You’ve decided Elementor isn’t staying on this site. First question, always: can I import the pages into Breakdance?
Going by Breakdance’s own migration docs, no. They say plainly that Breakdance doesn’t include built-in tools to convert designs from another builder or theme automatically. So the layouts get rebuilt by hand. What you keep is whatever lives in WordPress itself. The rest of this post sorts out which is which, so you can scope the job honestly before you promise a client anything.
We work on Elementor sites as well as Breakdance ones, so none of this is a dig at Elementor. It’s just what the move involves.
What stays put when you swap builders
A page builder controls layout. It doesn’t own your content model. So in most cases, anything stored in WordPress rather than in Elementor carries on as it was: the media library, posts and pages as records with their URLs, categories and tags, menus, users, and data held by WooCommerce or your SEO plugin. Custom field values from ACF and similar are stored separately from layout too. Check all of that on a staging copy rather than taking our word for it. Themes and plugins sometimes tie things to a builder in ways you only find by testing.
What doesn’t stay put is the text inside the Elementor layouts. Elementor keeps page layouts in its own data rather than as normal post content. If you deactivate it, don’t count on the body copy of those pages sitting there waiting for a Breakdance layout. How much survives can differ by site, so test it on staging. Either way, copy the text out of the live pages into a doc or spreadsheet before you start. It’s tedious, and you’ll be glad you did.
What you rebuild
| In Elementor | In Breakdance | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Page layouts and widgets | Rebuilt in the Breakdance editor | No converter, so this is manual |
| Theme Builder header and footer | Breakdance > Headers and Breakdance > Footers | Location and conditions get set again |
| Single, archive and 404 templates | Breakdance > Templates | Template types include single post, post archive and custom |
| Popups | Breakdance popups | Triggers and conditions need re-creating |
| Forms | Form Builder element | Email and Store Submission are on by default. Other integrations get set up again |
| Old form submissions | Stay in Elementor | Export to CSV before removing it |
| Global colours and fonts | Global Settings > Colors and Typography | Copy values over by hand |
| Custom CSS and code | Breakdance supports custom CSS, JavaScript and PHP | Re-add and check selectors still match |
| Add-on widgets | A native element or a plugin | Check there’s an equivalent before you promise one |
| Dynamic tags and loops | Breakdance dynamic data, which works with ACF and Meta Box | Rebuild the logic |
Elementor’s own Website Templates export (older docs call it Export Kit) saves templates, global fonts and colours, and custom code with Pro. It’s meant for moving between Elementor sites, and we haven’t found anything in Breakdance’s docs that reads it. Run it anyway as a reference file. One thing worth knowing from Elementor’s help pages: specific display conditions don’t carry through a kit, only the global ones like entire site or all posts. Write your conditions down yourself.
The bits that trip people up
Elementor has to stay active until you’re finished. Breakdance’s Migration Mode plugin, covered below, doesn’t switch off other builders for you. Elementor styles and scripts can still show up while you work. The plugin’s readme says Breakdance usually wins that argument, but don’t remove Elementor until every Elementor-built page has a Breakdance version.
Export form submissions first. In Elementor Pro they’re under Elementor > Submissions, with an Export All to CSV option. Breakdance stores new ones at Breakdance > Form Submissions when the Store Submission action is on, which it is by default. We’re not aware of a way to import the old ones, so keep the CSV and tell the client where it is.
Breakpoints won’t match. Elementor’s defaults are 1024px for tablet and 767px for mobile. Check what your Breakdance setup uses, and compare pages at several in-between widths, not only the two you usually look at. Layouts that were fine can shift.
Agree early that the result won’t be pixel-identical. Spacing and markup differ between builders. Side-by-side screenshots of old and new, shown to the client before launch, save a lot of “something looks different” emails.
Two ways to switch without taking the site down
Breakdance’s docs recommend either working on a staging site or using Migration Mode.
Staging is the usual route. If nothing new will be added to the live site while you rebuild, you can push the finished staging site back with a migration plugin like All-in-One WP Migration, or with your host’s staging tools. If content is changing in the meantime, you’d be moving Breakdance content selectively, and the docs describe using a Design Set or the WordPress importer for that. If you used a different migration plugin, the docs list a few things to run afterwards in Breakdance > Settings > Tools: the URL Replacement tool, the Create Directories tool, and Regenerate CSS Cache. They also mention Better Search Replace for stray old URLs, and note that Breakdance keeps some data as JSON, so search for the escaped form of the URL too.
Migration Mode is a small plugin on GitHub that turns Breakdance on only for IP addresses you authorise. Everyone else keeps seeing the existing site. When you’re happy, you go live by deactivating and deleting the plugin. It suits sites with live orders or form traffic you can’t pause, where staging gets messy. It relies on your server reporting visitors’ real IP addresses, so check that on hosts with proxies or CDNs. The listing also mentions Breakdance 2.0, so check current compatibility.
For a brochure site we’d normally lean towards staging. For a store that’s taking orders, Migration Mode is worth a look. It depends on your hosting setup.
What about converter tools?
A few third-party and AI-assisted tools claim to convert Elementor pages into Breakdance format. We can’t vouch for them. The ones we looked at list their own gaps: add-on widgets, dynamic tags, popups, theme templates and an exact visual match. If you try one, run it on a copy, treat the output as a rough first draft, and plan QA time as if you’d built the pages yourself.
Where the time goes
Nobody can give an honest hours figure from a page count, and we won’t try. What moves the time:
- how many unique layouts there are, as opposed to how many pages
- headers, footers, archive and single templates
- forms and popups, and whatever they connect to
- anything driven by dynamic data
- add-on widgets with no obvious Breakdance equivalent
- custom CSS and code that’s piled up over the years
- checking every layout across widths
- content changing while you’re mid-rebuild
A spreadsheet is the practical way to see it. One row per page or template type, then columns for unique layout, add-on widgets, dynamic content, form or popup, and custom code. Group the pages that share a layout. A site with plenty of pages but few distinct layouts is usually closer to a handful of builds plus copying content across than to one build per page. The rows with a yes in three or four columns are where your time goes, and they’re worth looking at before you plan the project.
If the SEO side is what worries you, keeping URLs, redirects and schema intact is its own job, and we cover it in our guide to migrating legacy sites to Breakdance. The same URL map applies when the old site is Elementor. And if you’re still weighing whether the move suits a particular client, why some agencies are moving long-term client sites to Breakdance covers the case, including where it may not fit. Our rundown of the main WordPress builders shows where Elementor sits against the others.
We start migrations with that inventory spreadsheet because it makes every later conversation easier. If you’d rather hand the rebuild to a team that works in Breakdance daily, that’s the kind of project we take on.
FAQ
Can I import Elementor templates into Breakdance?
Not according to Breakdance’s migration docs, which say there are no built-in conversion tools. Elementor exports are meant for other Elementor sites. Plan to rebuild, and use the export as a reference.
Will I lose my Elementor form submissions?
Not if you export them first. In Elementor Pro, go to Elementor > Submissions and use Export All to CSV before you deactivate or delete anything. Keep the file, because we’re not aware of a way to import it into Breakdance.
Do I need to keep Elementor installed while I rebuild?
In most cases yes, until every Elementor-built page has a Breakdance version. Migration Mode doesn’t turn other builders off, so expect some leftover Elementor styles in the preview.
Can I switch without downtime?
Breakdance’s docs describe two ways: rebuild on a staging site, or use the Migration Mode plugin so only your IP sees Breakdance. Which is easier depends on whether the site is taking orders or form submissions in the meantime.