Elementor Container vs. Section: What's the Difference?
How the Two Structures Differ
The Section/Column model requires a specific hierarchy — a Section for a horizontal row, Columns inside it, and a separate Inner Section widget any time nesting is needed. Container flattens this: a single Container element can hold widgets or other nested Containers directly, switch between row and column direction, and use standard flexbox alignment properties, resulting in fewer nested layers for the same visual layout.
Why This Change Was Made
- Simpler nesting, since Containers can be placed inside other Containers directly, without a separate Inner Section widget type just to add another level of layout.
- More consistent responsive control, with flexbox properties (gap, justify content, align items) behaving more predictably across breakpoints than the older Column-width percentage model.
- Lighter generated markup, since Container produces a flatter HTML structure than the equivalent Section/Column/Inner Section combination.
- Existing Section/Column content still works and isn't automatically converted — both systems can coexist on a site, though Elementor's own documentation now recommends Container for new builds.
Choosing Between Them
- Use Container for any new page or section being built today, since it's the actively developed, recommended layout system.
- Leave existing Section/Column content as-is unless there's a specific reason to rebuild it.
- Enable the Container experiment under Elementor → Settings → Experiments if it isn't already the default in your version.
Need an older layout migrated or a new one built properly? See Elementor customization.