We have been using Divi since its early days, and we still think it’s the best WordPress theme and page builder. In fact, we highly recommend it as the perfect starting point for building any type of website.
Over the years, Elegant Themes has been continuously working on making Divi more user-friendly for web design. In this continuation, Divi is all set to release their next generation version Divi 5.
As we look ahead, like everyone else we are also curious about what improvements Divi brings out of the box.
Given our extensive experience with the Divi ecosystem, let’s take a closer look at the Divi review including the Divi theme & builder, and see how it can completely transform how you build websites.
So, where to start?
Quick Verdict on Divi Theme and Builder
Before we dive into our in-depth review of Divi 5.0, here’s a concise overview of our verdict on using Divi Theme and Divi Builder.
| Criteria | Verdict |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly with a drag-and-drop builder. |
| Design Customization | Extensive options for design control. |
| Theme Integration | Works seamlessly with any Theme. |
| Template Library | A vast Divi library of professional templates (2000+) |
| Performance and Speed | Optimized for fast-loading websites. Scored 100 on Google Page Speed. |
| SEO Friendliness | Great for SEO with proper optimization. |
| Support and Documentation | Extensive documentation and support. 5/5 on Trustpilot. |
| Divi AI Integration | Innovative AI tools for content and design |
| Pricing | Competitive pricing with a lifetime option. Starting from $89/year. |
| Overall Rating | 4.7 |
What is Divi?
Divi is a multi-purpose WordPress theme and visual page builder developed by Elegant Themes, back in 2013. It functions as both a theme and a visual page builder that makes website creation accessible to beginners while offering sophisticated capabilities for experienced developers.
At its core, Divi operates as an integrated system that allows users to visualize their design in real time while building it, without needing to write a single line of code. This approach significantly streamlines the website development process by eliminating the traditional gap between editing and previewing.
Divi 5.0, the latest version, focuses on speed improvements, modernized code architecture, and AI-powered tools to streamline workflows. It remains one of the most popular all-in-one solutions for WordPress users seeking flexibility and creative freedom.
Difference Between the Divi Builder Plugin and Divi Theme
You can use Divi either as a standalone plugin or as a theme. Elegant Themes comes as a package that includes both the theme and the builder.
While they share several features and are designed to work together, they also serve different primary purposes.
Divi Theme:
- The Divi WordPress Theme is a complete WordPress theme that includes a built-in drag-and-drop page builder (Divi Builder).
- It provides a complete website design solution, including various theme customization options, header and footer builders, and layout settings.
Divi Builder (Plugin):
- The Divi Builder plugin is a standalone page builder plugin that can be used with any WordPress theme, not just the Divi Theme.
- It is focused on creating and designing individual pages and posts, allowing you to apply Divi’s advanced layout and design features to specific content within your site.
How Divi Works?
Divi makes website building easy with a modular design. It offers ready-made blocks like text, images, buttons, and advanced features like contact forms and pricing tables. Each block is fully customizable without coding. With dynamic design variables, you can update styles across your entire site instantly, ensuring a consistent look with minimal effort.
Installing Divi: Getting Started
Installing Divi is a straightforward process. You have to purchase and download Divi from Elegant Themes, then upload and activate it via the WordPress dashboard (Appearance > Themes > Add New).
To access updates, layouts, features, and bug fixes, you must authenticate your Divi theme using Elegant Themes API keys. In the WordPress admin panel, go to the Divi Dashboard and click “Login to Activate Your License.” After logging in with your ElegantThemes.com credentials, an API key is automatically generated and installed, activating your Divi license.
Setting Up and Utilizing the Divi Dashboard
After installing Divi, users can access the Divi Dashboard, the central hub for managing the theme. The dashboard provides access to license status information, version details, and tools for creating and managing pages, posts, and theme templates
Creating Pages with Divi
Divi makes page creation easy with multiple options, from traditional editing to AI-powered generation, allowing users to build websites their way.
Traditional Page Creation Method
The most direct approach to page creation in Divi begins in the WordPress dashboard. Simply, navigate to the WordPress dashboard, hover over “Pages,” and click “Add New.”
After setting the title and basic settings, choose the Divi Visual Builder for more advanced design options. With the Divi Visual Builder, you can design pages using a simple drag-and-drop interface with full control over the layout and elements.
