Built a full website on V4, here are my thoughts on what's missing (a lot)

[dzbanke]

Description

Elementor V4 editor on paper looks fantastic, it's how Elementor should work and look like since the beginning. I love the lightweight design and CSS class-first approach. I've recently decided to redesign my own website, and it seemed like a natural step to do it in V4 beta, so I don't have to do it again in the near future. I will be ready for V4 official release. In my honest opinion, it's still a mess not ready for release. Here are some things I noticed:

1. Every div element gets random 10px padding, so there is a need to introduce a global class with 0 padding to combat that. Same issue with min width set on every block div.
2. You can't set a default values for a widget like in V3, it could solve the default 10px padding issue.
3. You can't set a default unit, like VW or REM.
4. The select list when choosing a unit collapses randomly.
5. Removing value from a field resets chosen unit to pixels, that's annoying.
6. Cards in style tab do not collapse when you want to open another one - huge UI mistake if you ask me. You could add a switch in preferences, so a designer could choose if those tabs should collapse or stay open.
7. When adding a Paragraph or Heading, the content tab where you input text should be open by default as well, it is annoying to open it every. single. time.
8. There are issues with mobile version, it broke many times for some reason for me. A huge amount of adjusting code after switching to mobile view is required, which is counterintuitive to how V4 should work.
   Text colors do not work properly when set in local class, it defaults to default text color.
9. There are no grid options at all. In V3 you can choose between Flexbox and Grid in Container widget. Where are the grids, guys? Its such a crucial thing and I'm surprised its still missing in Beta.
10. Atomic elements are scarce, there should be a lot more by now in Beta. If you're planning to launch many more after V4 goes live, it could easily turn into a disaster. Right now, V4 is simply just poor in terms of choice of the atomic widgets.
11. In some places, you can't pick a global color or font, must type it manually. So I guess not everything is unified and works on a global level, huh?
12. Using V4 editor with JetEngine and custom field types is just a massive bummer. It breaks constantly and doesn't work half the time.
13. You get a Paragraph and Header widgets as it is in V3, but for some reason, you can't really edit text in a Paragraph atomic widget. Can't add a list or style text. You should implement new WYSIWIG type of stuff here, I'm surprised its missing.
14. In theory, you should do 98% of stuff in Style tab now, and resort to adding custom CSS only in extreme or unusual situations, but for some reason, adding custom CSS in css-centric V4 is way worse than in V3. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
15. Connecting to Adobe Fonts via Integration settings in Elementor doesn't work, Adobe fonts don't show up in the select list.
16. You should be able to create components with V3 widgets inside.
17. Right now, if you want to make a website using V4, you must make some things twice, like add global fonts and global colors, because they don't sync with V3 at all. And if you want to use some V3 element (right now you must, because there are like 5 atomic widgets) you must set up colors and fonts in site settings in order for V3 to work.
18. You can't import or export classes or global fonts or colors, or sort them in any way. There is just one list of all used classes, and that's all. Can't group them in any way to introduce some organizing.
19. Going back from editing a component is laggy, and the black overlay stays for far too long.

Agreement

• I confirm I have read and followed the Editor V4 Discussion Form guidelines, and agree this discussion may be closed without warning.

[krzysioper]

The part that makes me most worried is that, no one from elementor team replied you in 6 days.
Other posts are also left with no answers.

[dzbanke]

They replied to me on Reddit couple days ago that they would reply but right now they are working on the beta release. I saw the new beta is released, still no reply here or on Reddit. Makes you think that their team consists of like 2 or 3 people, that they don't have anyone dedicated to communicating with their user base.

[Tygovanommen]

+1 for issue 12-13.

When I use ACF, JetEngine or the normal WYSIWYG editor and try to put this into a paragraph element, it gets rid of all the layout

[nicocart]

V4 is a big project and I doubt they have the capacity to do it

[The-Friendly-Ghost]

+1. I also shared some extra experiences
https://github.com/orgs/elementor/discussions/35348

[ashbryant]

Please make the 'Local' style the default selected class. The number of times I add a lot of properties to the wrong class is killing me! I do it and then look at a different page, and everything is messed up, as I put the properties on the wrong class, as v4 auto-selected it 🤬

[formulaclick]

So editor v4 is live and we can't even add a simple list (ul, li...) to our layout or am I missing something?

