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Divi Review: Introduction

Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes and often claimed to be the best of all time. Therefore, we’ll be doing a Divi review today. Judging by the sheer number of WP themes available, and the number of users our favorite CMS has, being the queen of all themes is a heck of a title!

The original release of Divi came around in late 2013. However, in the WordPress world, things change fast. New themes, builders and updates come out every single day. Recently, even WordPress launched its biggest update in its history. With all the turmoil, it’s hard to stay on top.

In this WordPress Divi review, we will cover different aspects to see if it is still the undisputed champion like it was in the past years. Our Divi review will look at things from their 4.0 update point and beyond, and answer the question “Is Divi Still The Best WordPress Builder?”. Stay tuned!

What is Divi?

WordPress made building websites easier than ever. With it, even people who are not that tech-savvy can build good-looking and functional websites. For that reason, WordPress powers more than 30% of all websites, with the number growing.

However, while a basic user can build a good-looking website in WordPress just with a free theme, to push the looks and functionality to the next level you need more.

One option is to start coding and make all the changes manually. However, the number one reason behind why people choose WordPress is usually the ease of use. Coding is exactly the opposite, at least for most beginners. Unless you hire a developer or learn to code, this option is off the table for most people.

The second option is to buy a premium theme, such as Divi. Many of these themes have pre-built presets you can customize, but also come with page builders that let you edit everything with drag & drop technology, or by simply adjusting sliders. This is much more user-friendly than coding, don’t you agree?

But, there are a lot of free themes, and a lot of free page builders, so why pay for Divi?

Because Elegant Themes made sure Divi gives you all you will ever need to build almost any kind of website you like. Additionally, it allows total customization, letting you edit every single detail you desire while remaining easy to use. Simply put, Divi is the most advanced page builder that is built into a theme that’s available. It’s tested by tens of thousands of users worldwide, most of which have nothing but praise.

How Divi Works

Divi gives an unprecedented amount of control into the hands of even complete beginners. The Divi Builder is a drag & drop builder, so no coding is required (but it’s allowed). You will not feel constricted in any way or forced to code or ask for help. It is worth noting that the Divi Builder is compatible with other WordPress themes. This is a big selling point if you want to work with the builder on a more lightweight theme than the Divi theme.

Divi allows you to customize everything on the front end, making the experience much more enjoyable. Almost all free or standard WordPress themes require you to “preview” all the changes you make in order to see how they will look for end users. This might not seem like a big deal, but it does complicate the process. That is not the case with Divi as it has both a drag and drop back end and front end builder.

What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editors like Divi correct that. They give you the option to make changes on the frontend. This saves you a lot of hassle and time when trying to visualize what your changes will actually look like rather than saving and previewing changes. But, you can also use the backend editor, that will allow you to make more advanced changes. Ideally, you will use both front end and back end editors sporadically. You may find yourself leaning to using one more heavily than another over time.

To make things simple, Divi uses a rich library of elements. These include standard options which include:

• Text
• Images
• Galleries
• Social Follow Media Options
• Filterable Portfolios
• Pricing Tables, and more!

This is one feature that makes Divi so unique – with it, you will not have to install separate plugins for all those functions. Instead, select one of the 30+ elements.

Those elements are entirely customizable, again without coding, through Divi Module Customizer.

Via the handy split-testing tool, you can also load different options at the same time, and test them up against each other. This allows you to decide which one will lead to the best results for your web design. This way, you don’t have to constantly undo and redo changes throughout the process like most other themes or builders require you to do while conducting split tests. You can save your custom elements for later use, which is a huge time saver as well.

Divi Layout Packs

When you start using Divi, you start with an empty page with endless possibilities. However, many people will find themselves overwhelmed when trying to figure out where and how to start. There are times you just want to set things up quickly, taking care of the details later on the go. If that is the case for you, Divi has the perfect solution – layout packs.

Divi has more than 100 different built in layouts, for all kinds of websites, separated into specific categories and over 760 different layouts on the Elegant Themes layout pack section.

Community & Non-Profit, Education, Business, Art & Design, are some of the categories. Elegant Themes developers carefully design all the layouts, making sure they are unique, even before your customizations. So no more of the same old cookie cutter designs like with other builders have. Divi uses original photography, and custom illustrations to make your site stand out from the crowd.

