This blog post is part of “The Ultimate Guide to Web Development” blog series.
Visual Composer is a plugin for WordPress which allows you to create website content with simple drag and drop functionality. Developed by WP Bakery, Visual Composer makes WordPress almost as easy to use as popular hosted web development platforms like Wix and Squarespace, but still gives you the benefits of owning your own website and content and having access to the programmability and flexibility of WordPress.
Visual Composer by the Numbers
Visual Composer has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times and enjoys 5.5 out of six stars from more than 8,000 reviewers. That’s pretty impressive stuff. It cost $34 for a standard license, which means, “Use by you or one client, in a single end product which end users are not charged for. The total price includes the item price and a buyer fee.”
There is also an Extended License, which provides “Use, by you or one client, in a single end product which end users can be charged for. The total price includes the item price and a buyer fee.”
Simple Interface
While WordPress offers a host of great features for website makers, simplicity is not an asset most people would associate with it. The value of WordPress comes mainly in its flexibility–if you can imagine it, WordPress can be designed to make it happen. With hosted web platforms, on the other hand, you are limited to the features they offer. Turning your website dreams into reality with WordPress will usually require moderate to advanced web development skills. Visual Composer can reduce the need for this by making page creation, editing, and management a simple drag and drop process.
The interface is simple. You are guided to where you can enter text, headings, images and more. The page can easily be divided into multiple columns and just about any other page layout configuration.
Visual Composer also offers a template library with pre-designed page layouts that can be used to build a website from scratch. Of course, claiming to enable an instant website with no coding skills required makes for great marketing, but most websites of any complexity will require some knowledge of backend issues and processes like using forms, icons, buttons, the styling of page and design elements, etc. Visual Composer is compatible with any WordPress theme and supports other popular plugins like Yoast for SEO, Woo Commerce for e-commerce, Gravity Forms for form management, as well as social plug-ins for the most popular social networks. More advanced features include the ability to adjust colors, paddings, and multiple other style options to fit with your company’s brand or style guidelines.
There is also a point-and-click content element menu that makes it easy to add, edit, duplicate, remove or create presets for content elements.
Built-in Responsive Design
Responsive web design–pages that automatically optimize for any device–is a must-have in today’s world of mobile search and content consumption. Visual Composer will take care of your website responsiveness by default, so you don’t have to think of it. It will instantly adapt your website to different devices and you will even have the option to check it out directly from your browser window. There are also plenty of tools available to improve mobile optimization such as controlling how stacking behaves on different devices, define offsets, and choose to show or hide particular elements on specific device types.
No Coding Required
Visual Composer offers the ease of use of a DIY website builder without sacrificing the flexibility, ownership, and freedom of WordPress. While claiming that a novice could easily build a high-functioning business website might be a stretch, it is certainly the case that just about anyone that has used a word-processing program like MS Word or Google Docs could add and edit content on a website using Visual Composer. This can save you from having to call a web developer every time they want someone changed on your website.
This blog post is part of “The Ultimate Guide to Web Development” blog series.
