Elementor vs Divi WordPress page builders, which one is better?
There are a couple of visual page builders on the market. Deciding which one to use can be hard. In this article, we’ll help you decide which page builder to use for your WordPress site. While there are many other WordPress page builders, we are going to focus on Elementor vs Divi builder.
In case you don’t like Elementor or Divi, you can take a look at the Beaver visual builder. It’s also a really popular page builder that has a lot of features. In fact, Elementor, Divi, and Beaver builders have very similar features, so it can be hard to decide which one to use.
The categories in which we are going to compare the Elementor vs Divi page builders are:
- Popularity
- Pricing
- User interface
- Modules
- Templates
- Theme building
- Styling options
- Other unique features
- Code quality and lock-in
Since you are reading this article comparing page builders, we assume you know what page builders are. But just in case you don’t know, we’ll give you a quick explanation.
A page builder is a WordPress plugin or service that lets you build a website without writing code. While there are various page builders, they work similarly. Page builders break web pages into commonly used elements sometimes called content modules or blocks.
These elements can be easily added to any page with drag and drop functionality. Therefore, to make a web page, you just arrange and customize the elements you need.
Popularity
Looking at reviews and usage statistics of a product is always a good idea. However, it should not be the only deciding factor. Both Divi and Elementor are popular page builders. If we look at BuiltWith website statistics, it’s obvious that Elementor is in the lead at the moment. 3,499,761 live websites are using the Elementor (1,873,481 in the United States). At the same time, 1,771,550 live websites use Divi (947,271 in the United States).
These are just the current number but they may change in the future. There are many new page builders on the market including Gutenberg made by the WordPress team. Gutenberg is new and does not have all the features yet. But in the future, it might become the default page builder for many people.
At the moment, Divi and Elementor have basic integration with Gutenberg, so you can use Divi or Elementor modules in Gutenberg editor. This might be the future of page builders, where you use Gutenberg editor and just get third-party add-ons to extend functionality. However, this is just speculation. We’ll see what happens in a few years.
Pricing
Elementor
Elementor has a free lite version you can download. However, this version is very limited; it can be used for simple websites or in a situation where you just want to test Elementor.
You can find a full comparison of Pro VS Free Elementor on this page. With the Pro version, you get more design options, a popup builder, theme builder, forms, eCommerce, and integration with many popular platforms.
If you decided to get Elementor Pro, the price for one year is $49 for one site, $99 for 3 sites, and $199 for 1000 sites. Also, there is a 30-days money-back guarantee for new purchases. So, if you don’t like Elementor, you can request back your money.
Divi
There is no free version of the Divi builder. However, you can check out its demo on elegant themes website, so you can decide which page builder is right for you.
If you decide to get Divi, it’s going to cost you $89 per year or $249 one-time payment for lifetime access. You get unlimited sites with subscription and lifetime access license.
If you are a freelancer or company designing websites for clients, Divi’s pricing options are better than Elementors. You would need to pay $199 per year for Elementor whereby with Divi, you either pay $89 per year or $249 one time payment.
Conclusion – Elementor vs Divi
If you are making a single website, then Elementor has an edge with $49 per year. That said, the price difference is not so much so you should not decide which page builder to use based on price alone. Both Elementor and Divi allow for upgrading of licenses. That way, you can start with a basic license and upgrade later on if you need to.
User interface – Elementor vs Divi
Both Elementor and Divi have good user interfaces. However, there are some key differences in user interface design. Where Elementor has a more traditional UI with a sidebar, Divi overlays UI on top of the page preview. Some people will prefer one over the other and there is no clear winner. It’s up to you to decide which one you prefer.
Now let’s take a closer look at the user interface by creating a simple page in Elementor and Divi.
Building a simple page in Elementor page builder
The Elementors user interface is divided into two sections. We have the main canvas and on the left side, a sidebar with all available elements. By clicking on the ‘Add New sections’ button, you can define page sections.
Also, you can click on the templates button to access the Elementors template library. There is a good selection of Elementor templates for you to choose from as a starting point for your page. This way you start from the premade template and save some time.
Let’s go over how to create a simple page in Elementor. This will allow you to see how the Elementor interface works and if it’s a good fit for you.
How to do it?
To start editing a page, you click on Add new section. Then, select the structure you want to use.
Next, you can change layout options if you wish in the sidebar.
Then, you can drag and drop the element you want from the sidebar to sections of your choice.
To edit the element, you just click on the element you want to edit and the sidebar will show options for that element. Elementor also supports inline editing meaning you can edit text right on-page, not on the sidebar. However, there are more options in the sidebar.
