Looking for advanced Elementor widgets and confused about whether to go for Responsive Addons for Elementor or Plus Addons?
With the emergence of Elementor, building websites on WordPress has become seamless. While its range of features works amazingly, accessing its premium features is expensive.
Responsive Addons for Elementor and Plus Addons are among the two popular alternatives that share a similar goal: to make websites faster and easier and improve their performance.
This article will compare the Responsive Addons for Elementor vs Plus Addons and help you pick a theme that meets your website needs.
Sounds good? Let’s begin.
What is Responsive Addons for Elementor (RAE)?
Boasting a set of 80+ advanced Elementor Widgets and three extensions, Responsive Addons for Elementor (RAE) is a free yet powerful add-ons plugin.
Developed by Cyberchimps, the plugin helps you add interactive and functional features to your website with a simple drag-and-drop interface. It also offers 250+ readymade website templates with a single click import to create a website instantly.
Furthermore, the plugin also features detailed customization and styling flexibility to design every website element.
To learn more, refer to what is Responsive Addons for Elementor?
What is Plus Addons for Elementor?
Similar to Responsive Addons for Elementor, Plus Addons is another powerful Elementor addons plugin that helps build a website with interactive functional widgets.
Developed by Posimyth, Plus Addons is a freemium plugin with 120+ widgets and extensions, out of which 35+ are free.
Additionally, the plugin offers 300+ UI blocks and 100+ website templates in its pro version, making it easy to import and create any website.
Responsive Addons for Elementor (RAE) vs Plus Addons
Now that we know the basics about both plugins, let’s jump directly into their offerings and what distinguishes them.
I used both the plugins, and based on my insights and findings on the usage, I have basically used a few crucial parameters to compare what most users look for in their website building toolkit, including:
- Widgets and Other Features
- Theme Builder
- Performance and Accessibility
- Ease of Use
- Customization and Styling
- Support
Let’s get started!
Widgets and Other Features
Both plugins’ primary purpose is to offer functional widgets and extensions for website building. As previously mentioned, Responsive Addons for Elementor is a free, open-source plugin that offers all its widgets, extensions, and tools for free.
On the other hand, Plus Addons caters to its users on a freemium model, with its widgets and tools divided into two categories: free and premium.
As the name suggests, the free widgets are free to use and customize, while the paid widgets require you to have the pro version of the plugin to access advanced customization options and overall widgets for some.
Further, to understand the plugin, let’s understand the distinction in their features and offerings with this table:
| Responsive Addons For Elementor (FREE) | Plus Addons (Free) | Plus Addons (Pro) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Extensions | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| Number of Widgets | 80+ | 35+ | 120+ |
| Readymade Elementor Templates | 50+ | 20+ | 100+ |
| Theme Builder | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cross Domain Copy Paste | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Mega Menu Builder | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| WooCommerce optimizations | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Blog Builder | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Custom Fonts | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Based on the table, you might already have a clear idea that, in terms of features, Responsive Addons for Elementor (FREE) is a clear winner with its access to the same features as in the pro version of Plus Addons.
Additionally, talking about the specific widgets and extensions offered, I tried around ten to fifteen widgets of each.
Again, considering the number of widgets and extensions for free Responsive Addons for Elementor remains a preferred option. However, it is essential to note that if you choose the paid version of Plus Addons, you get some extra widgets and extensions added comparatively.
Theme Builder
The theme builder functionality is essential for users who want to create personalized headers, footers, and other theme components.
The best part about choosing the Responsive Addons for Elementor for website building is its free theme builder. It provides a powerful interface and control that emphasizes creating all elements of your website template. It enables customization of headers, footers, post templates, and archives. Moreover, it features specialized templates to develop engaging user interactions.
Similarly, Plus Addons for Elementor also offers a theme builder that lets users create headers, footers, and archive pages, granting increased flexibility. However, it is essential to note that you can access it only when you have the paid version of the plugin, which questions its cost effectiveness compared to RAE.
Performance and Accessibility
Many research studies are evident about the role of website speed. With a growing deficiency in users’ attention span, users don’t want to wait more than three seconds for a website to load.
Users today look for faster-loading websites that rank better and sell more
The size of the plugin and its impact on a website’s performance significantly affect its performance and accessibility. Every plugin has a different build, and the tools they offer differently affect your website.
RAE and Plus Addons specially cater to your needs to add features to your website. However, each feature adds additional backend build, increasing the page load times.
To compare and understand the difference, I installed the plugin in different staging sites and used a few of their widgets on each page, and ran popular page speed and GT Metrix tests on them.
