WORDPRESS
9 Best Elementor Alternatives 2024 (Faster Page Builders)
Are you looking for a better and faster Elementor alternative that doesn’t slow down your WordPress site?
You’re on the right page. Sit tight!
While Elementor is a popular choice for creating WordPress websites, it may not be the best fit for everyone. Luckily, there are plenty of other options available that offer similar features and functionality.
Several Elementor alternatives are available, whether you’re looking for a more affordable option, a different user interface, or additional features.
In this article, I researched nine top elements or alternatives. I discuss each platform’s strengths and weaknesses to help you choose the one that best meets your needs.
Top 9 Elementor Alternatives
1. Kadence WP (Overall Best Alternative to Elementor)
If you’re looking for an Elementor alternative that provides you with a robust set of features, Kadence WP is the way to go.
Kadence WP is a popular page builder that has received considerable attention in the WordPress community. It is known for its speed, ease of use, and flexibility.
Kadence WP Key Features
Here are some of the key features that make Kadence WP stand out:
- Fast Loading Time: Kadence WP is designed to load quickly, critical for user experience and SEO.
- Intuitive Interface: The user interface is straightforward, making it easy for beginners and experienced users.
- Customizable Templates: Kadence WP has a wide range of templates you can customize to suit your needs.
- Advanced Row and Column Layouts: You can easily create complex row and column layouts.
- WooCommerce Integration: Kadence WP integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it an excellent choice for online stores.
- Global Color Palette: You can set a global color palette for your website, making it easy to maintain consistency across all pages.
Kadence WP Pros and Cons
Here are some of the pros and cons of Kadence WP:
Pros:
- Easy to use and beginner-friendly
- Fast loading times
- Customizable templates
- Advanced row and column layouts
- WooCommerce integration
- Global color palette
Cons:
- Limited third-party integrations
- No built-in pop-up builder
Kadence WP Pricing
- Free Plan: This plan is free and excellent for website creators wanting to start.
- Essentials Plan: This plan costs $149/year and gives you all the essentials, like the pro versions of the Kadence theme, starter templates, Kadence Blocks, and design patterns.
- Full Plan: This plan costs $219/year and gives you full access to all the tools to help you sell.
- Lifetime Plan: With this plan, you get every product in its complete bundle, lifetime support, updates, and all future products for a one-time payment of $799/lifetime.
2. Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes is an excellent option if you’re looking for a theme with various marketing features. It offers a range of powerful tools for building and optimizing websites, making it an excellent option for those seeking a comprehensive solution for marketing-focused sites.
It’s popular with bloggers, entrepreneurs, and marketers who want to create high-converting websites.
Thrive Themes Key Features
- Conversion-Focused Design: Thrive Themes are built with conversion optimization, with features like customizable buttons, testimonials, and call-to-action elements to help you generate leads and sales.
- Speed Optimization: Thrive Themes are lightweight and optimized for speed, ensuring that your website loads quickly and provides a smooth user experience.
- Customization Options: Thrive Themes offer extensive customization options, allowing you to personalize your website’s design to match your brand and style.
- Built-in Features: Thrive Themes come with a range of built-in features, such as customizable headers, footers, and sidebars, as well as custom widgets and shortcodes.
- SEO-Friendly: Thrive Themes are built using SEO best practices, helping your website rank higher in search engine results.
- Integrated Plugins: Thrive Themes integrate seamlessly with other Thrive plugins, such as Thrive Architect and Thrive Leads, to provide additional functionality and customization options.
Thrive Themes Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of using Thrive Themes:
Pros:
- Built-in marketing tools
- Frequent updates and improvements
- User-friendly interface
- Great customer support
- Highly customizable
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve
- Limited pre-built designs compared to Divi
- Some features may be overkill for basic sites.
Thrive Themes Pricing
Thrive Themes offers two pricing options:
- Thrive Suite Subscription: This annual subscription costs $299 and gives you access to all Thrive Themes products, including the themes and plugins.
- Thrive Themes Builder: This plan gives you access to only the Thrive Themes Builder and costs $99/year.
3. Divi Page Builder
Divi is a powerful and user-friendly Elementor alternative. It is a famous WordPress page builder known for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, robust features, and flexibility.
Divi Key Features
Here are some of the critical features of Divi that make it a great Elementor substitute:
- Intuitive Visual Builder: Divi’s visual builder makes creating stunning websites easy without coding knowledge.
- Customizable Layouts: Divi comes with a wide range of layout options, allowing you to create unique designs for your website.
- Responsive Editing: Divi allows you to edit your website’s design in real time, ensuring it looks great on all devices.
- Global Elements: Divi’s global elements feature allows you to save time by creating reusable elements that can be used across your website.
- Built-in Split Testing: Divi has a built-in split testing feature, allowing you to test different designs and improve your website’s performance.
- WooCommerce Integration: Divi integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it easy to create stunning online stores.