If you want to check how your site will look, just click on the eye icon in the lower-left part of the interface.
Then, once you are happy with the look of the page, you can click on the publish button. The publish button is located in the lower-left part of the interface.
If you click on the eye icon or publish, Elementor will open a new tab in your browser and display a page you’ve been working on.
We recommend downloading a free version of the Elementor plugin and trying it out.
Building a simple page in Divi page builder
Divi does not offer a free version that you can install. That said, you can try it out on elegantthemes.com. To start a demo, just click on TRY IT FOR FREE! button. This is going to open the full version of Divi builder hosted on Elegant Themes. Then you can try out Divi and decide if you like this page builder.
When you start a demo, you have an option of a guided tour or you can just click on Start building to try out a page builder. We recommend going through the tour to familiarize yourself with Divi.
Divi builder does not have a sidebar. Instead, it overlays everything onto the page preview. This can be easier for people who are using page builders for the first time, since you get a live preview when changing elements.
When starting from the empty page, you have one green plus button that you can use to insert rows. There are various row layouts to choose from.
When you choose a row layout, then you can start adding modules. To do this, click on one of the plus buttons that have just appeared, then pick one of the modules. It’s that simple.
Once you filled all the modules slots in a row, you can add a new row below. Fill the next row with modules and continue until you build a page.
Pre-built templates
If you don’t want to start from a blank page, there are many pre-built templates. To load the template, click on the three dots icon in the lower part of the screen.
Then click on the leftmost plus icon that should open the template library. On the left side, you have the option of selecting a category of templates. Once you find a layout you want to use, you can click ‘use this layout’.
Conclusion
Both Elementor and Divi have good user interfaces. It’s up to you to choose which one your prefer. It’s best to try both the free versions of Elementor and Divi demo and decide for yourself.
Elementor vs Divi – Modules
As we have seen in the user interface section, you can use modules (elements) to build your website. The question is which page builder has a better selection of modules?
Elementor has over 90+ modules while Divi has only 46. That said if you are making a simple website that does not need those extra modules, Divi is also a good choice.
Both page builders have essential modules like text, images, gallery, contact form. Also, both have more advanced modules like a dedicated audio player, portfolio, social buttons, and so on. That said, there are unique modules that only one of them has.
Modules that are unique to Elementor:
- Facebook Comments
- Social Share Buttons
- Animated Headline
Modules that are unique to Divi:
- Native Comments
- Person/Team Member
Also, developers keep adding new modules all the time, so there is a good chance that Divi will have the same modules as Elementor at some point.
One other thing to consider is that there are third-party add-ons that add extra modules to Divi or Elementor.
Conclusion
Elementor wins in this category. However, you should check the full list of modules for Elementor and Divi before you decide which page builder to use.
Elementor vs Divi – Templates
While not the most important thing, templates make life easier. Both Divi and Elementor have a good selection of templates available to their users.
Elementor
Elementor offers templates for pages and blocks. Pages are full-page templates where blocks are page section templates. For instance, there is a template block for a contact form. You can add those blocks to any page you want.
If you are using the free version of Elementor, there is a limited selection of templates. With Elementor Pro, you get a much larger selection of templates probably enough for any new user.
However, if you need more, there is a large selection of free templates from 3rd party websites. For instance, with Envato Elements you get 500+ free page templates that should be enough for anyone.
Divi
With Divi, you get 350+ page templates. Those templates are grouped in 45+ layout packs, so you get a few page templates in a layout pack that you can use to create a full website.
For example, a Divi builder theme layout pack might have a home, about, blog, contact, gallery, lending, and shop pages. In the example below, we selected a restaurant layout pack that has all the essential pages for a restaurant website.
If you can’t find a template you like in Divi layout packs, there are 3rd party websites that offer templates. The selection of 3rd party templates is not as good as Elementor but still, you’ll probably find a good template that will fit the style of your website.
Conclusion – Elementor vs Divi
It’s best to go over to Elementors and Divis template libraries and take a look. Design is subjective and you might like one over the other.
Theme building
Theme building is a nice feature that can save you a lot of time. When editing pages, there are some common page elements you want on all or some pages of your site. This could be header, footer, menus, etc. You don’t want to edit every page individually or mess with the theme code.
Thankfully, Elementor and Divi have theme building features, so you can make those edits globally and apply them across all of the pages.
