Showit vs. Elementor (WordPress): Which is better? [Updated 2023]

You want a beautiful website? We recommend building your website with either Elementor (WordPress) or Showit. This post compares Showit vs. Elementor, a WordPress page building plugin.

We’re big fans of both Showit and WordPress. Both are solid website platforms that provide a considerable amount of control over your website aesthetic and a great website building experience.

And if you’re here reading this post, you probably agree. But you want to know which platform will be best for your needs. Well, we’ll try to figure that out here.

For the purposes of this post, when we mention WordPress, we’re referring to Elementor, which is a website building plugin for WordPress. (There are countless page building plugins for WordPress, but we think Elementor is best.)

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 like Lightroom and InDesign.

Showit is a ‘standalone’ website builder (comparable to Squarespace or Wix), which means it doesn’t require another website platform like WordPress in order to work. You’ll pay Showit a monthly or annual subscription to get access to their builder and for them to host your website  (again, comparable to Squarespace and Wix… but better).

What is Elementor?

Elementor is a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder. It’s a plugin that’s installed on your WordPress website that helps you to visually design your website without needing to know code.

Both WordPress and Elementor are free—although there is a paid version of Elementor, which we recommend (it’s about $50 for the year and renews at a discount).

So, how does Showit compare with Elementor (/WordPress)?

It’s probably easiest to show you an example. Here are two examples of our Positano website design—one is built with Showit and one with Elementor. Can you tell which is which?

Positano #1 vs. Positano #2

They look nearly identical, right? You can find out which one is which at the end of this post.
Since that might not help with your decision, here’s a more granular comparison…

Ease-of-Use

Showit boasts an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that has a similar feel to the Adobe Suite, which should make photographers 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.

WordPress has a reputation of being more technically challenging. However, the Elementor drag-and-drop builder makes designing and launching a website far easier. Provided you’re starting with a pre-designed theme, you should have little difficulty customizing and launching a website.

With that said, WordPress still requires more getting used to than Showit due to the control one has over their website. You’ll still be responsible for setting up hosting, making sure plugins don’t conflict with one another, and making sure the back-end of your website is updated.

Who has the edge? Showit

Mobile Responsiveness

Showit gives you the ability to design the mobile version of your website within a mobile frame. This is very convenient for an 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 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.

There have been some reports that Showit websites fail to render properly on certain Android phones, and there is no way to control exactly how a Showit website will look on a tablet device such as an iPad. Regardless, the 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.

Unlike Showit, when you design your desktop layout, the mobile layout generates 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 tablet 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

Design Flexibility

This is a tougher category to compare because we were able to create almost matching versions of our website designs on both Showit and Elementor (see the example above). There are also certain design elements that are easier to achieve in each platform.

However, if we’re just discussing design aesthetic—there’s a bit more flexibility on Showit than Elementor. It’s not that you can’t achieve the same thing with Elementor, it’s just a bit more challenging in some cases. Of the two identical websites above, it took us longer to develop the Elementor version than the Showit version.

Who has the edge? Showit

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. The only downside is that not all WordPress plugins will work with Showit, and you may not have the ability to add plugins if don’t have the top-tier Showit subscription.

If you’re using Elementor, however, you’ll have access to most of the WordPress ecosystem.

Who has the edge? WordPress/Elementor

SEO and Optimization

Let’s clear something up: Showit is not ‘bad’ for SEO (more about that in this post 5 Things We Wish People Knew about SEO).
But WordPress is more optimizable, and there are more tools available to help optimize a WordPress website.

And all things equal, it will be easier to optimize a WordPress website because one usually has more control over their website, such as access to their server.

Showit does have built-in SEO tools and if you have a WordPress blog, you can also utilize some WordPress tools, too. But, you won’t get access to your server, which does limit what you can do to optimize your website.

Who has the edge? WordPress/Elementor

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 their 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 around 5,000 members, but there are plenty of Showit designers in the group that 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. (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/year 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 have to choose one of the more expensive plans. And if you want to be able to do things like add WordPress plugins, you’ll need to be on their most expensive plan.

Elementor, on the other hand, costs $49/year and renews at a 25% discount the following year. You would be responsible for finding a website host, which could, of course, vary in cost. But you will get full access to the WordPress ecosystem.

(P.S. 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, service-based 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 typically easier for someone to learn and we love designing on that platform.

Ecommerce can be done successfully on Showit, but it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not natively an e-commerce website platform. 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 to configure your own server settings) or you need membership or e-commerce functionality, you’ll probably want to go with WordPress.

Did you guess correctly?

Positano #1 was built with Elementor (WordPress)

Positano #2 was built with Showit

For more information and resources about our Showit websites, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/showit.

For more information and resources about our WordPress websites, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/wordpress.