Divi Pros and Cons
Here are some of the pros and cons of using Divi as an Elementor alternative:
Pros:
- Intuitive visual builder
- Wide range of layout options
- Responsive Editing
- Global elements
- Built-in split testing
- WooCommerce integration
Cons:
- Limited third-party integrations
- It can be slow to load on some websites
- Some features may require additional plugins
Divi Pricing
- Divi: This costs $89 per year and has a lifetime subscription of $249. It includes access to all of Elegant Themes’ themes and plugins, updates, and support.
- Divi Pro: This plan costs $277 yearly and has a lifetime subscription of $297. It includes access to everything in the Divi plan plus Divi AI, Divi Cloud, and Divi Teams.
4. Squarespace (best non-WordPress alternative)
Squarespace is an excellent non-WordPress alternative to Elementor. Squarespace is a website builder that allows you to create a professional-looking website without coding experience.
Squarespace Key Features
- Templates: Squarespace offers many modern, sleek, and professional templates. You can choose from over 100 templates and customize them to suit your needs.
- Ease of Use: Squarespace is very easy to use and does not require any coding experience. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create and customize your website.
- Mobile Optimization: All Squarespace templates are mobile optimized, meaning your website will look great on any device.
- E-commerce: Squarespace offers built-in e-commerce functionality, which allows you to sell products and services directly from your website.
- SEO: Squarespace has built-in SEO features that make optimizing your website for search engines easy.
- Analytics: Squarespace offers detailed analytics that allows you to track your website’s performance and make data-driven decisions.
Squarespace Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of using Squarespace as an Elementor alternative:
Pros:
- Squarespace is straightforward to use and does not require any coding experience.
- Squarespace offers a wide range of modern, sleek, and professional templates.
- Squarespace has built-in e-commerce functionality, which allows you to sell products and services directly from your website.
- All Squarespace templates are mobile-optimized, meaning your website will look great on any device.
- Squarespace offers built-in SEO features that simplify optimizing your website for search engines.
Cons:
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace offers four pricing plans:
- Personal: This foundational plan costs $25/month and gives access to fully customizable, best-in-class templates.
- Business: This is for those looking to grow their audience and begin taking payments. It costs $36/month.
- Basic Commerce: For $40/month, you get selling tools to help grow your business without transaction fees.
- Advanced Commerce: For $72/month, you get all the tools necessary for the more advanced seller with no transaction fees.
5. OptimizePress
If you’re looking for an Elementor substitute designed explicitly for creating landing pages, sales pages, and membership portals, then OptimizePress might be the right tool for you.
It’s a WordPress plugin that allows you to create high-converting pages and funnels without any coding skills.
OptimizePress Key Features
OptimizePress has many features that make it easy to create professional-looking pages. Here are some of the key features:
- Drag-and-Drop Page Builder: OptimizePress has a visual editor that makes it easy to create pages by dragging and dropping elements onto the canvas.
- Pre-designed Templates: OptimizePress has a library of templates you can customize to suit your needs.
- Conversion-focused Elements: OptimizePress has a variety of conversion-focused elements like countdown timers, progress bars, and opt-in forms to help you increase conversions.
- Membership Site Builder: OptimizePress has a membership site builder that allows you to create membership portals and restrict content to members only.
- Funnel Builder: OptimizePress has a funnel builder that allows you to create multi-step funnels easily.
- Integrations: OptimizePress integrates with various email marketing services, payment gateways, and other tools.
OptimizePress Pros and Cons
Like any tool, OptimizePress has its pros and cons. Here are some of the main ones:
Pros:
- OptimizePress is designed explicitly to create high-converting pages and funnels.
- It comes with many pre-designed templates and conversion-focused elements that make it easy to create professional-looking pages.
- The membership site builder and funnel builder are great for creating online courses and sales funnels.
- OptimizePress integrates with various email marketing services, payment gateways, and other tools.
- It’s a one-time purchase with no monthly fees.
Cons:
- OptimizePress can be a bit overwhelming for beginners.
- The visual editor can be a bit slow at times.
- The number of templates is limited compared to other page builders.
- The support can be slow to respond at times.
OptimizePress Pricing
OptimizePress offers three pricing plans:
- Builder Only: This plan allows you to build landing pages that can only be used on one site. It costs $129/year.
- Suite Starter: This plan lets you use all OptimizePress Suite features on one site. It costs $199/year.
- Suite Pro: This plan enables you to use all OptimizePress Suite features on up to five sites. It costs $249/year.
6. Beaver Builder
If you’re looking for an Elementor competitor, Beaver Builder is a great option. Here’s what you need to know about Beaver Builder.
Beaver Builder Key Features
Sure! Here are brief explanations of the specified Beaver Builder features:
- Easy-to-Use Drag-and-Drop Interface: Beaver Builder provides an intuitive interface that lets you drag and drop elements like text, images, and videos directly onto web pages, making the design process straightforward.
- Front-End Editing: This feature allows you to see changes in real-time as you edit your pages directly from the front end of their website. This live editing experience makes it easier to visualize the site’s final look without needing to preview changes separately.
- Responsive Design: This feature ensures that websites built with Beaver Builder are automatically optimized to look great on any device, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- Customizable Templates: Beaver Builder offers a variety of pre-designed templates that you can easily customize to fit your needs.
