Divi vs Elementor | 9 Crucial Differences To Know in 2023

Hey there, friendly stranger!

Having doubts about Divi vs Elementor?

I get you! It’s a choice many people have doubts about. And I’m here to help you understand the differences, so you can make the choice that’s best for you!

You found the right page. I’ve built and analyzed over 300 websites built with Divi and Elementor and I’m here to share my experiences with you.

My work is supported by affiliate commissions. Learn more.

Divi vs Elementor at a glance

1. Two most popular WordPress website builders

Divi and Elementor are the 2 most popular website builders on the market. Combined they have over 6.5 million websites up and running.

2. Aggressive feature releases

Both Divi and Elementor have been releasing new features at the speed of light. It’s clear that they’re going head to head to become the most popular website builder. That being said, when one of them releases. a popular feature, it won’t be long until the other released it as well.

3. Main difference between Divi and Elementor

Divi is the only one offering a lifetime license with unlimited websites for a one-time fee of $249. Elementor has an annual recurring fee starting at $49 per year for one website.

4. Incredible templates

Elementor has over 300 incredible free layouts, while Divi has only 215. That being said, I’m sure you’ll find a beautiful one with both of them!

5. Disadvantages Divi ❌

• Divi’s popup builder isn’t amazing
• It has a lot of features, which could take some time to grasp
• Divi gets glitchy with long pages

6. Disadvantages Elementor ❌

• It’s impossible to get custom solutions from support
• 3rd party plugins could cause issues
• The block library isn’t amazing

• Click here to read the full Divi review for 2021.
• Here are my favorite 70+ Divi website examples of 2021
• Here are my favorite Elementor website examples of 2021

Installing Divi or Elementor is actually super easy! Just follow my steps, and you’ll have everything set up in less than 5 minutes. Pinky promise!

I split it up into 2 phases, in case you already have great hosting, feel free to skip phase 1.

Phase 1: Get hosting

Phase 2: Install Divi or Elementor

So let’s start with phase 1. Get Hosting.

I assume you want your website to be visited by thousands of people around the world.

That’s why you need to publish your website on the world wide web.

You can do this by getting a hosting company to publish your website. Over the past 5 years, I’ve tried dozens of hosting companies.

Why did I switch that much? Because many of them suck.

Many web hosting companies are only after your money and don’t care if your website gets hacked or has bugs. Sure, they’ll look into it – for a few hundred bucks.

But one of them caught my attention.

I’ve experienced this web hosting company to be extremely helpful. They have 24/7 support which helps you with basically everything. Alongside, they’re cheap too!

The best part? It has a one-click WordPress install, so you’ll be live within 5 minutes.

Follow these 4 steps to set up your hosting account:

Step 1: Open the website of Bluehost and click ‘get started’

I arranged a nice 50% discount for your entire hosting plan.

Step 2: Select your hosting plan

Depending on how many websites you’re planning to host, you can select your plan. If you only need to build 1 website, you can select the cheapest one.

Step 3: Find an available domain name

Here comes the fun part. Play around with the domain name checker and find one that’s available. Click ‘next’ if you found one.

Step 4: Enter your details and confirm the payment

Now you’ve registered with Bluehost, it’s time to install Wordpress. Luckily for you, this is the easiest part. Bluehost offers a one-click install for Wordpress.

Here’s what you need to do:

In the control panel on your left  side, click ‘My Sites’.

From here you can launch your Wordpress website by clicking on ‘Create site by Wordpress’.

That’s it. It’s dead easy.

Now you’ve registered your WordPress website it’s time to install Divi or Elementor. I’ll start by explaining how you can install Divi, and then I’ll explain how to install Elementor below.

Phase 2 – How To Install Divi

Step 1: Go to the website of Elegant Themes and click on pricing

Step 2: Select the plan which fits your needs

I would recommend taking the lifetime plan, but if you’re short on cash or doing a short-term project the annual plan is obviously fine as well.

Step 3: Fill in the payment details

Step 4: Log in to your account and go to downloads

Download the Divi theme. If you do this, you won’t need the Divi builder plugin. All its features are included in the Divi theme. 

Now I’ll repeat the same process for Elementor.

Phase 2 – How To Install Elementor

Step 1: Go to the website of Elementor and click on pricing

Step 2: Select the plan which fits your needs

I would recommend taking the Essential Plan if you’re starting with 1 website.

