Divi Overview
Divi is a WordPress theme that pushes the boundary of what a theme is. It might be better to call it a framework for interacting with and designing your WordPress site. Allowing for ample customization, Divi comes packaged with a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) visual editor that replaces the basic WordPress editor. It allows for simple and easy no-code website development. This framework is becoming increasingly popular among independent bloggers, designers, and businesses.
Elementor Overview
Unlike Divi, which packages an editor and a theme together, Elementor is a stand-alone plugin for WordPress. It offers both a paid and free version and can be used with a majority of WordPress themes. Replacing the standard editor, the Elementor editor offers a powerful and responsive design for virtually any website built using WordPress. Even better, the Elementor framework offers easy integration with nearly any marketing tool or WordPress plugin on the market.
Divi is a very popular WordPress Theme and WordPress page builder that is trusted by over 2 million websites.
Elementor is a WordPress design tool providing a platform that allows you to build, manage, and develop an attractive website easily.
How Much Do They Cost?
When comparing any two premium plugins, the first place your eye will go is the price tag. It's no different when you compare Divi vs Elementor. These two plugins differ substantially in their price and ultimately cater to quite different markets for that reason.
Divi
Divi does not have a free version. Instead, the makers of Divi sell two licenses to prospective consumers. For $89 a year, they offer a yearly license that provides unlimited access to all of the basic Divi products. In case the name didn’t give it away, you need to renew this license every single year for as long as you plan to keep using Divi. If you intend to make use of Divi throughout your professional career, they offer a lifetime access license for $249. For many budding website developers, that’s quite a substantial fee.
Divi also has a marketplace, where various third-party themes, layouts and extensions are sold for prices that can vary significantly. Some even go for as much as $219, but most are priced much more reasonably.
Elementor
Elementor, unlike Divi, isn't available for a flat fee. There are, in fact, three licenses: Personal ($49), Plus ($99) and Expert ($199). It's worth noting that the difference between these licenses is quite substantial, and it makes comparing the price between the two frameworks challenging. Elementor does not offer a lifetime purchase option.
Ultimately, which plan you will want to use will vary based on your own needs. For example, the Personal plan can only be used to make one site, while the Expert plan can be used to make 1,000.
Unlike Divi, Elementor does offer a free version. In fact, for that reason alone, if you're indecisive and looking to get your feet wet with a WordPress framework, Elementor is definitely the way to go. You can try out their free version and see if it’s the right fit for you. If you don't like it, it's not a problem.
Which One Is Right For You?
The right framework for you will depend on the needs of your website or client, and there really isn't a clear winner. Both sites have significant pros and cons, which will need to be weighed carefully by any prospective WordPress author. Divi has almost no learning curve, theme and editor integration, and easily works without knowing a single line of code. On the other hand, Elementor offers more customization. It also tends to be much more powerful in the hands of a WordPress power user.
If you still aren't sure where the chips fall on Divi vs Elementor, read on for a detailed breakdown of the pros and cons of each of these frameworks.
The Pros
Divi
Fast To Get Started
Divi offers a wide array of options to a beginning, intermediate or advanced website developer. All of these options are modular and easily scalable, building on top of each other to produce a truly user-friendly experience. If you're looking to get your website up and running quickly, Divi is definitely the way to go.
Marketplace Access
Not only is it fast to get simple sites up and running with Divi, but it also comes complete with access to the Divi Marketplace, which lets aspiring bloggers access many unique and powerful tools that will help them thrive in the blogosphere. Some of these options can be quite pricy, but others are much more affordable even for starting developers.
Automated Backend
If your backend is simple, like with a static site or a blog, you really can't go wrong with Divi. The editor will handle all of that for you, and for the most part, it does a good job.
Can Be Used With Multiple Sites
Both versions of Divi allow you to use the editor with an unlimited number of websites.
Elementor
A Rock-Solid, Powerful Editor
Elementor, especially with the Expert license, is an extremely powerful editor. If you know a little CSS or HTML, you'll find that that knowledge goes very far with Elementor. In fact, with just a few clicks of a button and a few lines of code, Elementor allows you to create virtually any website that you can imagine.
Unlike Divi, Elementor allows you to create some of the best pop-ups on the market today. You can cater these exactly to an advertiser’s specifications with a hands-on editor.
Integrated Responsive Design
With an increasingly mobile clientele, responsive design has come to dominate the internet. Responsive design is a design philosophy that ensures your site works as well on a phone as it does on a desktop. Most developers build their sites with responsive design in mind to boost their page ranks on search engines. It's also necessary to please an increasingly mobile clientele.