- WooCommerce Integration: This allows you to design and customize product pages, shop layouts, and other e-commerce elements directly within the builder.
- Developer-Friendly: It is designed with developers in mind, offering features like custom modules, hooks, and filters that allow for extensive customization and functionality extension.
Beaver Builder Pros and Cons
As with any page builder, there are pros and cons to using Beaver Builder. Here are some:
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Great for beginners
- Lots of customization options
- Great customer support
- Developer-friendly
Cons:
- Limited design options
- Limited third-party integrations
- It can be slow to load
Beaver Builder Pricing
Beaver Builder offers four pricing plans:
- Standard: This plan is best for entrepreneurs, costing $99 annually.
- Pro: This plan is best for freelancers and costs $199 annually.
- Agency: This plan is best for agencies and costs $399 annually.
- Ultimate: This plan is best for power users. For $546 annually, you get everything in the agency plan plus the Beaver Themer add-on plugin and Assistant Pro.
7. Wix
If you are looking for an all-in-one website builder that is easy to use and offers a variety of features, Wix is an excellent option.
Wix Key Features
Sure! Here are brief explanations of the specified Wix features:
- Drag-and-Drop Website Builder: Wix offers an intuitive interface that allows you to easily create and customize websites by simply dragging elements like text, images, and videos into place.
- Hundreds of Customizable Templates: Wix provides a vast selection of professionally designed templates you can choose from and customize to fit your needs.
- App Market with Over 250 Apps: Wix’s App Market offers a variety of apps and integrations that you can add to your websites to extend functionality.
- Built-in SEO Tools: Wix includes a suite of SEO tools designed to help you optimize your websites for search engines.
- Mobile Optimization: Websites created with Wix are automatically optimized for mobile devices, ensuring they look great and function well on smartphones and tablets.
- eCommerce Functionality: Wix offers robust e-commerce capabilities, allowing you to set up online stores, manage inventory, process payments, and more. This functionality is ideal for businesses selling products or services directly from their websites.
Wix Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Wix is more beginner-friendly and easier to use than Elementor.
- Wix offers built-in features and tools, such as SEO and eCommerce functionality.
- Wix has a broader selection of templates and design options.
- Wix has a robust App Market with over 250 apps to help you customize your website.
- Wix offers a free plan with limited features, making it an excellent option for those on a tight budget.
Cons:
- Wix is not as customizable as Elementor, so advanced users may find it limiting.
- Wix’s pricing plans can be more expensive than Elementor’s, especially if you need advanced features.
- Wix’s templates can be less flexible than Elementor’s, so you may have to work harder to achieve your desired design.
Wix Pricing
- Free plan: This plan is free to use but has limited features, Wix branding, and ads on your site.
- Lite plan: For $17/month, you get the basics, which include a free custom domain for one year, more storage, no Wix branding, and the ability to use it with up to two collaborators.
- Core plan: For $29/month, you get everything in the lite plan plus basic site analytics, basic e-commerce features, and the ability to use it with up to five collaborators.
- Business plan: This includes everything in the core plan plus standard site analytics, standard e-commerce functionality, and the ability to use it with up to ten collaborators. It costs $36/month.
- Business Elite plan: This includes everything in the Business plan plus unlimited storage, an advanced developer platform, site analytics, and e-commerce functionality. It costs $159/month.
8. WPBakery Page Builder
WPBakery Page Builder is an excellent Elementor substitute. It’s a drag-and-drop page builder that allows you to create custom pages and posts without coding knowledge.
WPBakery Page Builder Key Features
- Frontend and Backend Editing: WPBakery Page Builder allows you to edit your pages and posts on your website’s front and back end.
- Customizable Templates: WPBakery Page Builder comes with a variety of customizable templates that you can use to get started with your website design.
- Responsive Design: WPBakery Page Builder’s templates and elements are all designed to be mobile-friendly and responsive.
- Element Library: WPBakery Page Builder has a library of pre-built elements that you can use to add functionality to your website.
- Third-Party Integration: WPBakery Page Builder integrates with various third-party plugins and tools, including WooCommerce and Yoast SEO.
- User-Friendly Interface: WPBakery Page Builder’s drag-and-drop interface is easy to use and requires no coding knowledge.
WPBakery Page Builder Pros and Cons
Pros:
- WPBakery Page Builder is an excellent option for those who want a user-friendly interface but lack coding knowledge.
- WPBakery Page Builder has a library of pre-built elements that can help you save time and effort when building your website.
- WPBakery Page Builder integrates with various third-party plugins and tools, giving you more flexibility when designing your website.
- WPBakery Page Builder is a more affordable option than some other page builders on the market.
Cons:
- WPBakery Page Builder can load slowly, especially when using many elements.
- WPBakery Page Builder’s interface can be overwhelming for some users, especially those new to website design.
- WPBakery Page Builder’s support can be slow to respond to user inquiries.
WPBakery Page Builder Pricing
WPBakery Page Builder is available as a WordPress plugin.
