You want a beautiful website? We recommend building your website with either Showit or Elementor. This post compares Showit vs. Elementor, a WordPress page-building plugin.
A few years ago, we created a video comparing Showit and Elementor (the two website platforms we build on).
However, a lot has changed since then, and we thought it would be fitting to share an update.
Both are solid website platforms that provide a considerable amount of control over your website aesthetic and a great website-building experience.
For the purposes of this post, when we mention WordPress, we’re referring to Elementor, which is a website-building plugin for WordPress.
Note: There are countless page-building plugins for WordPress, but at this point, we’ve tried just about all of them – Divy, Webflow, the now defunct Flothemes – and if you don’t choose Showit, we think Elementor is best.
Now, let’s dive into the comparison of Showit and Elementor to help determine which platform is best for your business.
What is Showit?
Showit is a drag-and-drop website builder created specifically for photographers and creative professionals. Websites are designed within the Showit app, which has a similar feel to Adobe products and Canva. Although, we think it’s easier than both!
Showit also fully integrates with WordPress – meaning you get the design flexibility of Showit + the power of WordPress. It’s a winning combination in our book.
You simply pay Showit a monthly or annual subscription to get access to their builder and hosting. This setup is comparable to Squarespace and Wix, but much better.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder. This plugin is installed on your WordPress website to help you visually design your website without needing to know code. Unlike Showit, which is totally free-form, Elementor works with columns and grids.
Both WordPress and Elementor are free—although there is a paid version of Elementor, which we recommend (it’s about $60 for the year and renews at a discount).
Ease-of-Use
Showit boasts an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that has a similar feel to Canva, which should make creative business owners feel at home. It still requires some time to get oriented, but the learning curve isn’t too steep. Additionally, Showit has an active Facebook user community and a wide array of help documentation to answer any questions you have as you get set up.
They also have one of the best support teams around. If you get stuck along the way, you can message real humans (who live in Arizona). They will reply with kindness in a way that isn’t overly technical. Are they technical? 100%. But they’ll speak to you in a way that you can actually understand.
WordPress has a reputation for being more technically challenging. However, the Elementor drag-and-drop builder makes designing and launching a website far easier than something like Divy.
With that said, WordPress still requires more getting used to than Showit due to the amount of control over the website. You’ll still be responsible for setting up hosting, making sure plugins don’t conflict with one another, and continually checking that the back-end of your website is updated.
We’ve also found that Elementor is a bit more fragile than Showit. You’ll really need to keep an eye on your site to ensure that fonts don’t become disconnected or that plugins do not break your site.
Related: Why Showit is Our Favorite Website Platform
This is important because it summarizes our stance: When people ask us for our recommendation for building a beautiful, high-converting site, in 95% of cases, we recommend Showit over Elementor.
Who has the edge? Showit, by a long shot.
Mobile Responsiveness
Showit gives you the ability to design the mobile version of your website within a mobile frame. This is very convenient for understanding exactly what your mobile content should look like on a phone.
You will need to design the mobile version of your website in addition to the desktop version. Elements don’t automatically snap into place as they do in some other website builders. The advantage, however, is the amount of control over your mobile design.
Showit provides far more control over the mobile version of a website than rivals Squarespace and Wix.
Elementor not only gives you the ability to easily design the phone and desktop versions of your website but the tablet version as well. You simply toggle between the three views: mobile, tablet, and desktop.
When you design your desktop layout, the mobile layout is generated in a fairly intuitive way. All of your styles and elements snap into place, so you don’t have to redo a ton on the mobile side—just minor tweaks (although you can customize this as much as you want). Having access to the tablet view is particularly helpful because there may be things that you want to appear on tablets but not on phones.
Elementor is also naturally more responsive than Showit in that content will automatically grow with text.
Who has the edge? WordPress/Elementor.
Note: despite this edge, we would still choose Showit over Elementor.
Design Flexibility
If you work at it long enough, you can technically get an Elementor site to look as beautiful as a Showit site. The trade-off is that it’s going to take hours upon hours to make this happen and the result is a site that is fragile.
It takes us 3x as long to create the Elementor versions of our sites as it does the Showit sites and we spend a LOT more time supporting users who buy these versions because the design capabilities on Elementor sites are just more limited.
Who has the edge? Showit.
Related: How to Customize Your Showit Website
Features and Tools
It’s hard to beat WordPress when it comes to features and tools.
Due to its popularity and open-source nature, many online marketing tools have some sort of integration with WordPress.
It’s also much easier to quickly add additional functionality to your website through the use of a plugin.
One reason we really like Showit is that WordPress is used for blogging. This way, Showit users can take advantage of the WordPress ecosystem.