Theme building used to be one of the unique features of Elementor. However, with 4.0 version, Divi has also added this feature. Therefore, in this category, both page builders can do the same thing so technically, we can call Elementor and Divi theme builders.
However, Elementors theme building features are more polished.
Conclusion – Elementor vs Divi
Both Elementor and Divi have the theme building features, so you can choose either one.
Elementor vs Divi – Styling options
In this category, both page builders are really good; they offer a lot of styling options. That said, let’s see what each page builder offers.
Elementor
When editing section layouts, you have three tabs with options.
Layout – On this tab, you can change basic layout options like content width, height, vertical alignment, and overflow.
Style – lets you change the background, border, typography, shape divider, and background overlay. You can make some stylish designs with shape dividers and overlays.
Advanced – this tab is filled with a lot of cool advanced options. Motion effects are the coolest thing to check out on this tab. Other useful options are custom CSS and responsive designs. It’s recommended to change responsive design settings for elements.
These options will help you create a more responsive website that works across all devices.
For every element, you also have three tabs with options. Depending on the element you are editing, you’ll find different options related to that element.
Content – lets you change the content of the element. For example, for heading, you’ll change the text, link size, tag, etc.
Style – lets you change the look of the element, things like color, typography, blend mode, etc.
Advanced – on this tab, you have a lot of options. You can edit margins, padding, z-index, background, add motion effects, etc.
Divi
To access options in Divi builder, you can click on the gear icon for module or row. This is going to open a popup window with all the available options. Similarly to Elementor, there are three tabs.
The settings are content-sensitive. Depending on what module or row you select, you’ll get different options.
Content – basic options like column structure, text, links, etc.
Design – everything related to the design of module or row. Things like sizing, spacing, border, shadow, filters, transform, and animation.
Advanced – add custom CSS code, and control visibility and responsiveness of elements.
Divi has filters and a search bar to find options faster. One of the best filters you can use is modified styles, so you can see all the settings you edited.
Other unique features – Elementor vs Divi
When doing a page builder comparison, it’s hard to find something that one builder can do and others can’t. So in this section, we want to highlight some of the unique features of each builder.
Elementor
- Embed anywhere – you can use Elementor design anywhere on your site including header and footer, sidebars, single posts and other areas.
- Maintenance Mode – use Elementor to design maintenance mode or ‘Coming soon’ page and enable it directly from the Elementors interface.
- Shape Dividers – make your site even cooler with SVG shapes that you can add right from the Elementors interface.
- Global widgets – is a useful feature that can save you a bit of time. Instead of editing each widget separately, you can have a global widget that you can embed on multiple pages. If you edit that global widget. it’s going to update all the instances on all pages.
Divi
- A/B Testing – Divi has an option to run A/B tests to see which modules performed better for certain goals. This will help you optimize your content.
- User Role Editor – Divi has an advanced role editor that you can use to control who has access to certain modules.
- Lock elements – You can lock elements that you don’t want to edit. This way you won’t change something by accident.
- Copy module style – you can copy just a style from module to module.
- Global modules – Similar to Elementor Global widgets, you can add one global module to multiple pages and then update all of them at the same time.
Code quality and lock-in
Page builders are not so popular with WordPress developers. There are two reasons for this:
- The code produced by page builders can be messy.
- If you disable or uninstall the page builder, this might break the code.
So which page builder is better in this category? The short answer is Elementor is a far better choice. Elementor leaves a much cleaner code compared to Divi. The basic structure of the pages will be preserved if you disable Elementor.
If you disable the Divi builder plugin, you are going to end up with a mess of shortcodes. So, if you have decided not to use Divi anymore, you’ll have to clean the code left behind. This is probably the most compelling reason not to use Divi.
However, this might not be as important to people who want to build simple websites. It’s just one more thing to consider before you get lock-in to one of the page builders.
Elementor vs Divi – Conclusion
We hope this article helped you decide which page builder is right for you. However, if you still can’t decide, here are our recommendations.
If you are new to WordPress and just want to build a website for yourself, we recommend Divi builder. The reason why we recommend Divi over Elementor is how the Divi user interface works. Having an interface overlayed on top of a live preview is simply genius. You can see exactly how your site looks as you edit it.
However, if you plan to build something more complex, maybe for clients, Elementor Pro is a better choice. You have more modules and templates available to build more complex websites. The code produced by Elementor is clean. Also, you can disable or uninstall the plugin and have a clean code left behind the plugin.
For more WordPress tutorials, check the rest of our blog out here. If you need any further assistance with your Divi theme, visit our Divi Support page. Have a great day!