- Regular: This plan costs $59/lifetime and can be used on a single site. It includes free updates, one Year’s Access to WPBakery AI, one Year’s Premium support, and one Year’s Access to the Template Library.
- Five Sites: This includes everything in the regular plan and can be used on up to five sites. It costs $256/lifetime.
- Ten Sites: This includes everything in the five-site plan and can be used on up to ten sites. It costs $499/lifetime.
9. Bricks
Bricks is a great option if you’re looking for an Elementor competitor offering unique features.
Bricks Key Features
- Customizable Headers and Footers: Bricks allows you to design and customize headers and footers to fit your website’s specific needs.
- Advanced Typography Options: Bricks offers extensive typography settings, enabling you to customize fonts, sizes, weights, and other text properties. This helps achieve a cohesive, visually appealing design that aligns with the site’s branding.
- Built-in Responsive Design Controls: Bricks include tools for quickly adjusting and optimizing the design for different screen sizes.
- Powerful WooCommerce Integration: Bricks integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, allowing you to build and customize your online stores. This integration provides robust e-commerce functionality, including product pages, shopping carts, and checkout processes.
- Dynamic Content Capabilities: Bricks supports dynamic content, enabling you to display data from custom fields, post types, and taxonomies.
- Front-End Editing with Real-Time Preview: Bricks offers a front-end editing experience where you can see changes in real time as you design your pages.
Bricks Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Easy to use and customize
- Flexible and robust design options
- Excellent customer support
- Affordable pricing
- Regular updates and improvements
Cons:
- Limited third-party integrations
- There is no option to import/export templates.
- There is a steep learning curve for beginners
- Limited community support
Bricks Pricing
- Starter: This plan costs $79/year and can be used on one website. It includes updates, all features, and support during the subscription term.
- Business: This costs $149/year and includes everything in the starter plan. It can be used on up to three sites.
- Agency: It costs $249/year and can be used for unlimited sites.
- Ultimate: This lifetime plan can be used on unlimited websites. It costs $599/lifetime and includes all future updates, features, and technical support.
10. Oxygen WordPress Builder
Oxygen is worth considering if you are looking for an Elementor alternative that offers more design flexibility. It is a powerful website builder that allows you to create custom designs without any coding knowledge.
Oxygen Key Features
- Flexible Layout Options: Oxygen offers many layout options, including flexbox, grid, and custom CSS. Thus, you can easily create complex layouts.
- Customizable Styling: Oxygen gives you complete control over your website’s styling. You can customize every design aspect, from fonts and colors to margins and padding.
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Dynamic Data: With Oxygen, you can create dynamic content that changes based on user input or other variables.
- WooCommerce Integration: If you are building an online store, Oxygen offers seamless integration with WooCommerce.
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Developer-Friendly: Oxygen is designed with developers in mind. It offers a clean codebase and supports custom PHP and JavaScript.
- Speed Optimization: Oxygen is optimized for speed, which means your website will load quickly and perform well in search engines.
Oxygen Pros and Cons
Here are some pros and cons of using Oxygen:
Pros:
- Flexible layout options
- Customizable styling
- Dynamic data
- WooCommerce integration
- Developer-friendly
- Speed optimization
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Limited third-party integrations
- No built-in templates or themes
Oxygen Pricing
Oxygen offers three pricing plans:
- Basic: This plan costs $129 one-time and can be used on unlimited websites.
- WooCommerce: It can be used on unlimited websites with WooCommerce integration. It costs $149/lifetime.
- Ultimate: With this plan, you get all the features of Oxygen for Life for a one-time payment of $179.
Understanding Elementor & Why Consider a Competitor
If you are reading this article, chances are you are already familiar with Elementor – a popular page builder plugin for WordPress. Elementor is known for its drag-and-drop interface, ease of use, and wide range of design options.
However, as with any tool, it has limitations, and you may want to look for an alternative.
One of Elementor’s main limitations is its speed. As you add more elements to your page, the load time increases, negatively impacting the user experience.
Additionally, Elementor’s free version has limited features, and you may need to upgrade to the pro version to access advanced features such as custom fonts, animations, and WooCommerce integration.
Another reason to consider an alternative to Elementor is if you want more flexibility and control over your website’s design.
While Elementor is an excellent tool for beginners and those who want to create simple websites quickly, it may not be suitable for more complex projects requiring more customization.
If you are an agency or freelancer working with clients, you may also want to consider an alternative to Elementor. While Elementor is an excellent tool for in-house projects, it may not be the best option for clients wishing to change their websites.
Choosing the Right Platform
When choosing the right platform for your website, there are a few factors to consider.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Ease of Use
One of the most important factors to consider is ease of use. You want an intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform, especially if you’re not a developer. Look for a platform with a drag-and-drop interface to add and move elements around on your site easily.
2. Customization Options
Another critical factor is customization options. You want a platform that allows you to customize your site to your liking without writing code. Look for a platform that offers a variety of templates and themes, as well as the ability to customize colors, fonts, and layouts.
3. Price
Price is always a consideration when choosing a platform. Some platforms are free, while others require a monthly or yearly subscription. Remember that you may need to pay for additional features or add-ons, so factor that into your decision.
