Divi – is a popular web building platform, which allows replacing a standard WordPress editor with an advanced and easy-to-use visual editor. It has distinguished itself due to its ease-of-use, high end flexibility and powerful integrated functionality.
The software makes it possible to create all kinds of templates with regard to the project you are going to set up and customize. Whether you want to launch a blog, small business site or digital store, the platform has them available in the pack. According to recent estimates, Divi now powers over 4,000,299 websites, while many more are currently under development.
Divi comes with a drag-and-drop builder that lets subscribers create custom designs without coding. It also grants access to a variety of pre-built layouts and templates that can be easily customized to fit any project needs and user requirements. The platform additionally includes modules such as sliders, galleries, and forms that can be added to any page or post.
When choosing Divi for your website development needs, mind that the system requires domain name and hosting choice. This is where HostGator proves to be the best bet. The company makes it possible to get a bonus domain name for free, offering money-back guarantee, opportunity of free website migration, affordable pricing options, quality customer support and abundance of other features.
With such a diversity of features, Divi seems to be a smart choice equally for beginners and web design pros. Is it that easy to use, however? Does it make sense to use it instead of traditional WordPress CMS themes? Let’s find that out in the review.
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Ease of Use
As a browser-based software, Divi Theme and Builder ensures impressive ease-of-use that makes it applicable for various types of tasks. The system makes it possible to create custom designs with no programming or web design skills at all. Due to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, it is you, who has control over the entire website development process.
Divi comes with an inline editing process. You don’t have to download or install the software. Instead, you have an opportunity to observe all changes and modifications in real-time mode. What’s more, the edits are automatically saved here.
To start working with the software, you initially need to create an account. However, you can explore the major features of the system with its free demo version. Having signed up for the system, you will further be redirected to the dashboard for further work.
The Divi interface is conveniently organized into three main sections:
- the page settings (allow users to configure the overall web page settings, including layout, background color and fonts);
- the visual builder (offers drag-and-drop modules to create web page layout and design);
- the wireframe view (shows the page layout in a simpler, non-graphical version, which makes it easy to see the web page structure).
Mind that instead of a free trial, Divi has a free demo version. It lets you test the functionality of the software in real-time without completing any registration process. Simply click on “Divi Demo” and start editing the layout with no signing in. It goes without saying that demo mode has quite a limited functionality. However, this is enough to see what exactly the tool has to offer.
Divi Features
Along with baseline features a WYSIWYG platform can deliver out of the box, Divi has some special options to offer. Despite the fact it is not an all-in-one website builder, it has some great tools for quick, simple and convenient template design and visualization. This is what makes it different from typical WordPress CMS theme builders and custom layouts.
Dashboard
Divi comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that is an ideal environment for quality website creation. The dashboard serves as a centralized hub for managing all website-related issues.
The Divi dashboard was created with the needs, skills and requirements of all user categories in mind. Whether you are new to website design and management or have a notable background, you will be able to master the platform and handle all the nuances with no serious problems at all.
Divi dashboard grants access to the list of built-in customization options and tools for content/plugin/ user account management. One of the highlights is the ability to independently create and save custom layouts. This allows for further design reuse on multiple pages or even websites, saving time and ensuring branding style and consistency.
The dashboard also involves a range of customization options for individual web pages and posts. These include options for changing the color scheme, typography and layout. If needed, users can add custom CSS or JavaScript for more effective website customization.
Another distinctive feature of the Divi dashboard is its integration with the WordPress Customizer. This makes it possible to see live previews of recently made changes.
Additionally, the dashboard includes a range of tools for content and user account management. It allows adding/managing new pages, posts, media, comments and versatile user interactions. Likewise, it is possible to create/manage user accounts, view user activity logs, assign roles and permissions.
Website Editor
Divi’s website editor is based on the drag-and-drop approach. It is up to you to pick, add, move and delete elements on the project front end. There is no need to work with codes and complex backend options here – all the control features are at hand here.
The editor also allows designing pages in the real time mode and seeing the results in process. Intuitive visual controls along with responsive layouts make it possible to create websites that look great on all desktop and mobile devices.
What’s more, the software ensures an inline text editing approach. This means that you can see the result while making the edits. This is what makes the website creation process hassle-free and intuitive with Divi.
Modules
Divi Theme and Builder offers over 200 versatile modules for integration. There is a module for any website type here. The most popular of them include CTA, images, text, sliders, videos, testimonials, blogs, galleries, forms and many more. Each module comes with its own settings that can be adjusted with regard to your project parameters, such as font size, color, and spacing. Users can also save and reuse the selected modules. This obviously saves time when working on the development of new pages.
Custom CSS Controls
Divi is good not only for newbies with no technical skills. It also works well for experienced developers and web designers. You have a great opportunity to add your own CSS styles, create new ones, indicate attributes, and work with CSS styling in different ways.
Layout Management
With Divi, you may create as many custom designs as required. The software allows saving each layout and assigning a specific category to it to ensure faster access. The system makes it easy to re-use themes you have already created. The feature ensures layout control and efficient workflow management.
