How to choose a WordPress page builder and theme

The best builder is the one that fits your project, the people who will edit the site and the speed you need from it. We work in nine of them: six page builders and three lightweight base themes. This guide covers where each one fits and where it causes trouble, so you can pick one for a new site or decide whether to leave the one you have.

At a glance

What decides the choice

Who edits the site after launch

This matters more than any feature list. If non-technical people will change pages themselves, Elementor is the most forgiving choice. Bricks and Oxygen put CSS and markup control up front, which developers like and most editors don’t. We can set up protected editing areas on a developer builder, but it has to be planned during the build, not added later.

How fast the site has to be

If Core Web Vitals scores are the top priority, start from a light base. Bricks, Oxygen and GeneratePress begin lean. Divi and Avada begin heavy, and optimization can only take them so far. Elementor sits in between: good scores are possible, but they come from careful setup rather than defaults.

What you are on now

A working site does not need a rebuild because a newer builder exists. Changing builders means rebuilding the design, so it makes most sense when you are redesigning anyway or when the current builder blocks something the business needs.

The page builders

Elementor

Elementor is our default for most client projects. Its Theme Builder controls headers, footers and archive templates, its WooCommerce widgets handle product page design, and its editor is one that non-developers can use without help. It also has the largest range of third-party add-ons and templates of the builders here.

The cost is output. Elementor produces more markup than Bricks or Oxygen, so a fast Elementor site needs a light base theme, restraint with add-ons, and work on images and caching. Our Elementor performance guide covers the details, and our Elementor development service is where we do that work for clients.

Divi

Divi is a theme and a page builder in one, made by Elegant Themes. It has a large library of premade layouts, a drag-and-drop editor that many site owners find approachable, and a lifetime licensing model that appeals to agencies doing template-based work across many sites.

Its weak spot is mobile speed. Divi stores layouts as shortcodes and loads heavy CSS and JavaScript by default. On a complex Divi site, 80 to 88 on mobile PageSpeed is a realistic target after full optimization; simpler sites can go higher. If 90+ on mobile is a hard requirement, Elementor or a block-based theme is the more reliable way to get there.

The shortcodes also make leaving expensive, because every page has to be rebuilt rather than exported. Divi still fits a team that knows it well, a simple marketing site, or an agency that already owns a license. For a side-by-side comparison, read Divi vs Elementor.

Bricks Builder

Bricks is a theme and a builder at the same time, so no parent theme loads its own CSS before the builder starts. It writes clean, semantic HTML without the extra wrapper divs and inline styles that Elementor and Divi add by default, it has no jQuery dependency, and it gives developers CSS control on every element. Its query loops work with ACF or Meta Box for dynamic content.

The cost of that control is a steeper learning curve and a smaller ecosystem. We recommend Bricks when a developer team will own the site and performance is the main requirement. We don’t recommend it for clients who want to change page layouts on their own after launch. Project cost is driven by page count and design complexity either way, not by the builder.

Beaver Builder

Agencies pick Beaver Builder for stability. Its updates are cautious and rarely break sites, its HTML is cleaner than Elementor’s by default, and its row and column layout model is predictable. The Beaver Themer add-on extends it to headers, footers, archive templates and WooCommerce templates. When the standard modules don’t cover a layout, we write custom ones in PHP.

What you give up is range. The template library and add-on ecosystem are smaller than Elementor’s, and the editor has changed slowly. For a portfolio of client sites where update day should be uneventful, it is a good trade. If your Beaver Builder site works, there is no reason to switch.

Oxygen Builder

Oxygen replaces the WordPress theme entirely. When it is active, nothing from a parent theme loads, so there are no inherited styles to fight. Its editor sets real CSS values instead of sliders, and it can run PHP and show ACF data inside the builder. Its HTML output is among the cleanest of any visual builder.

Two things to weigh before a new build. Soflyy, the company behind Oxygen, has moved some of its focus to Breakdance, its newer builder. Oxygen still gets security and compatibility updates, but feature development has slowed. And because Oxygen’s editor exposes the markup, a non-technical editor can break a design by accident. If non-developers will manage content, the build needs locked structural components and clear editing areas from the start.

Staying on Oxygen with an existing site is reasonable. For a new developer-first project, we usually lean toward Bricks and would look at Breakdance alongside it.

Avada

Avada is a ThemeForest theme with its own Fusion Builder, and many business sites built on it years ago are still running. It has a lot of features, and they cost speed: Avada loads more CSS and JavaScript than lightweight themes by default. An unoptimized Avada install often scores poorly on mobile PageSpeed. Most Avada sites we optimize reach 70 to 85, after switching off unused features, tuning Fusion Builder’s performance settings, adding caching and fixing images.

Stay on Avada when your team knows it well, content management works, and the speed problems can be fixed in place. Move away when optimization can’t reach your score targets, when you are planning a full redesign anyway (the migration then costs about the same), or when your developers would rather work in a different stack.

Lightweight base themes: Astra, GeneratePress and Kadence

These three are not page builders. They are light foundations that stay out of the way of whatever builds the pages, whether that is Elementor, Beaver Builder or the block editor. Base theme overhead is often the first performance bottleneck we find in audits, so the theme matters even when a builder does the design.

Astra

Astra loads less than 50KB of resources, according to its developers, and adds very little CSS of its own, so the builder or your own styles define the design. It works with Elementor, Gutenberg and Beaver Builder. Astra Pro adds a header and footer builder (transparent and sticky headers, mega menus), custom layouts per post type, and WooCommerce features such as shop and product page templates and cart customization. Most professional sites need Pro rather than the free version.