4. Support
Finally, consider the level of support offered by the platform. Look for a platform that provides comprehensive documentation and tutorials and a support team that is easy to reach and responsive to your needs.
Final Thoughts on Elementor Alternatives
Exploring alternatives to Elementor can open up new possibilities for enhancing your website design and functionality.
Kadence WP’s lightweight structure, impressive speed, and extensive customization options stand out. It is a strong contender for those seeking a robust yet user-friendly WordPress theme and plugin solution.
Divi is a powerful and user-friendly Elementor alternative. It is a popular WordPress page builder known for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, robust features, and flexibility.
On the other hand, Squarespace offers an all-in-one platform that simplifies website building with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and beautiful pre-designed templates, making it ideal for users who prefer an easy, seamless experience without dealing with additional plugins or third-party integrations.
Ultimately, the best alternative depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you’re looking for a highly customizable WordPress-based solution, Kadence WP is the perfect fit.
However, Squarespace is an excellent choice for a comprehensive, hassle-free website builder emphasizing design and user experience.
Frequently Asked Questions on Elementor Alternatives
What is a free alternative to Elementor for WordPress site-building?
If you’re looking for a free page builder plugin for WordPress, KadenceWP has a free plan, which is the best option. This plugin offers a range of features and functionalities that can help you create professional-looking websites without spending a dime.
Are there any page builder plugins that professionals prefer over Elementor?
Divi Builder and Beaver Builder are popular choices among professionals. These plugins offer advanced features like A/B testing, design options, and custom post-type support.
Which is more user-friendly for beginners, Wix, or Elementor-based WordPress sites?
Both Wix and Elementor-based WordPress sites have their pros and cons regarding user-friendliness. Wix is a website builder that offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for beginners to create websites. On the other hand, Elementor-based WordPress sites offer more flexibility and customization options but may have a steeper learning curve for beginners.
What are the top-rated page builders offering similar functionalities to Elementor Pro?
Some top-rated page builders that offer functionalities similar to Elementor Pro include Kadence WP, Beaver Builder, and Divi Builder. These plugins provide advanced features such as dynamic content, custom post-type support, and A/B testing, making them a popular choice among professionals.
Disclosure: We may earn commissions if you buy via links on our website. Commissions don’t affect our opinions or evaluations. We’re also an independent affiliate of many platforms, including ClickFunnels, Kartra, GoHighLevel, Podia, Northwest Registered Agent, and others. We’re not employees of these services. We receive referral payments from them, and the opinions expressed here are our own and are not official statements of these companies.
WORDPRESS
WP Engine sues WordPress co-creator Mullenweg and Automattic, alleging abuse of power
Web hosting provider WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic, and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power. The lawsuit comes after nearly two weeks of tussling between Mullenweg, who is also CEO of Automattic, and WP Engine over trademark infringement and contributions to the open-source WordPress project.
WP Engine accused Automattic and Mullenweg of not keeping their promises to run WordPress open-source projects without any constraints and giving developers the freedom to build, run, modify and redistribute the software.
“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust. WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community,” the company said.
The case document, filed in a court in California, also accused Mullenweg of having a “long history of
obfuscating the true facts” about his control of WordPress Foundation and WordPress.org
The story so far
Mullenweg had criticized WP Engine for infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks. He called them the “Cancer of WordPress” and also called out WP Engine’s private equity partner, Silver Lake, for not caring about the open-source community.
Later, WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter, asking Mullenweg and Automattic to withdraw these comments. Automattic then sent its own cease-and-desist, accusing WP Engine of infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Notably, Mullenweg banned WP Engine on September 25 from accessing WordPress.org resources, including plug-ins and themes, and preventing WP Engine customers from updating them. Two days later, Mullenweg provided a temporary reprieve and unblocked WP Engine until October 1.
On Wednesday, Automattic published a proposed seven-year term sheet that it had sent to WP Engine on September 20, asking the hosting company to pay 8% of its gross revenues per month as a royalty fee for using the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Alternatively, WP Engine was given the option to commit 8% by deploying employees to contribute to WordPress’s core features and functionalities, or a combination of both people hours and money.
WP Engine didn’t accept these terms, which included a probation on forking plugins and extensions from Automattic and WooCommerce.
You can contact this reporter at [email protected] or on Signal: @ivan.42
WORDPRESS
Automattic demanded web host pay $32M annually for using WordPress trademark
“WPE’s nominative uses of those marks to refer to the open-source software platform and plugin used for its clients’ websites are fair uses under settled trademark law, and they are consistent with WordPress’ own guidelines and the practices of nearly all businesses in this space,” the lawsuit said.
Mullenweg told Ars that “we had numerous meetings with WPE over the past 20 months, including a previous term sheet that was delivered in July. The term sheet was meant to be simple, and if they had agreed to negotiate it we could have, but they refused to even take a call with me, so we called their bluff.” Automattic also published a timeline of meetings and calls between the two companies going back to 2023.
