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Glossary · Adobe Commerce

What is Magento Page Builder?

Magento Page Builder is the drag-and-drop content editor in the Magento admin. It started as an Adobe Commerce feature and has shipped with Open Source since 2.4.3. Here is how it works, where I use it on client stores, and where it gets in the way.

  • Magento Page Builder is the drag-and-drop content editor in the Magento admin.
  • Store admins use it to build CMS pages, CMS blocks, product descriptions and category content without writing HTML.
  • It first shipped with Magento Commerce 2.3.1 and has been part of Magento Open Source since 2.4.3, so every current 2.4.x store has it.
  • It replaces the old TinyMCE WYSIWYG box with rows, columns and content types you drag onto a live preview.
How it works AC vs Open Source
How it works

Four things to understand about how Page Builder is built

Page Builder is a fairly self-contained set of modules. Once these four pieces make sense, customising it gets a lot easier.

  1. Replaces TinyMCE with a canvas editor

    Page Builder takes the place of the TinyMCE box on CMS pages, blocks, products and categories. Instead of an HTML textarea, the admin user sees a preview of the content and drags content types from the left panel onto rows and columns. You can switch it off under Stores > Configuration > General > Content Management if a team prefers the old editor.

  2. Row → column → content type hierarchy

    A Page Builder layout is a tree. Rows sit at the top, columns sit inside rows, and content types sit inside columns: text, heading, image, banner, buttons, slider, products, map, video, divider, HTML code. Every content type has its own edit form for settings and styling.

  3. Stores rendered output as inline HTML

    There is no separate Page Builder table. The output, a long run of nested <div> tags with inline styles and data-content-type attributes, goes straight into cms_page.content, cms_block.content or the product and category attribute values. That keeps content easy to move between environments, but the HTML is much heavier than what I would write by hand.

  4. Each content type = config XML + render template + edit modal

    When I add a custom content type, the core of it is three files: a view/adminhtml/pagebuilder/content_type/<name>.xml config, a frontend/template/<name>.html render template, and an adminhtml/web/template/<name>/edit.html Knockout edit modal. The config XML sets the appearances, which parents and children are allowed, and the form bindings.

When to use it

Three scenarios where Page Builder genuinely earns its keep

Page Builder is already in the box on 2.4.3 and newer, so the real question is whether your team needs this much editor. In these three cases, they do.

  • Stores where marketing owns the content

    If the marketing team ships landing pages, hero banners and promo blocks every week, Page Builder lets them do it without a developer ticket for each change. On stores like that, my job is to give them a few clean custom content types and leave the day-to-day editing to them.

  • High-volume content drops (fashion, beauty, food)

    Shops that publish a new look-book, edit or recipe collection every week or two. On Adobe Commerce, Page Builder plus Content Staging (an Adobe Commerce only feature) lets the team build the next drop, schedule it and preview it before it goes live. On Open Source you get the same editor, but scheduling needs an extension or a manual publish.

  • Stores upgrading from an older 2.3 or early 2.4 Open Source

    Open Source stores below 2.4.3 never had Page Builder, so their teams still paste HTML into TinyMCE. After the upgrade, Page Builder is there by default. I usually plan a short content pass at that point, because old HTML opens in Page Builder as a single HTML Code block rather than editable rows.

Common mistakes

Three Page-Builder mistakes that cost real time

Most Page Builder questions I get from store owners come back to one of these three.

  • Assuming Page Builder is Adobe Commerce only

    That was true before 2.4.3. Since Magento Open Source 2.4.3 the Magento_PageBuilder module ships in the standard install, so a store on a current 2.4.x already has it. If the admin still shows TinyMCE, check whether Page Builder was switched off in the Content Management config or whether a module disabled it, before buying a replacement.

