WPBakery is one of the most widely used WordPress page builders out there. But whether it’s the right choice really depends on your situation. Here’s what we’ve learned from working with it, where the real advantages and disadvantages lie, and how it compares to other WordPress page builders.
What Is WPBakery?
WPBakery (formerly Visual Composer) is a drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. It lets you build pages visually using a backend editor, without writing code.
It’s been around for years and ships bundled with many premium WordPress themes – which is a big reason it still has such a large install base. It’s not the flashiest tool in 2026, but still very much in use, and for good reason in certain contexts.
WPBakery in the real world: what a client project taught us
We worked with a client who needed a redesign of their homepage and key training landing pages. The site was already built on WPBakery, so switching builders wasn’t realistic – it would’ve meant rebuilding everything from scratch, which simply wasn’t cost-efficient.
Our job was to design and implement the page templates. The client would then manage and fill in the content themselves.
The new design was well received, and we used Templatera together with reusable components to make the editor as manageable as possible for the client. That part worked. But a few things were harder than expected, and they’re worth knowing about before you go into a similar project.
Some sections had to stay as hard-coded HTML blocks, because rebuilding them properly inside WPBakery’s structure would’ve been too time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, WPBakery isn’t intuitive for non-technical users. Even with reusable templates in place, our client needed hands-on guidance just to navigate the editor.
The core lesson we took away from this project: WPBakery makes sense when you’re already on it. Rebuilding a live site just to switch builders is rarely worth it. But going in with realistic expectations – about flexibility, usability, and what the tool can and can’t do – matters a lot.
Those expectations directly shaped how we assessed WPBakery’s strengths and limitations, which our WordPress experts Janick Lüchinger and Marie Vaxelaire break down below.
WPBakery’s strengths
A note before we dive in: all of the following refers to the backend editor only. The frontend editor is widely considered unreliable and slow – most experienced developers don’t touch it.
Pros from a developer perspective
Our CMS expert Janick Lüchinger has worked with WPBakery on existing setups and sees clear value in specific scenarios:
- From a technical standpoint, WPBakery is stable – it doesn’t break things when a site is already built around it.
- Many premium themes ship with native WPBakery elements and sometimes even a Pro license included, which simplifies setup significantly.
- Custom elements are relatively straightforward to build, and when you know what you’re doing, you have solid control over the HTML structure.
- Reusable templates via Templatera genuinely help streamline both development and client handover – exactly what saved us in the project above.
- The plugin is also actively maintained, so compatibility with current WordPress versions isn’t a concern.
Pros for clients and users
For clients and users managing content themselves, WPBakery is workable once they’ve been properly onboarded. Day-to-day updates don’t require any coding, and reusable layouts reduce the risk of accidentally breaking the design. It’s not frictionless, but with the right setup, it’s manageable.
The real limitations of WPBakery
This is where our developer Marie Vaxelaire’s experience becomes especially relevant – and it’s worth reading carefully if you’re considering WPBakery for a new project.
Downsides from a developer perspective
The backend editor feels dated. On pages with a lot of content, it’s easy to get disoriented, especially when maintaining a page someone else built. Simple things like copy-pasting elements are possible but clunky – nothing like the Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V you’d expect in Elementor or Gutenberg. That friction adds up over time.
The bigger structural issue is how rigid the native elements are. If your design was created in a design tool like Figma independently of WPBakery’s constraints, achieving pixel-perfect results is genuinely hard. It often requires heavy workarounds, custom CSS, and a lot of trial and error.
You frequently end up injecting custom code – which somewhat defeats the purpose of using a page builder in the first place. The generated HTML doesn’t help either: deeply nested containers produce bloated markup, which hurts both performance and future maintainability.
Client and long-term downsides
For site owners thinking longer-term, there are a few more things to factor in:
- AI-assisted editing is limited in WPBakery – you can’t leverage modern AI features across your workflow the way you can in newer tools.
- Switching away later is painful, since content is locked into shortcodes; deactivate the plugin and those shortcodes appear as raw text throughout your site.
- Many developers are also reluctant to take over WPBakery projects due to its outdated architecture, which can limit your options when you need outside help.
- And if your developer relies entirely on the page builder without coding knowledge, they may hit a wall when WPBakery can’t do something natively – the fallback is often a stack of extra plugins, or no clean solution at all.
WPBakery vs. other page builders: the short version
If your site is already running on WPBakery, staying on it is often the pragmatic choice. Rebuilding just to migrate rarely makes financial sense – especially if the site is working and clients can manage content without too much friction.
For new projects, it’s a different story. The WordPress page builder Elementor offers a more modern editing experience, better AI integration, and cleaner output. Gutenberg, WordPress’s native block editor, ships with every WordPress installation, avoids shortcode lock-in entirely, and has matured into a genuinely capable tool.
For projects needing quick, flexible setup, we often reach for Breakdance. It combines modern development practices with a clean interface and performs well without unnecessary bloat.
All three – Elementor, Gutenberg, and Breakdance – are better starting points than WPBakery if you’re building from scratch in 2026.
WPBakery still earns its place in the WordPress ecosystem – just not as a first choice for new builds.
Working with a WordPress site and not sure which setup makes sense for you? We help businesses build, redesign, and maintain WordPress websites – from strategy and design through to development and long-term support. Check out our WordPress services to see how we work.
FAQ
Is WPBakery still worth using in 2026?
For existing sites built on WPBakery, yes – switching builders mid-project is usually not cost-efficient. For new projects, more modern alternatives like Elementor, Gutenberg or Breakdance are generally the better choice.
