Elementor vs Divi 5: 9 Areas Compared

If you compare Elementor with Divi 4, then Elementor is the absolute winner. But if you compare Elementor with Divi 5, you may have a different conclusion. That's because Divi has undergone a total overhaul in this version.

Divi 5 now has a better underlying and more advanced web design capability. Features like flexbox and CSS grid are now available. Starting with this version, comparing Elementor with Divi has become logical.

As a user of both page builders, I am pleased with the competition of both tools because competition makes everything better.

If you prefer to use only one of them and are still unsure which one you should use, then read on. I will give some insights based on my experiences so that you can come up with a better decision.

Elementor vs Divi 5 in a Nutshell

	Elementor	Divi 5
Editor Interface	Fixed, expandable sidebar	Customizable, dockable panels
Layout System	Supports flexbox and CSS grid	Supports flexbox and CSS grid
Design System	Global variables, components, global elements, global classes	Global variables, global elements, global presets
Menu Builder	Supports mega menu and off-canvas menu	Supports mega menu and off-canvas menu
Loop Builder	Requires a template creation	More straightforward. Doesn't require template creation
Form Builder	Supports integration with email marketing platforms. Allows to create a multi-step form	Supports integration with email marketing platforms. Doesn't allow to create multi-step form
Popup Builder	Offers a dedicated feature with with an easy workflow	Allows to create one, but the steps are a bit complex
Motion effects	Scrolling effects, mouse effects, page transition, sticky effect, entrance animation, parallax	Scrolling effects, sticky effect, entrance animation, parallax
Background and Gradient	Solid color, gradient, image, video, slideshow	Solid color, gradient, image, video, pattern, background mask

Elementor vs Divi 5 in Details

Editor Interface

The editor interface of Elementor and Divi has undergone many changes. However, Elementor doesn't make a drastic change like Divi. Elementor preserves the overall editing workflow with a fixed settings panel on the left side.

The only "drastic" change in the Elementor editor is the addition of a top bar which was introduced in March 2023. From this top bar, you can access features like Site Settings, Structure (navigator), Page Settings, etc.

Meanwhile, the editor interface of Divi 5 is completely different from the previous versions (Divi 4). Divi 5 is not an update. It's an overhaul.

You will no longer see a floating settings panel when you want to edit an element in Divi 5 by default. Instead, all you will see is a settings panel on the right side. Like the one on Gutenberg (block editor).

If you prefer the old workflow, you can drag the panel to any area in the canvas area and you will get the floating settings panel back.

On the left side of the Divi 5 editor interface, you will find a vertical bar where you can access Layers (navigator), Variable Manager, Preset Manager, Page Manager, Page Settings and so on.

One of the interesting things in Divi 5 is that you can create a new canvas.

A canvas is an editing environment separated from your main editing environment. You can append a design you create on a certain canvas to another canvas. This feature is quite useful for some use cases. Like creating a staging design environment, a popup, etc.

Furthermore, Divi 5 now allows you to preview your design in a front-end. Something that is not possible in Divi Divi 4.

Here is the preview of the editor interface of Divi 5.

Layout System

Flexbox and CSS grid are standard features in modern web design. Elementor introduced flexbox container in March 2022 to replace the old section-based layout system.

Divi, on the other hand, only introduced flexbox and CSS grid in version 5 in which the final version was released in February 2026.

Over the years, Divi users had to deal with CSS code when they wanted to implement flexbox and CSS grid on their design before Divi 5 was released.

Apart from flexbox and grid, the block layout option is still available in Divi 5. In Elementor, the block layout option is not available.

Divi 5 Comes with Grid Editor

In Divi 5, you can play around with a grid before you populate the grid items with content. Elegant Themes introduced Grid Editor with the release of Divi 5.9.0 in July 2026.

While Divi already offers a set of pre-made grid layouts, Grid Editor allows you to edit it using a visual editor. You can drag the grid items to set the size and gap.

Design System

A design system is what makes your design consistent. If you often use a design system on the website projects you create, both Elementor and Divi make it easy to implement it.

Especially if you use the atomic editor in Elementor v4, the implementation of the design system is even easier thanks to the ability to create components.

Divi 5 doesn't allow you to create a component like Elementor v4 but you can maintain design consistency using global elements, global variables and global presets. Divi 5 offers dedicated panels to manage variables and presets.

Meanwhile, Elementor offers a dedicated icon on the top bar to access variables and classes. From here, you can add a new variable, add a new variable and manage classes.

The good thing about the design system in Elementor v4 is that you can export and import variables and classes.

Elementor Variables vs Divi 5 Variables

With variables, you can add global values to a certain design setting. Such as color, border-radius, spacing and so on.

Divi 5 supports more variables than Elementor. In Elementor, variables are limited to three types:

• Color
• Font (font family)
• Size

Divi 5 supports more variable types. Apart from color, font and size (called number in Divi 5), Divi 5 also allows you to add link, gradient, text and image.

Elementor Class vs Divi 5 Option Group Preset

Variables are useful to work faster, but they are limited to one design setting. To work even faster, you can gather multiple design settings (color, spacing size, etc) into a global setting and use it anywhere on your design.

In Elementor, you can create a class for this particular purpose. While in Divi 5, you can create an option group preset.

While Elementor and Divi 5 use a different term from this particular design system element, the two have the same purpose.

Menu Builder

Both Elementor and Divi 5 come with a theme builder feature which you can use to create a custom header for your WordPress website without coding. And of course, you can also add a menu to the header.