Mullenweg also said, “Automattic had the commercial rights to the WordPress trademark and could sub-license, hence why the payment should go to Automattic for commercial use of the trademark. Also the term sheet covered the WooCommerce trademark, which they also abuse, and is 100 percent owned by Automattic.”
Automattic alleged “widespread unlicensed use”
Exhibit A in the lawsuit includes a letter to WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner from a trademark lawyer representing Automattic and a subsidiary, WooCommerce, which makes a plugin for WordPress.
“As you know, our Client owns all intellectual property rights globally in and to the world-famous WOOCOMMERCE and WOO trademarks; and the exclusive commercial rights from the WordPress Foundation to use, enforce, and sublicense the world-famous WORDPRESS trademark, among others, and all other associated intellectual property rights,” the letter said.
The letter alleged that “your blatant and widespread unlicensed use of our Client’s trademarks has infringed our Client’s rights and confused consumers into believing, falsely, that WP Engine is authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated or associated with, our Client.” It also alleged that “WP Engine’s entire business model is predicated on using our Client’s trademarks… to mislead consumers into believing there is an association between WP Engine and Automattic.”
WORDPRESS
5 Most Profitable Online Businesses You Can Start Today for Free!
In today’s digitalized world, starting a business doesn’t always mean you have to have a good chunk of money and years of experience in the field. Yeah, it’s good if you have them, but even without them, you can start a business and make money. Not just a few hundred dollars; some businesses can even make you a millionaire if you invest your time and available resources into them.
You need to have the right approach and the proper set of skills to make that happen. And you can learn such skills for free on the internet. So, all you need is the willingness to put in the work and effort it needs.
In this post, you’ll see 5 most profitable online business ideas that you can start today for free. You don’t need anyone to help you with these businesses when you’re starting out; you can do it all alone, and you can manage these businesses from the comfort of your home.
Even if you don’t know a single thing about these businesses, you can learn them for free on YouTube, Udemy, and the Interent. There’s more than enough free resources out there about these topics to take you from 0-10 real quick.
So, sit down and grab your popcorns, because this article might be the only thing you need to launch your first online business, today itself!
Please note: This post contains affiliate links to products I use, trust, and recommend. If you choose to purchase a helpful product using these links, I may receive a small commission for referring you – at no extra cost to you. These funds help me keep this blog up and running.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable and easy-to-start businesses out there. In affiliate marketing, you need to promote someone else’s product in order to make money. The person who promotes the product in exchange for some commission is called an affiliate.
When you sign up to be an affiliate of any program, you’ll get a unique link to promote the products called an affiliate link. You need to use your affiliate link to send customers to the seller’s page. That link tracks the amount of sales you generate to determine the money you make.
You don’t need to create, package, or ship the products yourself. The seller who is selling the product will do these all. All you need to do is, refer customers to the seller. And when the customer referred by you through your affiliate link makes a purchase, you get a small percentage of the sale amount as a reward. That’s it. That’s what affiliate marketing is!
Through affiliate marketing, you can promote both physical and digital products.
You don’t always have to sell products to earn affiliate commission. Sometimes, you get commission to make people download something. That can be an app, software, or browser extension. Sometimes, you get commissions to make people sign up for particular websites or services. Sometimes, you get commission to generate leads for businesses and agencies, etc. All these things need to be done through your affiliate link in order for you to make a commission.
How to Get Started?
1. Choose your Niche
You need to choose a niche to start affiliate marketing. You can’t promote everything from workout gear to making money online courses yourself! So, choosing a niche is very important to succeed in affiliate marketing. Some popular niches for affiliate marketing are: health & fitness, finance, home & kitchen, technology, relationships, etc.
2. Find the Product
After choosing a niche, you need to find a product to promote. If you decide to get into the health and fitness niche, then you can promote workout plans, weight loss supplements, keto meal plans, hair loss products, and so much more. So, decide what you want to promote and find a good product for it.
3. Build a Platform
Now, you’ve decided your niche, and your product is ready to promote, so all you need is a platform to promote it. You can promote affiliate products either through a blog or through social media. You can write articles on your blog or grow your social media accounts to share your affiliate links.
Here are some popular affiliate marketing platforms you can join.
The affiliate marketing industry is worth nearly $17 billion. So, you can start your affiliate marketing journey today to get a small chunk of that seventeen billion dollars for yourself!
2. Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is another great way to make a hefty amount of money online. Digital products are a great way to share your knowledge and creativity with the world while making some money.
Digital products are products that are created and sold online. They don’t exist in the real world, except for printables. Printables are graphics that are created digitally but needs to be printed out in the real world to be used.
From ebooks to online courses and printables to music, there’s a wide variety of products that you can create and sell.
Here are some digital products that you can create and sell easily.
If you’re wondering which digital product sells the best and which one you should sell, consider this analysis done among 96,000 creators by influencers.club. According to the analysis, online courses were the most sold digital products, with 35.7% of the entire digital products sold, followed by ebooks (7.3%) and cookbooks (3.8%).
Here are a few more:
Check out 16 Best Digital Products to Sell in 2024
How to Get Started?
