What's the best pagebuilder? (and are they any good?)

[Stephen-FFC]

In the Prestashop market, I see there is a page builder "based on" Elementor by Webshop, AP Page Builder by Apollo Themes and CSS Magician. On Themeforest, there's also Visual Composer for Prestashop (and possibly more out there if I really search)

Does anyone have any experience using them and can give recommendations on which is the best. I'd like to know the following:

• Can it edit headers and footers, or just page content?
• Does it generate clean code?
• Does it significantly impact page loading time and SEO speedtests?
• Is it easy to use and gets the job done well?

I'm wandering if it's better to buy a pre-made theme, or buy a pagebuilder and customise the default theme. The reason why I ask is because I've been running theme's demo sites through Google's speedtest and all the themes  I've tested have had terrible ranking (4% - 30% scores), while Prestashop's default theme scored a massive 94% which is mind-blowingly awesome. I'm worried that the themes are bloated and I'd be better off modifying the default theme with a capable pagebuilder.

Any thoughts on this?

Edited July 24, 2020 by Stephen-FFC
Added another pagebuilder to the list. (see edit history)

[lephot]

Hi,

I am just a far as you asking if I should switch to a page builder.

I don't have many informations for now as I just start searching,  but regarding the Builder from Webshop which looks really great, there is one point for me which is blocking to use it. In fact this is just a page builder and it doesn't allow you to create a top menu which looks similar to the rest of your page.

So it give somehow an unfinished impression to me to the page !

I am also of course interested in any other inputs !

[Stephen-FFC]

The page builders seem to need a theme to start you off. You then build pages within the style of the theme.

CSS magician (and another CSS editor which I can't remember) seem to allow for editing all elements, including the header, but only their appearance, not their positions. This is why it's an editor, not a builder.

I've just done a Google speedtest on a second Prestashop site. The default theme scored that amazing 94%. The moment I loaded a theme from one of the most popular developers out there, my score immediately crashed to 24%. (and this is from one of the most popular theme developers for Prestashop who has hundreds of themes to chose from and boasts about his loading speed and optimisations).

I'm worried that adding a page builder to the mix will make this even worse.

Can we get some insight and comments from Prestashop moderators, programmers or just long term users?

[SmartDataSoft]

Hello, did you that their are two page builder one is  https://codecanyon.net/item/visual-composer-page-builder-for-prestashop/11336599

 

the second is  

 

third  one creative elements you can check which one you like.

 

 

 

[GFS]

On 7/24/2020 at 11:32 AM, Stephen-FFC said:

Any thoughts on this?

I'm a non-pro 'fudger', but I can generally get by.  I'm trying to find the best tool to make myself a shop and am sort of nervous about all these tools, as I slooowly make sense of the whole prestashop thing, which I find confusing.

I'd love to know what you concluded about page builders.  Any advice?

[SmartDataSoft]

On 3/12/2021 at 11:10 PM, GFS said:

I'm a non-pro 'fudger', but I can generally get by.  I'm trying to find the best tool to make myself a shop and am sort of nervous about all these tools, as I slooowly make sense of the whole prestashop thing, which I find confusing.

I'd love to know what you concluded about page builders.  Any advice?

the things is that. Without any page builder it is quite difficult for any non technical developer to create beautiful site in PrestaShop, module wise hook system, not able to hook any module inside content. Which made easy by page builder.

Thank you

[GFS]

5 hours ago, SmartDataSoft said:

the things is that. Without any page builder it is quite difficult for any non technical developer to create beautiful site in PrestaShop, module wise hook system, not able to hook any module inside content. Which made easy by page builder.

Thank you

 

Thanks for the reply SmartDataSoft.

Yes, I've realised that, which is why I was hoping that since Stephen-FFC seems like he's pretty knowledgeable, he might share his findings/conclusions.

