When it comes to building websites in WordPress page builders have become the standard way of building it. Even though page builders have their fair share of critics but there is no denying the fact that it is here to stay.
It is evident from WordPress itself moving to block editing mode with the Gutenberg update.
Now with this increasing popularity, there are many page builders in the market and you might be confused to choose which one?
Two of the most popular WordPress page builders are Elementor and Divi.
In this guide, we will see Elementor vs Divi and will find out which one is better.
I’ll reveal my choice as well.
Table of Contents
Disclosure: Some of the links here are referral/affiliate links that means if you decide to buy through those links I’ll earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This is how I keep Designtheway.com up and running.
Before we get into the details check this Divi vs Elementor comparison table for a quick overview.
 |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Free Version | Yes | No |
| Price | $49, $99, $199 | $89, $249 |
| Ease of Use | ||
| Pre-med Templates | ~300 | ~1190 |
| Visual Builder | Yes | Yes |
| Modules | ~80 | ~54 |
| Inline Editing | Yes | Yes |
| Support | ||
| Unique feature | Popup | A/B Testing |
| Rating | ||
Now let’s dive in for more detailed analysis.
User Interface
The user interface of a page builder is very important, this is what decides how easily a user can use it.
Interface of Elementor
Elementors interface is very simple you have all the widgets on the left side and the canvas on the right side. To use any element just drag the element on to the canvas and it will be applied.
It is always better to create the section first according to your requirement because if you drag and drop any element directly on the canvas it will create a new section with a single column.
To edit any element just click on it you will find all the editing options, they are divided into 3 tabs Content, Style and Advanced.
All the options are self-explanatory, Content is for editing the element’s content, Style will have all the styling options and the Advanced tab is for some advanced settings such padding, margin, motion effects etc.
Though Elementor does have inline editing it’s not as powerful as many other page builders, it has limited inline editing options.
Whatever changes you make to any element you just need to update the page to save it.
Elementor has a great tool called Navigator which is very useful for managing the layout, especially for big layouts.
Interface of Divi Builder
Divi builder provides you almost a blank canvas with just couple of buttons, once you click on them it will show some options.
Unlike Elementor you won’t find any list of widgets or elements at first, you need to create a section only then you can see the widgets. Just click on the element you want to use and it will be applied.
Once the widget is on the page you will see a floating options panel that has similar tabs like Elementor for editing and styling the widget.
The downside for me is that you have to save the changes in the widget before it can be applied if you accidentally close the options panel without saving it your changes will not be applied.
To edit any existing widget just hover over it and click on the little gear icon and you will have the options panel.
Divi provides a floating option panel for everything that is great for working in full screen whereas in Elementor you always have a fixed left panel.
You will love the inline editing option here it is far more superior to Elementor.
Divi too has its layer manager tool and it works similarly to Elementor navigator tool.
Winner: Elementor
According to me, Elementor has a better user interface it is very clean and simple to use even for a new user.
Modules
Modules are the readymade widgets in a page builder which helps you in speed up your workflow. Let’s see what modules are available in Elementor and Divi.
Elementor Widgets
Elementor has more than 80 widgets, 30 in the free version and 50+ in the pro version.
There are many third-party Elementor add-ons that you can use to extend this library. You can even build your own Elementor widget using their developer resources.
Divi Modules
It has around 54 modules which will be good enough for most users, you can try this free Divi builder demo to check the modules since it doesn’t have a free version.
Divi builder too has some third-party add-ons which can be used to add some extra features.
Winner: Elementor
I think Elementor has more useful widgets.
Templates
Templates are pre-made designs or design block that you can use to rapidly create a page or a section of your page. Both Elementor and Divi builder provides a whole range of templates that you can use for your website, now let’s see what they offer.
Elementor Templates
Elementor offers two types of templates
- Blocks – Here you will find small blocks of design or sections that you can use on your page.
- Pages – In this section, you will find full-page templates.
And of course, you can save your design as a template in Elementor, you will find them in My Templates section.
Elementor has ~190 full-page design templates some of them are free but most are only available with the pro version.
For example, if you want to create a landing page just use the search to find a suitable template and insert it.
You will also get hundreds of design blocks (free and pro) to use in your design.
Elementor is continuously adding more templates to their library, they have recently introduced the Pro Template Kits where you will get complete website templates like individual pages, header, footer everything.
Divi Builder Templates
Divi has a huge library of beautiful templates, ~161 layout packs which include ~1190 layout and design blocks.
Unlike Elementor you can’t import a single page or a block it works little differently, you have to import layout packs which include multiple pages for a complete website.
This option works best if you quickly want to create a website based on a template.
In Divi too you can save any section as a template and organize them in a different categories as well.
Winner: Divi
In terms of design quality, Divi builder has better templates but you can re-create them easily in Elementor as well.
