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Beaver Builder vs Divi: Which is The Fastest WordPress Page Builder?

You do want a fast website, right? Most of us do.

Beaver Builder vs the Divi theme – a WordPress Theme Speed Test

It’s with great pride that I hereby welcome you to the fully updated and revised Beaver Builder vs Divi WordPress theme speed test!

To speed up WordPress, it’s essential to use fast WordPress themes and plugins. We can’t optimize WordPress itself much – and don’t need to: it’s a decently well-oiled website platform. Instead, focus on what’s running on top of WordPress, as slow themes and plugins are the usual suspects (and almost always convicted felons – guilty as charged) when your website speed grinds to a halt.

What if we want the best of both worlds: fast and flexible?

I’ve previously reviewed the Divi theme by Elegant Themes, as well as the Beaver Builder plugin – and its optional partner-in-crime: the perfectly matching Beaver Builder theme.

Divi and Beaver Builder has taken the WordPress-world by storm. They both let anyone design unique websites, via real, honest-to-God drag’n’drop – zero coding required.

Yet, such ease-of-use and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) features usually come at the cost of performance. “Easy to build, slow to load” used to be the norm, before Beaver and Divi entered the scene.

And make no mistake about it: Divi and Beaver Builder are competitors. Arch-rivals. Like Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor. If you’re into MMA you’ll know what I mean. And like Nate and Conor, Divi and Beaver are two quite different contenders – both from a technical standpoint and in actual combat.

(I’ll stop my MMA analogies now, promise:)

In my Divi review it’s clear that I prefer Beaver Builder over the Divi theme, for technical and usability reasons. The infamous Divi theme is impossible to ignore though! It’s astronomically popular.

Will the fastest WordPress theme please stand up?

Despite their huge flexibility, the Divi WordPress theme, and the Beaver Builder theme, are both quite slim, fast loading WordPress themes. But naturally, you’d like to know: which theme is the fastest? The Divi theme? or the Beaver Builder plugin + theme combo?

That’s exactly what I myself wanted to know! So I put on my vintage, authentic Doc-suit, and set up a scienterrific WordPress theme speed test – an EPIC speed-battle of the giants – to find a valid, concrete answer to this; the question of questions…

Which is the fastest WordPress theme: Divi… or Beaver?

Ready for take-off Marty? Alrighty then: let’s go… to the future! (it holds the answer – and in a few minutes you’ll have it t00)

Doc Divi vs Beaver Builder

How I did this speed test

Before we dive into the numbers, please let me share with you how the test was set up, to give you an idea of the large amount care and effort I’ve put into getting reliable, trustworthy, real-world results.

The test ingredients

I created two sites as part of a WordPress multisite install.

Beaver Builder is a stand-alone page builder plugin which can be used with any theme. In this test it was used with its complementary Beaver Builder theme, one which I highly recommend: it’s simple, yet powerful. Strikes a good balance between flexibility and ease-of-use.

The Divi theme was installed as… well… a theme! Side note: Divi is now also available as a stand-alone page builder plugin, just like Beaver Builder is, further emphasizing the fierce competition that these two ferocious contenders are in.

No irrelevant plugins were active in either test, btw.

Designing two equal, similar sites

Note that the headline above says equal and similar– not identical sites.

The two test sites were designed to be technically similar, not identical design-wise.

I created two similar one-page sites (aka: landing pages) equal in functionality and features – one with the Divi theme – and the other with the Beaver Builder plugin + theme combo.

You can see the two test sites here:

beaver-builder-speed-test-web
Divi theme speed test website

Yup, neither are design beauties: none of them will win a beauty contest:)

To smooth out the results fairly, I made an elaborate page layout, using as many features/modules of each theme as possible. This way, one particularly weak (slow) module couldn’t skew the results unfairly.

And it goes without saying: to compare them directly face-to-face, I only used features available in both Divi and Beaver Builder, so I could build two sites that are technically identical, not pixel-perfect identical (design has no influence on the test results).