Astra with Elementor Pro is our most common combination. Astra handles the global structure and the WooCommerce templates. Elementor Pro handles page design. For most business sites and stores, it gives the best balance of speed, design freedom and build time.

GeneratePress

GeneratePress is leaner still. Its WordPress.org listing says a fresh install adds less than 10KB (gzipped) to the page, and it has documented hooks and filters that developers like. GenerateBlocks gives it a native block-building workflow. GeneratePress Premium adds the site library and design modules, and almost every GeneratePress project we do uses it.

It has fewer design tools built in. Astra Pro’s header builder and WooCommerce features go further, and GeneratePress’s WooCommerce module suits simple catalogs and checkouts but not custom cart drawers or advanced product page layouts.

Kadence

Kadence is built around the block editor rather than a page builder. Kadence Blocks adds advanced layout blocks, a query loop, form blocks and ACF dynamic content to Gutenberg, and Kadence Pro adds a header builder, mega menu and WooCommerce design controls. For teams that want to stay close to core WordPress without adding Elementor, it is the most complete Gutenberg-first setup we work with.

The limit is layout editing. Updating text, swapping images and publishing posts in Gutenberg is easy. Creating new page layouts from scratch is harder for a non-technical editor than in Elementor, so we set up Kadence sites with a curated block set, pre-built section patterns and a written editing guide.

How the three compare

Changing builders

Moving from one builder to another is a rebuild of the design, not an export. Text, images and pages move across; layouts get recreated in the new builder. We do the rebuild on staging, keep the URL structure where we can and map redirects where it changes, so rankings hold through the move.

Moves we do often:

• Divi to Elementor. Every page is rebuilt, because Divi stores layouts in shortcodes. See Divi to Elementor migration and the Divi to Elementor migration guide.
• Avada to Elementor, Astra or GeneratePress, usually for speed.
• Oxygen to Elementor, Bricks or Gutenberg, often when a non-developer team takes over the content.
• WPBakery to Elementor. See WPBakery to Elementor migration.

If the real complaint is speed, try fixing it in place first. Speed optimization covers the whole stack: hosting, caching, images, scripts and plugins as well as the builder.

Decision checklist

Use Elementor when:

• non-technical people will edit the site themselves
• you need WooCommerce product page customization
• you want full Theme Builder control over headers, footers and archives
• you need a large ecosystem of third-party widget add-ons

Use Bricks when:

• an engineering team will own and maintain the codebase
• Core Web Vitals scores are the top priority
• you want cleaner markup with no legacy overhead
• you need full CSS and JavaScript control per element

Use GeneratePress or Astra with Gutenberg when:

• publishing content is the main job of the site
• you want the closest long-term fit with WordPress core
• a minimal plugin footprint is a requirement
• the site needs a very light base for SEO performance

Use Divi when:

• your agency already has an Elegant Themes lifetime license
• the client wants to choose from a large template library
• you do high-volume template work where the cost per site matters
• it is a simple informational site where the speed difference is minor

Keep Beaver Builder, Oxygen or Avada when the site works, your team knows the tool and the speed problems can be fixed in place. Look at Kadence when your team is committing to the block editor and wants to drop the page builder.

Frequently asked questions

Astra or GeneratePress: which should I choose?

The choice is close. GeneratePress is leaner: a smaller footprint and a clean hook system. Astra has more built in, especially for WooCommerce and header building, and a larger Starter Templates library. For blogs and content sites where speed is the only measure, choose GeneratePress. For WooCommerce stores and sites with complex navigation, Astra Pro does more without extra plugins.

Kadence or Astra: which fits my team?

It comes down to how you want to edit. Kadence is built for a Gutenberg-first workflow, and many Kadence projects never need Elementor. Astra is builder-neutral and works equally well with Elementor, Gutenberg or Beaver Builder. If your team is committing to the block editor, Kadence’s integration is more mature. If you want to use different builders on different projects, Astra’s neutrality helps. It is a workflow question more than a quality one.

Should I use Bricks or Elementor for my next project?

For most business websites we recommend Elementor Pro, for its larger ecosystem, more familiar editor and wider support options. Bricks is the better call when code quality and speed come first and a developer, not the client, will manage the site. If clients need to build and change page layouts themselves, Elementor is more forgiving.

Oxygen or Bricks for a new developer-first project?

Both produce clean code. For new projects we lean toward Bricks: more active development, a growing community, better native WooCommerce integration and a more modern editor. Oxygen is still maintained, but development has slowed since Soflyy started focusing on Breakdance. For a new build, compare Bricks and Breakdance before you decide.

Should I stay on Divi or move to Elementor?

It depends on the site. If it is large, your team likes Divi’s editor and the main problem is speed, we can usually improve Divi a lot without a migration. If you are starting fresh, or Divi’s shortcode lock-in and speed ceiling are causing real business problems, Elementor Pro gives cleaner output and better long-term performance. Because every page has to be rebuilt, plan a move away from Divi like a redesign project.

Not sure which builder fits your project?

Tell us what you are on and what the site needs to do. We’ll tell you which builder or theme fits your use case, your team and your performance requirements before you commit.

Talk to us → · Get a free site audit

Related reading

• Divi vs Elementor comparison
• Elementor performance guide
• Migrate from Divi to Elementor
• Migrate from WPBakery to Elementor
• Gutenberg vs page builders
• Builder speed optimization