Elementor and Divi are among the most popular WordPress page builders. But which one has an edge? Well, that’s a tough call. Divi vs Elementor is a long-running debate. Besides, what’s substantial for you is knowing which plugin actually suits you. To choose between them, first, mark the criteria you need to focus for your website. Then find out where they stand on those parameters.
Here in this article, we will be drawing a well-crafted Elementor vs Divi comparison. Showing the differences along with the similarities. An in-depth analysis based on common criterias, essential for any WordPress site. So without further adieu let’s dive into it.
Divi vs Elementor, What to Look For?
Here are the common criteria that you need to look for while choosing a WordPress page builder:
- Performance
- Ease of Usability
- Support
- Visual Interface
- Real-time editor
- Inline Editing
- Theme Builder Functionality
- Responsive Design Optionalities
- Unique Features
- Ready-Made Templates
- 3rd party Element Support
- And, the Pricing
Also, read our article on Elementor vs Beaver Builder. An in-depth comparison to help you choose the page builder you need.
What is WordPress Page Builder?
Well, probably you want to go straight into the comparison. We understand you might be in a hurry. But it won’t be a complete piece of information if we skip the definition part. Perhaps, there are people who might need to know, what is a WordPress page builder?
For WordPress, page-builders are plugins that let you create a page or post without a minimum coding knowledge. Professional web developers do root-level coding to build websites. However, if you are not a web developer or a programmer, coding is not your thing.
So, you need a tool that can help. Page builders are the ready-made tools to help you build completely functional websites with ease. WordPress plugins like Elementor and Divi come with loads of widgets. The Elementor widgets or Divi widgets are simple to use. Suppose, you want to add a section that contains texts. What will you do? That’s easy. Just pick a text editor widget, and place it where you want it to be on the web page.
Similarly, when you want to add a CTA button, just drag the button widget into the page. In short, WordPress page builders are to make your life easier when you are building a website. Okay, that’s a lot of talks already. Now jump into what you have come to know here.
Elementor vs Divi: Features They Share
Do you know, Elementor and Divi both are WordPress page builder plugins? Just kidding. Everybody knows that already.
(Our HR told me to put that joke, so we had to. He has a very bad sense of humor anyway.)
Basically, the whole point was, before the start of Elementor vs Divi battle, let’s look at the things they have in common. In recent times, Divi and Elementor are matching up to each other. Likes of drag & drop interface, inline editing, responsive design settings have brought them closer in feature.
Easy to use visual interface
The feature that brings them together most is the drag-and-drop content editor interface. A basic but important feature for most of the users. Especially when you are a non-technical person. You do not require any coding knowledge. Thanks to the drag and drop capability of both page builders.
With Elementor, you have a sidebar always visible on the left. All the elements you can find there. Drag one from the sidebar and you will be adding it into your design. When you click on a element, the editor panel appears on the same left sidebar. Configuration options are available there.
In terms of Divi, there is an expandable editor. Instead of a fixed full-width editor, you have a button that expands all the options when you click on it. Overall, both interfaces have their advantages. While Elementor interface gives everything close to your hand, the Divi interface gives a more clear view of the design you are editing.
Frontend design flexibility
Both of the plugins offer an extensive number of customizable features. You have the freedom to design each element to your wish. Features like shape dividers, custom spacing, and loads of many are common to each.
Elementor and Divi, both show a live preview of your site while you are editing. You can see instant outcomes when you make any changes to it.
Inline Editing is there as well. Just click on any text content and edit it on the live design. There are way too many design features to mention in a short overview article. But none of the page builders will disappoint you while it comes to design flexibility.
Custom theme building capability
If you are looking for creating a customized theme for your WordPress site, Divi and Elementor both are designed to make it easy. With any compatible theme, you can design templates for your single posts or pages. So are the header and footers for individual pages.
Both the page builders give you a lot of flexibility in designing custom templates and layouts.
Solutions to responsive web design
Designing responsive websites is essential now. You simply cannot ignore any device, while designing your WordPress. Thus, it is also important to consider responsive design settings in an Elementor vs Divi comparison.
