If you’ve ever installed two Elementor addon plugins on the same site by accident, you already know the headache: duplicate widgets cluttering the panel, style conflicts nobody can trace, and a page builder that suddenly takes three extra seconds to load. That’s usually how site owners end up actually comparing Essential Addons for Elementor and The Plus Addons for Elementor, not from a marketing page, but because something broke and they had to pick one and remove the other.
Both plugins solve the same underlying problem: Elementor’s own widget library is thin, and building a real business site on the 2026 WordPress + Elementor stack, a pricing page, a mega menu, a WooCommerce store, means either hand-coding it or installing an addon. But the two extend Elementor from different directions, and picking the wrong one for your project means paying for widgets you will never open. Here is how they actually compare, using what is live on each plugin’s own WordPress.org listing today.
What Is Essential Addons for Elementor?
Essential Addons for Elementor (by WPDeveloper) is the most-installed third-party Elementor addon on WordPress.org: over 1,000,000 active installations and a 98% rating across 4,115 reviews at the time of writing, running version 6.8.3, last updated August 31, 2026. The free tier alone ships more than 60 widgets (Post Grid, Testimonials, Creative Buttons, and similar building blocks) plus 11 free extensions, including a Reading Progress Bar, a Duplicator, a Table of Contents, and a Header & Footer Builder. Free users also get access to Templately’s library of more than 6,500 ready-made templates through the plugin’s own integration.
The Pro upgrade adds roughly 50 more widgets, including a Lightbox & Modal, an Instagram Feed, and an Advanced Google Map, plus eight Pro-only extensions: Parallax, Particles, Advanced Tooltip, Conditional Display, Dynamic Tags, Interactive Animations, Custom Cursor, and Content Protection. WooCommerce also gets extra widgets on Pro, including a Product Slider, a Cross-Sells display, and an Account Dashboard.
What Is The Plus Addons for Elementor?
The Plus Addons for Elementor takes a different approach. Instead of a long, flat list of individual widgets, it bundles full “builders” for the parts of a site an addon plugin usually leaves you to assemble by hand. Its own WordPress.org listing (version 6.5.1, following the 6.5.0 update, updated September 2, 2026, over 100,000 active installations, a 92% rating across 387 reviews) advertises 120+ widgets and extensions and 1,000+ ready-made templates, organized around six builder modules: a Blog Website Builder, a WooCommerce Store Builder, a Mega Menu for Elementor, a Grid Builder, a Popup Builder, and a Header Builder, plus widgets like a live-AJAX search bar.
Roughly 35 of those widgets are free; the remaining 75+, including the entire WooCommerce Store Builder, sit behind the paid plans. Two features are worth calling out because they rarely show up on addon comparison charts: a Widget Manager that lets you switch off any widget you are not using so its CSS and JS never load on the front end, and Improved Asset Loading, Elementor’s own per-widget loading system that The Plus Addons is built to work with instead of around.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Every number below is pulled from each plugin’s own WordPress.org listing on the date this article was written, not from either company’s marketing site.
| Essential Addons for Elementor | The Plus Addons for Elementor | |
|---|---|---|
| Active installs (WordPress.org) | 1,000,000+ | 100,000+ |
| Rating | 98% (4,115 ratings) | 92% (387 ratings) |
| Latest version | 6.8.3 | 6.5.1 |
| Minimum WordPress version | 5.0 | 6.0 |
| Free widgets | 60+ | ~35 |
| Free extensions | 11 (incl. Header & Footer Builder) | Widget Manager (disable unused widgets) |
| Premium widgets/extensions | +50 widgets, 8 Pro-only extensions | Remaining 85+ of the 120+ total, incl. the full WooCommerce Store Builder |
| Dedicated WooCommerce builder | WooCommerce widgets only (Product Slider, Cross-Sells, Account Dashboard), Pro | Full WooCommerce Store Builder, Pro |
| Mega menu builder | Not listed as a dedicated builder on its own plugin page | Dedicated Mega Menu for Elementor, included |
| Popup builder | Not listed on its own plugin page | Dedicated Popup Builder for Elementor, included |
| Ready-made templates | 6,500+ via Templately integration | 1,000+ built in |
| Last updated | Aug 31, 2026 | Sep 2, 2026 |
Performance & Site Speed
Neither company publishes an independent load-time benchmark, so treat any single-site “X is Y% faster” screenshot you find online with some skepticism; results depend entirely on the theme, host, and which widgets are actually placed on the page. What each plugin does document on its own listing is which widgets and extensions it ships, and that has a direct effect on how much CSS and JavaScript your site has to load even when a widget sits unused in the library.
This is where the Widget Manager on The Plus Addons matters in practice: if you only use 10 of the 120+ available widgets, you can switch the other 110+ off, and their assets stop loading on the front end entirely, working alongside Elementor’s own Improved Asset Loading rather than fighting it. Essential Addons does not list an equivalent per-widget toggle on its own plugin page, so a large add-on library there is more likely to mean more registered scripts and styles sitting in the queue, whether or not each widget is actually used on a given page.
Pricing Comparison
The Plus Addons for Elementor’s current pricing is published directly on its own site: a Starter plan at $39/year (1 site), Professional at $89/year (5 sites), Studio at $129/year (unlimited sites), and an Agency Bundle at $399/year that adds five more POSIMYTH products. Lifetime one-time options exist at the same tiers: $139, $249, $349, and $899. Every plan carries a 30-day refund window.
Essential Addons for Elementor Pro is also sold on a per-site, annual-license model, but its current published price points were not independently verifiable at the time of writing, so this article will not guess a number here; check the plugin’s own pricing page directly before comparing totals for your specific site count.
Which Should You Choose?
If your priority is the largest possible raw count of individual widgets across a personal or portfolio site, and you are fine assembling a mega menu or popup from a separate plugin, Essential Addons for Elementor gives you the bigger free widget count and works down to WordPress 5.0.
If you are building a real business site, especially one that needs a WooCommerce store, a mega menu, a popup, and a custom header without stacking three separate plugins, The Plus Addons for Elementor bundles all four into one install, and its Widget Manager means you are not stuck loading assets for widgets you never turned on. At $39/year for a single site, it is also the cheaper entry point if you are only running one or two projects. Either way, read the wider Elementor alternatives landscape before committing, since your theme and host matter as much as the addon plugin you pick.