[ashbryant]

No, you're not. Unless you want to mix v3 with v4 and not be able to make components. 👍

[ronaldtveen]

Simple things like adding negative numbers to input fields that should allow them annoy me so much. For example, I often use a negative spread on box shadows to create a big subtle shadow: box-shadow: 0px 30px 60px -20px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
In Elementor v4 you can not go -20px because the input[type=number] has a min="0" attribute set...

"Just" a little thing, but there are so many little things that make me feel that Elementor is no longer the future for our agency.

[edeusmusic]

I am truly amazed how in order to please investors and meet their quota Elementor team just pushed the half-baked alpha product into release.

[IlanVivanco]

It is disappointing that we can no longer add <span> elements in headings. We lose control over many things, such as breakpoints or the ability to have dual-color headings.

[Henzxon]

I've been using   to improve readability. Unfortunately, you can no longer inline styles.

[egconsulentedigitale-dot]

l'unico modo è usare widget HTML e scrivere direttamente in codice.

[Henzxon]

I totally agree with all the point raised above.

I also attempted a complex production build using Elementor V4 this week and ultimately had to revert to V3. While V4 might be suitable for simple sites, the current implementation feels premature, stripped down, and lacks the stability needed for professional workflows. Below is a breakdown of the bugs, UI/UX issues, and missing capabilities I encountered.

🔴 Critical Bugs & Builder Breaking Issues

• "Unknown Error" Lockout: When making an unidentified breaking decision (either within the builder or via class configurations), the builder fails silently without warnings. The left sidebar displays an "Unknown Error," locking me out of adding or removing classes entirely. The only resolution is a fresh restart, which is a major data-loss risk. V4 currently lacks graceful error handling.
• Border Width Validation Error: If no border width is set, clicking to set borders individually leaves all other sides blank (showing "mixed" but no value). It should default to 0. Leaving these blank returns an error in some cases when attempting to save the page.
• Blank Atomic Defaults: Atomic defaults are entirely blank. This causes calculation and saving issues when trying to define values and save them as global classes.
• SVG Library Integration: The "Select SVG" option no longer pulls from the SVG library as expected.

🟠 Class Management & UI/UX Bottlenecks

• Class Specificity & Stacking: When adding a new class, it does not cascade down; it is added on top of existing ones. This forces constant manual reordering to fix specificity overrides.
• Class Reordering Disconnect: You cannot reorder classes inside the builder. The class manager quickly becomes a long, unmanageable list requiring tedious drag-and-drop scrolling. Class grouping (similar to component properties) is desperately needed.
• Tedious Class Removal: Copying/pasting styles only adds classes to the target. There is no quick option to remove all assigned classes, meaning if a widget has 10 classes, it requires 20 clicks to clear them.
• Missing Context Menus: We need dedicated "Copy Classes" and "Remove Classes" options in the right-click menu, not just "Copy Styles," as class manipulation is now the core workflow.
• Field Group Clearing: The "Clear" function only applies on a per-field basis. It needs to apply to entire field groups (e.g., clearing all typography settings at once) to speed up editing.
• Component Property Grouping: Grouping needs drag-and-drop support rather than relying on edit-and-assign via dropdowns.

🟡 Missing Features & Atomic Element Limitations

• No Atomic Element Defaults: There is no option to save atomic element defaults. Everything must be overridden with classes.
• Atomic Button Limitations: You cannot add an icon to an atomic button.
• Workaround: Creating a div with a <p> and SVG inside will auto-switch the tag to , but you cannot explicitly define the HTML tag on a div element or add predefined attributes (like rel="nofollow"). Everything is strictly manual now.
• SVG Sizing/Inheritance: SVGs seem to be treated as fonts, meaning certain default styling interferes with them. I have to manually set line-height: 0 constantly to ensure correct sizing.
• Raw SVG Code Support: It would be highly beneficial to allow pasting raw SVG code directly into the widget (with a toggle for file vs. code). Please consider adding this with a built-in code sanitizer.
• Variables in Gradients: Gradients currently do not support variables.
• Background Overlays: There is no option for background overlay opacity. Transparencies must be set in an external editor before uploading the image/SVG.

