We’ll be honest we aren’t fans of page builders such as DIVI and WP Bakery. Our experience with them is they often create hard-to-update, bloated websites and the admin panel can be a real pain to use. However, we do recognize that there are some situations where these page builders can be helpful.
Prototyping ideas.
If you’re looking to quickly prototype an idea for a website, they can be a good option. We’ve had clients come to us without a clear vision for their website, and sometimes they just want to build something quickly and cheaply to see if it’ll work. In those cases, page builders can be a good way to get something off the ground and test out your idea without breaking the bank, saving your budget for the next phase of your web journey
Low budget projects.
If you’re organizing an event and don’t have a lot of money to spend on a professional website build, a page builder can help you create something that’s “good enough” without adding to your expenses.
Personal projects and learning.
Page builders can be a great option for personal projects and learning. If you’re new to web development and feeling overwhelmed by all the different languages and tools, using a page builder with an off-the-shelf theme can be a good way to get started and learn the ropes. When you hit roadblocks it’s a great place to start digging into the code and seeing just how far you can push the site, remember to use a child theme though or your next update might overwrite all your hardwork! Building your first site using an off-the-shelf theme can be a great way to get past all that and learn the joy of building your own place on the web.
Downsides.
A major caveat is that getting data/content OUT of an off-the-shelf theme or page builder can be incredibly painful. Often times we’ve had to resort to just “scraping” or even cutting and pasting the content. It’s fine for a 5-10 page website but recently we were asked to undertake this on a 600+ article website and it wasn’t a lot of fun!
So, we don’t look down on page builders as they certainly have their place but if you want a website for a business that can help you achieve your goals then get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to talk