A page builder is a plugin that adds drag-and-drop editing to WordPress, letting you visually design pages without writing code. They became popular before WordPress had a proper built-in editor. The most well-known examples are Elementor and Divi.
The honest take
Page builders made sense when WordPress editing was limited. That is no longer the case. WordPress now has Gutenberg — a capable, built-in block editor that does what page builders do, without the trade-offs.
Third-party page builders come with real downsides:
- Performance — Page builders load a significant amount of extra code on every page, which slows your site down
- Inconsistency — Each page builder works differently, behaves differently across themes, and updates can break layouts unexpectedly
- Lock-in — Your content becomes dependent on that specific plugin. Remove it and your pages break. Switching becomes a major project
- Maintenance overhead — Page builder plugins add complexity to updates and make it harder for developers to work on your site efficiently
What to use instead
Gutenberg — used properly — gives you a fast, consistent, native editing experience without any of these trade-offs. A site built correctly with Gutenberg is easier to edit, easier to maintain, and better for performance than one built with a third-party page builder.
If you are currently using a page builder and are unsure whether it is affecting your site speed, a website checkup will tell you. Our theme development is built on Gutenberg from the ground up.