Elementor might have a few more features built-in, but we’ve found that in order to really maximize Elementor + get it running quickly, it takes a lot of plugins. And each plugin adds load time to your site.
Who has the edge? Tie.
…Unless, of course, we’re talking about pop-ups. Showit connects to BDOW! Pop-ups seamlessly with the new tool: How to Quickly Connect BDOW + Showit.
SEO and Optimization
Showit is not ‘bad’ for SEO. If you want to dive into this deeper, read this post: 5 Things We Wish People Knew about SEO.
Showit integrates fully with WordPress and allows you to create optimized content to drive traffic to your site.
Related: WordPress Overview for Showit Websites
The best example of the power of Showit when it comes to SEO is our old photography site. We were wedding photographers in Annapolis, Maryland, for several years, and during that time, we had a Showit site. When our oldest child was born in 2018, we stopped photographing weddings and thus stopped blogging or updating that site. But because of the optimization that we put into that site, it stayed on the first page of our (previously desired) search results for six more years. Up until we took the site down in early 2024, we were still getting a few inquiries a week from a site that was incredibly outdated.
One major ranking factor for sites is the speed in which a site loads and right out of the box, Showit wins over Elementor. We spent years and a lot of cash trying to optimize our old Elementor site, only to change back over to Showit in the end.
Who has the edge? Showit.
Related: Our Showit SEO Course
Help and Support
WordPress is used by millions of people. So needless to say, there’s probably someone out there that can help if you’re having a problem with your WordPress website.
Moreover, there are seemingly countless WordPress-oriented Facebook groups and YouTube channels dedicated to community support for some aspect of the platform. Elementor also has its own community group on Facebook, which—at the time of writing this—has over 30,000 people.
Showit has a much smaller user base, but an active community and mighty support team. The Facebook group has thousands of members, and there are plenty of Showit designers in the group who are usually willing to lend a hand.
If you purchase a template from us, for instance, you get email support from us and access to our Showit set-up course in addition to your access to the Showit support team and their help documentation. That’s a lot of support.
Download: Your Free Showit Launch Checklist
Note: Users who purchase an Elementor design from us also get access to our email support and Elementor set-up course.
Both Elementor and Showit have support teams that can be reached by email. Showit’s support team, however, can also be reached by live chat within the Showit app. Ask five Showit users why they like Showit, and don’t be surprised when all five say ‘outstanding support.’
Who has the edge? Showit.
Pricing
There are a few factors here, but in general, Elementor is going to be less expensive than Showit.
A Showit subscription will run between $228-$408 per year at the time of writing, depending on what subscription is chosen, and it will cost more if you choose a monthly subscription.
If you want to blog on Showit, you’ll want to grab the Advanced plan. It allows you to take advantage of services like content migration, as well as add one of our favorite SEO tools RankMath.
Elementor, on the other hand, costs $69 per year and renews at a 25% discount the following year. You would be responsible for finding a website host, which could vary in cost.
If you’re going with Elementor, make sure you invest in a quality host. Elementor is a bit of a load on your site and cheaper hosting likely won’t be able to support it.
Note: If you’re looking for a host, we recommend Flywheel or Siteground or letting us manage your hosting.
Who has the edge? It’s a toss-up. While WordPress can be less expensive, the two platforms ultimately end up costing about the same if you’re using a solid WordPress host.
Showit vs. Elementor: Which website platform is best for you?
It’s possible to create a beautiful, functional website with both platforms.
We find that for many photographers and creative businesses, Showit is a great choice. Especially if you don’t feel comfortable with—or don’t want to deal with—the more technical aspects of having a website like hosting. We also typically recommend Showit to people who are switching from a platform like Squarespace or Wix since it’ll be closer to what they’re used to with added creative control.
For what it’s worth, we typically explore whether Showit is a good fit for a client before exploring other platforms. This is because Showit is often easier for someone to learn, and we love designing on that platform.
E-commerce can be done successfully on Showit, but it is important to keep in mind that it’s not natively an e-commerce website platform.
Related: How to Sell Products on Showit
Usually, we recommend WordPress for e-commerce websites if the business is primarily an e-commerce business.
If you want additional control over your website–like configuring your own server settings–or you need membership or e-commerce functionality, you’ll probably want to go with WordPress.
Of the two platforms we build on, Showit is (hands down!) our favorite and in 95% of cases, that is the platform we recommend for our audience.
Related: Choose the Best Website for Your Business
Wrap Up
Your website is your best asset.
So, the platform it’s built on should match your needs and workflow.
It’s clear we love Showit. But the key is: which platform will you enjoy learning and feel comfortable coming back to again and again?
Hopefully, this side-by-side comparison made your website platform choice a bit easier. Now, it’s time to start browsing your new website design! Yes, it’s already won awards!
Related: Explore Our Website Designs
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