WordPress has evolved from being just a simple blogging tool into a tool that is now being used to create all kinds of websites.
Whatever you can think of, someone is bound to be already building it using WordPress!
This article will help you discover the fastest WYSIWYG content builder for WordPress.
Drag & Drop Content Editors For WordPress
Does The WordPress Editor Still Meet All Of Your Web Design Needs?
Using the default WordPress visual content editor to create or edit complex content elements can sometimes be challenging.
(The default WordPress WYSIWYG content editor is great for adding, formatting and editing conventional text and media, but adding complex layouts can be quite challenging!)
For example, if you look at the image below …
Adding the above boxes with text and buttons would require inserting something that looks like this inside your default WordPress editor …
Generally, this is not an issue … unless you choose to change something in your layout (for example, move some of the content from box 3 into box 2, or change the background color in a box from dark green to orange. Then, you’re stuck having to mess around with page code or html.
The WordPress visual content editor is supposed to give users an easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) content editor, but as you can see, when creating with complex content elements, often what you see is not what you are going to get when your page is published …
(“What You See” isn’t always “What You Get” … unless you can visualize code!)
In some situations, you would probably be better off working directly inside the WordPress text editor tab instead of the WYSIWYG editor when trying to create non-linear page elements …
Even though WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS platform available, this makes it difficult for non-technical website owners to fully manage their own content.
The fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML to create content in the default WordPress editor can be summarized as follows:
1) Speed – How long does it take to create a page using the editor?
2) Abstraction – How closely does the content in the editor resemble the content in the “front end” when you are creating or editing a page?
As you can see from the above screenshot, what you see in the back end doesn’t look even remotely similar to what you see in the front end. This means that you need to abstract what your content will look like when working with complex layouts. Other solutions require a number of steps before you can begin configuring your page layout, or endlessly switching browser tabs and performing tweaks and updates to see how your content is progressing, which then affects how fast you can create your content, as you wait for for your updated content to reload.
A number of WordPress web developers have tried to come up with various solutions aiming to make content editing easier. Some of these range from WordPress plugins you can install on your site that add new functionality to the editor, to themes that come with built-in features like drag and drop editing …
(WordPress “drag and drop” editors aim to make content creation easier!)
Some solutions combine so many page design features, that users end up with complicated-looking front end editors …
Many of these editors work fine, but they still don’t address the fundamental problem with using shortcodes and HTML as described earlier. Creating, adding and editing non-linear content on a web page becomes overly complicated, involves multiple steps and doesn’t match what users expect to see on the “front end.”
If you want your web pages to look “just right” quickly, this can become really frustrating after a while.
Ask yourself this …
If there were no technical constraints, how would you like your page editor to function?
Now that you’ve asked this question, imagine this …
- You see something in the content that needs to be corrected so you, simply click on the content and start changing it. Your content has been instantly changed.
- You just drag and drop elements around the page, and see them exactly as they will appear on the front end without having to mentally visualize HTML or shortcodes.
- You have an idea for some content you’d like to add, so you simply begin typing, and you build your page on the fly, without delays, with no tab switching, and without waiting for web pages to refresh and reload.
Would that not be the ideal way to create content for your WordPress site? A true visual content editor where all you have to do is click-to-edit and drag and drop elements around your page?
(Imagine being able to create complex pages ”on the fly” for your web content without technical constraints!)
If you are ready to change the way you create content in WordPress site, then here is a plugin that you may want to consider using …
Thrive Content Builder – The Simplest, Most Intuitive WYSIWYG Content Builder For WordPress Websites
Plugin Description
Thrive Content Builder is a truly intuitive click-to-edit drag-and-drop content and landing page creator and editor for WordPress.
The Thrive Content Builder plugin is a new and incredibly easy way to speed up the process of creating content on.
Once installed, the plugin adds a visual content editor and a menu that lets you drag and drop elements to your web page …
(Thrive Content Builder adds a new editor to WordPress)
The plugin is actually a combination of the Thrive Content Builder and Thrive Landing Pages plugins combined into one, plus an additional plugin feature called Thrive Lightbox.
