Page Composer — Basic

Page Composer — Basic is a free page builder for WordPress posts and pages.

Build layouts from reusable components, edit your content, and save page

templates to use again.

Use the visual composer to arrange rows and columns, add text, images and

buttons, and adjust each component’s settings. When enabled, it replaces the

default editor on Posts and Pages.

The editor runs inside your WordPress installation. No Page Composer account

or activation key is needed.

Build and reuse layouts

• Drag and drop components into rows and columns. Choose column layouts or

configure your own Row layout presets.

• Add text, images, headings, quotes, separators, buttons and Google maps.

• Save layouts as page templates, load them into another post or page, and

reopen them in the editor whenever they need an update.

• Set styles for individual components and configure media-query sizes for

different screen widths.

• Use the “Page Composer — Full Width” page template to keep your theme’s

header and footer while giving the content the full width. It supports

classic and block themes.

WordPress features and integrations

• Add WordPress widgets such as Search, Categories, Recent Posts, menus,

archives and RSS feeds to your layout.

• Use WooCommerce components for products, cart, checkout and other store

content when WooCommerce is active. See the details below.

• Embed a Contact Form 7 form by its ID when that plugin is active.

• Analyse composed content with Yoast SEO.

• Keep page text available to WordPress search, feeds and other plugins. Each

post_content, while the published

page renders from the composition stored as JSON in post meta.

• Restore both content and layout through native WordPress revisions (6.4+).

• Choose which user roles can use the editor in Page Composer settings.

The plugin detects conflicting page builders, including Elementor, WPBakery,

Divi and Beaver Builder. If one is active, it disables the editor and shows a

notice explaining which plugin needs to be deactivated.

Tools for developers

• Override component markup by adding {Component}.php to your theme’s

pce_templates/ folder. The bundled PCEditor library handles rendering.

• Add custom markup and scripts with the Raw HTML and Raw JS components,

subject to WordPress user permissions.

• Compile per-component CSS from the css_props field into media queries.

Configure CSS output and media-query sizes in settings.

• Adjust the Row/Col grid through the --pce-grid-* custom properties, or

disable its stylesheet with the pce_load_grid_styles filter.

• Rebuild saved HTML snapshots with Page Composer → Reindex after changing

component templates, without opening and saving every post.

• Extend components, fields, editor access, assets and storage with filters:

pce_components, pce_css_field, pce_editor_enabled, pce_load_assets,

pce_load_grid_styles, pce_content_meta_key, pce_pre_save_content and

pce_load_content.

Try the editor or read the

documentation.

WooCommerce support

Page Composer ships ready-made components for WooCommerce stores: products

(recent, featured, on sale, best selling, top rated), products by category or

attribute, a single product, related products, add to cart (and its URL), cart,

checkout, my account and order tracking. They render through WooCommerce’s own

shortcodes, so they appear in the editor only while WooCommerce is installed and

active, and they follow your WooCommerce templates and styling. WooCommerce

itself is not bundled or required — without it, Page Composer simply omits these

components.

Page Composer is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by

or sponsored by Automattic or WooCommerce. “WooCommerce” and “WordPress” are

trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to describe

compatibility.

External services

The plugin performs no license or activation calls — no account and no API key

are needed, and nothing is sent automatically in the background.

com (user-initiated only). Two optional forms

com/plugin-feedback, and only when an

administrator explicitly submits them:

• Leave a testimonial (linked from a dismissible admin notice): sends the

star rating and testimonial text the admin typed.

• Deactivation survey (shown when deactivating the plugin; fully skippable

via “Skip & deactivate”, which sends nothing): sends the selected reason and

the optional description.

Both submissions also include the site’s domain name, the plugin version and

the WordPress version, so we can reproduce reported problems. No page content,

no personal data and no visitor data is ever sent, and nothing is sent without

an explicit form submission. com —

com/terms) and privacy policy

com/privacy).

Google Maps (frontend embed, only if you use the Google map component).

When a page contains the Google map component, that page embeds a map in an

com — through the Google Maps Embed API when a key is

configured under Page Composer → Settings → Components, or Google’s keyless

classic embed when it is not. The embed is requested by the visitor’s browser

when such a page loads, and carries the map address/coordinates you entered in

the component plus the standard request headers the browser sends to any site

(IP address, user agent, referrer). The plugin itself sends no data to Google

from the server, and pages without this component make no Google requests at

all. This service is provided by Google: terms of service

com/terms), privacy policy

com/privacy), Google Maps Platform terms

com/maps-platform/terms).

Source code

js is a

standard webpack production build of the Page Composer editor. Bundled

third-party libraries (React, ReactDOM and small MIT/ISC utilities) are listed

txt;

the plugin’s own PHP is unminified throughout. Questions about the build are

com.

Storage hooks

By default the composed JSON lives in the _pce_content post meta, and a

post_content on every

save (that snapshot is what search/feeds/REST consumers read; the live page

renders from the JSON). Three filters customise the storage:

pce_content_meta_key — `filter( string $meta_key )`

Rename the post meta key that holds the JSON (default _pce_content ).

Applied consistently to every read/write, including revisioning and the

Reindex tool. Register it before init priority 10 (top-level in your plugin

php / after_setup_theme ) and in every context

(admin, frontend, cron) — the one-time storage migration and the revisioned

meta registration resolve the key there. Adopting the filter on a site with

existing content requires copying the _pce_content meta to the new key

yourself.

pce_pre_save_content — `filter( bool $handled, string $json, array $postarr )`

Runs on save (inside wp_insert_post_data ). Store $json yourself (a custom

table, an external service) and return true; the plugin then writes neither

the meta nor the snapshot. $json arrives unslashed and JSON-validated (or

empty when the composition was cleared).

pce_load_content — `filter( string $json, WP_Post $post )`

Runs wherever the plugin reads a post’s composition (editor metabox, frontend

renderer, Yoast analysis). Receives the meta value as the default; return your

stored JSON instead.

Example — rename the meta key:

add_filter( 'pce_content_meta_key', fn () => '_my_composition' );

Example — store the JSON in a custom table:

add_filter( 'pce_pre_save_content', function ( $handled, $json, $postarr ) { my_table_store( (int) $postarr['ID'], $json ); return true; }, 10, 3 );

== null? $stored: $json; }, 10, 2 );

The saved page templates (Load/Save window) follow the same storage: JSON in

the templates CPT’s meta, snapshot in its post_content. Saved component

settings (each component’s Load/Save-settings window) are posts of the

pce_comp_templates post type — the component name in _pce_component_tag,

the settings JSON in _pce_component_json — the same storage the Pro plugin

uses, so an upgrade keeps every saved version. (Pre-existing entries in the

old pce_components_store option are migrated automatically once; the option

)