There don't seem to be many page builders, but I find the entire prestashop universe very opaque and hard to work out.  I understand (I think) that the prestashop business model is Add-Ons, but there seems to be another world outside of theirs, for which security may be a concern?

For my own part, I've found only 2 page builders within prestashop's world. CSS Magician and Creative Elements.  Yesterday I found another, outside; Pagebuilder, but worryingly the owner appears to have gone silent in the last year.  I hope he's ok.  Unfortunately I think Pagebuilder is better suited to what I want, but I don't want to go that route if development has stopped.

Do you have any suggestions/recommendations?

[SmartDataSoft]

Hello, GFS

 Our Visual composer page builder is running from 2015 and we are the first page builder introduce in PrestaShop , after that few years later creative element released.

We are the first PrestaShop developer to developed shortcode, page builder awasome slider revolution. Last year we release our crazy element page builder based on Elementor , and released in your site. https://classydevs.com

Our developed smartblog is the first big  free module in PrestaShop forum which almost used over 100,000+ user. What i want to mean you that you can trust on us and used our crazy element which is most powerfull and fine.

 

Hope it will help you.

[GFS]

Thanks for the reply SmartDataSoft.

I'm currently looking at woocommerce... partly out of frustration at the obscure, almost covert way, in which prestashop presents itself.  You may not realise this, because you understand it so well, but for a newcomer, it's really hard to understand, fundamentally, how the prestashop universe works, not only on a business level, but also technically with regard to third-party products and so subsequently, how much it's going to cost and the implications going forward.  I sort of feel like I'm being conned.. which is something that really annoys me. 😕

(BTW, your sliders are really nice. 😊)

[Stephen-FFC]

Hi. I just want to give an update to my experience. I bought Creative Elements, and it's been a mixed bag.

My initial installation was as follows:

Prestashop 1.7.7.0
Laberthemes "Emilio" theme
Creative Elements page builder

Using CE (Creative Elements) was very easy as it works exactly like Elementor in WordPress. I'm very happy.

However...... Then it all went sour with one update. I updated to Prestashop 1.7.7.1 and everything broke.

Pages built in CE are no longer editable (the home page loads but is locked, and another page doesn't load at all in the builder)

The home page loads, but the other page doesn't (Frontend to visitors)

 

If I deactivate the CE module, then none of my pages load. (Obviously since it's not inerpreting the code for display)

 

To be fair, I don't know if it's CE that is the problem when running on PS1.7.7.1, or if it's the theme because, the login page also doesn't load.

I reinstalled the theme, but the problems persisted.

I changed themes back to the default Classic theme. All my pages loaded again and they were editable in the backend by CE, so it actually seems like a theme issue.

 

So while it seems to be a theme issue, it was CE that took the hit and appeared to be broken. I tried contacting CE, but because I was outside of my bundled few months free support, they wanted me to buy support to just ask them a few simple questions. No way around it - I had to submit a ticket and include my licence. There wasn't even a sales email address to try circumvent their ticketing system.

 

Final thoughts on Creative Elements

Pros: Easy to use. Powerful. Works as it claims.

Cons: Seems to be vulnerable to poorly coded themes. The company's support SUCKS.

 

I guess my next discussion question is going to be: "Who writes quality, reliable, fast themes that are well maintained?"

 

 

[GFS]

I gave up on Prestashop and Woocommerce, through frustration at the complexity and the seemingly covert business models, which seem to be a 'thing' within the WordPress universe.  It just seems to be nigh on impossible to get a straight answer to anything, especially when it comes down to cost... right down to 'last minute deals' which turn out to be permanent.  It's an incessant con.

Finally I've gone with imagely/NextGEN because it's simpler and their eCommerce solution is sufficient for my needs, but it's still something of a UI mess.  It's the hobbyist's garage floor.  Bits everywhere.  This does seem to be a problem with WP in general.  I'm thinking of it like the Microsoft UI.  Just nudge something sideways to make space for 'the great new feature'.