The result of my findings can be seen in the images below:
RAE Performance Test
Plus Addons Performance Test
As is clear from the results above, the performance and accessibility showed almost the same result. However, the page built using Responsive Addons for Elementor shows better value than the one built using Plus Addons.
Ease of Use – Navigation and Control Panel
Complex navigation and control panels are often crucial reasons users deactivate plugins.
WordPress is popularly known for its convenient development approach, which is helpful for beginners who want to create their own website. When choosing the Elementor Addons plugin, ease of use is crucial to determining users’ choice.
Based on my usage of the plugins, I found both Responsive Addons for Elementor and Plus Addons have an intuitive and well-designed interface for widget usage.
Responsive Addons for Elementor have simple controls and visual previewing tools that are easy to understand and use. You can easily enable or disable any widget and import website templates in a single click.
Additionally, it works smoothly with third-party plugins and themes, boasting enhanced site functionality. The plugin’s widgets are compatible with most themes and ensure consistent design with a stable cross-browser performance across all devices.
In a similar manner, Plus Addons also ensures an easy-to-use control panel management with its dashboard interconnected with all its sister plugins and tools. However, I found their dashboard quite overwhelming, with an excessive number of options that sometimes become difficult to understand.
However, both plugins support closely linking documents with every tool for consistent support and hassle-free use.
Customization and Styling
Customization and styling options are the most needed functionalities when you want to add something to your website. A plugin lacking such options is like someone giving you a car to drive without keys; you may be able to add features, but you won’t be able to design its appearance to align with your site.
In terms of customization and styling, both plugins offer a wide variety of customization options, almost the same as standard plugins, with minor changes in preview. Additionally, they also offer the flexibility of responsive editing across different devices.
However, while using the free widgets of Plus Addons at places, I got stuck as customizing specific options for the widget required me to have the plugin’s premium version. Nevertheless, they can add extra effects given some of their advanced customizations.
However, I was able to cope quite well with similar settings in the Responsive Addons, given unrestricted access to all settings.
Mostly, the settings of RAE were relatively simple. They also offered guided articles wherein you can understand the settings offered and how a user can use them to add or customize any specific feature.
For example, say I wanted to learn how to use their Testimonial slider, so I had the option to learn it from their article on How to Add Testimonial Slider To Your Elementor Website
.
Support
Tech products are dynamic and consistently updated, and plugins are also among such products. They may get buggy or run into problems that sometimes break a portion or the overall page. Support plays a crucial role when developing websites, specifically in these situations.
Responsive Addons for Elementor provides a comprehensive support structure that includes detailed documentation, helpful guides, and video tutorials. These resources are designed to help users get started quickly and solve common issues independently.
Additionally, Responsive Addons offers dedicated email support and support ticketing for its users, ensuring that complex queries are addressed by experienced support staff.
Plus Addons also supports similar support options like documentation and video tutorials; however, ticketing support is only accessible to users with the premium version.
FAQ
Responsive Addons for Elementor (RAE) is a free Elementor addon plugin developed by Cyberchimps. It offers 80+ widgets, three extensions, and 250+ ready-to-import website templates to help users create fully functional websites.
Responsive Addons for Elementor stands out as the better choice if you’re just starting out. It offers a user-friendly interface, simple navigation, and full access to all widgets and settings without any restricted access.
While both plugins offer a rich set of widgets, ResponsiveAddons for Elementor includes 80+ widgets for free, which covers a broad range of functionality. In contrast, Plus Addons reserves many of its widgets for its premium version. So, regarding free offerings, RAE provides more comprehensive widget access than the free version of Plus Addons.
Based on performance tests done using popular tools like GTMetrix, pages built with Responsive Addons for Elementor generally load slightly faster than those built using Plus Addons.
Yes, Responsive Addons for Elementor is free and offers full access to wide variety of features that other plugins often reserve for their premium versions.
Conclusion
Both Responsive Addons for Elementor and Plus Addons are beneficial plugins while building a website. However, each has its specific advantages over others based on different parameters.
Based on my usage of the plugins, I found Responsive Addons for Elementor as a preferred choice given its cost-effective solution.
Moreover, I would suggest that you try each of these plugins on your own and, based on your convenience, consider choosing your preferred option.
Further, if you liked this article, also consider reading:
- Astra vs Kadence vs Cyberchimps Responsive : Which theme Is Better?
- What Are Widgets in WordPress and How to Use Them
- Best Essential Addons Alternatives to Check
Also, consider checking out the Cyberchimps Responsive Theme to build a website for any niche.
