Why should I not use a page builder for my website?

They employ a drag-and-drop user interface, allowing any business owner to alter the appearance of their website. Nearly all WordPress third-party themes come with page builders like Divi, Elementor, Visual Composer, Beever Builder, WP Engine and others. Page builders undoubtedly have certain benefits, but they also have a lot of drawbacks. In this piece, we will discuss some drawbacks of adding these plugins to your own WordPress website.

What is a page builder?

Let’s start by defining a page builder. Using a “drag and drop” editor, a page builder is a tool that makes it simple to create pages and articles for your WordPress website. Because page builders do not require coding, even non-developers can use the WordPress CMS to create their websites.

Page builders are complicated

Page builders advertise themselves as having drag-and-drop interfaces that are simple, intuitive, and easy to use. In our experience, this is not always the case. They are packed with many elements, frequently using multiple elements to produce the same or related output types. They attempt to cater to as many people and businesses as possible, and as such, fill their editors with every potential option and setting they can. This causes an incredible amount of unnecessary bloat, as these elements will likely never be used in most cases.

As more functionality gets added over time, and they change how the existing functionality works, your website may become unmanageable or even corrupted when the editor receives an update that conflicts with your content.

Page builders can also often slow the website down due to the vast amount of options that are available that aren’t used. Keeping them updated is vital for the well-being of your website. Often when a website isn’t kept up to date with the page builder. If the version number is substantial when updating this can often break the website structure.

Working with page builders is cumbersome and ineffective

When updating content on some of the websites we manage, we see that it takes far longer than it would for equivalent updates on websites without page builders. There are principally two causes.

First, it takes longer for the page builders to load and preserve changes. Second, getting to the thing you need to modify frequently requires several clicks, additional page loads or dialogue box opens, tab switches, etc. Finding the ideal location among the numerous elements and element possibilities often makes the work take longer to complete. These elements work together to make content editing difficult and agonisingly slow.

Non-standard methods of editing content

A page builder substitutes the typical WordPress method with a completely different interface and method. Every page builder developer has their own opinions on the ideal method for handling content. Every page builder has its peculiarities, flaws, powers, and restrictions. If you are comfortable using a one-page builder, switching to a different one usually involves a steep learning curve.

While there are a handful of popular page builders we see time and time again, there are over 20 distinctly different ones available. Learning how to manage all of their unique and often counterproductive nuances simply isn’t possible.