Using Premade Layouts and Templates
Divi provides a library of premade layouts to speed up page creation. These professionally designed templates cover various website types and can be customized to fit specific needs. Users can import full-page designs or individual sections, allowing for easy customization. This saves time while ensuring high-quality design, making it ideal for quick projects or those with limited design resources.
Divi Quick Sites for Rapid Website Creation
Divi Quick Sites makes building a full website fast and easy. It lets users generate multiple pages and theme templates in minutes. Simply go to Divi > Dashboard in WordPress and select “Generate A New Site.”
Users can choose a premade starter site with professional templates or let AI generate a site. After entering basic details like the site name, slogan, and logo, Divi automatically creates all selected pages and templates. This saves hours of work, providing a ready-to-edit website in no time.
Divi 5.0 Best Features
Let’s dive into the standout features of Divi Builder. From its user-friendly drag-and-drop builder to its vast template library, we’ll uncover what makes Divi a top choice for website design.
Drag and Drop Visual Builder
Divi features an in-built drag-and-drop builder, similar to popular WordPress page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, or SeedProd. The only difference with Divi is that its visual builder is seamlessly integrated into the theme. However, you also have the option to use the Divi visual builder as a standalone WordPress plugin.
The visual builder is divided into three sections: the left side houses the page settings, the center features the main builder, and the right side now includes the page settings, which appeared as a modal previously.
Additionally, options like responsive control, save/preview, undo/redo, library, and export/import, which were previously at the bottom, are now positioned at the top.
The core design ability remains the same, but there are more improvements. This builder lets you control your page layout with rows, columns, and spacing. You can add various content modules, such as buttons, images, contact forms, and pricing tables. Each element has detailed settings for content, design, and style control.
Also, Divi 5 introduces breadcrumb navigation, simplifying movement through complex page structures. It displays a clear path of sections, rows, and modules, allowing users to quickly navigate and edit elements. Whether switching sections or managing nested modules, this feature enhances the editing experience with better visibility and control.
In-Line Text Editing
Another exciting addition to Divi 5 is its one-click in-line editing capabilities. Users can click directly on any module to reveal its settings instantly, eliminating the need to search for icons or navigate multiple tabs. This makes the editing process faster and more intuitive.
Wireframe Mode
Divi Wireframe Mode is a backend builder that makes editing easy with rows, columns, and modules. While you need to preview the page separately to see the final look, it offers a smooth workflow. It’s ideal for setting up a page’s structure quickly, especially for larger projects.
Divi Theme Options
Divi Theme Options lets you customize key site settings, including your logo, global colors, navigation, SEO, and performance. You can also enable the Divi Builder for custom post types and add scripts for extra functionality.
The General settings allow you to configure your logo, color palette, social links, sidebar layout, Google fonts, and performance options. The Navigation tab helps manage dropdown menus, homepage links, and top-tier menu settings, while the Builder section lets you configure Divi Builder settings, including post-type integration.
The Layout settings provide control over sidebar placement and default page layouts, and the Ads section allows you to set up ad placements for monetization. For SEO optimization, the SEO tab enables settings for the homepage, single-page, and index-page SEO configurations.
The Integration section lets you add custom code snippets for third-party tools like Google Analytics, and the Updates section allows you to enter your Elegant Themes username and API key to enable updates and support. These options ensure a flexible and optimized website setup.
Divi Theme Builder
Divi Builder’s theme builder which is introduced in Divi 4.0 extends the drag-and-drop concept to your existing WordPress theme templates. The Divi Theme Builder is a powerful tool within the Divi theme that lets you create and assign custom templates to pages and posts using the Divi Builder. It gives you complete control over every element of your website, eliminating the need to edit theme template files manually.
With the Theme Builder, you can design global headers and footers, custom 404 pages, blog post layouts, product pages, and archive templates. It also includes mobile-friendly features for a responsive design. However, if you’re only building simple landing pages, you may not need this feature.
Further read: Best WordPress Theme Builder
Custom Header and Footer Builder
Though it’s an inbuilt feature of the theme builder it is worth mentioning separately. Divi gives you complete control to design your website’s headers and footers just like you design pages with its builder and modules. Therefore, you’re not limited to regular headers and footers.