To ensure accuracy of the P3 Profiler and WebPagetest results, I took 5 samples of each test, then calculated the average score, to compensate for server and network fluctuations.

Database Queries

Although individual database queries can be fast, and others slow, the total number of queries required for the page to load gives us a good idea as to how loading the site impacts the server, specifically the database.

As a dynamic CMS (content management system), WordPress stores all content (except static resources like images, PDF’s and other media files) and your site’s settings in a MySQL database. Every time a page on your site loads, WordPress calls up stuff from the database. Logically, the more times WordPress does so to build the page, the longer it will potentially take. WordPress core + plugins + themes: they all query the database.

Likewise, the Divi theme & Beaver Builder both store their page layous and other design options in your database.

The more complex the theme or plugin, the more queries it will likely use. Plugins like WooCommerce and WPML (especially with their many add-ons/extensions) are two particularly query-greedy bastards.

So, while this metric doesn’t necessarily correlate with actual load time, it gives us a good idea about the potential impact on our server. You want a theme that’s gentle to your server. If your theme is pounding the server with tons of queries, your site will be more likely to go down when your site goes viral and receives a heavy traffic-spike.

Interestingly, Divi 3.0 has reduced its use of database queries to half the amount it required in 2016 / version 2.0. That’s impressive, no matter how they’ve accomplished it! Could be some beefed-up built-in caching – or seriously optimized code. Either way, I’m impressed.

However… the real question is: has Divi 3.0’s significantly reduced use of database queries also had a significant impact on performance? We’ll look at that shortly, but first, let’s talk take a quick look at memory usage.

Memory Usage

Some shared hosting plans has memory limits set as low as 8 MB. WordPress themes and plugins all increase WordPress’ memory use. WooCommerce will at a minimum require around 40 MB, but really needs 64 MB and upwards, in order to run properly, based on my own experience. Likewise, themes like Divi and Beaver Builder want a chunk of your memory too. So it’s interesting to see how each of them impacts peak memory usage.

In the report, you’ll see that Divi is using 26% more memory than Beaver Builder.

The actual speed tests

Now it’s time to delve into the real performance speed tests. I used three different tools to measure the page speed, namely: P3 Profiler, Pingdom, and WebPagetest. The latter is new to my arsenal. Alan Bleiweiss was critical of Pingdom when someone shared the test results of my previous test (Fastest WordPress Hosting 2017) on Twitter:

True to my word, I’ve included WebPagetest too, in this new speed test.

Let’s get started (be sure you’ve downloaded the report above!)

p3 Profiler – Total Load Time

P3 Profiler is a WordPress plugin made by GoDaddy. It measures the full impact of plugins and themes, on your whole site – the WordPress admin included. It’s an oldie but goodie.

Winner: Divi beat Beaver by being 17.5% faster in this test.

Pingdom – Page Speed / Load Time

Pingdom’s most realistic performance test of real-life page load speed. It’s the average of many tests run throughout a full month.

In 2016, Divi was around 10% faster than Beaver Builder in this test. Now, in 2017, that lead has narrowed to a practically meaningless 2%. I’d say this one’s a tie.

Still, the infamous Divi theme runs with the prize:)

Pingdom – Response Time

Looking at Response Time, as measured by Pingdom from a pool of worldwide servers: Divi beats Beaver by 11%.

My guess is this is due to Divi’s drastically reduced database query needs, making it faster at serving the page.

WebPagetest – Speed Index and more

Speed Index, Page Fully Loaded, Site Load Time – three metrics I won’t go into here. Download the report above! It’s free, and you’ll enjoy it:)

I will however quote WebPagetest’s own words about their Speed Index metric, their most reliable, real-life’ish page speed test:

The Speed Index is the average time at which visible parts of the page are displayed. It is expressed in milliseconds and dependent on size of the view port.