Let’s take a look at each of the above plugins and how all of this exciting functionality works together to help you transform and improve your web site and create amazing sales pages, streamlined landing pages and engaging content.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin
Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add complex design layouts to your web pages using drag and drop elements …
Every aspect of your page can be configured by ”clicking-to-edit” and “dragging and dropping” things around the page …
Once you have positioned elements on the page, you can continue to further customize these without going through multiple steps or switching screens …
The built-in Thrive Landing Pages also lets you work inside beautiful landing pages and easily edit these …
Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages is simple, easy to use, and ideal for all WordPress users at all levels. In fact, working on content with Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages installed is so effortlessly easy, that the developers guarantee that you’ll never look back once you start using it
Learn more about the plugin here: Thrive Content Builder
The integrated Thrive Content Builder and Landing Pages plugin was created by the same team that developed Thrive Leads, another great plugin for WordPress that we have reviewed on this site.
To learn more about the plugin, go here:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Thrive Content Builder to speed up the process of designing pages and creating content for your web site:
Easy And Quick To Install
Thrive Content Builder installs like every other plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Edit & Add Content In Real Time
Thrive Content Builder is really simple and intuitive to use and lets you build and add content right inside your pages in real-time.
What You See Is Truly What You Get
With Thrive Content Builder installed, what you see as you work within the content editor – fonts, elements, layouts, etc. is exactly what you get in the front end of your site.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Design Eye-Catching Page Layouts With Drag & Drop Ease: Create any layout you can imagine with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
- Design Elements Included: With the Thrive Content Builder plugin you not only get an exciting and easy-to-use drag and drop content editor, but the plugin also includes a collection of functional and attractive web design elements that you can customizable and add to your layouts without using shortcodes, like pricing tables, feature grids, section dividers, countdown timers, etc.
- Ideal For Non-Technical Users: Not having to wait for the content to reload frees up your attention and allows you to be more focused while you build or edit your content or click through multiple layers of menus to get what you need done.
(Thrive Content Builder lets you easily add, edit and customize page elements like testimonial boxes, flat design elements, content boxes, call to action buttons, code insert boxes, etc.)
Features
Thrive Content Builder provides a number of powerful features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just some of these features:
- Regular WordPress Editor Functionality Is Preserved: You have access to all of the built-in WordPress editing options that you are used to (e.g. bold, paragraph formatting, headings and font sizes, etc.),
- Drag And Drop Multi-Style Elements: The plugin makes a “drag and drop” table of multi-style elements available on your post or page screen for editing content.
- Conversion-Boosting Elements: The plugin includes various attention-grabbing and customizable elements that will help you increase the effectiveness of your sales pages, including buttons and call-to-action elements, testimonial boxes, and guarantee forms. In addition to being customizable, various elements also offer multiple design options.
- Responsive Element Design: Add responsive columns, guarantee boxes, content dividers, e.g. which will resize and display correctly on different device screens.
- Add Animation To Your Web Pages: The plugin’s Event Manager feature lets you insert animated page content, trigger lightboxes and more!
(Add Animated Elements To Your Web Pages)
Thrive Landing Pages – Landing Page Template Sets
Landing page template sets are templates that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language to take your visitors all the way from initial signup to purchase, product download and more.
(Thrive Landing Pages lets you easily add conversion-optimized pages to your web site)
Thrive Landing Pages Plugin – Benefits
- Hosted on your own WordPress site
- Save time and money designing and customizing pages
- 100% conversion-optimized pages
- No web coding skills needed
- Works with any theme
Thrive Content and Landing Page Builder not only can be used to create beautiful content in your WordPress posts and pages, but you can also choose from dozens of beautifully designed, landing page templates that are conversion-optimized and fully customizable …
(Landing page sets that work together logically and use the same conversion-optimized design language)
There are over thirty templates available, with more templates planned for release. In addition to the available templates, the developers plan to release new templates for email lead generation, sales pages, training pages, personal branding pages, webinar pages and more.
Fully Customizable And Flexible Landing Page Template Sets
Typically, in order to have fully customizable landing page templates, you would need to either hire a web designer to do the work, or learn web coding languages like HTML and CSS and figure out how to edit the page code yourself.
As Shane Melaugh, co-founder of Thrive Themes says …
“There are many ways to get a pre-designed page published quickly, but the problem comes with customization. Total design freedom requires either hiring web developers to do the work for you, or learn how to do it yourself, which involves learning how to mess around with code or use overly complicated editors. Customizable usually means complicated, expensive or time-consuming. So, you can either have something that is fast and easy to set up, or something that is customizable and flexible. But you couldn’t have both … until now! With Thrive Landing Pages you get the best of both worlds for creating conversion-optimized web pages.”
