For my second portfolio website, I wanted to try building it using Elementor. At the time, I had no idea there was a Pro version locked behind a paywall. I just assumed the free version would be enough to create a website smoothly.
Little did I know…
I set up a local development environment using Local, as that’s what I was used to when creating custom WordPress themes. Naturally, I started with the header and footer, since these are the sections that give the most visual progress for the least effort, and they’re reused across all pages.
That’s when I hit my first surprise: you need Elementor Pro to build a responsive header or navbar.
Now, this wasn’t a total blocker. I had the Ultimate Addons for Elementor Lite plugin (formerly Elementor Header & Footer Builder), but still, I expected something as basic as a responsive navbar to be built into the free version. Apparently not.
My second issue came when I tried to add a contact form. It turns out that you need Elementor Pro to use forms. With the free version, the workaround is to install WPForms Lite. It’s drag-and-drop, which is convenient, but styling it is a different story. In my case, I had to add a separate HTML widget, write a <style> block, and use !important just to override the default button styles.
At that point, I thought: why am I doing this when I could just code a form manually with full control?
The third issue was deployment. After uploading the site to Hostinger, I expected Elementor to update all the local development URLs automatically. It didn’t. Elementor still tried to load resources from demo-law-firm.local, my local environment.
Even after using Better Search Replace to swap out the old URLs, the editor still wouldn’t load. What eventually fixed it was uninstalling and reinstalling the Elementor plugin.
If you plan to use Elementor, deploy your WordPress install to your live domain before you start building. This avoids a lot of unnecessary stress. Elementor doesn’t handle local-to-live transitions well, especially when it comes to scripts and layout data.
If you’re serious about building a site with WordPress, either go all in with Elementor Pro or just custom-code your theme. The free version of Elementor falls into an awkward middle ground. You’re constantly working around limitations, installing extra plugins, and writing custom CSS to get basic features. At some point, it’s more effort than just writing the code yourself.
I didn’t even finish the rest of the site. I only got the homepage done before deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. That pretty much sums up my experience with Elementor Free.
You can view that homepage here.