I've built my own website for 20 years and it's been fully responsive for 7 or 8.  I'm fairly amazed that imagely, which is essentially gallery software, doesn't have an image-slider, but it doesn't and so I've gone for Smart Slider and once again, I'm kind of surprised to see 'px' everywhere.  I haven't used px for years.  I mean... they break responsive.  It has options for % and em, but they're not the default and they're not everywhere.

I can just see myself, when I finally get my site up and running, going back to the web software I know and rebuilding it.  Ho hum.  Apparently WP is great for SEO.

[richardka]

You ask some of the better questions I've seen around here.

If you've tried using a page builder on the default theme, I'd love to know your results. 

Elementor is quite powerful, but generally will reduce page scores somewhat. I'm certain, though, that you'd probably do far better than dropping all the way down to 24%! Wow.

It's possible the non-Elementor ones don't affect speed scores much at all. Depends on how they built them. But it's hard to know by reading alone If most users don't notice anything. I appreciate that both of you guys in this thread DO notice such things 😁

[SmartDataSoft]

@richardka

I am not agree with this speed issue, it reduce some score but it will save your thousands of hours and work.and create beautiful site is quite difficult. 

If user optimize image then what css and js insert by page builder is not effected site . A good theme which used page builder can more faster than default theme using huge extra module . 

Other module load css in all page either use or not.

 

Where crazy elements page builder load css when elemnts load in that page.

 

Thank you 

[richardka]

On 6/15/2021 at 4:33 PM, SmartDataSoft said:

@richardka

I am not agree with this speed issue, it reduce some score but it will save your thousands of hours and work.and create beautiful site is quite difficult. 

If user optimize image then what css and js insert by page builder is not effected site . A good theme which used page builder can more faster than default theme using huge extra module . 

Other module load css in all page either use or not.

 

Where crazy elements page builder load css when elemnts load in that page.

 

Thank you 

 

Wow, that’s great! That’s some really good news.

Do you have any examples online we can run through page score speed tools?

[SmartDataSoft]

@richardka

 

We are releasing our crazy elements free version soon. Then you can install in your site and then check. One of our free ( pro featured ) theme will release soon. You can then compare. Right now we are fixing that is why not share the url publicly

 

Thank you

[SmartDataSoft]

Great news we have released our free theme and module any one can check

 

 

 

do not forget to inform us if anything is missing.

 

Thank you

[jetx]

Okay I know this is a very old thread. But the question remains are any page builders good enough for Prestashop? My own experiences.

1. Elementor (Creative Elements). I found support to be okay and the module itself is good for CMS pages, I didn't care too much for the themes, although I haven't explored them thoroughly. 

2. AP Page Builder. I found it incorporated into a theme I purchased. It is a total pita to update and code breaks quite easily, so it is essential to keep everything backed up and maintain a testing environment prior to deploying on a live site. AP Page Builder struggles with any form of caching during site building, including cloudflare. Some of the backend functions don't work at all, including the AP Site Builder (homepage builder) custom CSS which defines colors which are, when saved, supposed to create a profile key. So there is a heck of a lot of work via css and js file edits to get this page builder to work properly. And the updates are often messy.

This could be partly due to the actual theme writer who bundled this module with their theme (all-for-one).

The benefits of AP seem to be a quite powerful method to achieve a great looking page. But care must be taken by maintaining a dev site to ensure a smooth transition between updates (theme and PS).

If there are any other choices out there I'd love to know.

[El Patron]

none of the PrestaShop “page builders” are anywhere near Elementor or Shopify’s Online Store 2.0 experience — they all add bloat, compromise performance, and usually inject messy markup, break and if you need support, that shoud answer your question, they should be install, configure and done.  Until PrestaShop supports 'demo' a theme from you back office....it's like a box of chocolates, you don't know if you will like any of them.

we typically end up with warehouse with their elementor which works well enough but they are up against weak competiton.

leo themes (originally from joomlaart) we used a LOT but not in last few years the theme team chooses.

