The Divi Builder is often touted as the best way to build a website. But, is it? We say maybe, depending on the type of site you are making. In this article, we'll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using Divi.
Features of The Divi Builder
Divi belongs to Elegant Themes. Further, it defines itself as “the future of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).” Moreover, it has a 97% five-star rating among its over 19,000 reviews on Trustpilot.
According to BuiltWith, Divi is in around 3M sites worldwide. Of these sites, 1,7% are on the Top Million Sites by Traffic. Short-term, it's a drag-and-drop building WordPress theme with a visual editor.
This tool allows editing web pages directly. Page builders generally have a sort of love-hate reaction amongst web developers. About Divi, some love its interface and the lighting speed it takes to produce a stylish page. Meanwhile, purists say it’s the antithesis of good web development.
Yet, the leading tech complaint is that Divi isn’t fully customizable or lightweight. Especially when compared with a WordPress templated coded from scratch. These are valid points and ones we must consider on the type of site we have to create.
Divi Builder Design
Divi offers over 50 different modules. These let you add text blurbs, sliders, and images. They are customizable… up to a certain point. Often, to make a Divi page match a planned design, you’d have to apply custom CSS or custom-coded modules.
Divi Builder Speed
All those great functionalities are, when not used, extra. A Divi-built page is somewhat slower than one that is custom-built. The thing is that clients looking to make a company website has more pressing concerns.
Clients may have different budgets or deadlines. But, more important, they aim for a professional way of showing their products. Also, it’s become increasingly common for clients to be able to update their content.
Some examples encompass blog posts or product descriptions. For us, the Divi Builder allows us to offer another solution to our client’s problems. As a result, all parties end up happy.
A site coded from scratch gives us great control over the site's functionality. Yet, it requires more development hours and more expensive hourly rate.
In most scenarios, it also requires a higher level of technical expertise and longer back and forth between Design and Dev teams to ensure a seamless blend of design and usability.
A page-building tool like Divi streamlines the development process. It allows Design teams to apply mock-ups to a live site. Yes, they might run into stumbling blocks or need a custom-coded section. But, in general, they can work independently.
Our Experience with the Divi Builder
Our designers love it because they're in control. They like the creative possibilities when building pages themselves. Also, clients can use their budget toward an excellent design to improve their image. If not, they end up tied up in coding hours for minimal payoff.
A huge plus is Divi's sheer volume of videos and tutorials. Due to this information, it becomes easy to solve Divi problems or learn new tricks.
Further, there's plenty of documentation on the Elegant Themes site. And its large community of users extends the available information.
Now that we've worked with Divi, we can design, considering its capabilities. Another advantage is that we're prepared if a client wants to work with this tool. This is most important when working on projects with strict budgets.
With this tool, we succeed in making long-timed customizations. On Capicua, our dev team can easily code custom modules in React should the need arise. Also, Divi pages can load quickly with optimized images and no slow-loading plugins.
The Divi Builder Saved The Day!
A venture came to us with an urgent project. It needed a new version of its website, completed before an important conference. Furthermore, the business aimed for an easy-to-use Content Management System.
Within this, it needed to be able to update its content. The problem was that the project needed to be affordable and done within one month. With Divi, we assembled an 89 pages site in the required timeframe! Moreover, we could stick to the price and editing abilities the client requested.
Conclusion
Divi isn’t a catch-all solution for everyone. In our experience, it has been a helpful tool for projects with a tight budget. These projects tend to focus on speed and control over design. Are you wondering if the Divi Builder is worth it? We hope this article has helped you make the best decision for your business!