Divi 5 update offers even more layout choices and control over how things look. You can design unique headers and footers for different sections of your site, or create a global header and footer that can be applied to the entire website.
Also, pull data from custom fields, WooCommerce, or third-party plugins and apply conditional logic to display/hide elements based on user roles, devices, or behavior.
Theme Customizer
Divi theme customizer settings contain a lot of customization options for every single element of your page. These options are organized into different panels and even let you set global settings for site identity, layout settings, typography, button style, menu, body text, color schemes, menu structure, and many more options including homepage settings.
You can find these customization options in various panels within Divi. The General Settings panel allows you to adjust site-wide elements such as site identity, layout, typography, and background. In the Header and Navigation section, you can customize the look and behavior of your site’s header and menus.
The Footer panel lets you choose a layout, add widgets, and personalize its appearance. For interactive elements, the Buttons section enables you to modify size, color, and hover effects. The Blog panel provides controls for adjusting text, font, height, and spacing within your blog layout.
To maintain brand consistency, the Color Schemes section allows you to manage your primary and secondary color palette. Additionally, Divi offers mobile-friendly features for responsive design, ensuring a seamless experience across devices, with a live preview of every change you make.
40 Divi modules and 25 Woo Module
Divi Builder modules are the fundamental elements that simplify website creation with Divi Builder plugin. With over 40 customizable modules, you will get a wide range of functions like heading, megamenu, table, gallery, countdown timers, email opt-in forms, maps, testimonials, video sliders, and more.
These modules are easy to use and customize with drag-and-drop functionalities, giving you all the flexibility in designing a whole new website. Additionally, you will get 25 dedicated modules specifically designed for WooCommerce.
In addition to the default modules, you can also incorporate specialized modules from third-party plugins like DiviFlash, and DiviGear to add unique features and functionalities tailored to specific niche requirements.
Professional Templates Library and Layout Packs
Divi offers both creative freedom and ready-made templates. You can start from scratch or pick from a library of 200+ professional templates. These templates are grouped into packs, each tailored to specific types of websites, like cafes or online stores.
You can easily customize these templates and save your designs for future use which eventually saves you time. Even if you’re not a design expert, Divi has you covered with a high-quality, premade layout pack. You can mix and match templates from different packs to create a unique site.
With Divi, you can either build from the ground up or choose from 2,000+ free pre-made layouts. They constantly add new layouts, and you get access to royalty-free images and icons. Whether it’s a restaurant, agency, or any other business, Divi has the perfect layout for you.
Complete Design Control
Divi provides full design control, making it easy to create hover effects, responsive layouts, and visually appealing elements. You can customize fonts, shapes, and borders, and apply filters and effects to enhance your site’s look. Its intuitive interface allows you to transform elements, add animations, and include custom code for interactive designs. With advanced display logic, you can show or hide elements based on specific conditions, enabling personalized content.
The Visual Builder makes responsive design simple by allowing seamless breakpoint switching. Divi 5 expands the original three breakpoints with four new options—Phone Wide, Tablet Wide, Widescreen, and Ultra Widescreen—ensuring designs fit all devices. You can also customize breakpoint widths for specific screens, offering greater flexibility.
To streamline styling, Divi uses a preset-based system that lets you create reusable styles for consistency. Instead of styling each element manually, you can turn option groups like backgrounds, borders, and text styles into presets that work across different elements. When a preset is updated, all linked elements update instantly, saving time and maintaining a cohesive design.
Divi Color Management System and Magic Color Suggestions
Divi’s color system in WordPress is powerful and flexible. It offers three main color palettes: Saved colors, Global colors, and Recent colors.
- Saved Colors: You can set a default color palette in Divi’s theme options and access these saved colors anywhere in the Visual Builder.
- Global Colors: These are colors you can use to make consistent design choices across your entire website. Changing a global color updates all elements using that color, making it easy to maintain a cohesive look.
- Recent Colors: This palette stores colors you’ve recently used during your design work, making it simple to access and reuse them.
There’s also a handy feature called Magic Color Suggestions that suggests harmonious colors based on your recent and saved colors, making it easier to create or edit color palettes. You can access this feature by expanding the color palette.