Step 3: Fill in the payment details

Step 4: Log in to your account and go to downloads

Download the Elementor builder.

Now you’ve downloaded Divi or Elementor it’s time to upload it to WordPress.

Uploading a theme is very simple. Here’s what you got to do:

Step 5: Go to your WordPress dashboard

Step 6: On the left side, click on ‘appearance’, and then on ‘themes’

Step 7: Click on ‘add new’ and go to ‘upload theme’

Now select your Divi or Elementor Theme file and submit it.

Step 8: Click ‘activate theme’

That’s it. Divi or Elementor is installed!

Both Divi and Elementor have outstanding templates.

First I’ll share some Divi templates, then I’ll continue with some Elementor Templates.

Although you and I might have a different opinion on what looks good and what looks bad – I’m sure you’ll like a couple of Divi’s 215 free templates.

Here are a couple of Divi emplates:

Example template 1 – Agency Template

Example template 2 – Juice Shop Template

Example template 3 – Travel Agency Template

Things you should know about Divi Templates

A few important notes:

All templates are responsive

• Which means they will fit any browser on any device. They are 100% mobile-friendly.

All templates can be customized to the maximum

• There are literally no limitations. I’ve been in a situation where I started with the Agency Website Template but gradually customized it all so that it had literally no building blocks of that template left.

Great images will improve any template

• Web design nowadays is highly affected by great images. You can find great stock images for free using Unsplash or Pexels to improve your design.

Let’s continue with some amazing Elementor templates.

In fact, click here if you want to see the other 300 Elementor templates.

Elementor template 1 – Design Portfolio Template

Elementor template 2 – Hair & Beauty Template

Elementor template 3 – Japanese Restaurant Template

Things you should know about Elementor Templates

A few important notes:

All templates are responsive

• Which means they will fit any browser on any device. They are 100% mobile-friendly.

All templates can be customized to the maximum

• There are no limitations. You can adjust any Elementor template to whatever you like

Great images will improve any template

• Web design nowadays is highly affected by great images. You can find great stock images for free using Unsplash or Pexels to improve your design.

It’s tough to compare the user interface of Divi and elementor, as it’s highly dependent on personal preferences.

There will be tons of people who think that Divi clearly has a better editor. But then again, others will say Elementor wins.

I’ll start by explaining how you can edit pages in Divi. Then I’ll do the same for Elementor.

The Divi Editor compared to Elementor

The Divi visual builder allows you to customize everything.

Divi works with Sections, Rows, and Modules.

What is a Divi Section

Sections are the biggest building block in the Divi builder. You can think of them as horizontal stacking blocks that can group your content into visually distinguishable areas. In Divi, everything you build starts with a section. This content wrapper has various settings that can be used to do some really awesome things.

What is a Divi Row

Rows are the various column layouts that can be placed inside of sections. Much like modules, rows have various settings that can be accessed by clicking the settings icon on the top left of the row. Rows settings in particular can be used to greatly increase the variety of layouts built with the Divi Builder since they create the structure that your modules are housed in.

What is a Divi Module

A Divi module is a content element that’s represented visually by a block. We can drag and drop that block anywhere within sections, rows, and columns to build our layouts. Each module has individual settings that can be adjusted with visual adjustments such as color selections, slider controls, or switches. Examples modules: images, testimonials, videos, text, carousel, and lots more.

The Elementor editor compared to Divi

Elementor has a slightly different user interface. On the left side, you’ll see an overview of all available features. On the right side, you’ll find the live preview.

From there, you can change the style of every feature by opening the options in the sidebar.

Both Divi and Elementor allow inline editing. This means you can simply start typing and instantly see it on your screen.

That being said, Divi has just a little bit more options than Elementor on this one.

Both Divi and Elementor have great features like:

• Undo
• Copy
• Paste
• Set back to an older version

So. in that sense, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between both site builders.

The editor I prefer the most however is Divi. Then again, that’s very subjective, and you might prefer Elementor.

Are you able to use Microsoft Word or Google Docs? Great.

Then you’ll be fine with both Divi and Elementor. I’m not exaggerating.

The best way to describe these site builders is intuitive.

Everything is thoughtful and clear. The interface is never overwhelming.

Although I don’t have any proof, I’m sure the youngest user is probably around 8 years old. And the oldest around.. 80?

