Table of Contents
Elementor’s free plugin does not include Display Conditions at all. The feature sits entirely inside Elementor Pro. Master Addons, the free Elementor add-on, does not unlock the full Display Conditions extension either, but its Theme Builder and Popup Builder do include a basic, one-rule form of targeting at no cost.
This page lays out exactly which piece is free, which needs Pro, and where the free tier stops. The gap between “free” and “Pro” here is easy to misread, so every claim below is checked against the plugin’s own source code and Elementor’s published documentation.
What Are Display Conditions in Elementor?
A display condition is a rule attached to an element, template, or popup that decides whether it renders for a given visitor. Instead of building separate pages for every audience, you build one page and let the rule decide what each visitor sees.
One distinction matters before anything else. This is conditional display, not conditional loading. Hidden elements are kept out of view, not removed from the page as a security boundary. For genuinely private material, use proper access control such as Restrict Content or a membership plugin, not a display rule.
Elementor Free vs Elementor Pro
Elementor’s own Display Conditions documentation covers the Pro feature only. The free version of Elementor, sometimes called Elementor Core, does not ship any element-level display conditions. Elementor’s Pro vs Free comparison also confirms that the Header & Footer builder and the Popup Builder both require a paid plan; Popup Builder specifically needs the Advanced tier, not just the entry-level Essential plan.
The Real Master Addons Free vs Pro Split
This is the table that matters. It is built from the plugin’s own config file and the render logic that runs on the front end, not from marketing copy. Where Master Addons Free silently overrides a setting rather than hiding it, that is noted directly in the row.
| Capability | Elementor Free | Elementor Pro | Master Addons Free | Master Addons Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Show/hide by login status | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Show/hide by user role | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Date, time, or day-of-week rules | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser or OS targeting | No | Not offered | No | Yes |
| Referrer / URL source rules | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Works on any widget, column, or section | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Assign a template to header or footer | No | Yes | Yes (entire site only) | Yes |
| Assign a template to single post, archive, search, or 404 | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| More than one display rule per template (beyond “Entire Site”) | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Build and publish a popup | No | Yes (Advanced plan and up) | Yes | Yes |
| Popup trigger: Page Load | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Popup trigger: exit intent, scroll, click, or inactivity | No | Yes | No (forced back to Page Load) | Yes |
| Popup targeting beyond “Entire Site” | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cost | Free | Paid annual license | Free | Paid annual license |
Two rows deserve a second look. Master Addons Free lets you pick any popup trigger in the editor, including exit intent and on-scroll, but the front end quietly forces it back to Page Load unless Master Addons Pro is active. The trigger you configured is not the trigger visitors get. The same pattern applies to popup and template targeting: the editor shows every rule, but only Include plus Entire Site actually saves in the free version.
What Free Actually Covers
Two things in Master Addons Free are genuinely useful for targeting, and both are free with no trial or time limit:
- A header, footer, or comment-form template built in the free Theme Builder and assigned to your entire site.
- A popup built in the free Popup Builder, published, and shown on page load across your entire site.
Neither requires touching the Display Conditions extension, because neither is the Display Conditions extension. They are built-in, single-rule targeting inside two separate free tools.
Where the Free Tier Stops
The standalone Display Conditions extension, the one that hides or shows a section, column, or single widget by role, browser, login state, or date, ships no code at all in the free plugin. Its class lives under a Pro-only module path that simply is not included in the Master Addons Free download. Enabling it in the free settings panel does nothing, because there is nothing to enable.
Theme Builder follows the same pattern for template types. Header, Footer, and Comment templates are free. Single, Archive, Category, Tag, Author, Date, Page Single, Search, 404, and the WooCommerce templates are all labelled Pro in the template-type dropdown itself. The free “Add Condition” button for narrowing a template to specific pages is also locked; without Pro you get exactly one rule, Entire Site.
Popup Builder mirrors it again. The free editor lets you choose Exclude as a condition type and pick rules like Front Page, Singular, Archive, Search, or 404, but saving silently strips anything that is not Include plus Entire Site. On the front end, the trigger is hard-coded to Page Load and the automatic-close and extended snooze options are disabled, regardless of what the editor shows.
Other Master Addons Features: Free vs Pro at a Glance
These come up in the same searches as Display Conditions, so here is where each one actually lands, based on the plugin’s own configuration file:
| Feature | Status in Master Addons |
|---|---|
| Mega Menu builder | Free |
| Widget Builder (custom HTML/CSS/JS widgets) | Free |
| Image Comparison widget | Free |
| Popup Trigger widget | Free |
| Custom Breakpoints | Free |
| Entrance Animation (extended library) | Pro |
| Comparison Table widget | Pro |
| Tooltips (global, any element) | Pro |
| Display Conditions extension | Pro |
One nuance on Entrance Animation: Elementor Core itself already ships a basic entrance-animation control on every widget, free. Master Addons Pro’s Entrance Animation extension adds a larger animation library with extra duration, delay, and repeat controls on top of that, it does not gate the base feature Elementor already gives you for free.
