When it comes to creating a website quickly without any technical barrier, Elementor Cloud stands from the concurrence. In fact, that solution that is now available for everyone aims to make it easier for non-developers to create a professional website in no time with a modern drag and drop interface.
However, before Elementor Cloud, we've been using the self-hosted Elementor Pro website and we're kinda curious about which one is the best? This tutorial will compare Elementor Cloud and self-hosted Elementor pro website on the following points :
- Installation
- Security
- Speed
- Plugins Compatibility
Installation
The first task we usually do is to make the installation. Regarding Elementor Cloud, the process is really simplified, once you're been through the payment process, you'll have to follow a very simple installation process. We've covered the getting started steps with Elementor Cloud.
In comparison, with the self-hosted solution, it depends if you're using the cPanel or not. If you're not using the cPanel (or similar app), this means you're an expert and definitely like doing things manually including installing WordPress from a command-line interface.
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In case you're using the cPanel, you can use Softaculous which can be really helpful to install WordPress in no time but even with that, you'll have to install Elementor Pro and Elementor manually, and that's is an extra layer of complexity.
Winner: Elementor Cloud
Security
We all no Elementor Cloud is hosted by Google infrastructure and uses Cloudflare as CDN providers. Those two services provide yet provide one of the best security solutions you can have on your website.
In comparison, the self-hosted solution comes with no (real) security protection out of the box. You'll then have to configure everything manually :
- SSL
- WP Login Attempts
- CDN
- Backup
We have to recognize that you can take your security further if you're using a self-hosted solution as you can configure everything as you desire, but that would have been a good point if Elementor Cloud was made for developers. With Elementor Cloud you're quite restricted on what configuration you're applying (remember you don't have access to the files).
Winner: Elementor Cloud
Speed
Here, we'll compare which solution is fastest. Note that out of the box, Elementor Cloud comes with Cloudflare and Google Cloud infrastructure which are designed to make website faster. With a self hosted Elementor Pro website, you can still install those, but manually. Let's then compare the speed of Elementor Cloud and a Self Hosted Elementor Pro.
Self Hosted Elementor
So we created a very basic Elementor website and imported some section. This website has no cache out of the box no CDN. We're using a VPS provided by Vultr.
The website takes up to 8 seconds to load and has a 2.4 MB size. Those details strongly depends on what is displayed on the page.
Elementor Cloud
We've tested an installation of Elementor Cloud we had and we realized that it loads at 2.42 seconds which still on the recommended page speed loading time.
We can see that Elementor Cloud performs better than the VPS we've created. That result might be different if we install CDN and Cache plugin.
Winner: Elementor Cloud
Compatible Plugins
WordPress wouldn't be WordPress without plugins. The fact there are plugins helps making flexible and more accurate website (in terms of needs). While Elementor Cloud was announced compatible with few plugins later on we discovered that many plugins remains compatible. However, few (yet interesting) plugins were flagged as incomaptible which can be a major con.
On the other side, a self hosted Elementor Pro website doesn't have any restriction at all, you can install pretty much any plugins (assuming you know what you're doing), including other Page Builder, Cache plugins, Migration plugins.
Winner: Self Hosted Elementor Pro
Summarizing
By the ends of this comparison, Elementor Cloud is the winner. Throughout this, we've noticed that Elementor mainly aims a specific type of users: designers with no or less coding knowledge. This latest won't have to configure a bunch of things manually. However, for those willing to put their hands on flour for baking, the'll definitely have same or better results provided by Elementor Cloud (with no other configuration). The choice of using one depends on how much skilled you are and how many time you have to build your website.
