Google Sites vs Elementor: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024 (2024)

Final verdict

Google Sites and Elementor cater to different user needs, with Elementor offering a more robust set of features for web design and ecommerce.

• 
  Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is best suited for users looking for a simple, collaborative platform to create basic websites. It integrates well with Google Workspace services, making it a convenient choice for users already embedded in the Google ecosystem. Its ease of use and collaborative features are notable, but it falls short in terms of design flexibility, ecommerce capabilities, and advanced features.
• 
  Elementor (Overall Grade: 7.4/10)
  
  stands out for users seeking extensive customization options, ecommerce functionalities, and a wide range of integrations. It offers a powerful drag-and-drop editor, a vast library of templates, and advanced design capabilities, making it suitable for both beginners and professional web designers. Elementor’s flexibility and scalability make it a superior choice for creating complex, feature-rich websites.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: For users looking to build an ecommerce site, Elementor is the clear winner over Google Sites, offering a comprehensive suite of ecommerce features.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Lacks native ecommerce functionality, relying instead on third-party integrations for any ecommerce capabilities. It’s more suited for simple websites that don’t require complex ecommerce features.
• 
  Elementor
  
  : Provides a robust platform for ecommerce through its seamless integration with WooCommerce, offering customizable product pages, a variety of ecommerce-specific widgets, and responsive design templates, making it ideal for creating sophisticated online stores.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Elementor is the superior choice for informational and business websites, offering greater design flexibility and customization options.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Offers a straightforward, user-friendly platform ideal for creating simple informational websites. Its seamless integration with Google Workspace makes it a convenient option for users already embedded in the Google ecosystem.
• 
  Elementor
  
  : Stands out for its extensive customization capabilities and wide range of templates, making it ideal for businesses looking to create more sophisticated and visually appealing websites. Elementor’s flexibility and design options cater to a broader range of professional needs.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Elementor.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wide array of design features, and a larger selection of templates, Elementor is the preferred choice.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites. These templates are designed for user engagement, simplicity, and functionality, allowing for customization to meet specific needs. However, compared to other website builders like Elementor, Google Sites might offer less variety in templates and design customization options.

Google Sites Themes

On the other hand, Elementor offers an extensive range of templates and designs, with over 100 responsive website kits covering various categories like business, creative, education, and more, directly available through Elementor’s platform. Additional sources like Envato Elements, Template Monster, and others provide a wider selection, including free and premium options, catering to diverse web design needs.

Elementor Themes

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. With a score of 8.8, Elementor edges out Google Sites (8.3) in terms of ease of use. Elementor’s user-friendly interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and wide range of pre-designed templates make it a flexible and intuitive platform for building websites. Google Sites also offers a user-friendly interface and integrates seamlessly with other Google services, but it may lack the advanced features that Elementor provides.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. Both platforms offer a wide array of learning resources, but Elementor goes a step further with its Elementor Academy, which covers topics from basic usage to advanced design and business growth strategies. Google Sites also offers practical guides and comprehensive digital skill development programs, but Elementor’s resources are more extensive and cater to a wider range of user needs.

When it comes to ecommerce, Elementor clearly outshines Google Sites. Elementor’s seamless integration with WooCommerce provides a robust platform for online stores, offering customizable product pages, a variety of ecommerce-specific widgets, and responsive design templates. Google Sites, on the other hand, lacks built-in ecommerce features and relies on third-party integrations for such functionalities.

Google Sites ecommerce features:

Google Sites does not have built-in ecommerce features. However, you can integrate ecommerce functionalities into a Google Sites website by embedding third-party tools or widgets, linking to an external ecommerce platform, or using buttons that link to payment processors.

Elementor ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce Integration
• Customizable Product Pages
• Ecommerce Widgets
• Product Categories and Filters
• Shopping Cart Customization

Ecommerce themes & templates

Google Sites does not offer any ecommerce templates. On the other hand, Elementor offers a diverse range of ecommerce-specific templates suitable for various online stores. These templates are designed to be mobile-responsive and SEO-friendly, ensuring optimal performance across devices and search engines.