[Fiona Hina]

Hey Stephen-FFCNewbie, man,

I totally get where you're coming from-Prestashop updates can turn a smooth setup into a total nightmare overnight. I've been knee-deep in Prestashop customization for years now (think e-commerce builds for small biz clients, from fashion drops to gadget stores), and I've hit this exact wall more times than I can count. Back in 2012-ish, I had a client on PS 1.7.6 with Creative Elements and a custom theme—everything was golden until a minor patch to 1.7.7, and bam, pages froze in the editor, frontend glitches, the works. Turned out to be a sneaky JS conflict between the theme's overrides and CE's widgets. We rolled back, patched the theme, and it was fine, but yeah, it felt like CE was the villain when it was really the theme not playing nice.

Sounds like you're spot-on pinning it on the "Emilio" theme from Laberthemes-those third-party ones can be hit-or-miss with module compatibility, especially if they're not updated religiously. CE (now rebranded or just chugging along as Creative Elements) is solid as a page builder; it's basically Elementor for PS, super intuitive for drag-and-drop magic. But it relies heavy on the theme's hooks and CSS not clashing. From what I've seen in recent docs and forums, they've beefed up compatibility since those 1.7.7 days—it's now good with PS 1.6+ but shines on 8.x or 9.x (yeah, we're way past 1.7 in 2025). If you're still on that old version, I'd nudge you to upgrade the whole stack: bump PS to at least 8.1 or 9.0 for security and speed, grab the latest CE (they've fixed a ton of loading/editing bugs), and test in a staging site first. Pro tip: Always disable non-essential modules during updates to isolate issues—saved my bacon on that client gig.

On the support front, oof, that's rough. I've dealt with devs who lock everything behind paid tickets too—frustrating when you just need a quick pointer. These days, their docs have troubleshooting sections for common glitches like editor locks or theme conflicts; worth a peek before shelling out. If it's still cranky, try clearing PS cache (via back office or FTP in /var/cache), or even a fresh CE reinstall after theme swap.

Now, for your big question: Quality, reliable, fast themes that don't flake out? Amen to that-I've vetted a bunch over the years for clients who wanted bomb-proof setups. Here's my top picks for 2025, based on what holds up with modules like CE, gets regular updates, and doesn't tank performance (I always check for SEO-friendliness, mobile responsiveness, and dev support):

1-Warehouse by IQIT-Commerce, This one's my go-to for multipurpose stores. Super clean code, lightning-fast, and they've been updating it religiously for PS 8/9. No major conflicts with builders in my tests—had an electronics site running CE flawlessly on it. Great community forum too.

2-Panda by Sunytoo, Another beast-flexible for fashion/electronics, with built-in mega menus and optimizers. I used it on a client's apparel shop post-2023 PS upgrade; integrated CE widgets without a hitch, and their support responded in a day when I pinged about a minor tweak.

3-Alysum by Prestashop Addons (official), If you want something straightforward and well-maintained, this multipurpose theme's been a staple. High ratings, compatible with latest PS, and minimal bloat. Ran it with CE on a furniture store build last year—pages loaded snappy, no edit locks.

4-Electron Mega by ThemeVolty, For electronics/superstores, this is killer. SEO-optimized, responsive as heck, and they've got updates rolling for 2025. A buddy of mine switched from a flaky theme to this and said CE edits were buttery smooth afterward.

Steer clear of lesser-known ones unless they have 4.5+ stars and recent reviews on the Addons marketplace. Always demo on a test site with your modules enabled. If budget allows, go premium from established devs like those above—they're worth it for the peace of mind.

Best Regards

Fiona, Italy Chief Web tools developer & front ends Sr Manager.

Edited Saturday at 09:09 PM by Fiona Hina (see edit history)

[El Patron]

@Fiona Hina the best front ends I encounter are in Italy and your insights very much appreciated.