Styling options
The ability to customize the styling of a page builder is very important, this gives you the freedom to go beyond using just templates. Let’s compare what type of styling options you get with Divi and Elementor.
Elementor Styling Options
Elementor recently introduced theme styling feature with that you can control the global styling of your theme including typography, button, form fields etc. you can even add your custom CSS too.
This is perfect if you are using themes like Hello theme which has very little customizing options but if you are using some feature-rich themes like Astra you might want to control theme settings from their customizer settings.
To do that you need to go to Elementor > Settings and check these two options, this way your theme customizer will control the global styling.
As discussed earlier in the widget level you will see three tabs-
Content is for adding and editing the content of the widget.
Style tab this is where you can edit the basic styling like typography, color, widget color, border etc.
Advanced tab from here you can do some advanced styling like margin, padding, motion effect, and you can add your custom CSS as well, which will affect that particular widget only.
You can even set different styling options based on different devices.
In short, Elementor provides you a lot of styling options to customize your design.
Divi Styling Options
Divi has very similar styling options too, though it is organized bit differently to Elementor.
The Content tab is for basic content editing.
Style tab is a mixed bag of basic and advanced styling options such as text, border, transform, animation etc.
In the Advanced tab, you can assign a CSS class name, id to the widget and also can add your custom CSS.
In Divi too you can set different styles for different devices.
Though Divi doesn’t have theme styling like Elementor they do have Extend styles option which helps in replicating a certain design to other elements of that page.
Winner: Elementor
I think Elementor styling options are much simpler to use and understand, Divi has way too many styling options.
Theme Builder
Theme builder allows you to create theme parts like header, footer, archive pages etc. Both Elementor and Divi have theme builder built in them.
Elementor Theme Builder
In Elementor, the theme builder option was included very recently and is available with Elementor pro only.
This theme builder feature allows you to have complete control over your website almost making your theme irrelevant.
But you still need a theme to run your website. With this, you can create and control every part of your website including header, footer, posts etc.
First, you need to choose the template type.
Then use the default Elementor editor to create your template, for this purpose Elementor provides you with some dynamic widgets like logo, menu, post title etc.
Finally, you need to set the display condition where your template will be applied, these conditions are very versatile you can set templates almost anywhere you want.
Divi Theme Builder
Divi introduced the theme builder in their 4.0 version and they are equally powerful. Divi’s theme builder works slightly different to Elementor.
Here each template is grouped into three sections header, body and footer you can assign them globally or for individual pages.
To create templates for a specific page or post you need to set the display condition first and you can be very specific with these conditions much like Elementor.
Divi too has dynamic modules like post title, menu that you can use in creating your templates.
Winner: Elementor
Elementor theme builder is more versatile and easier to use.
Unique Features
Let’s see what unique features you get with each page builder.
Elementor popup
One of the most unique features of Elementor is the Elementor popup, it is extremely powerful and can be used for various purposes such as promoting an offer or for creative designs like off canvas menu.
It has very advanced triggering and display settings with that you can have fine control over your popup.
With this feature included in Elementor pro, you don’t need to invest extra money for popup solutions like Optinmonster or Thrive leads.
Few additional features
- Global Widgets – You can save any widget as a global widget that can be used in multiple places and once you make any changes to it, it will automatically update in every place.
- Embed Anywhere – With this feature, you can embed any Elementor template anywhere using a shortcode.
Divi Split Testing
Split testing is one of the most powerful and unique features in the Divi builder, with this you can test different versions of a page or elements within your page to see which one is working better for your goal.
To start a split test just right click on the element you want to test and click on Split Test.
Then you need to select your goal and create a new version of your element then Divi will take care of the rest.
You can see a detailed analysis of your split test within the page builder.
Other features
- Role editor – This is another unique feature with this you can control which type of users can perform what type of tasks in Divi builder.
- Global modules – Similar to Elementor you can save widgets globally not only that you can even save row, columns and even entire section globally.
Winner: Divi
Divi is the winner here it offers more unique features.
Mobile Responsiveness
Both Elementor and Divi are fully mobile-friendly, you can have very fine control over your layout for different devices.
Elementor
In Elementor you can toggle between different responsive modes to see the preview and the best part is whatever adjustments (depending on widget settings) you make in that particular view it will be applied to that view only.
For example if you make any changes in the mobile view it will affect the mobile view only.
This way you can make all the adjustments at once, but you can also do it individually on each element by clicking on the mobile icon.
Wherever you see this icon you can adjust the settings for responsiveness.
You can show hide anything in Elementor based on device and you can see how it affects your layout by just collapsing the left panel of the builder.
Divi
Divi too has very robust responsive settings, though you can’t go to the device preview mode and adjust as you can in Elementor instead you have to make the adjustments individually on elements.
You can show hide anything on different devices, though you can’t see the effect in the editing mode.
Winner: Elementor
Elementor for ease of use.
