I was in the exact same boat. The free Elementor is like a demo. It shows you what's possible but doesn't let you do it. You can try to find other free add-ons, but they often slow your site down or have compatibility issues. I finally caved and bought Elementor Pro. Honestly, I should have done it sooner. The theme builder alone is worth the price. You can build your header, footer, blog post templates... everything... with the visual builder. Plus, you get the 'Pro' widgets, like the portfolio grid and sliders, which you need. It's one of those premium plugins that replaces like 5-6 other ones. It's not just a page builder, it's a full site builder. Do you plan on building just one site or multiple sites for clients?