Did you know Divi has a huge file size of 9.7MB? That’s a lot bigger than many other WordPress tools. As a Digital Marketing Agency, we’ve had a number of clients come to us with WordPress websites built in the Divi framework. It was once part of a suite but now stands alone. We were excited, but soon faced numerous issues with the Divi theme.
Divi was sold as an all-in-one solution, but turned out to be confusing and overwhelming for website owners. It made it hard for regular WordPress users to get around. As an Agency that is determined to educate and empower our clients, Divi was just not a great fit. In today’s blog post, we’ll give you our thoughts and experience with Divi.
Table of contents
Introduction to the Divi Theme
Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes on the market, developed by Elegant Themes. It’s been around for years and has built a big following. It promises a visual drag-and-drop builder, a wide range of design modules, and claims to make website creation accessible to beginners without coding knowledge. For many small businesses, freelancers, and agencies, Divi has served as an all-in-one solution that combines both a theme and a page builder in a single package.
At the same time, Divi’s popularity comes with its own set of challenges and criticisms. While it offers convenience and an expansive toolkit, it has also been criticized for being bloated, overly reliant on shortcodes, and sometimes challenging to scale as websites grow. Some users praise the sheer number of design options, while others find the learning curve surprisingly steep despite the drag-and-drop promise. Like any tool, Divi has strengths that make it a fit for certain types of users and drawbacks that frustrate others. Understanding where it shines and where it struggles helps put into perspective why the theme is both loved and disliked in equal measure.
The Overwhelming Complexity of Divi
One of the biggest drawbacks of Divi is its overwhelming complexity. While it promises an easy, drag-and-drop experience, many website owners find the interface cumbersome and time-consuming to work in. Every change requires digging through layers of settings and menus, which slows down projects. It can make even simple edits more complicated than they should be.
Training clients on Divi only adds to the frustration; what should be a straightforward process often becomes a drawn-out tutorial just to handle basic updates. Unfortunately, some agencies lean into this complexity because it keeps clients dependent on them for every little change. Our philosophy is the opposite: we believe in empowering clients to manage their own websites if they would like to, rather than locking them into a tool that makes independence more difficult.
Theme Lock-In Issues
Another common concern we see with Divi is the theme lock-in problem. Because Divi relies heavily on its own shortcode system, switching to a different theme or builder down the road can turn into a nightmare. If you ever decide to move away from Divi, you’re often left with pages of messy shortcodes and broken layouts that require a complete rebuild.
Steep Learning Curve
Business owners who start with Divi, expecting a quick path to building a website, are surprised by how long it takes to get truly comfortable. The interface itself is not always intuitive, and it often requires a good deal of trial and error before users feel confident making changes on their own.
New clients who come to us after having a Divi site built by another agency often share the same story: They feel lost trying to make even the simplest edits. Many spend hours watching tutorials or digging through forums to change text or update images., Worse, they don’t dare experiment with the layout for fear of breaking something. That level of uncertainty isn’t what you’d expect from a tool marketed as beginner-friendly. Instead, it highlights just how steep Divi’s learning curve really is, especially when compared to other builders that make routine updates far more intuitive.
Confusing Interface
Another common complaint about Divi is its confusing interface. At first glance, the builder looks sleek and modern, but once you start working in it, the layout of controls and the sheer number of hidden menus can make even basic tasks feel unintuitive. Options are often buried under multiple layers of tabs, toggles, and icons that aren’t always clearly labeled.
We’ve seen clients get stuck trying to locate something as simple as where to edit text or adjust spacing, which turns what should be a quick update into a frustrating guessing game. For website developers, this translates into extra time spent hunting through settings, and for business owners, it creates hesitation about making changes at all. An interface that tries to do everything ends up overwhelming users, instead of guiding them with clarity.
Divi’s Visual Editor Usability Challenges
Divi’s visual editor is one of its biggest selling points, but it also introduces a set of usability challenges that frustrate both developers and website owners. While the promise of editing directly on the page sounds intuitive, in practice, the editor can feel clunky and inconsistent. Elements don’t always respond the way users expect, and minor adjustments like padding, margins, or alignment often require digging through multiple panels instead of being handled efficiently and effectively. Another problem that commonly comes up is that the editor can tend to lag.
Clunky Editing Interface
Some of the common complaints we here are:
- Slow load times — the editor can lag, especially on larger or image-heavy pages.
- Too many hidden menus — simple edits often require digging through multiple tabs or panels.
- Inconsistent controls — spacing, alignment, and styling options don’t always behave as expected.
- Overcrowded interface — the sheer number of icons, toggles, and settings feels overwhelming.
- Frequent glitches — modules sometimes fail to save changes or display correctly until refreshed.
- Poor mobile editing — making responsive adjustments isn’t always intuitive, requiring extra trial and error.
Rigid Page Structure
Divi promotes itself as a highly flexible drag-and-drop builder, but in practice, its layouts are locked into rigid rows, columns, and modules. Instead of shaping a site freely, website owners complain about having to work around the framework’s constraints. Something as simple as adjusting column widths or reordering sections can require unnecessary workarounds, creating frustration for clients and adding time for developers.
What should feel like creative freedom instead turns into a battle with the builder’s structure. Rather than enabling smooth customization, Divi’s rigidity often restricts users and makes the design feel constrictive, rather than empowering them.
Too Many Icons and Hover Effects
I feel like I’m on a bit of a rant, but have been influenced by the latest new client coming on board, ready to pull their hair out. This one was high on the list. The overuse of icons causes the distracting aspect of working in Divi and hover effects within the editor. Nearly every element lights up with buttons, tooltips, and hidden controls when you move your cursor across the page.
