Few questions generate more heated debate in the WordPress community than "which page builder should I use?". The honest answer — as always — is that it depends. But "it depends" is only useful if you know what it depends on. Here's the framework we use when scoping new WordPress projects for Australian clients.
Elementor: The Market Leader with Trade-Offs
Elementor is the most widely used WordPress page builder, powering around 8% of all websites. Its appeal is clear: a comprehensive visual editor, a large ecosystem of widgets and third-party extensions, and a low learning curve for non-technical users.
The trade-offs are real. Elementor adds significant JavaScript and CSS overhead to every page — even pages that use only a fraction of its widget library. Lighthouse scores on Elementor-built sites without aggressive performance tuning typically land in the 60–80 range on mobile. That's a meaningful SEO disadvantage. Elementor Pro also carries a meaningful annual cost and has had security vulnerabilities that affected a large percentage of its user base when exploited at scale.
Elementor wins when: Non-technical clients need full self-service editing, or when a project requires Elementor-specific widgets or WooCommerce integrations that aren't available elsewhere.
Divi: The Agency Workhorse
Divi by Elegant Themes sits in an interesting position — it's been around since 2013, making it one of the oldest major page builders, but it remains actively developed and has a genuinely loyal user base. The lifetime licence model (one payment, unlimited sites) makes it financially attractive for agencies managing many client sites.
Divi's performance story has improved significantly over the past two years. With proper optimisation — removing unused modules, enabling Divi's performance settings, using a lightweight child theme — Lighthouse scores of 90+ mobile are achievable. Our Divi custom design service consistently delivers sub-3-second load times and high Lighthouse scores.
Divi wins when: Client budget is moderate, the site needs to be client-editable without ongoing developer support, and the project can benefit from Divi's rapid visual development workflow.
Block Editor (Gutenberg + FSE): The Performance Champion
The native WordPress block editor with Full Site Editing is the highest-performing option — but it's also the most developer-intensive. A custom block theme with no third-party builder overhead can achieve Lighthouse 95–100 on mobile without significant optimisation effort. The trade-off is that non-technical clients have a steeper learning curve and less visual flexibility than with Divi or Elementor.
Block editor wins when: Performance is the primary requirement (Core Web Vitals, page speed), the site is developer-maintained rather than client-edited, or the project is long-lived and needs to stay on WordPress core without third-party dependencies.
The Decision Framework
Here's how we frame the choice for clients:
Who manages the site day to day? If it's a non-technical team member making layout changes regularly, Divi or Elementor. If it's a developer or an agency on a care plan, block editor.
How important is page speed? If Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse scores are business-critical (e-commerce, high-traffic editorial, SEO-competitive categories), block editor. If they're important but not primary, Divi with optimisation. If performance is secondary to editing flexibility, Elementor with a performance plugin.
What's the project budget? Divi's rapid development workflow typically reduces build time, which reduces cost. Block editor custom themes take longer to build but have lower ongoing licensing costs. Elementor Pro is inexpensive but third-party extensions add up.
What We Recommend Most Often
For most Australian SMB websites, Divi with a custom child theme delivers the best balance of performance, editability, and cost. For performance-critical projects or sites that will be developer-maintained, the block editor is the right call. We rarely recommend Elementor for new builds in 2025 — the performance trade-off has become too significant given Core Web Vitals' role in search rankings.
If you're planning a new WordPress site and want a recommendation based on your specific requirements, let's talk. We'll give you a straight answer, not the one that sells us the most work.