Elementor was clearly built with professionals in mind. That's why, with Elementor, you get easy and completely integrated responsive design in every website that you make.
The Cons
Divi
Beware of Websites Infested With Shortcode
One of the biggest problems with deciding to go with Divi is that if you try to detach your website from the Divi brand, you'll find a hideous mess of shortcode left behind. If you've decided to leave Divi, you might find the severance experience to be genuinely awful. It’s so bad, in fact, that some website designers opt to rebuild their websites completely from scratch rather than try and purge the shortcode infested mess that Divi left behind.
This is a very real problem and definitely a setback for the product when comparing Elementor vs Divi.
Can Be Slow
Unfortunately, those same shortcodes are the cause of another big issue with Divi. As your website gets larger, Divi causes more and more bloat. This framework really is just not meant to be used to build a large website. It's best to use Divi to build smaller static websites. The more you stray from that ideal, the slower and more bloated your website will be.
Not Very Good Dynamically
If you're trying to build a more dynamic web application, you're going to find that Divi really does not have the tools needed to make that happen. Now, some degree of dynamic interaction from the user is definitely possible, but it's not as supported as it should be. That's not even getting into the fact that certain elements, like headers, are very difficult to customize with Divi.
Elementor
Most Useful Options Are Very Expensive
The more expensive versions of Elementor are almost invariably the ones that you want to go with. Not only do they come with many more features and options, but they also let you use Elementor for more than one website. Only being able to use Elementor for a single website, while fine for some people, can be a serious problem for professional WordPress website owners and developers. These versions are fairly expensive, and that expense alone might put Elementor out of your reach.
Using Elementor To Its Full Potential Requires Knowledge of Code
There's no easy way to say this: If you don't know code, you're at a serious disadvantage when using Elementor. Elementor offers most of its advantages to people who are at least passingly familiar with code. By no means do you need to be an expert programmer, but some knowledge of CSS will go a very long way.
Inconsistent Widgets
The widgets the Elementor comes with are, as a rule, entirely inconsistent. Unfortunately, they just aren't built to a universal specification. Perhaps this is because of the open-source nature of Elementor. Open source projects often bring a diverse array of coders to a project. More often than not, these developers aren’t completely aligned with the project's design.
Sloppy Documentation
Elementor’s documentation is, unfortunately, quite weak. You can expect to spend many hours, especially in the early days, bashing your head against the wall while you try to get Elementor to do what you want it to do.
How Easy Is Divi To Use?
To begin with, Divi is incredibly easy to use. You could probably bring in a child, and within a few hours, they could be making websites. The learning curve is so fast and efficient that Divi represents the perfect option for website owners and developers who just need something built quickly.
It’s easily scalable, too. You can design hundreds of unique websites with Divi in the course of a few weeks.
How Easy Is Elementor To Use?
For some people, Elementor can be much harder to use than Divi. The learning curve is quite steep. As mentioned before, as you’re learning Elementor’s ins and outs, you will often find yourself working in CSS to adjust and tinker with certain elements. That problem lessens as you get more familiar with the platform, but it never goes away completely. That's why you really do need some programming knowledge to make full use of Elementor.
Once you've mastered Elementor, it can be extremely powerful and useful. Just expect that to take a while.
Are They Worth The Money?
Divi
The upfront cost is quite low, especially for what you're getting. In fact, the lifetime license can provide an excellent return on your money. Having access to Divi’s robust and charming community for life can be considered a great investment. Unfortunately, though, a lot of Divi’s cost is actually hidden inside its marketplace. If you aren’t willing to shell out additional dollars for add-ons that many consider completely necessary, it’s worth pausing before buying Divi.
That being said, Divi provides an excellent value to most starting developers. It definitely is a fierce competitor in the battle between Elementor vs Divi with the value of its lifetime license.
Elementor
Elementor is a more expensive option than Divi. Its yearly subscription-based model favors professionals and entrepreneurs with that sort of money to spend. However, while the paid versions are definitely more expensive, it's worth mentioning that Elementor does have a free version. Now, the free version probably won't get you very far. However, at the very least, you'll be able to try out the tool.
All in all, if you have the money, Elementor is definitely a great value.
How Does The Support Stack Up?
Divi
Divi’s support network is unparalleled. Designers who make use of this framework have almost nothing but positive things to say about its community and its support. Responses are timely and efficient. New free features are being offered regularly. Best of all, if you ever have an issue, there is a wide and robust network of Divi users who are ready and willing to help.
Elementor
Elementor does not have an engaged support team. There are serious concerns about their willingness to handle more difficult issues. However, for day-to-day problems, the support is at least adequate.