Thrive Landing Pages gives you great-looking pre-designed web page templates that are fully optimized and ready to go, and complete design freedom that allows you to change and customize anything on the page …
With the landing page templates included with this plugin, you can:
- Edit text in all headlines, bullet points, buttons, etc.
- Delete text, images or any other part of the landing page
- Change all background images or background colours
- Change the color of links, text, buttons, etc.
- Use your own fonts
- Use your own images and graphics
- Edit content area size
- Change the order of web page elements
- Translate everything on the page into different languages
- Add any kind of custom content anywhere inside the pages
- Start with a blank page and create your own page templates, or even build a library of custom landing pages.
(Change and edit any element of the page templates)
Thrive Lightbox – Transform Your Web Site Into A Powerful Marketing Machine
The Thrive package includes Thrive Lightbox, which lets you add fully customizable 2-step opt-in forms and animated objects to your web site …
(Add opt-in forms and animation to your sales pages with Thrive Lightbox)
Thrive Lighbox 2-Step Opt-in Forms
A two-step opt-in process can help increase your conversion rates. Visitors click on an image or button, and then they are presented with your opt-in form …
(Capture more leads and subscribers with a 2-step opt-in process)
Event Manager
An “event” consists of a trigger and an action. You can make an opt-in form appear when your visitor clicks or hovers over a button or an image, or when someone scrolls down to a certain point on the page. You can also use the Event Manager to animate images on your page, using various effects (e.g. fade out, slide in from left to right, roll out, etc.
(Set up and manage events on your pages with Thrive Lightbox)
A lightbox and event is created automatically for your landing pages, but you also have complete control over events, triggers and design.
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials customers have published about the Thrive Content Builder plugin:
“I have had nothing but the best experience imaginable with this tool since I purchased it. This is by far one of, if not the best plug-in I have purchase to date and it has definitely made working with WordPress a whole new experience. Jim Bond”
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”Your stuff is beautifully designed, fast and has great options for marketers that you just don’t see with other themes. Great, great job! Absolutely love Thrive! David Coleman”
Plugin Tips
Thrive Content Builder works with any WordPress theme, not just with Thrive Landing Pages. You cannot use Thrive Content Builder to edit content on pages or posts that were not created with the plugin installed.
You can add WordPress short codes inside Thrive Content Builder or Thrive Landing Pages and they will be displayed correctly on on your site.
Thrive Lightbox works with any content built with Thrive Content Builder.
Thrive Content Builder Plugin Support
Thrive Content and Page Builder comes with free updates, new landing pages and upcoming features. The plugin developers are constantly working on adding new features and improving existing ones.
Thrive software is really well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades, plus one year unlimited support with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, thirty day, full refund guarantee.
This is an exciting product that just keeps getting better.
Plugin Cost
At the time of writing, the pricing information shown below includes all three components described above (Thrive Content Builder, Thrive Landing Pages & Thrive Lightbox):
- Single Site License – This enables you to set up the plugin on a single domain. Includes full feature set, unlimited updates and one year of unlimited support. Price = $59.00.
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to activate the plugin on all domains that you personally own. Cost includes full feature set, unlimited updates and 1 year of unlimited support. Price = $87.00.
- Agency License Edition – Use on your websites and on client domains. Price includes access to Thrive Content Builder, plus all Thrive Themes & Thrive Plugins. Price = $247.00 per year.
Note: Price details for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
The Thrive Landing Pages and Content Builder plugin developers repeatedly assert that the plugin’s architecture gives you the “best of both worlds,” and help bring back the “joy of creating content.”
On the one hand, you have time-saving features like ready-made web page elements and beautiful, conversion-optimized template sets that help to make designing your pages faster, and on the other hand, you also have complete control over your design process and the ability to change anything and everything on your web page, using the plugin’s visual content editor, that lets you get things done without having to open multiple dialog boxes.
For demo videos of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive website.
Install The Plugin …
If you want to edit something, you just click on the element and start editing. If you want to change something, do it, and you will see the change happen immediately. If you want to move something, all you have to do is simply drag it and drop it into its new position. There are no extra steps involved.
If you want to transform and improve your business online and create awesome sales pages and content, this plugin delivers an incredible conversion-boosting package with a single, inexpensive plugin.
To learn more, check out the plugin here:
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