We’ve been hearing about Divi 5 since 2023. Back then, the promise was a full release by January 2024. Fast-forward to July 2025, and it's still in alpha. So I stayed away… until now.

In one of my membership groups, a designer shared her experience building a simple brochure site using Divi 5. Not only did it look great, it performed well. Then she went bigger — a site with 12 plugins and some serious custom CSS. Still, no issues.

So I decided to give it a try — on a staging site (because I do not recommend doing this on a live website). Here’s what I found.

Installation & Migration

After installing Divi 5, I ran the Divi 5 Migrator (you’ll find it under the Divi tab). It gave me a compatibility report showing what would and wouldn’t work. For me, everything — all pages and posts — came through fine. Sort of.

One Image Quirk

Images showed up in the builder but didn’t appear live. If your layout uses a Featured Image, just click into the module, re-select Featured Image from the menu, and save. Easy fix.

However, if the image is linked to a page, you’ll need to relink it manually. It’s not difficult, just tedious — especially if you have a lot of images. That said, I was relieved it wasn’t worse. I had visions of relinking every image across dozens of posts.

Plugins: What Works (and What Doesn’t)

Out of all my plugins, only Smart Slider 3 Pro raised a red flag. The backend looks a little odd — every slide is stacked in a long vertical row — but the front end renders correctly. According to their support, they’re waiting on the final release of Divi 5 before updating.

Here’s a list of plugins I tested that worked with no issues:

• Accessibility by UserWay
• Blog2Social
• Connector GravityForms MailerLite
• Essential Grid
• Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
• Gravity Booster (Style & Layouts)
• Gravity Forms
• Gravity SMTP
• MailerLite
• Passster
• Pixel Caffeine
• SEOPress
• Sucuri Security
• SVG Support

I expected more conflicts, but even my more complex tools held up just fine.

Clean-Up Bonus: Less Custom CSS

One of the biggest (and most satisfying) surprises? I was able to clean up a huge chunk of custom CSS.

Divi 5 handles spacing, alignment, and responsiveness much better out of the box — which meant I could delete a boatload of old CSS. If you’ve been carrying around a bloated stylesheet like I have, this is your chance to lighten the load.

Responsive Editing Got a Glow-Up

Responsive editing is way more intuitive. No more clicking tiny icons to switch between Desktop, Tablet, and Smartphone views. In fact, the little phone icon is gone entirely.

Divi now lets you edit each view more naturally, and switching between them feels smoother than ever.

Builder Experience: Smoother, Faster, Calmer

When you click “Edit with Divi,” you’re no longer greeted by the spinning blue and green balls of doom. Instead, a clean square loads — and loads fast.

While editing, I didn’t experience any lag, weird jumps, or saving issues. Saving a page felt stable and responsive, which is a huge improvement for an alpha build.

But What About WooCommerce?

That’s the one area that’s not ready. Divi 5’s WooCommerce modules haven’t been rebuilt yet. So if you’re working on an e-commerce site, this isn’t the version to use.

Right now, I wouldn’t put a client’s store on Divi 5 — not unless you're comfortable building on hopes and prayers.

Final Verdict

Would I build client sites in Divi 5 Alpha? For brochure-style websites, absolutely — especially now that I’ve tested it on a safe staging site. It’s faster, cleaner, and a real upgrade in terms of editing experience. After you move from your staging site to the live site, do a clean sweep of all pages; something might just change you.

Just don’t go installing it on a live site (yet). Test first, expect a few quirks — especially with images and sliders — and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. And if you’ve been carrying around too much CSS, Divi 5 might just give you the freedom to toss it.

✨ Curious if your site is ready for Divi 5? Let’s talk it through before you dive in. Book a free 30-minute consult and I’ll help you figure out your best move.