1. Choose Your Niche
The first step to building a profitable digital product business is to choose a niche that you’re interested in and have a demand in the market. You can select a niche based on your expertise, passion or to profit from an untapped market opportunity. Make sure that there are enough people willing to pay for your products so that you can make a good amount of money selling them.
2. Create Your Product
After choosing a niche to get into, you need to create a solid product to sell. In order to get constant sales, your product needs to be highly valuable. Either it needs to solve your customer’s problem or it needs to add significant value to their life. Make sure that your product is up-to-date, functional, and user-friendly.
3. Set up a Platform to Sell
Now that you have decided your niche and your product is ready to sell, all you need is a platform to host and sell your products. You can either sell digital products through your own website or through platforms like Etsy, Gumroad, Teachable, etc.
You can sell ebooks, printables, planners, digital arts, wallpapers, templates, etc. through Etsy and Gumroad. And to sell online courses, you can use platforms like Teachable or Udemy.
You can use graphic design tools like Canva and Adobe Illustrator to create printables, stickers, templates, wallpapers, etc. And you can write your ebook on Google Docs or Notepad and save it as a pdf to sell it.
4. Price Your Products
After your product is ready and you’ve decided a platform to sell, you need to set a price to sell your products.
Pricing is a really crucial part. You can’t price it too high or too low. If you price it too high, very few people are likely to buy it, and if you price it too low, you won’t make enough profit.
So, while pricing your product, evaluate the product yourself and do your market research to analyze your competitors pricing to determine your own product’s pricing.
You can promote your digital products by creating video/image content, writing blog posts, email marketing, paid ads, SEO, and through social media marketing.
Digital products can be a great way to make money online passively without needing much work and attention. So, this might be something you would love to get into! The best part is, there is no limit on how much money you can make. Ana from TheSheApproach has made over $55,000 selling ebooks alone through her small blog.
3. Print on Demand
Print on Demand, or POD, is gaining immense popularity in recent times due to its business model. Print on demand business has less to no startup cost, which makes it easier for anyone to get into it.
In Print on Demand business, you create designs to print on mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, caps, pants, etc. After your design is ready, you find a print-on-demand supplier to print and sell your products.
Unlike other type of businesses, in POD, the products are not produced first and listed for sale later. Instead, the products are promoted first and only produced or printed when a customer places an order.
In POD, your job is to create designs and market your products. Your POD supplier will do everything else, from printing, packaging, and delivering the product. They will even handle the returns if they have to.
How to Get Started?
1. Choose a Niche
First of all, choose a niche you want to start your business in. Choose a niche that has huge demand in the market and something you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in sports, you can create designs related to sports, print them, and sell them.
2. Create Your Designs
After you’ve chosen your niche, you need to create designs to print on products. Good designs attract more eyeballs and generate more sales compared to plain, low-quality designs. So, put your maximum effort into creating good designs. Your designs might be the only differentiator between success and failure of your POD business.
3. Choose a Print on Demand Supplier
After your design is ready, you need to find a good and trustworthy POD supplier to print and supply your products. Choose a supplier that uses high-quality materials to create products, has less fees, low shipping time, good customer support, and large area coverage. These things are crucial for your business’s success.
Here are some popular print-on-demand suppliers:
4. Set up Your Store
Now that your product is ready to sell, you need to find a platform to sell it. You can sell your POD products on Etsy, WooCommerce, or eBay, or setup a Shopify store to sell them. Your store must be clean and colorful to convert more visitors into customers.
5. Price Your Products
After your store is setup, you need to price your product. Make sure to check your competitors prices before pricing your own products. You can’t sell your products for significantly more than what your competitor is selling for. If you do so, you won’t get as many sales as you would have with a lower price point.
You can market your Print on Demand products mainly through social media and paid ads. You can start and grow a social media account to promote your POD products for free.
The print-on-demand market is worth more than $7.24B in 2024 and is projected to reach $43.4B by 2030 with a growth rate of staggering 26.8%. So, this might be the chance to dip your toes into the world of ecommerce with print on demand.
4. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is one of the hottest and most popular online business right now. It has made thousands of teenagers and 20-year-olds millionaires, and its craze is not going down anytime soon.
Dropshipping is a business model where you find a product, advertise it, and generate sales, but someone else produces, packages, and ships them for you.
You buy products for less price from retailers or even manufacturers and sell them for a higher price through your own store. For example, if I find a cool watch on Alibaba.com that I can buy for $7 a piece, then I will create my own store to advertise that product and sell it for $20, $30, or even more. That is how you make money with dropshipping.
In dropshipping, you don’t have to worry about producing product, packaging, shipping, or keeping a product inventory because whenever an order comes in, you forward that order and customer’s details to your supplier, and then your supplier will produce, package, and deliver the product to your customer. There are several tools and softwares to automate this entire process. Here you’re basically a middleman reselling the products.
How to Get Started?
1. Find a Product
To start a dropshipping business, first you need to find a product that solves a specific problem of your customers. Sometimes the product can be a fashionable or decorative item like a watch. The product has to have a high potential to sell. In the world of dropshipping, a product that solves a problem and has a high potential to sell is called a winning product.