WooBuilder for WooCommerce
Divi and WooCommerce work seamlessly together to create a fully customizable online store. With Divi’s user-friendly platform, you have complete control over your store’s design and functionality. It offers 16 WooCommerce product modules and 8 cart and checkout modules, to build an eCommerce store from the ground up with a cohesive shopping experience.
The drag-and-drop visual builder allows you to design custom pages effortlessly, while dynamic content automatically pulls in product details like images, descriptions, prices, and SKUs—eliminating the need for coding. And to kickstart your online store, Divi offers 100s of pre-designed shop templates also.
Divi also supports dynamic product data, ensuring real-time updates for prices, SKUs, and inventory levels across different modules. This integration keeps product information accurate, improving the user experience and reducing cart abandonment rates.
Built-In Split-Testing
Having creative control over your WordPress website is great, but it’s tough to predict how your changes will impact your visitors. The Divi Builder plugin includes a handy feature called Divi Leads for testing your designs. You can try different layouts and content variations to see which ones boost conversions.
For example, you can test two versions of a button to see which gets more clicks. Divi Leads gives you clear results that help you find the best way to achieve your goals by testing different elements like colors, headlines, and layouts.
It’s like having a built-in conversion tracking system to see which changes work best. So, you can make improvements that increase your site’s effectiveness. Once the test is done, you can pick the top-performing design.
Divi AI: Powerful AI Tools for WordPress Creators
Divi AI is a powerful tool that understands Divi and can create content, write code, and generate images for your website. It works seamlessly within the Divi builder, analyzing your website’s context to provide contextually relevant content and images.
- Divi Quick Sites: Divi Quick Sites lets users launch a WordPress website in minutes with AI-powered automation and pre-made starter sites. It handles setup, menus, templates, colors, and AI-generated content effortlessly. With thousands of modules and Unsplash images, users can customize designs while maintaining visual consistency. Free with a Divi membership, it offers unlimited site generation and up to 4 free AI-powered sites.
- Divi Text AI: Divi Text AI is all about improving your website’s written content. It acts as your AI writing companion, helping you create, modify, and refine text for your site. It can effortlessly generate text content, such as titles, paragraphs, and blog posts. You can also use it as a copy editor to adjust tone, length, clarity, and creativity.
- Divi Image AI: Divi Image AI focuses on creating and enhancing images for your website. It can generate images, including professional photos and stunning artwork, using natural language instructions. You can choose from various styles, create images from scratch, or modify existing ones to fit your needs. Divi AI can also upscale lower-quality images, making them crisper and higher resolution.
- Divi Code AI: Divi Code AI acts as your web developer, helping with the technical aspects of your website. It can write code, generate custom CSS, and customize website modules within the Visual Builder. It’s an excellent tool for creating custom elements and features, as well as modifying and improving existing code throughout your site.
You’ll need to buy a Divi membership to use Divi AI. Once you have it, you can access Divi AI for free or upgrade to a Divi AI membership for unlimited use. Already a Divi user? Get Divi AI for just $24 per month.
If you want to know more about Divi AI read our in-depth Divi AI guide.
Divi Cloud
Divi Cloud is like your website storage solution. Anything you save here can be used across all your sites, anytime. You can save layouts, headers, footers, and content blocks in the cloud, and they’ll be ready for you when you start a new website. Also, organize and find them easily with categories, folders, and visual previews.
Especially if you are dealing with multiple websites, there is no longer any need to import and export layouts to other websites. Although you can store up to 50 items for free, an unlimited option will cost you $8 monthly.
If you want to master Divi Cloud read our ultimate Divi Cloud guide for beginners.
Divi Dash
Divi Dash is a centralized WordPress management tool that simplifies managing multiple websites from one dashboard. It offers one-click updates, automated updates, client management, and team collaboration features.
With Divi Dash, you can easily update WordPress core files, plugins, and themes, as well as manage themes, plugins, and user access across all your sites. It provides a comprehensive overview of each website’s status and streamlines tasks such as updating everything with a single click, deleting unnecessary data, and facilitating efficient teamwork with one-click logins and user management.
Divi Dash is included for free with the Divi membership.
