Creating a website can be an immensely satisfying creative experience, but it can also become overwhelming, especially for those of us who aren’t coding experts. If you use WordPress to create and manage your web pages, there are two strong options for a page builder to help you create websites without needing to know any code. Both Divi and Beaver Builder are great options, but choosing which is best for you can be a little tricky.
In this article, we’ll go over the pros and cons of each option and give you the tools you need to make an informed decision.
What Does a Page Builder Do?
Before we begin, it’s a good idea to review what a page builder does. It’s pretty simple! A page builder allows you to create a web page by dragging and dropping elements onto it. The page builder does the coding for you, so on your end, what you see is what you get. By using a page builder to create your page, you can focus on the content and the design rather than the coding.
Now, with that said, there is one caution we need to mention off the top: Page builders have limitations that custom coded pages do not. Page builders aren’t as flexible, so they may not handle complex or unique projects as effectively as custom coding.
For businesses aiming to go beyond cookie-cutter templates whether it’s optimizing load times, creating bespoke features, or ensuring seamless third-party integrations custom wordpress development services provide the precision and adaptability needed to build a site that truly aligns with your vision and goals.
However, for most uses, a page builder works just fine and can save you time and effort, especially if it means that you can design and build a site on your own.
Divi’s Key Features
Divi was one of the first intuitive page builders, and as such, it has a long history of success behind it. Divi offers ways to create websites that are both visually attractive and fully functional. Divi has a number of compelling features that make it a popular choice for developers:
- Large library. Divi features more than 2,000 pre-made website layouts and more than 200 individual website elements that users can draw from to create web pages quickly. The library has themes and elements for nearly every industry and style.
- Customization. Divi provides tools to customize nearly every aspect of your webpage, from the font to the colors to the spacing. This means that you have full control over your page and are not only able to make it look the way you want but can ensure it won’t duplicate the page of someone else who uses the same template.
Beaver Builder’s Key Features
Beaver Builder is a major rival to Divi and is known for being exceptionally user-friendly. A frequent choice not just for beginners but also for expert page builders, Beaver Builder offers an simple and intuitive way to create functional and beautiful pages quickly:
- Easy to use. Beaver Builder uses a clean, clear, and intuitive interface to make it easy for users to build webpages. Beaver Builder utilizes “what you see is what you get,” meaning that the elements that you drag and drop onto your page appear there when you publish to the web without needing additional work.
- Modular design. Beaver Builder makes building easy by using modular design. Elements like text, images, and forms are added separately and can be moved around and repositioned individually. That way, you have flexibility and control and will not need to make major changes to the site or to code if you want to move an element elsewhere on a page or add or remove one.
Comparing Divi and Beaver Builder
Both Divi and Beaver Builder offer similar features and promise a similarly smooth user experience. In order to help you decide which might work better for you in your WordPress design, let’s take a look at how a few of the key features compare between the two rival page builders:
- Divi’s user interface. Divi’s interface is designed with the user’s ease in mind. It is sleek and modern, and the design is uncluttered and clean. It allows you to see what you are doing in real time. It uses a hierarchical structure to organize elements that can be a bit confusing at first but is carefully crafted to help you make WordPress design decisions efficiently. Divi also makes use of dynamic content capabilities, so you are able to type, for example, directly onto the web page and see in real time how the text will appear in the finished product.
- Beaver Builder’s user interface. By contrast, is organized more like a traditional computer application, with a top row of menus and options. You can select building elements and templates from the ribbon of options, and you work with them through pop-up panels. These pop ups clearly separate the content of the webpage from the tools used to create it.
Overall, Divi’s approach is rooted more in visuals and Beaver Builder’s in settings, so if you are a visual learner, Divi might be the better choice, while hierarchical and rule-based thinkers may prefer Beaver Builder.
In other areas, the two building platforms offer slightly different approaches as well:
- Flexibility. Both page builders offer flexibility, but with more options and more tools, Divi provides greater flexibility, while Beaver Builder is more structured.
- Layout templates. Both page builders offer easy to use layout templates to design your site, but Divi has more to choose from and a greater range than Beaver Builder.
- Speed. Beaver Builder is designed for speed. While Divi has made strides in improving its speed, Beaver Builder currently wins the speed race.
- WooCommerce. Both platforms offer full WooCommerce integration, making it easy to use either to develop a website for ecommerce.
- Pricing. Both page builders offer similar pricing but with different tiers. Beaver Builder has a traditional annual subscription fee, but Divi offers different tiers of pricing for varying periods of time, including a lifetime subscription option.
At the end of the day, either page builder will give you a powerful and easy tool to develop effective and beautiful web pages, so choose the one that best matches your needs.