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Breakdance vs Elementor Compared & Why You Should Switch

With the release of the new Breakdance Builder, Elementor has some direct competition. Let's go over the benefits of each builder
Updated February 26, 2024
breakdance builder vs elementor pixel fighting clipart
breakdance builder vs elementor pixel fighting clipart

This article is undergoing an update to reflect new 2024 changes. It will be updated in a few days!

It's been about half a year now since Breakdance Builder was released. The new builder works as an alternative to the popular Elementor page builder. You might be asking yourself "oh great, another builder?" but honestly, both of them are unique, serve their own purpose, and have their own set of pros and cons.

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.

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 (7 years old) – there's still features Breakdance doesn't have. By the end of this comparison, you’ll hopefully figure out which page builder would best fit your needs.

So, which one should you use? In this article, we'll go over both the differences and similarities between Breakdance and Elementor to help you decide which WordPress page builder would work best for you.

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 5 million downloads. Coming out in 2016, the builder has amassed a near 7% market share over live websites on the web.

Breakdance is the new kid on the block. It was officially released in August of 2022 after a few months of beta testing. The builder was developed by Soflyy, the same team who made the Oxygen Builder. Even though the Builder is 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 Default Performance

We've tested both builders on the same pages, same hosts, with the same elements through both Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. Both pages used the newest versions of WordPress and PHP (at the time of writing, WordPress 6.0.2 and PHP 8.0.21), with no caching plugins or anything else active. Each page has a section, heading, text, and image element. We'll go over default scores for both mobile and desktop. The idea of this test is to see each plugin’s bloat before adding any widgets/modules. We also installed WPRocket, a caching and speed optimization plugin, to see how these builders would perform with these optimizations.

Both Elementor and Breakdance had similar scores on GTMetrix, with Breakdance getting a slight edge.

BreakdanceBreakdance (WP Rocket)ElementorElementor (WP Rocket)
FCP511ms488ms523ms539ms
Time to Interactive547ms541ms548ms574ms
Speed Index1.0s606ms1.1s632ms
LCP600ms576ms597ms591ms
CLS0000
Fully Loaded1.3ms967ms1.8s2.1s
Performance (GT)93%96%88%90%
Structure (GT)94%96%80%83%

With WP Rocket, Breakdance shoots up to extremely fast speeds, while it doesn't help too much on our Elementor site. When using both editors on the backend, Breakdance is lightspeeds ahead of Elementor. Editing pages and switching between parts of the editor can be done without any lag on Breakdance, while Elementor often has a slight delay. This is most likely because of the lack of bloat in Breakdance's code. Even though the following won't be a truly "fair" comparison, here's some performance results for the current website corresponding to each builder

Breakdance.comElementor.com
GTmetrix Grade
AB
Performance Score100%89%
Structure Score94%82%
Largest Contentful Paint731ms416ms
Total Blocking time0ms260ms
Cumulative Layout Shift0.030.00

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 setup 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.

elementor default page editing screen
breakdance builder default page editing screen

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. Elementor has a slight edge here as they have more templates available and they're also easier to find. With Breakdance, you have to go into the template library and then search through all the different types of templates (which will be updated with more in due time). 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 possibilites.

easily create, edit, format, and design products on woocommerce using breakdance builder

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.

conditional formatting example with breakdance builder

Elementor Unique Features

Elementor has a huge design library with pre-made website templates & 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. The team did just release a huge set of pre-made website themes that are fast & updated for current design standards – but doesn't have nearly the extensive amount that Elementor does.

Breakdance builder design library

Since Elementor has been around for a while, it 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.

elementor design set library

Breakdance vs Elementor Pricing

Elementor includes a hefty free plan, including all the basic elements you would need to create and structure a page. The pro version starts at $59 a year for a single license, $199/year for 25, and $399/year for 1000 activations. The builder doesn't have a lifetime plan available. If you're looking for a 1-step solution to purchasing Elementor and setting up a site – they include a Cloud Hosting bundle for $99/year. This is a very affordable price point for those looking to setup, design, and host a website.

Breakdance has a simple pricing model with two options: $99 for a single site and $199/year for unlimited sites (with claims of raising to $349/year soon. There is a 60-day money-back guarantee and a free version with 80 basic elements if you'd rather try it out first.

On top of the free Breakdance version, you can also try the builder out in a sandbox environment to learn if it's right for you. As a special bonus, for those with Oxygen Builder licenses, users will get their first year of Breakdance free. The development team at Breakdance are in the talks about a single site license, hopefully launching soon. Breakdance Pro includes more elements, dynamic data, popup triggers, WooCommerce access, and the Design Library.

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 studio or agency plan, you can contact their pro support. You can hire an Elementor expert for your site too. The builder so large, they often have meetups to come together and discuss development & the plugins future.

Breakdance has a smaller audience at the moment, so their support is only handled by support tickets. We suggest the Facebook group for smaller questions, and support for larger ones & bug fixes. The Facebook 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 templates, 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. 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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Written by Justin Gluska
Justin is the founder of Gold Penguin, a business technology blog that helps people start, grow, and scale their business using AI. The world is changing and he believes it's best to make use of the new technology that is starting to change the world. If it can help you make more money or save you time, he'll write about it!
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