Last updated on July 7th, 2024 at 10:50 am
Elementor Pro offers so many great benefits that make it worth the money.
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There are lots of great reasons to buy Elementor Pro. The large majority of people who own the pro version started off by using the free version and then eventually decided it was worth it.
So if you’re still fumbling around with the free version of Elementor, there’s one great reason to get the pro version. Well, it’s actually 2 great reasons: headers & footers.
Now you might be thinking, “hey my theme has a really nice header and footer already” and I don’t doubt you. I’ve used lots of themes, even free ones, that had great header and footer designs with plenty of customization options. But hear me out: Elementor’s theme builder capable of completely customizing your headers and footers will save you time and money. Both of this are great reasons to buy Elementor Pro.
Theme Footer Credits
Normally when I do an article like this, I leave the biggest point for the end. But honestly, I’m dropping this right in the beginning because it was really the selling point for me – and there’s a good chance you won’t even need to read the rest of the article to be convinced of Elementor Pro’s value.
Most themes come with a pre-populated footer template that includes something like: Theme XYZ: Powered by WordPress.
Depending on the philosophy (and business model) of the theme developers, it may be simple to change this right in the theme’s customizer, or it may require a child theme and some code modifications.
More often than not, themes have a paid version that allows to easily remove the developer credits – and those cost money. It’s a big reason why many people end up buying the premium version of a WordPress theme and for the developers, it’s a primary technique used to sell their product.
This never used to be a big deal to me, because creating a child theme and then replacing the footer.php file with one of my own was a relatively easy task. But as the years have gone on, developers have begun making it much more complicated to search out and replace their footer credits.
In some cases, a child theme has to be practically a full rewrite in order to work. In the case of my current theme, even with a child theme, the webhooks in code are hard pointed to the parent theme – which means I have to modify original theme files to change the footer credits, and those get overwritten with every update.
Now I’m not saying you should never buy a premium WordPress theme. There are actually plenty of great reasons to use a paid theme or plugin. And there are lots of excellent developers deserving to make a living. So if you have a theme you absolutely love and provides tons of benefits and great support, go ahead and help keep it around longer by paying for it.
This is where Elementor Pro comes in. Elementor Pro allows you to completely replace your theme’s footer with one you design using their drag and drop builder. You can even do things most themes don’t even offer – such as using different footers for certain areas of your website. It’s one of those features you didn’t know you needed until you had it available.
Theme Header Limitations
If there’s one thing that always irritated me with WordPress themes, it was the limitations of the header design. Most theme customizers give you a few basic options and that’s it. You can use CSS to change fonts and colors, but full layout adjustments generally aren’t available. Any complex headers are definitely out of the question.
Elementor Pro really shines when it comes to creating complex layouts on your headers. Perhaps you want a different header for your contact page or you want a header that has many nested sections. Elementor Pro allows you to do both, and much more.
But Elementor Pro Costs Money!
As an IT guy, I’ve never been surprised by the number of people who want to do everything for free. I work in an industry where the services I provide are largely invisible to those who benefit from my knowledge, which results in an inability to see the value in those services. But let’s break down the numbers with a real-life example of a small time web guy like myself.
Elementor Pro Current Prices
Elementor Pro cost me $199 to purchase which includes 1 year of support. Renewals are around $149/yr. Now that’s for the big version that gives me a ton of site licenses for my clients. You can get it cheaper if you just needed it on a few sites. There are also lots of sales where you can buy Elementor Pro at a discount if you’re willing to wait. But let’s just go with the numbers I have.
I have 8 sites that use the same free WordPress theme. I’m not going to name it because I love the theme and don’t want to come off like I’m slamming the developers, but it’s pretty easy to figure out since you’re already reading this on one of the sites using said theme. The theme is great, it’s one of my favorites – but the free version has everything I want except for one thing: the footer credits are baked into the parent theme no matter what and the only way to overwrite them is by modifying a specific php file deep within the theme directory. Every theme update wipes out my changes. I’ve been manually making these changes after every update for the past 2 years – it takes about an hour to do all 8 sites, clear their caches, and do a quick test to make sure there are no typos in my edits. The theme developer releases an update almost every 2 weeks.
I spend 24 hours a year just changing footer code. I chose to buy Elementor Pro because 24 hours of extra time with my wife and family is worth the $199 (or $149/yr. renewal). I could have sprung for the pro version of the theme (which costs the same price as Elementor) but I’d be stuck with that theme only, and Elementor works just about everywhere.
Now paying $199/yr to save 24 hours of labor is already a good deal, and as my business grows and the number of clients I have increases, I’ve found myself building entire sites with Elementor. It’s become another benefit my clients get for doing business with me. I save even more time by lessening the number of hours it takes to build a site.
Another Reason to Buy Elementor Pro
Let’s face it, no theme lasts forever. With Elementor, I don’t have to worry about a theme suddenly being dropped by the developer and having to scramble for a new one altogether. If I build a site using their theme builder, it almost doesn’t matter what theme sits in the background because Elementor is doing all the work.
Final Thoughts
There are tons of amazing WordPress themes out there supported by talented teams of developers. And these folks are well-deserving of earning an income from their work. But if you’re working on a budget and you only need a single premium feature, you may be able to buy Elementor Pro and save yourself some money and time.
Sharif Jameel is a business owner, IT professional, runner, & musician. His professional certifications include CASP, Sec+, Net+, MCSA, & ITIL and others. He’s also the guitar player for the Baltimore-based cover bands, Liquifaction and Minority Report.
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Big fan of elementor. I use it for my freelance business and built my website with it.