First alpha: Pain Points and feedback from 20 team members of a large agency

[mauro500designs]

Elementor V4 Feedback

Pain Points

1. Class System & Management

• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Generated class names are random alphanumeric strings that never match what you typed.
• ✅ [Solved in V3.30] Cannot rename or reset classes (or pseudo-classes) once applied.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Styling with classes is confusing—easy to forget which class you’re editing.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Class overload: planning and organizing cascaded utility classes is cumbersome; after adding a class it sometimes disappears and must be searched again.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Hard-coded class support: question whether manually assigned class names will persist on Atomic components rather than being auto-generated.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.33] No place to add custom CSS in the alpha—not even simple overrides or transition settings.
• 📆 [Planned] Global Class Editor: need a way to edit class values globally (e.g. adjust padding for all uses of a given class from one interface).
• 📝 [Noted] Class manager can’t create parent/child groups or folders.
• 📝 [Noted] You can only drag/reorder one class at a time; no multi-select or bulk reordering.
• ⛔ [Won't Do] Atomic Class reusability: unclear if atomic classes will apply to legacy (V3) widgets; should be consistent across both versions.
• ⛔ [Doesn't apply during Alpha stage] Still feels safer to use old (non-atomic) elements until the new system is out of beta.

2. Missing Styling & Layout Features

• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Image/object-fit controls are missing (can’t stretch/contain).
• ✅ [Solved in v3.31] Cannot link Global Fonts to your new classes.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.31] Custom attributes removed: alpha removed the ability to add custom attributes on Atomic widgets, which is necessary for dynamic use.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.32] Hover animations and other effects aren’t supported yet.
• ✅ [Partially Solved] Atomic Widgets lack Advanced Settings:
  • ✅ [Solved in v3.31] responsive toggles compared to V3 (or reserved for PRO) replaced with Display: None control.
  • ✅ [Solved in v3.32] No transition settings (including delays) for buttons or other widgets.
  • ✅ [Partially Solved in v3.34] missing dynamic controls
  • ✅ [Partially Solved in v3.34] animation options
• ✅ [Solved in v3.34] Atomic Paragraph widget isn’t WYSIWYG—you must hand-code HTML to edit text.
• 📆 [Partially Planned] No built-in grid display or text-truncate utilities.
• 📆 [Partially Planned] Global Styles integration: Atomic components can’t inherit values from Global Styles.
• 📝 [Noted] Dynamic tags won’t work with color pickers or class-based Global Styles.
• 📝 [Noted] Unit configuration: no global default for units (px/rem/etc.), forcing manual adjustment each time.

3. Editor UX Bugs & Friction

• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Occasionally adding a class (e.g. typing mt-10 + Enter) won’t stick unless chosen from the dropdown.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Classes added in the editor pane sometimes don’t appear until you view the live page.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Accidentally editing “local” styles is easy—removing a class immediately reverts to local defaults.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] No “clear all” or “reset to default” button for local or class styles.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Once you pick a dropdown option (font, position, etc.), you can’t remove it or revert without manually resetting every field.
• 🔗 🐞 [Duplicate Bug Report] Sometimes the editor hangs, partially loads, or fails to save.
• ⛔ [Won't Do] No quick right-click picker for stacked/overlapping elements—must use Navigator or arrow keys.

4. Revision History & Undo

• ✅ [Solved in v3.31] Revision entries are too generic (“Image Style edited”), with no detail on what changed or how to revert.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.31] No granular undo for individual style or class changes.

5. Responsive & Breakpoints

• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] No clear option to hide/show elements per breakpoint.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] Media-query handling is unintuitive and requires manual workarounds.
• ✅ [Solved in v3.34] “Display Conditions” panel was removed entirely.

6. Collaboration & Governance

• 📆 [Planned] No importable style guide or shared class library to enforce consistency.
• 📆 [Partially Planned] Class export: no ability to export classes and their values for documentation or multi-dev collaboration.
• 📝 [Noted] Copy/Paste between 2 sites (even if those are Atomic) don't import the classes, just the structure.
• ⛔ [Won't Do] Without built-in naming conventions or guidelines, different devs’ styles can clash.
• ⛔ [Won't Do] Hand-off will be painful for non-dev users—they need extensive training on utility/class workflows.

7. Performance & Code Output

• ✅ [Solved in v3.30] CSS output never uses the user-defined class names, making custom-code debugging harder.
• 📝 [Noted] Even with fewer wrappers, using many dynamic widgets or animations can still slow page loads.