2. Find a Supplier
After finding a good product to sell, you need to find a supplier who can supply you the same product for a cheaper price. A supplier can be the making or breaking point of your business because your job is to promote the product and bring customers. Everything except that is done by your supplier, so if you find a good supplier, you won’t have or have very few problems in your business, and vice versa.
So, before choosing your supplier, check their product quality, delivery time, packaging style, and customer service. A good supplier must have high-quality products, low delivery time, good packaging quality, and good customer support.
AliExpress is the go-to platform to find suppliers and products at a cheaper price, for dropshipping.
3. Build Your Store
After you’ve found a good product and a reliable supplier, you need to build a store to market your products. You can create your store on platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, GetResponse, and Wix or sell them directly on Amazon or eBay. The design of your store must be clean, simple, and colorful to get more sales.
4. Market Your Store
After your store is setup and ready to sell, you need to advertise it, to bring customers to it. To advertise your store, you can use social media, paid ads, content marketing, SEO, and more.
Most dropshippers advertise their store through either Facebook or TikTok ads and through content marketing by creating viral pieces of content for TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.
That’s it! That’s how you can start your own dropshipping business and profit from the $250B dropshipping industry.
5. Dropservicing
Now you know what dropshipping is, but have you ever heard about dropservicing? Huh? Dropshipping deals with selling physical products, but dropservicing is all about selling services.
Dropservicing, also known as service arbitrage, is a business model where you sell services to clients. But instead of doing the work yourself, you outsource the work to a third-party service provider, either a freelancer or an agency. In dropservicing, you’re basically a middleman, just like in dropshipping, who acts as a service seller in front of clients to make money without doing any work yourself.
Whatever remains after paying your service provider from the amount your client paid is your profit. For example, if you find a client who is ready to pay you $1000 to edit a video for him. Then you find a freelancer or a video editing agency who can edit the same video for $400, then you can keep the remaining $600 with yourself. The more you charge your client and the less you pay your service provider, the more money you make. Didn’t understand? Read it again, you’ll get it!
How to Get Started?
1. Choose a Niche
To start a dropservicing business, you must be good at some kind of skill or a particular niche. That can be web designing, video editing, graphic designing, content writing, etc. Even though you’re not the one doing the work, you need to have proper knowledge and skill in the field to convince your client that you’re capable enough and a perfect fit for the work.
2. Find Your Service Provider
After you’ve decided your niche, you need a service provider to do the required tasks for you. While choosing a service provider, you need to make sure that they are good at what they do; otherwise, you’ll end up with a low-quality output that may not satisfy your clients and may not fulfill their requirements. You can find service providers on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, etc., or on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
3. Setup a Platform
After you’ve decided your niche and found the service providers, you need to market your services in order to get clients. To do so, either you can create your own website, create a profile on freelancing platforms, or promote your services through social media.
While setting up a platform, you need to add your portfolio, past works, pricing, client testimonials, and contact information. Don’t worry if you don’t have any of these! You can add your service provider’s portfolio and client testimonials as yours while setting up your platform.
4. Set Your Prices
Before you launch your dropservicing business, you need to set a price for your services. While setting up pricing your services, find out how much your service provider is charging for the service you’re going to sell, and set your prices accordingly. For example, if your service provider charges $400 to edit a video, you can set your video editing price at $600, $700, or more.
You can promote your dropservicing business through content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, cold outreach, paid advertising, and freelance platforms.
Cold outreach is a process where you reach out to or contact someone via email who doesn’t have any connection with your business. The email is meant to aware them about your product or service and provide them with an offer.
Best Platforms to Start Your Business
If you’re thinking of starting a blog to get into affiliate marketing, then I would highly suggest you create your blog on either Wix or WordPress. These two are the best blog builders out there.
And if you’d like to create your own website to promote your digital products, dropshipping/dropservicing business, and print-on-demand products, then I would suggest you use GetResponse’s simple drag-and-drop website builder. It’s very easy to use and completely free to create and manage a website for lifetime. Getresponse also has its own email marketing tool, so, if you want, you can even start email marketing with it for completely free!
Tips to succeed:
1. Stay Consistent: You won’t see results overnight, so you need to be consistent to get results and make money.
2. Learn, Learn, Learn: Whatever business you get into, learn about it as much as you can. Learning will help you gather more knowledge about the topic, which ultimately helps you to get better results and earn more.
3. Be Patient: Many people give up too early because they are really, really impatient. Remember, great things take time, and if it were so easy and fast, then everyone would have done it.
4. Provide Value: If you want to make money, then you need to provide something that is equally valuable to your customers. So, make sure your main motive is to provide value along with making money.
So, these were the 5 most profitable online business ideas that you can start today for free. Let me quickly recap them for you. 1. Affiliate marketing 2. Selling digital products 3. Print on Demand (POD) 4. Dropshipping 5. Dropservicing. Make sure to give them a try if you’re thinking of starting an online business. And tell me in the comments, which one of these businesses would you start if you have to?