Access To Extra, Bloom, and Monarch
With Elegant Themes, you get a lot of great stuff when you sign up. You’ll get the Divi theme, Divi Builder, and more than 200+ other WordPress themes including Extra, Bloom email opt-in plugin, and Monarch social sharing plugin.
- Extra: Extra stands as an attractive and robust WordPress magazine theme, made for online magazines, news websites, blogs, and various web publications.
- Bloom: Bloom represents an advanced email opt-in tool, facilitating rapid email list growth. This plugin offers diverse features, including seamless integration with multiple email service providers, pop-ups, fly-ins, and in-line forms, among other resources.
- Monarch: Monarch, on the other hand, serves as a potential social sharing plugin. Designed to enhance social engagement and effortlessly expand your social media presence. With access to over 20 social sharing platforms and a multitude of customization options, it’s a valuable asset for your site.
Divi Role Editor
The role editor in Divi lets you control what different types of WordPress users can do. You can restrict access to certain parts of your website to avoid any accidental damage. There are various user roles, like administrators, editors, authors, contributors, and subscribers.
Administrators have full control and should be limited to protect your site. Editors can edit content but not change themes or plugins. Authors can only edit their own posts, contributors can write but not publish, and subscribers can only read and comment.
Contact Form Builder and Email Opt-in Provider Support
Divi offers a versatile contact form module that lets you create custom contact forms to gather specific information. It includes options like dropdowns, checkboxes, and radio buttons. You can also add validation rules and conditional logic to your fields.
Divi’s email opt-in module Bloom makes it easy for visitors to join your mailing list. It works with 20 popular email marketing providers, giving you flexibility in design. You can create custom fields, segment your subscribers, and use spam protection. It also comes with GDPR compliance features.
SEO Friendliness
Divi is one of the best SEO-friendly WordPress themes with great SEO features. Besides its in-built SEO settings, Divi is compatible with any 3rd party WordPress SEO plugin like Yoast SEO, Rank Math SEO, and All-in-One SEO.
However, Rank Math is the most fantastic SEO plugin when exploring the SEO aspect of the Divi Theme. After installing, you can find the Rank Math icon alongside the page setting icon. Clicking it will appear an SEO setting bar, which will let you modify the post’s title, description, and permalink without leaving the existing page.
Want to know more about Divi SEO, read our dedicated Divi SEO Guide.
Divi 4 vs Divi 5 Performance Analysis
Divi 5 is a major upgrade over Divi 4, offering better speed, performance, and user experience. Unlike Divi 4, which relied on shortcodes and a growing framework that slowed down the Visual Builder, Divi 5 introduces a modern, modular architecture. This reduces unnecessary code, improves loading times, and makes both the Visual Builder and front-end more responsive.
Divi 5 brings significant improvements in speed, performance, and scalability compared to Divi 4. In the Visual Builder, Divi 4 often felt sluggish when handling complex layouts due to reprocessing shortcodes and large files. In contrast, Divi 5 offers a much faster and more responsive experience, with quicker loading times and instant changes without delays.
For page load times, Divi 4 relied heavily on shortcodes, leading to longer load times. It achieved a 2.6-second load time on mobile and an 84 performance score on Google PageSpeed Insights, which wasn’t efficient for a visual builder.
Divi 5 improves this with optimized asset loading, using conditional CSS and JavaScript to enhance speed. As a result, it now scores 99 on mobile and 100 on desktop in Google PageSpeed Insights, ensuring a faster, SEO-friendly experience.
When it comes to scalability, Divi 4’s complex codebase made updates and maintenance challenging. Divi 5, built on a modern framework, is designed for easy scalability, allowing seamless future updates and better compatibility with emerging web technologies.
For a clearer comparison, we created a page for each Divi version using the same theme on a shared hosting plan. Each page includes paragraph text, a large image, a pricing table, and a call-to-action.
Here is the page design,
Divi 5 Page Speed on Pingdom
Divi 5 Page Speed on GTmetrix
Divi 4 Page Speed on Pingdom
Divi 4 Page Speed on GTmetrix
Divi 5 performs really well compared to Divi 4. According to GTmetrix, Divi 5 scores an impressive 96% for performance, while Divi 4 trails behind with an 81% score. Additionally, Divi 5 loads in just 1.3 seconds, compared to Divi 4’s 2.3 seconds.
