordPress market now for a while and it’s widely used by WordPress users. It’s the most popular page builder available – with over 10 million active installs. Coming out in 2016, the builder has amassed a near 7% market share over live websites on the web.
Meanwhile, Breakdance is the new kid on the block. It was officially released in August of 2022 after a few months of beta testing, with its latest version (Breakdance Builder 2.1) being released in September 2024. The builder was developed by Soflyy, the same team who made the Oxygen Builder. Even though Breakdance Builder is relatively new, the developers are not new to the WordPress scene.
For those who don't know how to code but still want to make beautiful websites, page builders are the way to go. On the other hand, web developers often complain about how page builders add unnecessary bloat to a website, destroy SEO, and generally cause more problems than they solve.
So, who's right? The answer, like most things: it depends. Let's take a look at some of the key differences between these two WordPress page builders.
Similarities Between Elementor and Breakdance
At the end of the day, a page builder is still a page builder. So, it’s no surprise that both Elementor and Breakdance offer similar features. Both builders offer drag-and-drop editors with responsive controls, global design options, tons of widget elements, WooCommerce support, workflow optimization, and more.
Both Elementor and Breakdance also offer a selection of templates that can be imported with one click. These templates can be customized to your liking and help you get started with your design faster.
Elementor currently supports one-click WordPress setup & hosting, an advance over Breakdance if you're looking to get your WordPress site up and running as fast as possible. On the other hand, Breakdance comes with out-of-the-box WooCommerce styling and support, making it extremely efficient and aesthetically pleasing to use with an online store.
Comparing UI/UX
When creating a new page, Elementor asks you to select the layout you want while Breakdance gives you a completely blank canvas to start with. Elementor's pre-made layouts are great if you're looking for inspiration or want to get a head start on your design. However, if you're the type of person who likes more control over every aspect of your website, Breakdance's blank canvas might be a better fit.
For a completely new website designer, Elementor is easier to set up a site with a pre-built theme. Breakdance is better for customization & speed – allowing you to have more creative control over your website. When Breakdance includes a large library of prebuilt templates, it could shift the scale to be the easiest builder to launch a site with.
Once you start adding content, both builders have a very similar interface. Both have a left sidebar with your elements and options and a live preview on the right. Breakdance gives you greater creative control compared to Elementor. For example, with an image element, you can add a custom link, alt text, title, and more without having to install any additional plugins.
If you're looking for premade templates, both builders offer an array of options. Breakdance has a slight edge here as they have more templates available (both native and third-party). When released, new Breakdance elements will not cost anything extra, so you don't have to worry about shelling out even more money.
Comparing WooCommerce Capabilities
This is where we see Breakdance start to pull ahead. Out of the box, Breakdance offers WooCommerce support with premade templates and styles for your products, store, and checkout pages.
Elementor does have an official WooCommerce builder but it's not nearly as comprehensive as what Breakdance offers. After using WooCommerce with Elementor for a while, I was able to customize a site built with Breakdance way faster, with an easier learning curve.
Out of the box, Breakdance lets you customize all pages of a WooCommerce experience. This includes the product archive page, product single page, cart page, and checkout page. If you're on the fence between the two builders, Breakdance takes the cake when it comes to eCommerce features and possibilities.
Comparing Unique Features
While both builders aim to do the same thing, they each have unique features that help them stand out. Although nothing fundamental, these unique features could be a giveaway for using one builder over another.
Breakdance Unique Features
Conditional Logic is the ability to show or hide an element based on certain conditions. This feature is available in Breakdance but not in Elementor. Conditional Logic is a powerful tool that can help you create dynamic, personalized content for your users like show personalized conditions on forms to users, certain elements to be shown only when a user is logged in, or even show/hide entire sections on a page.
Elementor Unique Features
Elementor has a huge design library with pre-made blocks that you can use on your site. This is a great feature for those who want to get their website up and running quickly without having to start from scratch. Breakdance doesn't have as many default design sets.
That said, in terms of templates, Breakdance (240+) has more pre-made website templates now than Elementor (56).
Since Elementor has been around for a while, it also has a huge user base with tons of options for community support. Elementor also offers support answering questions within a day, which can come in handy if you're stuck on an urgent problem.
They also have VIP support which can get tickets answered in under 30 minutes through chat and emails (only available with studio & agency plan). Breakdance seems to be lacking in this regard due to their smaller team, with some users complaining on the Facebook group about a multi-day waiting period for ticket requests.
If you’re interested in knowing how the default performance fares between Breakdance and Elementor, I highly recommend checking out Soflyy’s article.
