Are you trying to figure out which is the best page builder for WordPress: Divi vs. Elementor vs. Thrive Architect?
Whether you’re creating your very first website, or if you’re contemplating upgrading the design of your website, choosing the right WordPress page builder tool for your needs can be the difference between a smooth sailing experience, or hours of frustration.
In this article, we’ll compare three major players in the market: Divi, Elementor, and Thrive Architect. Let’s dive in!
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The Importance of Choosing the Right Page Builder
Before we dive into the comparison, let's first discuss why choosing the right page builder for your needs deserves some thought.
A page builder is more than just a tool; it’s an extension of your creative vision. Not only does it help you design your website, but also influences its functionality, SEO, loading speed, and overall user experience. With the right page builder, you’ll be able to create the website you’ve always wanted – without having to earn a degree in computer science or hiring a team of designers and developers.
Essentially, choosing the right page builder tool could empower you, your website, and your business, while a wrong choice could hinder your growth or even mean spending days and hours switching to a new page builder later on.
Not to worry, we’re here to help you make your decision.
Divi vs Elementor vs Thrive Architect, Which Should You Choose?
To help you decide, we'll be examining three leading page builders – Divi, Elementor, and Thrive Architect – and drawing comparisons in the following categories:
- Ease of Setup
- Ease of Use
- Templates and Web Design Options
- Conversion-Focused Elements
- Additional Features and Functionality
- Integration and Compatibility
- Customer Support and Documentation
- Pricing
At the end of our analysis, we’ll tally up the scores and make our final recommendation.
Ready to take a deep dive into these top page builder plugins? Let’s go!
Note: There are other solid WordPress plugins that offer theme building and front end editing like SeedProd, Beaver Builder, Astra, and more, so check out this article for a more in-depth list of the Best WordPress Landing Page Plugins.
Ease of Setup
A great page builder is one that gets you up and running quickly, smoothly, and without hassle. After all, if a tool is too difficult to set up, that doesn’t bode well for the overall user experience.
Let’s see how our contenders fare.
Divi Ease of Setup
Divi, developed by Elegant Themes, comes as a part of their subscription service. After subscribing and downloading the plugin, you can install it as you would other WordPress plugins.
Once installed, pages will display the option to ‘Edit with Divi,’ which will open the page in the Divi editor. What follows next is a series of questions and choices you must make before you can begin editing your page.
With this array of options, the Divi builder certainly provides plenty of flexibility, but the number of options presented right from the start can initially be overwhelming for beginners. For ease of setup, Divi gets a score of 8 out of 10.
Divi Ease of Setup: 8/10
Elementor Ease of Setup
Elementor is a standalone plugin, available in both free and pro versions. The installation process is simple and similar to Divi - just download and install it from your WordPress dashboard.
Many people opt to take Elementor for a test drive by installing the free version from the WordPress Plugin Directory, in which case you’ll be prompted to create an account, install Hello theme, upload a logo, and ‘Activate Containers.’
This process can be quite confusing for beginners, and so we’re assigning Elementor a score of 7 out of 10 for setup ease.
Elementor Ease of Setup: 7/10
Thrive Architect Ease of Setup
Thrive Architect, a product from Thrive Themes, is designed with a focus on marketing and conversions.
The setup is fairly straightforward, like Divi and Elementor, involving a simple plugin installation. You’ll need to log in to your Thrive Themes account and download, install, and activate Thrive Product Manager.
Then, visit Thrive Product Manager to install Thrive Architect. After that, getting to work on a new page in Thrive Architect is simple – without any of the detours that Divi or Elementor bring you on. The learning curve is less steep, making it an ideal choice for beginners. We're giving Thrive Architect a 9 out of 10 for ease of setup.
Thrive Architect Ease of Setup: 9/10
Ease of Setup Winner: Thrive Architect
Divi
Elementor
Thrive Architect
Thrive Architect edges out its competition when it comes to ease of setup. Its user-friendly interface, minimal learning curve, and straightforward functionality make it a perfect match for those just starting their website building journey.
Ease of Use
With the initial setup out of the way, it's time to roll up our sleeves and get into the real work: using the page builder. The best builders should provide a seamless, intuitive user experience, allowing you to focus on creating, not on navigating a complicated interface.
Divi Ease of Use
Divi offers a unique visual builder. The colorful drag-and-drop interface allows you to see real-time changes as you edit your page.
While the abundance of modules and options gives users a high degree of customization, the design of the interface means you’ll need to do some extra clicking to access module and options and customize them to your exact specifications.
The interface can take some getting used to, particularly for beginners, due to its vast array of features and settings. As such, we award the Divi page builder an ease of use score of 7 out of 10.
Divi Ease of Use: 7/10
Elementor Ease of Use
The Elementor interface is known for its simplicity and being user-friendly . The UI is clean and easy to navigate, with a side panel containing all your widgets and settings. The drag-and-drop functionality makes the building process smooth, and the live editing feature allows you to design your page while viewing it exactly as your visitors would.
Elementor's advanced design features can take some time to fully grasp, but even with a bit of a learning curve, the tool's overall simplicity and intuitiveness earn it an 8.5 out of 10 for ease of use.
Elementor Ease of Use: 8.5/10
Thrive Architect Ease of Use
Thrive Architect's interface is as straightforward as its setup process. The intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it easy for users to create and customize their web pages, and you’ll get the same type of live-editing feature as Elementor, letting you see exactly what your page will look like to visitors as you make your edits.