On Pingdom, Divi 5 also shows superior efficiency, with only 20 HTTP requests compared to Divi 4’s 39. Divi 5’s load time and page size are noticeably better.
Customer Support and Documentation
Divi offers extensive support through multiple sources including documentation with “how-to” guides and video tutorials for user education. Their YouTube channel, managed by Elegant Themes, is a valuable resource for tutorials. However, there is no dedicated email ticketing support system available.
Inclusive Documentation
Divi comes with a detailed documentation section. You can gain in-depth knowledge of all the theme customization features and detailed instructions on installing and using Divi. Moreover, one can access the codebase documentation areas to customize the theme as a child theme. A dedicated blog is also there to provide more educational instruction and suggestions.
Community Support
Divi lets you hang out with a massive community of 800k+ through social sites, meetups, forums, and other online communities. Users worldwide are active in an official Facebook group of more than 70k members. Further, you can join discussion forums, unofficial social sites, and regular worldwide meetups. Hence, there will always be someone to discuss ideas and practice.
Live Chat Support
You will always find expert support through the new 24/7 customer service system. This support system is more convenient than the previous private discussion forum method. Now, there are no issues with the customer support system. You will get a quick response from the support team by clicking the chat icon on the Divi website.
Divi recently launched “Divi VIP,” which offers advanced support with a promise of premium assistance within 30 minutes at an additional cost.
Divi Marketplace
Elegant Themes offers a marketplace where third-party developers can sell Divi plugins, modules, extensions, Divi child themes, and layouts for Divi. If you need something not in Divi, you can find it here. With a vibrant community, you’ll discover free and premium products, similar to WordPress.
Pricing of Divi
Divi offers two main pricing options: Yearly access or a one-time lifetime purchase. Yearly access includes Divi at $89 per year and Divi Pro, which adds extra features, at $277 per year. On the other hand, lifetime access entails a one-time cost of $249 for Divi and $297 for Divi Pro.
The key difference lies in the cost spread over time; yearly plans are cheaper upfront but accumulate expenses over time, while lifetime plans require a single payment but may lack access to future feature upgrades without renewal.
Divi Pro also includes Divi AI for AI-powered design suggestions, Divi Cloud for website hosting with Divi pre-installed, and Divi VIP for priority customer support.
If you’re new to Divi and want to test it out the yearly option is perfect for you, while the lifetime option is suitable for long-term users aiming to avoid recurring costs.
I must admit that compared to competitors like Elementor, Squarespace, and Wix, Divi’s pricing is much more competitive.
Is Divi Worth Your Money?
Now let’s move on to the actual trait. In the competitive WordPress market, the Divi theme is an affordable option. And why shouldn’t you pick this best-selling theme when you can get access to all Elegant products like Extra Theme, Bloom, Monarch, and a standalone visual builder plugin?
The combination of Divi Builder and Divi Theme delivers a powerful toolset for creating visually striking and efficient WordPress sites. Also, the integration of AI tools and Divi cloud on the other hand adds an innovative edge.
If you take the $277 yearly Pro pack, all the additional Elegant Themes products are available including Divi AI, Divi Cloud, Divi VIP, and more. You’ll also have access to more than 300 website packs so that you can build unlimited websites.
In the case of the basic Divi yearly plan, it costs you $89 for unlimited website building. Although you can use the Divi theme on your website, you can no longer access additional products, all upcoming updates, and features from Elegant Themes after one year.
Nevertheless, Divi is the preferred risk-free option compared to other lifetime options on the market, with a versatile website pack and beneficial features. Furthermore, Elegant Themes’ 30-day money-back guarantee ensures that your investment is entirely risk-free.
If you’re still unsure about Divi, you have plenty of other best WordPress themes as alternative options to Divi.
Wrapping Up
This concludes our thorough review of Divi, where we tried our best to give you a comprehensive look at both the Divi Theme and the Builder combined, covering their features and functionalities in depth.
I am pretty sure this must be the comprehensive Divi review you were looking for. So, if you’re looking to elevate your website’s design and functionality, consider giving Divi a try and unlock a world of possibilities for your online presence.
Don’t forget to share your experience in the comment box. Anything Good? Bad? Or somewhere in between?
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