Both Elementor and Divi come up with the ultimate responsive editing settings. They will help you to get your design to look perfect across all devices. The design that you create with Elementor or Divi is responsive by default.
The responsive setting will let you design customized styles for different devices.
Third-Party element support
Third-party add-ons include more functionalities to the default features. You will need those additional functionalities to make your design unique and add more features to your website.
Therefore considering availability of third-party add-ons is important while choosing a page builder for you.
A good number of add-ons are available both with Divi and Elementor. If there is a feature that you cannot find with Divi or Elementor, there is a good possibility you will find an add-on that includes that feature.
Divi vs Elementor: The Comparison
At this point let’s consider some essential parameters for page builders. Take a look at where Divi and Elementor stand there. And, let’s see if we have a winner in the Elementor vs Divi race.
Performance
Firstly, remarks on the performance. A simplified performance report from kinsta.com shows the comparison between Divi and Elementor.
They have run the test with and without the Autoptimize plugin.
Elementor has a bit of lead on both of the tests. It has a higher Lighthouse performance score and a lower LCP time. Although HTTP requests are higher for Elementor. Maybe because of the large file size and number of functionalities it has, Divi seems to be slightly slower. On the other side, the smaller file size and simplicity in features helped the Elementor perform better.
However, the margin isn’t large though. Based on performance, Elementor has the upper hand here. Given the number of options Divi provides, Divi can make it to your considerations also. Remember that Elementor doesn’t fall behind options-wise either.
Price
In this contrast, results of Elementor vs Divi aren’t straightforward. There are layers of price comparison.
Initially, the big advantage that Elementor has is, it has a completely free version available. You can build a basic functional website with Elementor for free. Even most of the third-party Elementor Addons have a free version available. So, this is a great advantage if you are not willing to spend money, or has a lack of funding for your website.
You can do a lot with the free version of Elementor.
Now, come to the premium version. Which plugin would you choose if you are paying for it? Well, that depends on how many sites you wanna build. Elementor will be the best choice if you are buying for a single site. For multiple websites though, Divi can be a money-saving option.
Divi comes with a simple pricing plan. The Yearly plan is $89, while the lifetime license will be $249 with lifetime support.
Whereas, the Elementor comes with a bunch of pricing variations. Starts at $49/year for a single site. You will get 3 sites license at $99/year, 25 sites for $199/year. 100 sites will cost you $499/year and you have to pay $999/ year to build 1000 sites with Elementor.
Now, you choose which of them fits into your pocket best.
Layouts and templates library
Both have well-designed templates and they have it in numbers. These templates will help build beautiful pages and websites with ease.
In counting, Divi has more templates than Elementor. Also, Divi has layout packs. The layouts include several templates. This will let you make specific designs for your website.
Although a little behind, Elementor is also working on improving its template library. It has varieties too. Also, the block templates provide the pre-designed parts of the page.
Support
Both have platforms to provide support to their clients. They provide 24/7 support for their premium customers.
Divi has multiple channels open to solve most of the issues users come with. Along with email, people find it easier to communicate with live chat support.
Elementor does have live chat support, so the way of communication is email. However, Elementor has a strong social media community. With so many people active in those communities, hopefully, you can get solutions to your problem from group discussions.
Popup builder
Features like these are the actual point of distinction between Elementor and Divi. Elementor comes with a default Popup builder. While there is no Divi popup builder.
Popup Builder is a great tool that makes your web design interactive. It helps you design a clean webpage and put many contents on the popup.
Therefore, you can use Elementor interface and widgets to design different types of popups with contents like email opt-in popups, login/registration popups, promo/CTA pop-ups, contact forms, and so on. Create stylish popups like Modal Popup, Scroll-in, Lightbox Popup, and far more.
With the flexible feature of Elementor, you can use multiple trigger styles and place the popup anywhere you want.
A/B testing
A unique feature from Divi naturally doesn’t come with Elementor.