Instead of simplifying the editing process, this constant clutter makes it harder for inexperienced website owners to focus on the task at hand. We’ve seen clients get confused about which icon does what, or hesitate to click anything, ultimately leading them to call “help”. For developers, it slows down workflow by turning straightforward edits into a hunt through overlapping buttons. A clean interface should guide users, but Divi’s reliance on excessive icons and hover triggers often leaves the experience feeling busy and unintuitive.
Divi vs. Other Themes
When comparing Divi to other WordPress builders, Elementor consistently stands out as the preferred choice among our clients. Both tools promise drag-and-drop functionality and visual design freedom, but the user experience is very different. Divi, as mentioned, often buries options under multiple menus and relies heavily on shortcodes, while Elementor keeps controls intuitive and accessible, making it easier for beginners to grasp. Clients who have struggled with Divi’s steep learning curve usually find Elementor far more approachable; they can log in, make edits, and feel confident without hours of training.
From a developer’s perspective, Elementor is also less restrictive. Its layouts are more fluid, giving designers greater control over spacing, responsiveness, and overall structure without the rigid limitations Divi imposes. Migrating or scaling an Elementor site is generally smoother as well, whereas Divi sites are notorious for shortcode lock-in and heavier code output. Ultimately, while Divi may work for agencies that rely on clients, Elementor empowers site owners to manage their own content. This philosophy aligns with our approach to supporting and growing our clients’ businesses.
| Feature | Divi | Elementor |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $89/year or $249 lifetime | $49/year per website |
| Layouts/Templates | 215 Templates, 46+ Content Modules | 300+ Free Layouts |
| Overall User Rating | 9.8/10 | 9.4/10 |
| Customer Support Rating | High Satisfaction on Trustpilot | 9.4/10 |
| Support | Premium Support, Extensive Documentation | Regular Support with High Rating |
Performance Issues With Divi
Performance has a direct impact on SEO, and unfortunately, Divi has a reputation for slowing websites down. The theme is packed with features, modules, and styling options, but all that functionality comes at a cost. It’s code-heavy, which causes longer load times and more requests that search engines notice. Since Google prioritizes fast, user-friendly sites in its rankings, Divi’s performance issues can create real setbacks for businesses trying to improve visibility online. Even with caching and optimization plugins in place, many Divi sites still struggle to meet Core Web Vitals, putting them at a disadvantage against competitors using leaner, more efficient themes.
Large File Size
Divi’s large file size is a significant issue for its speed. In tests, free themes load super fast, in under 20 milliseconds. However, Divi takes significantly longer, loading in about 1 second, which is notably slower than many others. This slowness stems from the additional code it contains, such as CSS and JavaScript. To fix this, users can remove unused code and delay JavaScript loading but this is just more work and time.
Divi Load Time Stats
- A fresh Divi install can load over 1 MB of CSS and JavaScript by default, compared to lighter themes like GeneratePress, which load under 50 KB out of the box.
- Divi sites often make 80–100+ HTTP requests on an average page, whereas optimized themes can keep that number below 30 requests.
- In speed tests, Divi pages frequently show LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) times above 3.0s, while Google recommends keeping LCP under 2.5s for SEO.
- Studies show that a 2-second delay in load time can increase bounce rates by as much as 103%, directly hurting user engagement and search rankings.
- Even with caching and minification, many Divi sites still struggle to achieve a Google PageSpeed Insights score above 70–75 on mobile, falling short of Core Web Vitals benchmarks.
The Harsh Reality of Why Some SEO & Web Design Agencies Use Divi
I’ll get a lot of heat for saying, but I’m just trying to keep it real for you!
The harsh reality is that many SEO and web design agencies don’t choose Divi because it’s the best tool for clients; They choose it because its complexity creates dependence. Divi’s steep learning curve, shortcode lock-in, and confusing interface often mean that clients struggle to make even basic updates without help.
For agencies that want ongoing control (and billable hours), this dependence is profitable. Instead of empowering clients to manage their own sites, these agencies essentially build walls that keep clients tied to them indefinitely. We take the opposite approach: a website should give business owners freedom, not frustration. By choosing leaner, more intuitive solutions, clients can grow their online presence with confidence.
Why DIVI For WordPress Sucks: Conclusion
At the end of the day, Divi isn’t without its merits—NOT. The drawbacks far outweigh the benefits for many users. From its steep learning curve and confusing interface to rigid layouts, heavy file sizes, and performance issues. This can hurt SEO, Divi often creates more problems than it solves. Even our developers find it cumbersome to work in, and clients consistently tell us they feel overwhelmed when trying to make simple edits on their own.
The bigger issue is that Divi’s structure tends to foster dependency rather than independence. With faster, cleaner, and more intuitive alternatives like Elementor available, sticking with Divi feels like clinging to outdated methods. If your goal is a site that’s user-friendly, scalable, and SEO-ready, Divi simply isn’t the tool to get you there.
DIVI for WordPress: Why It Sucks FAQs
Not as much as advertised. While marketed for beginners, many users find Divi overwhelming, with a steep learning curve that requires tutorials, training, and lots of trial and error.
Unfortunately, some agencies like Divi’s complexity because it keeps clients dependent on them for ongoing edits and changes, ensuring continued billable work.
It can. Divi’s bloated code and large file sizes often lead to slower page speeds and Core Web Vitals. This can negatively affect rankings if not heavily optimized.
Yes, but it’s messy. Because Divi relies on shortcodes, switching often leaves behind broken layouts and requires a rebuild, making migration time-consuming.
Most of our clients prefer Elementor. It’s more intuitive, easier to learn, and doesn’t lock users into shortcodes, making it both user- and SEO-friendly compared to Divi.
If you want independence, speed, and scalability, Divi may not be the best option. Lighter, more modern builders like Elementor or Gutenberg tend to deliver a better long-term experience.