💡 Architecture Thoughts & Conclusion

• Building a class system from scratch in V4 requires immense pre-planning, and one wrong move can break the builder. A lot of these workflow issues could be resolved if Elementor provided an option to use a proven, standardized class naming system—like Tailwind—native to V4. V4 paired with Tailwind would be an incredibly powerful combination.
• Right now, Divi 5 is making the "next-gen builder" experience much easier to understand, with noticeable speed improvements on both the frontend and backend.
• Public Elementor V4 feels rushed and full of loose ends. I expect more issues to surface as more users try complex builds. Until the stability and UX mature significantly, V3 remains the more compelling option despite its backend performance limitations.

I would rather wait for a mature, production-ready release. Right now, V4 feels like it is missing the rigorous testing and refinement required for professional use. The workflow bottlenecks and stability issues make it simply too risky to use on live client projects.

[dzbanke]

Still no feedback from dev team, what a joke. After launch Editor V4 still feels like a half-baked product that should still be in alpha. I could add like a 50 more points to my original list, it's just sad.

[Henzxon]

So.... Skelementor fixed v4 shortcomings they just released Skelementor CSS. A dedicated CSS library for v4.
This is what I am saying from my previous comment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMA-bsBlQ-Y

Just look at how many CSS tokens in there. Almost a thousand.
Imagine a normal Elementor user or website owner setting that up one-by-one. It's a huge work and that's a lot of variables to remember.

If I were Elementor, I would define a clear separation on how users should use V4. Something like this:

1. Atomic Widgets/Component Creation ---> Pro Users (Devs)
2. Created Smart* Components ---> Website Owners, Marketers and Ordinary Users.

Where site owners and marketers request components so they can curate a custom library of sections and elements purpose-built for their website. Where they can focus on content swapping and not customization without thinking about breaking anything. When a layout edit or customization is required, a dev can jump in and customize the component backend.

That is how I see this but at this point. The line is not clear.

Unfortunately, the component editing experience is also really bad. I want to be positive about this but there's a lot of things that pushes customers away from using Elementor v4.

The point is, if third-party providers can do it, it shouldn't be impossible for Elementor as well.

[bigredseo]

Pretty Extensive list of items.

I decided, since it's now released, to give a shot to creating a demo site, but the number of things I ran into was insane - not to mention having to unlearn everything about Sections and Containers that were drilled into me.

The variables and classes seems nice, but I found it confusing. It would be nice to have a note with the variable as to what it's for. A single output page of all classes and variables and how many times they're used would be a nice addition.

After playing for almost 2 hours just to get 2 sections working, I have decided to give up. It's not production ready. Little things like "Content Width: Boxed" are gone. I'm back to using two divs and custom CSS to get my alignments right.

The item that put me over the top? Icon on a button - no option for this.

So I'm back to using all the V3 items as I could spit out the two sections I needed in about 15-20 minutes polished for mobile too.

I decided to look at the bug list here on GitHub, and holy crap, there are a lot of open tasks. (Some of the old stuff from 2020 really should be cleared out). Limiting to label:product/editor-v4 is better of course. The "button icon" aspect is not to be included, based on how the Atomic editor is built.

I like the idea from @Henzxon that there should be a clear separation between developer and user. I can guarantee that my wife will not be able to figure out the Atomic stuff, and she's been using Elementor for many years. If she can't figure it out, there's no way our clients will either! She'll stick to her created templates and custom shortcode creations we've made over the years.

It's all a nice idea, but it's going to be a very steep learning curve for a lot of people.

[egconsulentedigitale-dot]

Per i pulsanti con icona, non usi il widget pulsante ma un flex orizzontale con testo e svg (svg sarà l'icona del pulsante). Quando aggiungi il flex, crea una classe (Btn). Con la classe selezionata imposti ➜ dimensione: larghezza auto . Ombra ➜ orizzontale: 12px ; verticale: 12 px; sfoca: 25 px; colore trasparenza : 25% . Border radius come preferisci. Dopo ne fai un componente da riutilizzare. Questo genera meno codice e sono più leggeri del widget pulsante della V3