I mean, I’m not sure. But it’s just so super easy to use..

Can you use Divi or Elementor for ecommerce?

Yes, actually, they’re both perfect for it. Let me show you why.

Let’s start with Divi.

Divi has a custom Ecommerce toolkit that integrates seamlessly with Woocommerce. Woocommerce is the world’s most popular e-commerce plugin and is great to run an e-commerce website. 

A few of Divi’s Ecommerce features:

Sell Your Products

Showcase unlimited items in your store for users to browse and purchase your products online. Selling with WordPress has never looked so good.

Build Product Layouts with Divi’s WooCommerce Modules

Enjoy full control over the design of your product pages with custom WooCommerce Modules that allow you to create and control any individual WooCommerce element anywhere on your website.

Decide what shows up on your product listings, move things around and even mix WooCommerce modules with standard Divi modules to create just about anything. Divi takes WooCommerce to the next level.

Let’s continue with Elementor. Can you use it for Ecommerce?

Absolutely! 

When it comes to building the shop, some people might prefer Elementor because it’s even easier to integrate with Woocommerce.

After you’ve installed Woocommerce, you can easily add products to your store:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Elementor > My Templates.
2. Click on the Add New button.
3. Choose Single Product as your template type and click Create Template.
4. The Elementor Library will load.

Concluding: Both Divi and Elementor are perfect for Ecommerce. Both of them have great modules that allow you to create amazing shop pages.

Both Divi and Elementor have a lot of features. Honestly, I can’t think of any features I would like to add to either one of them.

However, I can imagine you want to know more about what features are included. So here we go.

Blogging

Let’s be honest, Divi is the best blogging tool out there. It’s great for SEO and has all the features you need to build a successful blog:

• Text blocks
• Image blocks
• Video blocks
• Email options
• … and so much more

I’ve built several blogs which have over 1 million annual visitors – all built with Divi.

Contact Form

Enjoy a full-feature contact form builder. Create custom form fields to collect any type of information from your visitors. Hide and display input fields using advanced conditional logic. Style each input individually using a full range of design options.

Photo Galleries

Divi has always been popular with designers and photographers— partly because of their beautiful photo galleries.

• Gallerie styling
• Click-through URLs on images
• Lightboxes

Optin Forms

Build your email marketing lists with Divi’s email opt-in module. Divi comes with an impressive range of email provider support, allowing you to build lists on almost any platform. You can even create custom fields, allowing you to build segmented lists and collect unique information from your subscribers. It also comes with GDPR compliance features.

Analytics

Divi has some powerful analytics tools, that allow you to see which buttons or which headlines perform better.

Marketing Tools

Divi is great for online marketing wizards. It comes with some powerful tools:

• Lead generation
• Built in Split Testing
• Conversion Insights

Now let’s continue with Elementor’s features.

Because they’re amazing as well. Actually, pretty much all of the features described above are also covered within Elementor.

But there’s one clear difference.

Popup builder

Elementor has a pretty cool popup builder, which in my opinion outperforms the one of Divi.

Have a look at the website of Elementor, and try it yourself.

Let’s talk about pricing. This might be the variable that could help you choose between Divi and Elementor.

In my opinion, Divi is the clear winner here. Let me explain.

Divi Pricing

You can try the demo version of Divi for free. If you decide to purchase the full version of Divi, you’ll have a 30 day money-back guarantee, with no questions asked.

Divi has 2 pricing options:

• Unlimited websites for $89 per year
• Unlimited websites for $249 lifetime

I’d recommend going with the lifetime pan.

The Divi Pricing is pretty straightforward. You’re always going to get the full package, you just have to decide how long you want to be able to update your website.

Sure, you might pay a little extra now, but in the long run, you’ll save a lot of money down the road.

I did the math for you.

It all comes down to how long you’re planning to use Divi.

You should purchase Divi for the lifetime price if you’re planning to use Divi for 34 months or more. If you use it for 33 months or less it’s better to get the annual license.

And the best thing?

You can use your Divi license for unlimited websites. That’s crazy!

Elementor Pricing

Elementor’s pricing strategy is a bit different.

First of all, they don’t offer a lifetime license. And with their cheapest plan starting at $49 per year for 1 website, you end up paying $980 if you decide to keep your website live for 20 years.