When Free Is Enough (and When It Is Not)
Free is enough when a header or footer needs to show sitewide, or when a single popup needs to appear on page load for every visitor. That covers a genuinely large share of small-site use cases at zero cost.
Free is not enough the moment you need more than one rule. A banner that should hide for logged-in members, a popup that should fire on exit intent, or a template that should only apply to your Products archive: all three need either Master Addons Pro or Elementor Pro. There is no free path to per-role, per-device, or per-page conditional logic in Master Addons today, despite what some of the plugin’s own marketing copy implies.
How to Set Up What You Can With the Free Tools
- Install and activate Master Addons Free from the WordPress plugin directory.
- Go to Master Addons → Theme Builder and create a Header or Footer template with Elementor.
- In the template modal, leave the Template Type on Header or Footer. Do not pick a Post or Page type; those are Pro-only and will not save as a working condition on the free plugin.
- On the Conditions tab, leave the default Entire Site rule in place. The Add Condition button is Pro-gated, so a second rule will not save.
- For a popup instead, go to Master Addons → Popup Builder, build your popup, and set Activation to on.
- Leave the trigger dropdown alone. Whatever you pick, the free plugin renders it as Page Load on the live site.
- Publish, then check the result in a logged-out private browser window, since Elementor’s editor preview does not reflect display or popup conditions.
- My popup trigger is not firing on exit intent. This is expected on Master Addons Free. The free plugin always renders Page Load on the front end regardless of the editor setting; Pro is required for the other four triggers.
- My template only shows on the entire site, never on the page I picked. Also expected. Free Theme Builder saves one condition, Entire Site, and strips anything more specific.
- The Display Conditions panel is missing from Elementor’s Advanced tab. That panel belongs to Elementor Pro. Master Addons Free does not add it, and the standalone Master Addons Display Conditions extension will not appear as functional without Master Addons Pro either.
- Elementor Pro shows Display Conditions but the rule never applies. Page caching commonly serves one visitor’s cached version to another. Exclude conditional pages from full-page cache, and confirm you are testing in a logged-out private window rather than inside the editor.
Troubleshooting
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the display conditions in Elementor?
A display condition is a rule attached to an element, template, or popup that decides whether it renders for a given visitor. Elementor’s own version, found only in Elementor Pro, covers login status, user role, registration date, dates, day of week, post or page authorship, categories, tags, archive type, and the URL a visitor arrived from. It does not cover browser or OS targeting.
How to set display conditions with Elementor?
Free Elementor does not have this option; the feature sits entirely inside Elementor Pro. In Elementor Pro, select an element, open Settings, click the Display Conditions icon, add a rule, choose a condition and value, then save and publish the page. With Master Addons Free, the closest option is assigning a header or footer template to the entire site through the Theme Builder. Granular per-page rules need Master Addons Pro.
Is Elementor pop-up free?
No. Elementor’s native Popup Builder requires an Advanced-tier Pro plan and is not included in Elementor Core or the entry-level Essential plan. Master Addons Free ships a separate Popup Builder at no cost, but the free version always fires on page load and always targets the entire site, regardless of the trigger or condition you pick in the editor.
Why isn’t Elementor Editor showing display conditions?
The most common reason is that Elementor Pro is not active, since Display Conditions lives entirely in Pro and free Elementor never shows the panel. If Pro is active and the panel is still missing or blank, caching, a template conflict, or an unsaved condition set are the next things to check.
Are essential addons for Elementor free?
It depends on the specific feature, not just the plugin name. Master Addons ships 55+ widgets and 20+ extensions in its free version, but individual capabilities inside that free plugin, including the Display Conditions extension, the Comparison Table widget, and the extended Entrance Animation library, are Pro-only. Check each feature separately before assuming the whole plugin is free.
What are the best free widgets for Elementor?
Widgets that ship fully unlocked in Master Addons Free include Image Comparison, Popup Trigger, Mega Menu, Dual Heading, Flipbox, and the drag-and-drop Widget Builder for turning custom HTML or CSS into a reusable widget. None of these require a paid license to use.
How to change Elementor popup conditions?
In Elementor Pro, open the popup, click the arrow next to Publish, and select Display Conditions to add or edit rules for where it appears. In Master Addons’ free Popup Builder, the condition type is fixed to Include and the rule is fixed to Entire Site. Targeting a specific page, post type, or category requires Master Addons Pro.
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