Elementor and Divi offer a design element to pull a WordPress menu and style it up using their visual editor.

The two also allow you to create both a mega menu and an off-canvas menu.

In Elementor, you can use the Menu widget to create a mega menu and the Off-Canvas widget to create an off-canvas menu.

While in Divi 5, you can use the Dropdown module to create a mega menu and the Canvas Portal module to create an off-canvas menu. It takes a learning curve to create a mega menu and an off-canvas menu in Divi 5, but you can definitely create one.

Loop Builder

Another feature available in Divi 5 that is not available in the previous versions is loop builder. With this feature, you can create a complex dynamic website without needing to install too many plugins.

Same as Divi 5, Elementor also comes with loop builder.

Divi 5 is a bit better than Elementor in this area for one main reason: it offers a simpler workflow.

In Elementor, you need to create a loop template via theme builder and then call it using either the Loop Grid widget or Loop Carousel widget. In Divi 5, you can loop anything with literally a single click.

Other than the workflow, there is hardly any difference between Elementor loop builder and Divi 5 loop builder. The two allow you to set a query, sort the loop items, set the number of items in the loop and so on.

And more importantly, they allow you to add custom fields to your loop.

Be it Elementor or Divi 5 also allows you to add pagination to your loop and the pagination feature of Elementor is better than Divi 5. Mainly because Elementor offers several pagination types, not just one pagination type like Divi 5

Form Builder

Divi 5 provides two modules aimed specifically at creating a specific form: the Contact Form module to create a contact form and and the Email Opt module to create an email opt-in form.

Elementor, on the other hand, uses a different approach. Instead of offering two different widgets, it offers one widget, the Form widget, that you can use to create several form types.

You can use the Form widget to create a contact form, an email opt-in form, a survey form, and so on.

The Form widget of Elementor supports more form field types than Divi 5 Contact Form module.

The Divi 5 Contact Form module supports only 6 form field types while Elementor Form widget supports 16 form field types.

Also, Elementor comes with a built-in feature to manage form submissions which is super useful if you want to function Elementor as a lead management tool.

Popup Builder

Elementor has a built-in feature designed specifically to create a popup. And to be honest, the popup builder feature of Elementor is one of the bests in the WordPress ecosystem in terms of design because you have absolute control over the popup design.

Divi 5 doesn't have a feature designed specifically to create a popup but you can create one by utilizing Interactions.

With Divi the 5 Interactions feature, you can show or hide an element based on a certain trigger. Such as page load, on click, etc. Thus, creating a popup is possible in Divi 5 although the steps are not as straightforward as Elementor.

In Elementor, not only can you create a beautiful popup using its visual editor but you can also set a specific location as well as how the popup shows up thanks to its extensive trigger support.

Motion Effects

Elementor and Divi 5 were not designed to become a website builder with advanced animation effects like Webflow.

However, basic animation effects like sticky effect, scrolling effect, and entrance animation are still available in the two page builders.

Here is the list of animation effects available in Elementor Divi 5:

	Elementor	Divi 5
Scrolling effects	✅	✅
Mouse effects	✅	✅
Page transition and loader	✅	❌
Sticky effect	✅	✅
Entrance animation	✅	✅
Parallax	✅	✅

Background and Gradient

In Divi 5 (already available since Divi 4), you can create a gradient background consisting of multiple colors. In Divi 5, the process of creating a gradient background is even more fun as you can expand the panel with a larger preview area.

Also, Divi 5 allows to create four gradient types as follows:

• Linear
• Circular
• Elliptical
• Conical

For a consistent gradient background, Divi 5 also allows you to create global gradients.

What about Elementor?

If you use the atomic editor (Elementor v4), you can also create a gradient background consisting of multiple colors but you can only create either a radial or a linear background.

The ability to create a multi-color gradient is not available in Elementor version 3.

To sweeten the look of your background, Divi 5 also allows you to add a pattern although the options are limited. The same feature is not available in Elementor.

Apart from a gradient, you can also add other background types in Elementor and Divi 5.

Here are the background types supported by Elementor and Divi 5.

	Elementor	Divi 5
Solid background	✅	✅
Gradient	✅	✅
Image	✅	✅
Video	✅	✅
Image slideshow	✅	❌
Pattern	❌	✅
Background mask	❌	✅

Summary

People always compare Elementor and Divi because the two are the most popular page builders for WordPress. However, to be honest, comparing Elementor with the old versions of Divi is not apples to apples due to the lack of features and design capability of Divi 4 and the older versions.

Now with the release of Divi 5, comparing it with Elementor makes more sense.

Divi 5 is completely different from Divi 4, in a good way. It now has more advanced design capability thanks to its built-in flexbox and grid layout system. More advanced features are also released at a rapid enough pace compared to Divi 4.

Should You Use Elementor or Divi 5?

Elementor, especially with editor version 4, also continues to improve. You can now work more efficiently with components and classes.

Overall, Elementor is still more beginner-friendly than Divi 5. And for this particular reason, it is still a better suited option if you are a freelancer or agency who often creates websites for non-tech clients.

If pricing is the issue, then you should go to Divi 5. You can get it at only $89/year and can use it on unlimited sites. A one-time purchase option is also available if you hate the subscription-based payment model.

In Elementor, you need pay $540/year to use the Pro version on unlimited sites. And there is no one-time payment option like Divi.

You can click the following buttons to download Elementor and Divi 5.