Divi Review: Can You Do It Better With Divi?

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In the market for a new theme for your WordPress website but are not sure where to even begin? Divi is just one of so many options – but their popularity remains high, so let’s take a took a deep dive into Divi and see how it can work for you.

What Is Divi?

Divi is a WordPress theme created by the team at Elegant Themes. I remember when they first cam out many years ago and was amazed by how easy it was to create a good looking site with no code!

So what are some of the best features of Divi?

1. Ease of use by non-technical clients
2. Well coded and responsive
3. Easy to use drag and drop editing for creating unique page layouts
4. Pre-made page layouts
5. Ability to save custom made page layouts
6. Control font color, size, add icons and so much more from content blocks.
7. Easily add toggle areas, tabbed areas and so much more at the click of a button
8. Endless design options – you are only limited by your imagination!
9. Reliable developer – we have been using Elegant Themes (makers of Divi) since 2009!
10. Frequently updated and new feature releases

OK, so what is the bad stuff – there has to be some!

1. Shortcodes – the way the pages are created makes “shortcodes” a part of the content code. You won’t see this on the front end, the shortcodes are in the database, the only reason this may be an issue is if you decide to move in a few years to a non-Divi theme or website. The shortcode would need to be removed from the database.*
2. Some have reported an issue with load time because of the extra code Divi comes with – but if proper precautions are taken this should not be too much of an issue.
3. It has “too many” options! Although we stopped working with it – for the few clients that we have that do utilize it that we maintain – we have seen the latest updates have so many options that my clients are now confused.  Paddings. margins, videos, images – all these settings are great, but for novice users it can be overwhelming.

DIVI NOTE

*Divi recently released their Divi Module as a plugin that can be used on ANY THEME. So the shortcode issue in some way has been address! Once you use the Divi Module editor — you won’t want to live without it anyway!

So, can I just do this myself – why do I need you?

You don’t “need” us so to speak, but there is still a learning curve – and design and other integrations you may need help with. It is still a theme and needs setting up and has unique features that may be confusing. Also, if you have a specific design in mind – it may take you a while to figure out how to transpose that look and feel to the theme.  We also have a developers license so you would not have to pay for the theme or updates.

So, if you are a do it yourself-er who loves the challenge – then GO FOR it! We would love to see what you can do!

What about other themes?

2 Dogs Design typically does NOT use themes in our web design projects – we work primarily on the Genesis Framework for our custom clients since we find it easy to use, incredibly well coded and loads very fast – but we will use Divi for our clients looking for something more affordable and easy to self manage.

We have recently learned about the Make theme by ThemeFoundry and that looks like a promising option also, so that is another one we may consider in the future.

Does Divi Work With Gutenberg?

In short, yes! You can use Divi with Gutenberg or just use Divi on its own. Elegant Themes did a great job making Divi integrate beautifully with Gutenberg to help ensure you do not have issues using both in tandem.

You can easily add a Gutenberg block – then use a Divi block within the Gutenberg block. This allows you to easily add pre-made Divi layouts or custom layouts that you have created on your own.