The Speed Index metric was added to WebPagetest in April, 2012 and measures how quickly the page contents are visually populated (where lower numbers are better). It is particularly useful for comparing experiences of pages against each other (before/after optimizing, my site vs competitor, etc) and should be used in combination with the other metrics (load time, start render, etc) to better understand a site’s performance.

The speed index takes the visual progress of the visible page loading and computes an overall score for how quickly the content painted. To do this, first it needs to be able to calculate how “complete” the page is at various points in time during the page load. In WebPagetest this is done by capturing a video of the page loading in the browser and inspecting each video frame.

Speed Index – WebPagetest Documentation

Final verdict: Who won our lil’ WordPress theme speed test?

Performance-wise, the infamous Divi theme wins over Beaver Builder. Divi is slightly faster than Beaver, though not by a huge margin.

Both the Divi theme and the Beaver Builder plugin + theme combo are both fast loading WordPress themes. Whether you run one or the other, your page load speed won’t suffer.

This leaves the final choice up to you, and I suggest you make your pick based on usability considerations and personal preferences. A WordPress theme is a crucial part of a WordPress website – so much of your site’s capabilities and functionality comes from the theme – not WordPress. So pick the one you feel most confident in – and with.

Usability-wise, I’m confident most people will find Beaver Builder easier to use vs Divi. Beaver Builder really rocks! Even with the huge usability improvements Elegant Themes introduced in their groundbreaking Divi 3.0 and 4.0 releases.

Finally, to wrap things up, always remember:

There's more to life than increasing its speed :) Remember that, Elegant Themes ;o)

Thank YOU for reading this Beaver Builder vs Divi test! Share it – or comment below!

I spent a lot of time and energy setting up this test, executing it, and writing up the results. If you liked reading it, I highly encourage you to share this post with your network (right now). To do so, please use the sharing buttons! (over on the left) – thank you!

If you have questions or comments, do not hesitate to use the comments section below!

Reviewed by Johnny Livingston★Updated in

Comments

  1. I am impressed by the level of testing and speed analysis, but still not sure why people are loving Beaver Builder. I think support and team plays much bigger role here.

    Reply

  4. Hello Oliver,

    Thanks for this article, very precise. I’m a bit surprised by the results. User since the beginning of Divi, i find it quit slow lately (i have large homepages on my websites).
    So i did some research about Beaver Builder and many reviews revealed that Beaver overtake Divi on speed criteria. I’m kinda lost (since that Divi introduced CSS minification and built-in cache plugin. Game changer?)

    Reply

    • Most important is to choose the one you feel is the best. Beaver Builder is better in my opinion, but Divi enjoys quite a following too, so there must be someone out there who likes it:)

      Reply

  5. Excellent, well-written article! Beaver Builder is praised for its ease and excellence by a very large following. Some of my contacts love it…L-O-V-E it!

    Beaver Builder has not worked out at all for my particular situation. Actually, it has been a nightmare to set up and get running on a simple blog. It’s not for everyone, which does underscore that developers should be encouraged that the market is open to other options.

    Reply

  6. I’ve been a DIVI user since early version 2.0
    DIVI frustrates me greatly at its apparent inability to simply handle image resizing with responsive changes. It crops rather than shrinks, and you can’t program it to use different size image selections for tablets and cell phones. You can only select one image.

    One site I developed has frustrated me.
    https://www.bccd3.com/
    It has images that look great on the computer, but when shown on tablets and cell phone DIVI crops the images and messes up the entire appearance. I’ve done research for hours on solutions to use in DIVI but I can’t get any to work. There are slider plug-ins that work in resizing beautifully. It seems to me that DIVI programmers could figure out how to do the same, but it’s still broken.

    I’m looking for another solution that handles resizing images and swapping image choices. How does Beaver Builder do for handling image resizing for tablets and cell phones?
    If I do a full-width image and then look at it on a cell phone, is it shrunk to fit or cropped?
    Does Beaver Builder enable choosing different size images for different screen sizes?