Some users might find the amount of options a bit overwhelming, but overall, the learning curve is less steep than that of Divi or Elementor while still offering a ton of customization options.
We're giving Thrive Architect a score of 9 out of 10 for ease of use.
Thrive Architect Ease of Use: 9/10
Ease of Use Winner: Thrive Architect
Divi
Elementor
Thrive Architect
Again, Thrive Architect comes out on top when it comes to ease of use. Its clean, intuitive interface, combined with its straightforward functionality, make it an ideal choice for those who want to start building their pages without a steep learning curve.
Templates and Design Options
A key aspect that sets a good page builder apart from a great one is the variety of pre-made templates and design options available. Having pre-designed layouts available in just a few clicks can be a real game-changer, saving you heaps of time and effort. Let’s find out which of our contenders offers the best templates and designs.
Divi Templates and Design Options
Divi truly shines when it comes to the variety of its design offerings. With over 200 website elements, 200 full website packs, and an impressive library of more than 2,000 pre-made designs, Divi gives users a leg up in building beautifully-designed websites.
Whether you're crafting a portfolio, an e-commerce site, a blog, or a corporate website, Divi will likely have a pre-made design that fits your needs.
For the sheer variety and quality of its templates and design options, Divi scores a perfect 10 out of 10.
Divi Templates and Design Options: 10/10
Elementor Templates and Design Options
Elementor offers over 100 full website kits covering a wide range of industries, and over 100 widgets in the Elementor editor. The pre-designed kits are fully customizable, allowing you to match them to your brand's aesthetics.
Elementor's design options are comprehensive, providing everything from basic text and image widgets to more advanced features like forms, maps, and social media integrations.
However, compared to Divi's extensive template library, Elementor falls a bit short. We’re assigning Elementor a score of 9 out of 10 for templates and design options.
Elementor Templates and Design Options: 9/10
Thrive Architect Templates and Design Options
Thrive Architect focuses on conversion-optimized designs. While it doesn't boast as vast a library as Divi or Elementor, it centers on what truly matters – conversion-optimized designs. With over 350 specialized landing page templates for sales, opt-in pages, thank you pages, and more, it prioritizes quality over quantity. Plus, it offers over 810 block templates that can be mixed and matched to create unique layouts.
Thrive Architect's strength is that every one of its templates is carefully crafted for conversions, ensuring your site doesn't just look good but also gets results. Instead of merely churning out templates, the focus here is on creating highly effective designs adaptable to a wide range of industries.
The quality and conversion-focused nature of its templates earn Thrive Architect a score of 8 out of 10 in the templates and design options category.
Thrive Architect Templates and Design Options: 8/10
Templates and Design Options Winner: Divi
Divi
Elementor
Thrive Architect
Divi is the winner in this category, thanks to its extensive library of high-quality, pre-made designs and website elements. The diversity and quantity of options give users the flexibility to find or create designs that suit their vision. For those who appreciate variety, Divi's templates and design options are hard to beat.
Conversion Focused Elements
Websites serve not just to provide information, but also as a powerful tool to attract clients and customers, make sales, and grow your business. This is where conversion-focused elements come into play. These include tools like testimonials, countdown timers, lead generation forms, call-to-action buttons, pricing tables, social proof, and more.
Elements like these can significantly enhance user engagement and encourage visitors to take desired actions – or to convert – such as signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product.
Divi Conversion Focused Elements
Divi comes with a wide array of modules that can aid in driving conversions. It includes the standard conversion-focused elements like testimonials, call-to-action buttons, and email opt-in forms.
Additionally, it provides modules like a pricing table, contact form, and social follow buttons. However, compared to some other builders, Divi lacks pre-made design templates for its modules. More module designs are available from third party developers on the Divi Marketplace, but this comes with additional fees. For its collection of conversion-focused elements, Divi scores 7 out of 10.
Divi Conversion Focused Elements: 7/10
Elementor Conversion Focused Elements
Elementor also provides a number of conversion-focused widgets. It includes basic elements like call-to-action buttons, testimonials, and social proof. Elementor Pro takes it a step further, offering advanced tools like a countdown timer, form builder, and pop-up builder.
Despite these features, Elementor lacks some specific conversion tools such as A/B testing capabilities, and while the form widget can be used for lead generation, it isn’t optimized for conversions like the lead generation elements from other page builders. We give Elementor a score of 8 out of 10 for its conversion-focused elements.
Elementor Conversion Focused Elements: 8/10
Thrive Architect Conversion Focused Elements
Thrive Architect, designed with a focus on conversions, excels in this category. It provides all the standard conversion elements such as call-to-action buttons, testimonials, and pricing tables – complete with an array of design options for each.
But where Thrive Architect truly stands out is its advanced conversion tools. It comes with a comprehensive suite of lead generation forms, countdown timers, and even the ability to run A/B testing right from the page builder using Thrive Optimize.
Additionally, Thrive Architect offers specific conversion-focused templates, like sales pages and opt-in pages. For its excellent array of conversion tools, Thrive Architect earns a score of 10 out of 10.
Thrive Architect Conversion Focused Elements: 10/10
Conversion Focused Elements Winner: Thrive Architect
Divi