[doronwolf]

Hi @mauro500designs, thank you so much for this detailed feedback 🙏 We appreciate it very much!
The alpha version showcases the new infrastructure and CSS approach for the upcoming V4 editor, therefore, it's somewhat like a proof of concept, and we are well aware of the many basic things it seems to be missing (compared to the existing v3 version, etc).
So, what I'm trying to say is, most of the things you listed are already in the works, and I promise that everything else is also noted and we will try to address it as soon as possible 🙂

[mauro500designs]

Thanks, great to know then!

[nesoor]

Hi @mauro500designs, thank you so much for this detailed feedback 🙏 We appreciate it very much! The alpha version showcases the new infrastructure and CSS approach for the upcoming V4 editor, therefore, it's somewhat like a proof of concept, and we are well aware of the many basic things it seems to be missing (compared to the existing v3 version, etc). So, what I'm trying to say is, most of the things you listed are already in the works, and I promise that everything else is also noted and we will try to address it as soon as possible 🙂

I just spent a few minutes experimenting with V4 and it looks incredibly promising, really excited for the official release!

[meksone]

Perfect analysis, I agree completely with @mauro500designs

[mauro500designs]

Thanks @meksone !

[wpmate]

Just sending thanks to you and your team for providing feedback.

As a solo operator it sometimes feels hopeless to provide feedback, so it's great to see your approach and it's appreciated from us smaller freelancers.

Whilst it looks promising, V4 seems to ignore Site Settings which are a fast and effective way to set brand colours and fonts. Some of the nomenclature is counterintuitive (size - should be widget size perhaps).

Not sure I'll spend any more time playing with it until later releases.

[doronwolf]

Hi @wpmate, thank you so much for your faith in us 🙏
I agree, we are missing a 'V4 version' of the 'site settings' and options to set the 'base styles' so the user can set brand colours and fonts, and also to help users solve conflicts between editor styles and theme styles.
We are very aware of those issues, and it's definitely on our to-do list

[nicholaszein]

Hi @mauro500designs!

It took me some time, but I'm finally sharing some relevant updates regarding your feedback!

As @doronwolf mentioned, we are slowly but steadily adding new features and filling in the gaps regarding existing ones for the Editor V4.

Since you shared your feedback, we made quite a progress, and I took the liberty to make your initial feedback a list of tasks we can check as the development of the new editor progresses.

Here are some of the highlights of the enhancements and new features we added based on your feedback and from other users:

1. Class Names and now Variable Names are rendered exactly as you name them in the editor, allowing ensuring consistency and allowing for better debugging and external CSS matching.
2. Creating, Selecting, Adding, and Editing Global Classes directly in elements is now more stable and consistent, including when you have more than one tab with the Editor opened.
3. You can now Reset Styles both at the widget level using the Context-menu, as well as individually, per control.
4. More style options such as Object-fit were added, and more are being worked on, such as transitions and animations.
5. Responsive styles and inheritance are now easier to identify with the new Inherited Values, and Style Inheritance.
6. You can now set Display: None to hide elements in different breakpoints.
7. With the Context-aware Panel, returning back to edit an existing element became more intuitive. The Panel remembers from where you left, and which Class was selected. It also opens the relevant tabs based on each element type.
8. as our first major Pro integration, you can now apply multiple Attributes to each atomic element. More Pro features will be integrated as development progresses.
9. The New Variables were introduced, providing a new way for creating Global Styles that can be used across elements and classes, allowing you to build a more consistent and flexible design system.

More is to come, and we hope to get more feedback from you and your team as we release new versions.

Thank you for sharing such a detailed list! 🙏

See you around! 😉 💪

[nicholaszein]

Hey @mauro500designs! How's it going?

I am happy to announce that we have introduced Custom CSS (Pro) to Atomic Elements in version 3.33 (currently in Beta), and it's really powerful! 🙌

It's now possible to apply scoped custom styles, based on context such as Responsive breakpoints, states (:hover, :focus, etc.), and classes without having to write the selectors or media queries. Our new Custom CSS field also now recognizes modern CSS declarations, including even nested CSS.

This is just one of the many improvements we introduced since your initial post, and I just updated your list to show what we have achieved so far and also have planned.

In the name of the whole Elementor team, we want to thank you for sharing your feedback! It's been really helpful! It would be awesome if we could hear from you and your team about the new improvements! 💪

Feel free to reach out here at any time!

If you don't know, we are also taking personal meetings! You and your team are invited to book a 1on1 session with us to share your feedback directly! You can book a call using this link. We would be more than happy to hear from you! 🙂

ℹ️ 🧪 For more information about the latest beta, please join the discussion.

Kind regards!

[nicholaszein]

Hey @mauro500designs and team!

We just released Elementor Editor v3.34 - Beta1, which includes several enhancements based on your feedback! 🙌

We would love to learn from your feedback regarding these new enhancements and features!

Feel free to join the discussion over at https://elemn.to/beta-334 😉

See you there! 💪