Breakdance vs Elementor Pricing
Elementor
Elementor offers four main pricing options:
- Lite ($2.99/mo):
- Core Builder (Free Version)
- 1 site, 10K monthly visits
- 5 GB storage, 10 GB/mo bandwidth
- Basic features like daily backups and SSL
- Basic ($9.99/mo):
- Pro Builder (Essential)
- 1 site, 25K monthly visits
- 10 GB storage, 30 GB/mo bandwidth
- Additional features like form builder and dynamic content
- Business ($19.99/mo):
- Pro Builder (Advanced)
- 1 site, 50K monthly visits
- 20 GB storage, 50 GB/mo bandwidth
- Advanced features including ecommerce and custom CSS
- Grow ($22.99/mo):
- Pro Builder (Advanced)
- 3 sites, 75K monthly visits
- 25 GB storage, 75 GB/mo bandwidth
- All Business features site cloning
All plans include hosting, free domain (up to $19.99 value), SSL, CDN, and various optimization tools. The Grow plan offers flexibility with multi-website options (3, 10, or 30 sites available).
Elementor also has discounts on annual billing, with savings ranging from 20% to 75% depending on the plan.
Breakdance
Like Elementor, Breakdance breaks (heh, catch that pun?) pricing into the following tiers:
- Free ($0/year):
- Unlimited websites
- Basic WordPress website building features
- 80 Elements
- Limited design library
- Basic WooCommerce, form, and popup builders
- Basic dynamic data functionality
- Pro - Single Site ($99.99/year):
- All pro features for 1 website
- 145 Elements
- Full design library and WooCommerce integration
- Advanced form and popup builders
- Full dynamic data capabilities
- Additional features like custom fonts, CSS class manager, and element presets
- Pro - Unlimited Sites ($199.99/year):
- All pro features for unlimited websites
- $200/year savings from previous pricing
- Identical features to the single-site Pro plan
All paid plans include the full suite of 145 elements, complete design library, and advanced features like custom coding options and import/export settings.
There is one other tier that I didn’t include in the list and that is the Agency. It is priced at a whopping $799.99, specifically aimed for teams and resellers. Unless you’re a big company with several hundreds of sites and customers calling for support daily, you’re better off with the Pro unlimited site version.
That said, you shouldn't base using a page builder on its price. If you're planning on using a page builder to develop high quality websites for either your business or a company you're working for – you're looking at a couple dollar difference which would potentially pay off by the tens of thousands in the long-term.
You should buy the builder that makes sense for you and your team. Make your purchase based on builder features, speed, support, and future developmental visions.
Breakdance vs Elementor Support
Elementor offers a knowledge base for support as well as an official Facebook group. If you have a Grow plan, you can contact their pro support. You can hire an Elementor expert for your site too.
Breakdance has a smaller (but rapidly growing) audience at the moment, so their support is only handled by support tickets for lower tiers. If you’re paying for higher tiers, then you’re also getting premium support. We suggest the Facebook group for smaller questions, and support for larger ones & bug fixes. The Facebook group is very active and your questions could probably be answered a lot quicker if they're not too complicated.
Breakdance also has documentation and tutorials to follow. There is an unofficial discord for casual chats.
Final Decisions
If you're looking for a WordPress page builder with an intuitive interface, excellent performance, and all the features you need to create beautiful pages, Breakdance is the right builder for you. If you're looking for a WordPress page builder with a huge large design library and plethora of pre-made blocks, Elementor is probably the right builder for you.
Remember that you don't buy a builder for a month, you buy it to master & develop with the product. This is a medium to long-term investment that if used correctly will pay off 10x. See this as an investment for your business, web design skills, and future peace of mind.
When this original article was first published, I would've said Breakdance seems to require a bit more skill compared to Elementor, but includes features Elementor has been lacking for years. Now, I'd say the gap is negligible.
As the months go on, we're seeing near weekly updates to the product. The team is very active across Facebook & aims to integrate the most popular requested features. My only concern is pricing plans. I still believe in buying a product for the value (which it clearly is worth), but I think they need a yearly plan for a single website. A big portion of their target audience is solo founders & developers.
If you're looking for an Elementor alternative that is more powerful, efficient, and capable, we recommend Breakdance. Like I mentioned earlier, Breakdance Builder 2.0 is also out now so they’ve been steadily getting better as the years go along.
However, if you're just starting, don't want to put much effort into design aspects of your website, and need a page builder with a large design library of pre-made templates, Elementor would probably work better for you. So, if you're still undecided, we suggest trying out both free versions of Elementor and Breakdance Sandbox to see which one you prefer.
Thanks for reading and happy building!
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