It is a handy tool to improve user experience, also convenient for marketing purposes. A/B testing makes it easier to design professional websites.
For example, where will a Login/SignUp button perform better? On the top right corner or on the top left? So confusing. This is where A/B testing comes in handy. Your planning for web design is much simplified with A/B testing.
Therefore, Divi is a great boon for business-focused websites. It lets you run a split test conveniently and makes certain decisions easy for you. You can run an A/B test with some of the third-party Elementor add-ons. Nonetheless, it’s not a built-in feature with the plugin.
What Gives Elementor an Edge?
If you are looking for the following features and functionalities, you can rely on Elementor.
- Easy to Use Interface
- Free Version
- Simplistic Features
- Popup Builder
- Slightly Faster Speed
- Spread Third-Party Marketplace
Where Does Divi Lead?
Here are certain features that you will find useful while using Divi.
- Clean and Minimalistic Interface
- Costs Less for Multiple Websites
- More Useful Features
- A/B Testing
- Rich Collection of Layouts & Templates
- Wide Range of Optionalities
Why Choosing the Right Page Builder is Crucial?
Now come to the point mentioned in the title.
Are you choosing the wrong page builder? If not, it can cause you everything.
That is why you get to find answers to these questions:
- What kind of website do you want to build?
- What are the functionalities that you want to include in your website?
- Are you building a website for personal use or business purpose?
- Are you building websites for clients? Then how many websites you will be building? How much is the budget?
These are basic questions. More factors could arise while you are choosing a page builder. However, if you find the answers, you will surely have a clear view of what you are dealing with. Then go and match your requirements with the features and optionalities of both plugins.
Above all, precise calculation is essential. Because if you don’t, you could end up in a messy situation. You may not find some vital functionalities with the wrong page builder. Resulting lack of features on the site. Ultimately causing a backlash to website users.
If the situation goes critical, you may have to switch to another page builder in the middle of the project. And, it is a massive pain to rebuild the project from scratch.
Trust me you don’t want to experience that situation.
Finally, Who Wins the Elementor vs Divi Battle?
Apologies first. Because there is no clear winner in this race. As we said earlier, it completely depends on the users’ needs. Consider your client’s requirements if you are building websites for clients.
To wrap it up, it was very tough to write about Elementor vs Divi. This is a neck and neck fight. Elementor and Divi both have individual optionalities to offer. They have a lot of similarities too.
In this article, we have tried to cover all the factors that needed to be highlighted for a page builder. Divi and Elementor have their own pros and cons. It is now up to you to find out which meets your website requirements.
If you still have questions unanswered, please put a comment below. We will try to answer that for you.
3 replies on “Elementor vs Divi: Are You Choosing the Wrong Page-Builder?”
I am currently working with the 2 (constrained for Divi) and it’s hell on Divi, it is slow, regularly bugs, requires the addition of CSS styles to fill in the lack of settings. The interface is intrusive and the productivity much lower than with Elementor.
I’d have to agree with some of the comments by Momo above for Divi. Yes, there are superb things about DIVI, of course, like the plethora of template packs, loads to choose from etc. But the interface definitely has issues. I found it very frustrating that when using the ‘transform’ option to resize and reposition elements, the element kept flickering and jumping between the original and new size whenever you moved the cursor over the resized element. This happened to such an extent that it was very difficult to work on other elements nearby. I found it was a constant issue, wasting lots of time. You’ll still get a decent website in the end, but at times it does feel like you’re fighting with the plugin, as you try to make progress. It’s by no means a smooth visual experience. I haven’t used Elementor so can’t say if its own instant, live display is any better. DIVI is a powerful tool no doubt, but it has to fix these issues with the ‘transform’ option visibility and some other glitches if it wants to win greater appeal.
Hi Theo,
Thanks for your valueable insights.
Just give Elementor a try as it has a Free version which does a lot of work you might need.
Then you’ll be able to reach a more concrete decision I believe. 🙂
Muntasir
Co-Founder of Exclusive Addons.