I have been using Divi by Elegant Themes since late 2014. During that time I have developed approximately 80 websites, as well as developed and sold child themes. Last year, I authored the book “Dos and Dont’s + 30 + Divi CSS Snippets + Manually Moving WordPress.” I’m not sure whether I would have accomplished all that had I, not dove into Divi head first.

For the last couple of months, I was becoming more and more frustrated with Divi. Primarily due to the constant updates. Sometimes two a week. It was being to feel as though modifications were being made to the software, update notices sent, but, the modifications were never really tested for potential problems. Almost immediately, people would be complaining that an update broke their website. A couple of days later, I see another update notice to fix the problems that were caused by the update a couple of days earlier. Managing numerous websites, it was just becoming too much.

While my tendency is to do all of my designing on the backside, I decided it was time to start using the visual builder on the last site I built with Divi.  I enjoyed being able to see it come to life. That enjoyment soon came to an end with more timeout errors and failed saves than I could have possibly imagined.

Now that I was hooked on the potential for a visual builder, I went in search of another solution. I chose GeneratePress and Elementor. First, neither of the free versions satisfied everything I wanted to do on my first build. So, I purchase both pro versions. One thing I’ve always liked about Divi is the lifetime license. Unfortunately, they are the only ones in the world of pages builders that offer one.

Building my first site with Elementor and GeneratePress went very smooth. It was a simple one-page website that didn’t require any extra coding. I was happy and decided to dive in a little deeper, and began converting my website. Since I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, I just migrated my Divi website to my local server and started changing out the pages from one platform to the other.

Overall, the process went well, but here are some of the hiccups:

• Knowing it was going to be a pain, removing all of the shortcodes was frustrating and I soon began to question, why so much was necessary.
• Trying to get a full-width image with Elementor and GeneratePress is a very convoluted task. Why three steps?
• GeneratePress no longer supporting Font Awesome seems strange. The philosophy less is better doesn’t really fly when you have to add another plugin to accomplish this.
• Speaking of plugins, it began to feel in order for me to do a lot of tasks that are built into Divi, I was having to buy another plugin to accomplish things. I like to keep my plugins to a minimum.
• Caldera Forms integration is awkward. The only way I could insert a form without having to go back and forth getting the shortcode for a particular form was to use another plugin.
• The lack of integration with Essential Grid was frustrating.

In the end, what do I prefer, I’d like a combination of all three pieces of software. Divi right now is winning for a couple of reasons:

• Plugins that rely on for almost all builds are easily integrated as stated above.
• I like the page builder and theme is one product.
• Never knew I liked the Project section in Divi until I didn’t have it.
• I soon learned to love the built-in items in the Secondary Menu. Although I accomplish what I wanted with just a little CSS.
• As stated earlier, the biggest drawback for me for both Elementor and GeneratorPress is the lack of lifetime licenses. At some point, it seems as though things should be consider paid in full. Otherwise, are we not just renting the platforms? Also if a client whose website I built on Divi decides not to use me for a care plan, I don’t worry about the Divi license. I made my investment back on it long ago. Further, I feel awkward to quote a price to design a website, which includes the cost of the software to later say, “Oh by the way you need to start paying for the glue that is holding your website together.” That may be a generational thing.

With my program that is being launched next, “Ready Set Launch” I can see more websites not heavy with galleries being built with Elementor and GeneratePress. And, yes, there will be a disclaimer that once the contract is completed, the client will have to put both licenses in their name.

For those of you who were curious to see which platform my website is now on, yes it’s still Divi. While a great deal has been changed over, there is so much more to do and I’ve learned what I wanted to.

Having any questions?

Let’s chat.