    Thank you

    Reply

    • Hey Hank

      I’m pretty sure the cause of your background image troubles are due to these parts of the css:

      .et_pb_section_parallax .et_pb_parallax_css,
      .et_pb_slides .et_parallax_bg.et_pb_parallax_css {
      background-attachment: fixed;
      }

      .et_parallax_bg {
      background-size: cover;
      }

      Smartphones (at least the iOS ones) behave like you describe, when subjected to fixed background images. The solution is to create a media query, which makes sure those styles/rules are not used on those devices. I.e. let your background image move/scroll, on smartphones / iPhones, etc.

      I hope that helps?

      PS: this is something Divi should do by itself.

      Oliver

      Reply

  7. Hi Oliver,
    I am wondering why you have never mentioned the X theme from theme.co. They have developped their own builder, Cornerstone, and they offer many free beautiful templates to chose from. I have heard that X theme might be the number one selling theme on Envato. They have a full 5 stars rating.

    Reply

  9. I usually use BB and Ultimate Add on for Beaver Builder, in this last week I used Divi 3.0 for a new web site, is a good tool, has some little bugs, but it is very easy and has a lot of options more than Beaver Builder. These are my two cents.
    PS: A last word, Divi 3.0 work with ipad pro, it is not necessary drag and drops , from right side bar, but simply you can mark(click) on plus + sign.

    Reply

      • Hi John

        I haven’t tried Divi 3.0 yet – but it’s on my list of upcoming things to do. Will likely write up a post about it when done.

        Beaver Builder is still my recommendation – I doubt Divi 3.0 alleviates the problem of “shortcode leftovers” :o)

        Oliver

        Reply

  10. Hey Olivier,

    Thanks for this great post. I saw it a while back, but now I was thinking of linking to it and wonder if you knew what the impact would be if you were testing a full site?

    The thing I like about Beaver Builder is that it only loads the CSS and JS needed for the page being viewed. I could be out of date, but Divi did not do that. It would be loading everything needed for the whole site on to the one page, bringing a different result. I’m curious how database queries would change too there.

    Reply

  11. Hi,

    Can you tell me what hosting environment you tested on? We are also avid beaver users but since the last plugin update we have noticed the builder plugin has become very sore on memory on a few of our VPS.

    Thanks
    Gary McHugh

    Reply

    • Hi Gary

      I tested it on a Media Temple Grid (gs) hosting account. I haven’t myself experienced the memory-issue you mention, but thanks for mentioning it, as I’ll look out for it when doing two Beaver sites I’m about to do.

      Please also be sure to report back here on your findings!

      =)
      Oliver

      Reply

  12. Excellent post. It’s great to see someone doing actual testing in their review. I would love to see the test expanded to include Thrive theme / content builder and Genesis w/ dynamic builder. A four-way deathmatch! Top it off with a bit of code output review (including a code to text ratio measurement) and you would have the ultimate comparison I’ve seen so many people interested in. Thanks again!

    Bill

    Reply

  13. I agree with BB’s superiority over Divi generally but Divi’s new Split Testing feature is a real game changer. What do you think? Is there a Split Testing plugin for BB that will work as well?

    Reply

    • Hi David

      Indeed! Divi Leads built-in A/B split-testing tool is an (almost) revolutionary feature to put right inside Divi Builder. Beautiful execution by the way.

      It’s definitely something I believe the Beaver boys gotta add to Beaver Builder, sooner rather than later.

      Until then, the best bet is likely the “old school” route: use Google Analytics’ Content Experiments (another useful link here), Optimizely (has a free version) or Visual Website Optimizer. Less easy than Divi Leads – but gets the job done!

      There’s some good tips on implementation of the above, right here.

      I hope that’s useful! Let’s cross our fingers (and poke and beg) the Beaver Builder team to get workin’ on this feature!