  • Installing third-party "Page Builders" expecting feature parity

    Magezon, Mageplaza and Aheadworks sell their own page builders. They cover rows, columns, banners, sliders and product lists, but each one stores content in its own format. Content built in one does not open in the native Page Builder, so moving away later means rebuilding pages by hand. On 2.4.3 and newer I check whether the native editor already covers the need first.

  • Building Page Builder content on Hyvä without a compat audit

    Hyvä Themes does not parse Page Builder’s default Knockout-bound output natively, it needs the hyva-themes/magento2-page-builder compat package, which covers the core content types but lags on newer ones, third-party content types, and complex appearance variants. Audit every content type your marketing team uses against the Hyvä compat matrix before committing to Page Builder + Hyvä together.

Related

Page Builder sits inside a wider Adobe Commerce vs Open Source decision. These pages cover the rest of that surface.

FAQ

Six questions clients ask before committing to Page Builder

  • Is Magento Page Builder available in Magento Open Source?

    No. Page Builder is bundled exclusively with Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce / Enterprise Edition). The Magento_PageBuilder and Magento_PageBuilderAnalytics modules are not published on the Adobe Composer repository for Open Source licence keys, and they are not available as a stand-alone purchase. Open Source admins see the legacy TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor in CMS pages, CMS blocks, and product description fields.

  • What are the best Page Builder alternatives for Magento Open Source?

    Magezon Page Builder is the closest substitute, rows, columns, content types, edit modal, ~70-80% feature parity for around $99 one-time. Mageplaza Page Builder and Aheadworks Landing Page Builder sit in the same band. Builder.io + Hyvä is a headless option that pushes content authoring fully out of Magento. None of them produce Page-Builder-compatible HTML, so content is not portable if you later upgrade to Adobe Commerce, you re-author.

  • Does Page Builder work with Hyvä Themes?

    Partially. Page Builder’s default rendered HTML is Knockout-bound and Hyvä strips Knockout in favour of Alpine.js, so the two are not compatible out of the box. The hyva-themes/magento2-page-builder compat package adds Alpine-based renderers for the core content types (text, heading, image, button, banner, slider, products, divider, HTML). Coverage of newer or third-party content types lags, audit every content type your team uses against the package’s compatibility matrix before going live.

  • Can I add custom content types to Page Builder?

    Yes. A custom content type is three files: a view/adminhtml/pagebuilder/content_type/<name>.xml config that registers the type and its appearances, a view/frontend/web/template/pagebuilder/content-type/<name>/<appearance>.html render template for the storefront, and a Knockout edit-modal template. The config XML defines allowed parents / children, form bindings, sortable groups, and preview rendering. Adobe’s DevDocs has the canonical reference; mage2kishan ships several reference content types as open-source examples.

  • Does Page Builder hurt storefront performance?

    Yes, measurably. Page Builder output is verbose HTML with inline styles, data-content-type attributes, and Knockout bindings. A landing page authored in Page Builder is typically 1.5-3x larger than the same page hand-written. On Luma the perf hit compounds because Knockout has to bind each content type on first render. Mitigations: enable full-page cache, enable CSS / JS minification, run Page Builder pages through a Hyvä storefront where possible, and audit pages that exceed 200KB of HTML payload.

  • How do I migrate Page Builder content to a new store?

    Page Builder content lives inline in cms_page.content, cms_block.content, and any custom product / category attribute that has Page Builder enabled. Migration is a SQL or REST-API export of those columns, no separate "Page Builder content" table. The catch: media URLs ({{media url="…"}} directives) and store-scoped IDs (product SKUs, category IDs) must be remapped per environment. Use Magento’s cms/page and cms/block REST endpoints, or a Data Patch with a ResourceConnection-based loader, to rewrite the references during import.

Next step

Deciding whether Page Builder is worth the AC license?

Page Builder is the single biggest "does the Adobe Commerce license earn its keep" question. The full decision guide, license cost, B2B, Page Builder, content staging, SLA, lives on the AC vs Open Source page.

Read AC vs Open Source Ask me directly