Coding Standard
No matter how good the front end looks the back end coding standard is equally if not more important, this can affect the speed and performance of your website.
To check the coding standard of each page builder I have created this simple design in both Elementor and Divi.
Both the page builders have generated the html in their way.
Elementor Html Structure
Divi Html Structure
Now let’s see if I deactivate the page builder how it affects the code structure.
Html Structure after deactivation of Elementor
Elementor left standard html structure and a manageable design which is good.
Html Structure after deactivation of Divi
Now Divi leaves a whole bunch of shortcodes on the page, you have to manually remove them even the images are not showing.
The html code is all messed up, all the html tags such as title tag has turned into paragraph tag. So switching page builders from Divi can be a nightmare.
This can be a deal-breaker for many especially considering websites with lots of pages.
Winner: Elementor
Elementor is the clear winner here.
Speed and performance
Now let’s see how they stand up in speed and performance check.
Here I checked the same design created on both page builder on default WordPress Twenty-Twenty theme without any caching plugin.
Let’s see the result-
Elementor
Divi
Just to clarify the test website is almost blank so this is not the typical results you might get for your real website.
Now getting back to the point, the performance is almost similar for both the page builders though the page size and load time for Elementor are slightly better.
Winner: Elementor
While using both page builders I found Elementor to be better performing and has a slight edge in speed as well. Divi can lag a bit in performance because of so many features and options.
Pricing
Price is one of the biggest factors we consider while buying anything, let’s compare the price of Divi and Elementor.
Elementor Price
Elementor is free and you can use it on unlimited websites but if you want to use Elementor pro this is their pricing plan.
- Personal – $49/year (One website)
- Plus – $99/year (3 websites)
- Expert – $199/year (1000 websites)
Elementor pro doesn’t have any lifetime plan you have to renew it every year.
Divi Price
You can’t buy Divi builder separately you have to purchase Elegant themes membership which includes all the products of Elegant themes and with one license you can use it on unlimited websites which is a great deal.
- Yearly Access – $89/year (Unlimited websites)
- Lifetime Access – $249 one-time (Unlimited websites)
Winner: Divi
Divi has a more attractive pricing offer for what you get while Elementor has a lower entry fee but the overall price plan is on the higher side especially considering the use limit.
Support
We have talked about the features and price now let’s see what’s the level of support you will get.
- Elementor – They only have a ticket or email-based support and it is only available for pro users.
- Divi – They offer support in multiple channels such as live chat, email or ticket support for your technical needs.
Winner: Divi
Divi has a better support system, Elementor support is slow and at times irresponsive. I do feel they need to improve their support system.
But to your help, you can use the Elementor Facebook group which is very helpful and responsive. The Group members help each I also happens to be a member of it and try my best to help others.
Ease of use
After considering all the features finally it comes down to how easy it is to use?
Elementor is the clear winner here, it has very simple UI and very easy to use for even a newbie. Whereas Divi has a much steeper learning curve it will take some time for a new user to get used to it.
Divi is full of features and options, at times it feels way too many seeing so many buttons on the screen can be a bit confusing.
Who is the winner?
For me, Elementor is the winner, for the ease of use and its robust features like theme builder, popup and an ever-growing helpful community.
Elementor is growing at a fast pace and equally developing new features to stay ahead of its competition.
Divi seems to be a step behind in this just like they introduced the Divi theme builder after Elementor introduced its theme builder.
FAQ’S
Most frequently asked related to Elementor vs Divi Builder.
1. Can I use Divi and Elementor together?
Yes, you can use two or more page builders together in a theme. Though it is not advisable to use more than one page builder, it will make your website slow.
2. Is Divi better than Elementor?
Divi has a steeper learning curve compared to Elementor. Elementor is more user friendly.
3. Does Elementor work with all themes?
Elementor is compatible with most popular themes. With Elementor theme builder you can use it with almost any theme.
4. Can I use Divi builder with other themes?
Yes, you can use the Divi builder with other themes.
5. Can I use Elementor Pro without a theme?
No, you need a theme. Even though you can build all the theme parts like header, footer etc with Elementor Pro but you still need a WordPress theme.
Conclusion
As you can see both Divi and Elementor are really powerful page builders they can help you achieve almost any type of design for your website.
If you want an easy to use yet a very powerful page builder which works with most themes then go for Elementor.
But if you want more options and features including some marketing features in one package and don’t plan to switch page builders often then you can go for Divi.
So which page builder do you use? Do let us know in the comments section below.
4 thoughts on “Elementor vs Divi builder: Which is better for a newbie?”
Nice info. But which builder is easy to work with for person with non technical backgrounds like our clients.
For a non-technical person, Elementor is perfect because of its simple user interface. In fact, I also recommend the same to my clients as well.
Elementor is best easy to use
Thanks, Viraj for sharing your opinion.