They group layouts in “website packs” which contain 7-8 individually pre-designed pages, giving you a lot to choose from. You can click on the desired pack, and preview it before loading anything into your site. And you do all that without ever leaving the Divi Builder, making the whole process streamlined and effortless.

Once you decide to upload a layout pack onto your site it completely transforms the look of your entire website in a matter of seconds.

Every Divi layout is mobile-responsive, which is extremely important these days. More people browse the web from their phones and tablet computers than from desktops. You have to make sure your site looks good no matter the screen size. Divi does exactly that.

Once you load your pre-set layout pack, you can change or edit everything to your liking. Layout packs are a good option for beginners who don’t know where to start, but also for experienced web designers who know exactly what they want to build. Using Divi layout packs will just make the whole design process much smoother and faster overall.

The custom layout packs that you created can also be saved and reused later on for different sites or pages. This again is a massive time saver for designers who might be managing numerous clients or projects at the same time. By being able to provide clients with a general idea of what their website might look like quickly you’re likely to meet deadlines, get feedback faster, and get more referrals from happy clients.

Divi Community and Support

When choosing a theme or builder for your site, it is a good idea to go with the crowd and pick something popular. I say this because this will ensure that you can always find help online. Because Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes in the world there are thousands of users just like you out there. If you encounter a problem, no matter how unique it seems, chances are that somebody else had the same issue before. If you search on the Divi Forum, or Facebook page, and will usually find the answer. You will likely need to do a little digging to find and then apply the solution to your own website, but the answers are out there.

But, Divi is a premium theme which means that you can ask for support from the developers. You can do that in two ways – through their live chat support, or by submitting a ticket. Elegant themes takes good care of their customers, and you are likely to get your questions answered quickly. While you wait, you can browse through the knowledge base, and try finding the answer yourself in forums, in their Facebook groups, or online.

Another thing that sets Divi apart is they have video tutorials of how to use each plugin. This ensures that you are using them in the right way on their website. This is very beneficial as it allows even the newest users get started with their plugins quickly.

What’s also great about Divi are the continual updates it gets. They add new layouts each week, frequent patches, and expand the already long features list. Divi also stays current with any WordPress update. Because of this it won’t break your site when the CMS gets core patches. However, if you want to receive future updates, you need a continuous subscription. This brings us to our next important topic, pricing.

Pricing

To get Divi, you will need an Elegant Themes subscription. The good news is that with it, you get access to all their products, both themes, and plugins.

However, because Divi is so massive and the theme of all themes, you won’t need anything else apart from the theme itself, and the continuous updates the subscription gets you.

Divi is not cheap, at least when you look at the price at first glance. $89 every year sounds like a lot when compared to some other popular themes.

However, unlike many builders such as Elementor or Brizy, you do not need to purchase a license with an ongoing subscription because of their lifetime access pricing option.

You can also use Divi on an unlimited number of websites, making it great for developers and designers who build websites for a living. This is something very important to consider if you are a new designer. Purchasing one off themes for each client off somewhere like Themeforest can get costly.

And it gets even better – with Divi’s Lifetime option for $249 comes lifetime support. You only need to pay once, and you can use it forever, on as many sites as you want. This is by far the most cost-effective option of all. You can click the image to get the discount below!

Plenty of other themes and builders do have a one time fee, but only for a single website. That may work for people looking for a single personal or business site. However, professionals working on more websites require more, and an Elegant Themes Lifetime License for $249 is exactly what they need.

You may be wondering what happens if you don’t renew your license?

You will still keep your website, with all the changes. However, you won’t get any more theme and plugin updates. Additionally, you will not be able to get new layouts that come out. This might work for a while, but your site will break eventually when a major WordPress update comes out. It truly pays to purchase the lifetime access over the shorter plans in my opinion.

Not having the latest versions of the core themes and plugins is also a security threat. Considering the value of the Elegant Themes Lifetime License, it’s a risk simply not worth taking.

An important thing to bring up is that Elegant Themes offers a 30 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with your purchase of Divi. This gives you a risk-free trial of their builder and plenty of time to go through your own Divi review process.

Do You Still Need Divi After The Gutenberg Update?

Recently, the WordPress 5.0 Update introduced Gutenberg, which is a drag & drop page builder, now a part of the core. At first glance, this builder has a lot of options Divi has.