Product page customization

Google Sites lacks any product page customization features. All product listings are done through embedding third-party platforms, and all customization can be done within these platforms. In contrast, Elementor offers extensive customization options for WooCommerce product pages, including custom layouts, WooCommerce widgets for various product elements, and options for styling product galleries and ‘Add to Cart’ buttons.

Payment processing

You can integrate payment gateways into Google Sites using external tools or links, not through native features. This can be done by embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, or by linking to an external checkout page. On the other hand, Elementor supports several payment gateways, notably through plugins and integrations, with Stripe and PayPal being prominent options for simple and widespread use. These gateways charge their own transaction fees, typically around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, but Elementor itself does not impose additional fees for transactions.

🏆

Winner: Elementor

. Elementor, with a score of 8.5, offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to customize layouts, add content, and style websites visually in real-time. With a wide array of widgets and templates, users can effortlessly design complex elements such as sliders, forms, and animated headlines. Additionally, Elementor provides responsive design options, ensuring websites look great on all devices, alongside advanced features like custom CSS, role-based access control, and integration with a variety of marketing tools.

Google Sites’ editor, scoring 7.0, offers a user-friendly website builder editor that allows users to create and design websites without needing coding knowledge. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can easily add, customize, and arrange elements such as text, images, and videos on their web pages. It also provides a variety of templates and design options to help users get started quickly and ensure their site looks professional. Additionally, Google Sites integrates seamlessly with other Google services, enabling the incorporation of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Maps directly into the website.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: None

. Both Google Sites and Elementor do not offer a mobile editor/app. Therefore, users cannot edit their websites on the go using a mobile device. This could be a limitation for users who prefer to make quick edits or updates to their websites from their mobile devices.

Overall Result

:

Google Sites wins

. Google Sites scores 6.9, while Elementor scores 5.6 in product testing options. Google Sites offers a free version and a 14-day free trial, allowing users to test some premium features. On the other hand, Elementor also offers a free version but only for self-hosted WordPress.org, and it doesn’t provide a trial version. However, Elementor allows users to test all premium features during the refundable period and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Google Sites and Elementor have different pricing structures, with Google Sites offering per user pricing and Elementor offering per website pricing.

Google Sites also offers enterprise plans with custom pricing, while Elementor does not have enterprise level support.

In some cases companies have different prices based on various components like a
location. As a result in rare cases the prices displayed here can differ from the ones you see on their
websites.

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Winner: Google Sites

Google Sites offers cloud-based managed hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and operates 21 data centers globally. Elementor, on the other hand, provides managed WordPress hosting with the same uptime guarantee but only has one data center. Google Sites’ extensive data center network and the ability to increase storage by upgrading to Google Workspace give it a slight edge over Elementor.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

Both Google Sites and Elementor prioritize website performance and page speed, but Elementor has a higher website speed optimization score.

Elementor, a popular website builder plugin for WordPress, focuses on website speed optimization through strategies like lazy loading, code minification, caching, and CDN. However, the load times and PageSpeed scores can vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Elementor does not disclose any information about its Core Web vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Google Sites, a structured web page-creation tool included in the Google Workspace package, uses automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and the use of AMP for speed optimization. However, Google does not disclose any statistics about website Page Speed scores or load times. It does emphasize on LCP, FID, CLS improvements for Core Web Vitals.

🏆 Winner: Elementor.

Elementor, with a score of 7.6, offers a wide range of both free and premium plugins and extensions, allowing for deep customization and advanced features. Google Sites, scoring 6.4, also provides a variety of plugins and extensions, but Elementor’s flexibility and integration with various WordPress themes and plugins give it an edge.