      =)
      Oliver

      Reply

  14. good review. can you possibly compare Thrive Theme builder too? The guys over there seem to dwell a great deal on speed in their videos and it’d be nice to know for sure. I almost went with Divi last year cause sites look so awesome with it but decided not.
    thanks

    Reply

    • I’ve considered Thrive Themes a few times, but somehow I don’t really resonate with their marketing/website/vibe – so I haven’t become a customer of theirs yet. That said, I would like to test the Thrive Content Builder, as it looks like an interesting piece of machinery:)

      Oliver

      Reply

  15. Good stuff, Oliver!

    I’m new to your site, but I definitely like the style and substance you are supplying.

    Couldn’t agree with you more about BB being much more user friendly than Divi, but to be fair, I am one of the early BB adopters and now a devout BB disciple, so I’m a little biased.

    Thanks for the article. Keep up the great work mate!

    Cheers,

    Colin

    Reply

  18. Very interesting post. As a user of WYSIWYG builders, I am following this with interest.
    I am wondering if you have taken a look at http://theme.co/x/. They started just a few years ago developing their X theme with Visual Composer as the integrated builder. In 2015 they crafted their own builder called Cornerstone, also a live preview WYSIWYG builder.

    Reply

    • Hi Joss

      Good to hear from you!

      Yup, I’ve been looking heavily into the X theme from Themeco, including Cornerstone, their page builder. Overall it’s an enticing product, yet overall my impression was “this… looks… convoluted” i.e. bloated, code- and feature-wise. I was ready to test it though, but stopped in my tracks once I began reading about Stacks. While I do (absolutely!) see the value in letting the user select from a few, ready-made styles/themes/designs (for lack of a better word): it just didn’t appeal to me. I’m totally against those cookie-cutter solutions, aka “themes that adhere to a general design trend, and generically try to live up to that look”. What one inevitably ends up with, is a website that:

      1. Has that feel of being based on “a template”. It lacks character. Uniqueness. Authenticity. Differentiation. It’s bland. Plain and simple.

      2. Will Look like a parody of the trend it’s mimicking. In all its “genericness” it can’t be elegant, balanced or subtle in its visual expression. It’s like hipsters adopting a fashion trend: the originality that made it cool, has been lost, and now all that’s left, is an empty shell of hollowness.

      Have you tried the X theme yourself? You like it?

      =)
      Oliver

      Reply

      • Thank you Oliver!

        A client of mine suddenly got in a huge rush to get his HTML website updated to WordPress by the end of December. I have worked with him for years but had to let this project go because I couldn’t meet the schedule. He went with an agency for real estate agents (AgentFire) that does very quick work (1 month) on the XTheme. Now he is hoping I will learn how to use Cornerstone so that I can help him beautify his site.

        I cautioned him against this solution. It is on a multisite, controlled by them.

        I really don’t want to learn how to use a new platform if it is not generally useful. Several people in my WordPress community have recommended BeaverBuilder. I am a Genesis framework user and I like the fact that BeaverBuilder works with Genesis. I haven’t started using BeaverBuilder yet but looking at it for an upcoming project weighing the possibility of using XTheme + Cornerstone instead to satisfy this client’s wishes. Interesting that you found the code bloated.

        Reply

        • Hey Linda

          Thanks for commenting.

          Just to clarify: I haven’t yet put the X theme through its paces, so my remark on code-bloat was based on the impression I got last year, when I looked into the X theme. That impression may be wrong or correct – I can’t say until I fully test it, which I get more and more keen on doing, as many seem to be interested in knowing more about the – somewhat mysterious – X theme 🙂

          Now, regarding your client bringing in a new theme from the sideline… That’s the kind of project I’ve always been hesitant getting into, as a web designer. Any ninja (the real kind from ancient Japan) knows that to become an invincible warrior, one has to truly master one’s chosen weapons with great skill. Thus, as “web ninjas” we too must choose our weapons wisely.