While that is mostly true, it will only work for the most basic users that are likely making simple blogs or personal websites. Elegant Themes has spent years building and improving their design. Because of this they aren’t easily going to be overtaken.

The superior drag & drop builder is just one drop in a sea of features Divi theme has to offer. Just take those pre-built layouts as an example, and you will have hundreds of different site options out of the box.

That is something no other premium theme can match at this time, let alone Gutenberg. So yes, even after the WordPress 5.0, Divi is still going strong and is well worth the investment.

Divi vs Other Premium Builders

One of the newer WordPress builders on the block is Elementor. You can read my full Elementor Pro Review here.

Elementor has made many major strides as a plugin only that it took Divi years to achieve. One of the big benefits of being a builder only, and not a theme like Divi is that it is very light weight. This helps website page speed loading time improve to faster times than Divi normally can.

Load times are becoming more important in this world of low attention spans and also in the eyes of Google. Google wants to deliver high quality website content to users as fast as possible. Because Divi has become more bloated with all of the features added over the years this is something to consider when purchasing this builder.

However, most individuals who use Elementor recommend using it with a premium theme like Astra, WPOcean or GeneratePress. All of which can add to your start up costs as well. Both of these things need to be considered before going with this option.

Some Cons That Divi Has

Although Divi is drag & drop, which is the most beginner-friendly option for building sites, it can be a bit overwhelming when you first install it for some individuals.

It offers so many options that developers love, allowing complete customization. But few people need all of them, and some even find it to be too much. All of these features can add to the bloat that was mentioned earlier.

Most basic users will be completely happy just by loading a preset layout pack and customizing it here and there. If you are that type of user, all the advanced options Divi has are overkill for you. For you, it is better to find something simpler, and cheaper. Perhaps a better option would be combining Elementor’s free version with an Astra starter site.

Pricing is another double-edged sword. $249 for unlimited websites sounds like a bargain, but in reality, not everyone needs to have an unlimited number of sites.

For people who only need one or two sites, paying this much is still more than double you would pay to get two copies of let’s say a $60 premium theme. There are a lot of great choices in that price range in various theme marketplaces.

Again, Divi makes sense either for pros who build sites for money or for people with a lot of websites. Unless you have really deep pockets, getting Divi for a single site is not the best investment. In that case you may be better off going a different route.

But, the biggest issue with Divi is what happens if you decide to move on. Divi is shortcode-based theme and builder. If you were to uninstall the theme, it will likely leave your site in ruins. You are likely to have broken pages all over the place.

However, Divi has taken care of this by creating their Divi builder plugin. This plugin works on basically any theme out there, just like Elementor. It even can incorporate the Divi layout packs and builder features that you find on the Divi theme itself. For a long time this was a major drawback, but with the Divi builder plugin all that stress is alleviated. 

Divi Coupon Code

Elegant Themes has been kind enough to provide us with an awesome Divi coupon code. Now, depending on when you are viewing this coupon it may range anywhere from 10-30%. This range is due to what kind of promotion Elegant Themes is running. Either way, I hope you find this Divi coupon code to be helpful, and that you get a nice discount if you choose to go with them!

Divi Review: Conclusion

At this point in time I think that Divi has a better pricing model for the customer wanting to design numerous websites, but the teams at Elementor and even Brizy have been more innovative in their latest releases and builder options in my opinion.

I believe at this time Elementor is a superior WordPress builder to Divi, and that they will continue to be more innovative in the future as well. Their team has really listened to designers within their community. They have also been able to add many great features without slowing down the themes they’re creating websites on.

With that being said, I think Divi is a great option as well. It’s especially great for the developers or website owners out there who are worried about the long term renewal costs associated with builders like Elementor or Brizy.

In the end I think it is worth taking the time to experiment with each of the popular WordPress builders. You can always use their refund policies if they aren’t a good fit for you.

I hope that you have found this Divi builder review to be helpful. Please consider picking up a discounted copy of it below if you’re interested in getting it for yourself.

My Final Rating is 9 out of 10 Stars

Are you a Divi user? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this Divi review below! Feel free to add your own mini Divi review with some pros and cons. Please note that only comments that we believe would be helpful to our audience related to this Divi review will be published.

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