How to Create Custom WordPress Layouts with Beaver Builder (2023 Expert Guide)

As a WordPress professional with over 5 years experience building custom sites, I often get asked:

"What‘s the best way to create custom WordPress layouts without needing to code them by hand?"

My #1 recommendation is always Beaver Builder.

Beaver Builder is the most beginner-friendly WordPress page builder I‘ve used while still enabling advanced website designs. You can create beautiful, professional layouts and landing pages through an intuitive drag and drop interface.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share why thousands of WordPress experts rely on Beaver Builder for custom designs along with actionable tips to master it yourself:

Why Website Pros Recommend Beaver Builder for Custom Layouts

While WordPress themes provide basic site structures and styles, they rarely offer all the layout and design options a client needs out of the box.

This leaves two options:

1. Hard code template files yourself – Time consuming and delays projects
2. Use a flexible page builder like Beaver Builder – Easy drag and drop customization

As I evaluated the top WordPress page builders, Beaver Builder stood out with these key advantages:

I estimate Beaver Builder can save 20-30 hours compared to hard codingtemplates from scratch. This allows you to build professional sites faster.

Let‘s examine how to unlock Beaver Builder‘s customization capabilities…

Step 1 – Installing and Activating Beaver Builder

1. Purchase Beaver Builder on their website (pricing starts around $99 per year)
2. Download the Beaver Builder plugin zip file
3. In your WordPress site, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
4. Select the zip file and click Install Now
5. Click Activate once the install completes

Once active, the Beaver Builder editing interface will be enabled for all your pages and posts.

Now we‘re ready to start building custom layouts!

Step 2 – Creating Your First Custom Page Design

Here is an overview of creating your first page design with Beaver Builder:

1. Edit an existing page or create a new one
2. Launch the Page Builder editor tab
3. Select a pre-made template or start blank
4. Add and arrange rows – adjust columns per row
5. Populate rows by dragging and dropping 100+ content modules
6. Customize every element and font styles through the settings panels
7. Set custom row and column colors, spacing, borders and more
8. Save sections or rows to easily reuse across your site

Watching a quick Beaver Builder tutorial video can help visualize the process before starting.

Now let‘s examine some best practices for customizing Beaver Builder layouts…

Customizing Rows, Columns, and Modules

One reason I love Beaver Builder is the fine-grained control over layouts. Let‘s explore key customization options:

Row Layouts

Quickly adjust the number and width of columns per row:

Tip: Stack columns or go full width for flexible single column layouts.

Column Settings

Customize column background, spacing, borders and more:

Pro Tip: Set negative margins to create column overlays.

Module Settings

Every module, from buttons to slideshows, has extensive styling options:

Expert Tips: Adjust padding/margins for spacing control and use custom CSS or code modules for advanced styling.

With over 60 modules and hundreds of styling settings, Beaver Builder enables endless layout possibilities – without coding required!

Comparing Beaver Builder to Popular Alternatives

How does Beaver Builder compare to other top page builders like Elementor, Divi and Brizy? Here‘s a high-level comparison:

Data sources: WPExperts Research / [Product websites]

While alternatives like Elementor offer a free version, I believe Beaver Builder‘s clean code, ease of use and flexibility is well worth the cost for professional sites.

Managing Templates Between WordPress Installations

A key advantage of Beaver Builder is being able to design sections and layouts once, then easily reuse them elsewhere:

Exporting Templates

1. Go to Settings > Page Builder
2. Check "Enable Template Admin"
3. Navigate to Tools > Export and choose "Templates"
4. Download the Beaver Builder templates XML file

Importing Templates

1. On your other WordPress site, go to Tools > Import
2. Install the WordPress Importer plugin if prompted
3. Upload the Templates XML file containing your Beaver Builder layouts
4. The templates will now be available to use!

This saves tremendous time when moving designs between staging sites and live sites or when building new sites for clients.

Conclusion and Next Steps

I hope this detailed guide helped demystify working with Beaver Builder to create custom WordPress layouts without coding.

Here are some suggested next steps:

• Watch Beaver Builder video tutorials – See it in action on their YouTube channel
• Download sample layouts – They offer free starter templates to explore
• Try it on client sites – Many designers repay the cost quickly in time savings

Let me know if you have any other questions about leveraging Beaver Builder for your client projects! I‘m always happy to share more tips.