It’s worth noting that Google Sites offers a wide array of plugins and extensions to enhance website functionality, catering to various needs such as social media integration, e-commerce, chats, forms, video, audio, and more. However, Elementor’s add-ons extend the functionality beyond the base version, offering advanced widgets, modules, and complete theme building capabilities for deep customization. They enable superior integration with WooCommerce, third-party services, and provide advanced marketing tools to enhance conversions and user engagement.

Google Sites Applications

Elementor Applications

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Overall Winner: Elementor

. Elementor offers a more comprehensive set of marketing features, including advanced SEO tools, email marketing, blogging, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions. Google Sites, while offering basic features in some categories, lacks in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites and Elementor both offer 24/7 customer support, but Google Sites takes the lead with its comprehensive support options for Google Workspace customers. Google Sites provides a variety of support channels, including a Help Center, community forums, phone, email, and live chat. The level of support varies by subscription tier, with Google Workspace providing 24/7 support for critical issues to eligible customers.

Elementor, on the other hand, provides customer support with their Customer Experience agents located around the globe to ensure 24/7 availability. They offer support via ticketing and 24/7 live chat support. However, Elementor does not have customer support for enterprises, which gives Google Sites an edge in this category.

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Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites, part of the Google Workspace, offers robust security measures including data encryption, two-factor authentication, and automatic malware scanning. It also benefits from Google’s regular security updates and compliance with international data protection standards. Google’s infrastructure provides DDoS protection and data redundancy, ensuring a secure environment for website creators and visitors.

Elementor also offers a secure platform, leveraging Google Cloud’s infrastructure for high security and end-to-end encryption. It employs both active and passive security measures, including 24/7 monitoring, regular updates, and specialized security protocols. Elementor’s commitment to security is further emphasized by its ISO 27001 certification and a proactive Bug Bounty program. However, Google Sites’ comprehensive security measures and integration with Google’s secure infrastructure give it a slight edge in this category.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. Elementor, with a score of 7.4, has introduced an AI builder that offers a range of features including text, custom codes, and image generation. These tools support a complete suite for building every aspect of an online store, from product pages to checkout, with extensive customization options for a unique shopping experience. Additionally, Elementor AI simplifies content creation and website customization, offering tools for image generation, text writing, and code creation, catering specifically to the needs of eCommerce site builders.

Google Sites, with a score of 0, does not have any AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. Both Google Sites and Elementor allow multiple users to collaborate on a website, but they differ in their approach to user roles and permissions.

• Google Sites allows multiple users to collaborate with different roles, including Owners, who have full control, and Editors, who can modify content but not site settings. There’s no strict limit on the number of users who can edit a site, allowing flexibility in management and development. Viewers can only see the site, with no editing permissions. This structure supports collaborative website building with varied levels of access and control for different users.
• The number of users who can edit or manage a website built with Elementor depends on the roles and permissions set within WordPress, as Elementor operates on WordPress. Administrators have full access to edit any part of the site, including Elementor settings, while Editors can manage posts and pages made with Elementor. Authors and Contributors have limited capabilities, with the former being able to manage their own posts. Elementor Pro offers a Role Manager feature, enabling further customization of what different roles can do within Elementor, but there’s no fixed limit on the number of users—it’s determined by the roles assigned by the site administrator.

Elementor User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Google Sites is consistently praised by users, particularly for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features. It is a popular choice for various professional and educational needs. The platform’s simplicity and user-friendly interface are highly appreciated, enabling effortless website creation and sharing of information within organizations. While some users desire more customization options and additional features, overall, Google Workspace remains highly valued for its versatility and streamlined workflow facilitation.

Elementor, on the other hand, is widely appreciated for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, enabling rapid creation of professional and responsive websites without coding skills. It offers a vast range of templates and compatibility with WordPress, making it a go-to for diverse users. Despite its benefits, concerns arise regarding website loading times, subscription costs, and occasional compatibility issues. Feedback on customer support and legacy plan management is mixed, with some users experiencing dissatisfaction. Overall, Elementor is valued for its efficiency in web development, although some aspects, particularly support services, could be improved.

FAQ