Optimization of the Website Development/Promotion Process
Apart from powerful design tools available in stock, Divi offers plenty of efficient website development/promotion solutions. Users can build marketing lists with Bloom pop-ups, increase conversions with Divi Leads split testing, promote projects on social media with Monarch social sharing etc. Options are multiple and versatile here.
eCommerce
The platform can be effectively used for web store creation and customization. Along with an integrable eCommerce module, the software smoothly integrates with WooCommerce. This eventually allows setting up full-featured online stores to sell products and services.
Marketing Integrations
Divi grants access to a variety of powerful marketing tools for further integration and set up, such as AWeber, MailChimp etc. They help effectively grow your email list, boost conversion rates and generate more traffic.
Split Testing
Divi’s comes with the built-in split testing feature that makes it possible to test various website versions in order to define, which of them works better and what can be done to enhance its performance.
Design and Templates
Divi ensures creative freedom while working on your website design. There are hundreds of customization tools and options to use here – from simple text formatting and up to advanced animations and motion effects.
The platform grants access to a really huge selection of pre-designed blocks and templates. Each of them is customizable with general and advanced settings to redesign the selected items.
Users may add different effects, work with image and background filters, add brightness, reduce capacity or contrast, etc. Shape dividers make it possible to modify dimensions by editing heights, horizontal repeats, and other crucial parameters.
All in all, there are over 2000 pre-made designs and more than 200 full website packs to choose from. Users can choose from a variety of categories, including eCommerce, business, blog, portfolio, technology, events, beauty, services, health and more. These pre-built layouts come with royalty free photos, illustrations, icons and other elements.
Design customization options are numerous here as well. Have a look at the most popular of them now:
- Motion Effects – The system allows creating advanced motion effects and animations that interact with users as they scroll the page. These are not static elements, but live animations that complete various actions to drive user attention;
- Hover Effects – With Divi, you can create two versions of each element – a standard and a hover one. Thus, a standard element will automatically transform into a hover one when hovering on it. This allows changing element’s content parameters, including images and texts;
- Sticky Effects – You can create sticky headers and elements that retain fixed positions when a user scrolls a web page. It is up to you to decide on the place to apply sticky effects;
- Parallax Effects – By applying parallax effects on the selected background images, it becomes possible to bring your project design to the brand new level;
- Filters & Effects – You can control special parameters of all Divi elements by applying special effects and filters. This is how you can control contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, opacity, blur etc. As a result, you can transform the look of any image or element;
- Patterns & Masks – Divi lets you frame images with background masks and layer patterns, which are used to adjust background images, videos, gradients, new shapes etc. This unveils multiple design opportunities to create truly beautiful shapes and elements;
- Text Formatting Options – The software allows choosing from hundreds of fonts and control text styling options. You can also customize letter spacing, text sizes, line height as well as control custom text elements like block quotes, anchor links etc.;
- Element Positioning – You can drag and position floating elements on the page, using special absolute and fixed options Divi offers to its subscribers. The system allows creating fixed banners and headers, entertaining overlapping effects, dynamic image collages etc.
This is only a short list of design customization features Divi has in stock. Options are quite versatile here, letting you get the most out of your project design.
Customer Support
The platform has a well-established online community featuring users and experts ready to help. It offers several support options to choose from with regard to the type of inquiry or problem you encounter.
Thus, you can take advantage of the Live Chat feature. The window offers a simple navigation bar to search for the answer yourself as well as to keep in touch with the latest system updates to be rolled out.
There is access to the system documentation, tutorials, FAQs and troubleshooting issues. If you don’t manage to find the required info, you can type your question in the separate bar and the software team will get in touch with you in a few minutes.
You can also go to the Contact page, if you have any inquiries about Billing, Sales or Technical Support. This is the place to send an email to the team, chat with community or software developers, browse the blog and documentation, join the Facebook group.
Divi Plans & Pricing
If you like the tool and want to make the most of its functionality, you can choose from 2 available options. They include:
- A Yearly Access starting at $89 per year. You get access to Divi, Extra, Bloom & Monarch, hundreds of ready-made website packs, product updates, premium support, unlimited website usage, risk-free guarantee etc.;
- A Lifetime Access costs $249 with all the same features. The only difference here is that you make a one time payment and get all unlimited options for good.
As we have stated earlier, Divi is not a ready-to-go website builder. You will need to take care of hosting and domain as well. Hostgator is the best solution with all features included in its plans. The entry price tag starts at $2.75 per month.
Divi Website Examples
To showcase Divi’s versatility and powerful integrated functionality, it definitely makes sense to have a look at some of the most popular examples of projects created with the software:
Need more quality samples? Take your time to browse the web or visit the official website of the software to view more Divi projects.
Verdict: How Good is Divi?
Divi Theme & Builder is quite a nice solution for all user categories – experienced web developers looking for enhanced design customization tools and non-techies who crave for something different from standard WordPress templates.
The platform is user-friendly, with its drag-and-drop interface, versatility of customization options, integrated modules, pre-designed layouts, powerful tech support, affordable pricing and a demo version that allows testing its functionality at no cost.
The system lets you create stunning website templates whenever you want without the need to pay every time you want to stand out. Moreover, it will work for those who create projects for their customers and always require some new sources for inspiration. With Divi, you can create layouts for any business niche.
Prior to decide on the software use, mind that Divi does not have a free trial and requires hosting and domain choice. This eventually results in extra budget and time investment. However, this is quite an unusual web design solution to make use of.