          I’ve always been a conservative ninja:
          “No… I can’t (won’t) use that slider plugin you’ve found on CodeCanyon. I use the SlideDeck plugin.” and so on.

          – it’s just such a horribly infuriating feeling suddenly having spent 3 hours getting something working, that still isn’t working, in some random theme a new client has insisted you should use. You can only be fast and effective if you use those weapons you already truly master.

          That said, it’s often good to widen our perspective, try new things and improve our versatility and skillset. Plus, learning new stuff is the best brain exercise there is, according to much scientific research. To learn new stuff, we really have to flex those problem-solving muscles in our brains:)

          Oliver

          Reply

          • Just a heads up on that “good review” — it’s written by “Sponsor” not by the blog author — so it seems to be a advertorial or just an outright purchased article placement.

            Reply

      • Good point! I know some who do that, and they seem to be enjoying it a lot.

        I agree, it’s a nice combo. Only reason I don’t do it myself… hmmm, that’s a question more fitting for my therapist (ha!) as it may be reasons falling under my “slightly OCD” diagnosis 😀

        Aka: it’s a perfectly feasible, effective combo – I just like to be “clean” use either one or the other, at a time:)

        Oliver

        Reply

    • Hey Robert

      That a good question. To an extent, I’m still a bit undecided on that front. My Beaver Builder review goes into more detail:

      http://www.webmatros.com/blog/beaver-builder-review-beating-divi

      Headway is most powerful and flexible – and amazing piece of web design machinery. Beaver Builder strikes a better balance between usability, user-friendliness and flexibility. Sometimes even professionals (web designers included) don’t need a pro-grade/über-advanced tool, capable of “everything” (aka: Headway) – but rather a tool that just gets the job done, and still does it well. Beaver Builder does so.

      … And to the non-pro, non-techy user, f.e. an online marketer, coach or other service professional, who “just want a website that works and can fulfill my needs” – Beaver Builder beats the competition in a way no other theme does, at the moment. I really do think so. Headway is too complex, even in the upcoming version 4.0, and Divi just doesn’t beat Beaver’s live preview / wysiwyg productivity.

      All that said: Headway is still the master prime web design tool for graphic designers and web designers alike. Everything’s possible. No hands are tied, and no matter what anyone else may say: Headway’s innovative, grid-based Visual Editor is much much faster than coding a custom, unique website from scratch.

      =)
      Oliver

      Reply

    • I use Divi and I find it is advancing every day. They have just announced that the rest of the year is going to be dedicated to speed improvements.
      The one thing would like to challenge is who has the best service in terms of replying to issues and fixes and what speed do they reply to your question.
      Iknow Divi is great with their speed and replying correctly to your question, but I have no idea how beaver is. The plugin is not just about loading speed, also the service you give your customers to solve their problems. I am wondering how we can set up a survey for this.

      Any thoughts.

      Reply

      • I also use Divi and was watching some tutorials today that mentioned that if you dont have a life time license with Divi then you might want to get one, because if you leave Divi then your web pages will be a bunch of code instead of content and images. Something to check out.

        Reply

        • Hi Chris

          Yes, that’s what I’ve written about in my posts on Divi: it leaves a mess of shortcodes behind, should you ever wish to switch from the Divi theme. Their solution was to create the Divi Builder plugin, which is Divi’s page builder, but without the theme. But what if you’d like to stop using that plugin? Same problem: shortcodes left behind. A huge mess. You’d have to recreate not only your layouts but your content too. A major, daunting task. In that way Divi can be seen as a chronic disease that can lay latent/dormant for years, below the radar, and then: bam, it takes over.

          Freddie Mercury would’ve used Divi 😀

          (sorry, can’t help myself)

          =)
          Oliver

          Reply

Questions or comments? Feel free: you're welcome!