Okay, 20 years is a long time. But still.

Elementor has 5 pricing options:

• 1 website for $49 per year
• 3 websites for $89 per year
• 25 websites for$ 259 per year
• 100 websites for $349 per year
• 1000 websites for $99 per year

I’m going to keep this short. Both of them are great for SEO.

I’ve been able to rank multiple of my websites to the number one spot in Google for very high competitive keywords. A few of my Divi websites actually get more than 500,000 visitors per year through Google.

Actually, the website you’re looking at is built with Divi. And it’s getting over 30.000 views per month – all with SEO.

That being said, the same goes for Elementor. I’ve seen several big Elementor websites with millions of visitors per month, all because of SEO.

As many website builders provide a free email, I wanted to cover this in my Divi vs Elementor review as well.

That being said, I can be short. Both of them do not offer a free domain or email.

Simply because they’re tools that you install on your existing hosting. In fact, Bluehost, the hosting I recommend for your Divi website, does offer you a free domain and email address.

Just scroll back to the ‘How to Install‘ section to sign up for your Bluehost account.

• Here is a collection of my favorite 70 Divi websites
• Here is a collection of my favorite 27 Elementor websites

Definitely have a look at both these collections to get a better understanding of what’s possible with each site builder.

In this review, however, I’ll share 2 special examples.

Let’s start with my favorite Divi website.

It’s the website of Divi itself. It has great animations and feels incredibly smooth as you scroll down. Have a look and see what’s possible.

https://elegantthemes.com

To be fair, Elementor nailed their own website as well. Let’s have a look.

https://elementor.com

If you care a lot about good customer support, this could help you make a decision.

Again, Divi is a clear winner here.

Have a look at the Trust Pilot profile of Divi.

It has over 16,000 reviews and 97% of them are 5 stars. SO yeah. Their support is pretty good.

And what about Elementor? Hmm. Not so much.

Have a look at the Trust Pilot profile of Elementor.

It has only 170 reviews with an average of 2.9. If you read the comments, you’ll see a repetition of people complaining about a lack of customer support.

In the end, I recommend Divi over Elementor. Here’s how I would summarize it:

• Divi has better customer support. They’ve got 16,000 reviews and an average of 5 stars on Trustpilot. Elementor scores a 2.9 out. of 170 reviews.
• Divi is cheaper. A license is valid for unlimited websites, and they even offer a cheap lifetime license.

It’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t mean Elementor is bad. It’s more about how good Divi is.

And ultimately the difference could be about preference. If you value a great popup builder a lot, you might want to go with Elementor. Although you could actually install a third-party popup plugin pretty easily.

I hope you found this comparison helpful – thanks for reading until the end!

Which is faster, Divi or Elementor?

Both of these themes are really fast. In fact, they’re doing speed updates continuously. If you care a lot about a fast website, you should focus on getting a good host.Just make sure you have good WordPress Hosting and your website will be incredibly fast!

How many websites can you build with the Divi theme?

You can build unlimited websites with the Divi theme. That being said, if you purchase the 1-year license, you won’t be able to update your website after 1 year. The website will still be alive, but it will be exposed to safety risks if you don’t update your website every now and then.

Do I need a separate Divi license for my client?

No. If you’ve bought the Divi theme and the Divi builder you only need one license for you and your clients.

Can I create popups with the Divi theme?

Yes. If you purchase Divi you’ll get a free popup maker called Bloom. That being said, I don’t love it

What do you dislike about the Divi theme?

Once you’ve built your website with Divi, it’s almost impossible to change to a different platform.

But does that really matter?

No.

I know multiple developers who customize Divi templates and building great websites in a fraction of the normal time to build a website.”

Concluding on this topic – yes, you’re stuck with Divi. But that’s not a bad thing.

How to get the Divi theme?

You can buy Divi by clicking here with an exclusive 10% discount.

Is it best to purchase Divi for the ‘one-time’ price?

My recommendation is to go for a lifetime license. Sure, you might pay a little extra now, but in the long run, you’ll save a lot of money down the road.

What is the difference between Divi and WordPress?

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to manage your website.

The Divi theme is a layer that you put on top of your WordPress website which enables you to create a good-looking design.

The Divi builder is a tool that you can use to build your website with a powerful drag & drop builder. The Divi builder has 46 elements you can use for free.