Elementor Cloud Website, as the product was called then, bundled WordPress hosting, the Elementor Pro licence and a managed dashboard into a single product. We ran a real site on it during a full trial in late 2023, and everything in the review below is what we saw while we had it.
Two questions are worth keeping apart. What the product did on the days we tested it, which was good enough for a 4.5 out of 5. And whether we would choose it for a new project now, which has a different answer, because the piece that made it interesting is no longer part of the deal.
On this page
Our take today
We would not pick this for a new project today.
The reason is specific, and it is not about performance. The version we tested sold itself as a bundle: hosting and the Elementor Pro licence under one yearly price. That bundle is gone. The product is now Elementor Host, with plans named Host Cloud, Host Cloud+, multi-site tiers and Enterprise, and Elementor’s FAQ says those plans do not include the Elementor Editor (Pro) licence, which the feature table lists as sold separately. You connect a licence you already own, or you buy one on the side.
Take the bundle out and what remains is managed WordPress hosting inside what was, when we tested it, a closed environment. The closed part was a fair trade when the licence came with it. On its own it is a constraint you accept without the discount that paid for it, which puts the product in a straight comparison against every other managed host. That is not the comparison it was built to win.
This could have been a strong pick a couple of years ago and it is not one now. Between what AI tooling has done to the cost of putting a site together and how many credible ways there are to ship one, the bundle was the reason to be here, and the bundle is what left.
Current plans and pricing are on Elementor’s own page. If you landed here because you were about to buy, our hosting and software stack is what we reach for instead.
Pros and cons
Everything below comes from the 2023 trial, with one exception: the last con is the 2026 change described above.
What worked
- Setup time was the best part. Hosting, licence, theme and SSL were done before we started building.
- One dashboard for backups, domains, email authentication and staging, instead of three vendors and a browser full of tabs.
- Staging with a one-click push to production. No re-uploading files, no reconnecting databases and licences.
- An automatic backup every 24 hours with the 14 most recent kept, plus on-demand backups. Nothing to configure.
- Simple enough that a non-technical owner could run it, which matters when you hand a site over.
- The editor felt faster than the other sites we were working on at the time, animations included.
What held it back
- Closed environment by design. No server-level control, no stack of your own choosing.
- Not where we would put an ecommerce build.
- No obvious way back into the WordPress admin from the Elementor dashboard. It is there, but a new user hunts for it.
- DNS record editing was not available on the plan we tested, so we could not check that part.
- As of 2026, the Elementor Editor (Pro) licence is no longer included with a Host plan. The bundle that justified the closed environment is not on the table anymore.
A pros and cons list only gets you so far, because the right answer depends on what the site has to do. Tell us that part and we’ll tell you where we would host it, and why.
The 2023 verdict
We rated it 4.5 out of 5 in 2023, for what it set out to do. Three things earned that, and one thing kept it off a five.
| What we judged | How it did |
|---|---|
| Setup time | The best part. Hosting, licence, theme and SSL were done before you started. A normal WordPress build spends its first hours on exactly this. |
| Day-to-day management | One dashboard for backups, domains, email and staging, instead of a browser full of tabs across three vendors. |
| Editor performance | Noticeably faster than the other sites we were working on at the time, including pages with animations. |
| Flexibility | Where it lost the half point. It was a closed environment by design, and that was the trade you were making. |
At the time of the trial the plan we tested was quoted at $99 a year, hosting and Elementor Pro licence together, which was the number that made it interesting. That figure is from 2023 and we are leaving it dated rather than guessing at a current one.
What the dashboard did
You got one screen for the site and the server underneath it: pages, domains and subdomains, backups, staging and support.
The interface was straightforward enough that a non-technical owner could use it, which matters if you’re handing a site over. It also worked on a phone. You’re not going to administer a server from your phone by choice, but being able to trigger a backup from wherever you are is the kind of thing you appreciate exactly once, at a bad moment.
What each part did, in the version we tested:
| Feature | What it did in the trial |
|---|---|
| Domains | You could add, buy and connect domains from the dashboard. DNS record editing wasn’t available on the free plan, so we couldn’t test that part. |
| Email authentication | Made sure mail from WordPress and connected apps was sent from the domain on the installation. Usually a plugin plus a support ticket. |
| Backups | On-demand backups plus an automatic one every 24 hours, keeping the most recent 14. Nothing to configure. |
| Staging | The one that saved the most time. You built on staging and pushed to production in a click. No re-uploading files, no reconnecting databases and licences. |
Building on it
The interface took a little getting used to. We spent a while looking for the way back into the WordPress admin, because there was no obvious “exit to WordPress” from the Elementor dashboard. It was there, but a new user would hunt for it. Putting the WordPress logo next to the Elementor one would fix that.
Once past that, page creation was faster than a standard install. Creating a page, editing it and moving between pages all happened without leaving the builder, which removed several clicks from something you do dozens of times a project. The Hello theme was already installed, and duplicating a page was built in rather than another plugin.
The editor felt faster than our other sites. We added animations to a page and it still loaded about as quickly as pages without them.
Who it fit, and who it didn’t
For the kind of project it was built for, it fit well: straightforward sites, static pages that present services, plus a blog. That covers most local business websites.
- Portfolio sites
- Online CV and personal sites
- Service and brochure sites: restaurants showing a menu, lawyers, plumbers, cleaners, a physical store publishing its information
Where we’d look elsewhere is ecommerce, and anything that needs server-level control or a stack you choose yourself. It was a closed environment by design. That’s the whole point of a product like this, and it’s the reason it’s easy, but if your project needs to escape the box later, you’ll be migrating.
Which is the same question that applies to every tool in this category, and to the agency you hire: what happens when you want to leave. We go through that one properly in our guide to choosing a web design company, and it applies here too. Own your domain, know what a migration would involve, and decide with your eyes open.
One more thing worth settling before you pick a host: what the site has to do beyond existing. If leads need to reach a CRM or a form should trigger a follow-up, that’s doable on any host, but it’s cheaper decided up front than bolted on afterward.
Not sure which of these your project needs? That’s the conversation we have on the first call, before anyone builds anything.
