Why Divi is our favourite WordPress Theme

We’ve written a post before about why WordPress is a great platform for your business and why we use it to create ALL of our websites. We just love it! If you’re a fan of WordPress too then you’ll love this theme and you may have heard of it already as it’s one of the most popular themes out there!

Divi (*affiliate link). It’s a theme by Elegant Themes. It’s so different compared to most other WordPress themes because it allows you to build absolutely any layout and any design, instead of being restricted to a theme’s design.

Divi uses a drag and drop, modular system for building websites.

It works a lot like building blocks – you start with a section, then add a row to set how many columns you’d like and start dragging in the different modules. Modules include text, images, buttons, icons, and many more options. A lot of the modules that are built in to Divi, you’d need a separate plugin for with other themes.

Everything can be customised so that no website looks the same.

And everything can have a default customisation set so it’s quick and easy to create something on brand whenever you add something new, like a new page or blog post.

Reuse templates from your Divi Library

You can also save anything, from one single module to a whole page, to your Divi Library so that you can use them across your website. For example, you could save a landing page for your latest masterclass or webinar to your Divi Library and use it again in future for a new webinar, saving yourself lots of time!

And on the topic of the Divi Library, you can also save anything as ‘global’, which means when you change one instance of it, it changes across your whole site. We use this quite often with email opt-in forms. They’ll often appear on a website home page, possibly across a few other pages on the site too and usually on every blog post. Rather than having to go to each individual page when the opt-in needs an update, we can edit one and it’ll change it everywhere.

The Visual Builder

Divi also includes a ‘visual builder’ so that you can see how your website looks as you’re editing it. It is SO much easier to create something amazing when you’re actually looking at it how your website visitors would be and editing it right there on the screen.

There are also built in mobile optimisation tools so you can see how your website would look on tablet and mobile and edit the settings per device if needed.

Divi Theme Builder

One of the newer features of Divi that we’re loving at the moment is the Theme Builder. The Theme Builder allows you to customise the ‘theme’ areas of your website, like custom headers and footers that appear on all pages at the click of a button.

Here you can also set templates for pages like your blog archives, search results or blog posts themselves. This is another way to really set your website apart and make it truly unique because everything is now customisable.

Access to Elegant Themes plugins and templates

With an Elegant Themes subscription, you get access to all their themes and plugins, so you’ll also be able to use Bloom (email opt-in tool) and Monarch (social sharing tool) that integrate seamlessly into Divi.

Elegant Themes also has a large selection of templates that you can use.

It’s also worth noting here, there’s a Divi Builder plugin available with Elegant Themes that you can install on your website without changing the theme, but we’ve found that it works much better with the whole Divi theme.

Divi Community

Divi is around for the long haul and is always being updated so that it’s stable and secure, and so that it keeps up to date with trends and new features. There’s so much content available online about this theme, even podcasts, YouTube channels and whole websites all about Divi set up by fans!

You might have guessed already that we’re definitely Divi fans but it’s worth pointing out a couple of cons too to keep things balanced.

The endless options for customisation can be overwhelming!

If you’re creating your website yourself, being able to edit everything can be a bit scary. Where do you start?!

Divi does have some built in templates and designs that can be great as a starting point. There are also lots of Divi child themes available to help you get up and running – child themes piggyback off of the main theme, Divi, to provide more of a fill-in-the-blanks website so that you’re starting with a template and customising from there.

When it comes to customising your website and all of the options that are available in Divi, it can be tempting to change ALL of the colours and use ALL of the available modules and bundle every possible option on to the page, but remember that it’s best to keep things simple. Simple is effective! There are a ton of things available with Divi, but you don’t need to use them all.

There’s a bit of a learning curve

There is a bit of a learning curve to using Divi (like with all new systems!) because it works totally differently to most other WordPress themes. But we find that people get to grips with it quite quickly after learning the basics. All of our web design clients get a step by step Divi course included in the project, including quick how-tos like ‘how do I add a new page’ or ‘how do I update my menu’ so it’s easy to find exactly what you’re looking for when you need it.

But Divi also includes its own help system right within the website! When editing, you’ll see a question mark icon on almost every setting which tells you what it does and there’s also a help button. Clicking that brings up more information including articles and videos so that you’re never stuck for long!

Divi is more expensive than some themes but includes so much more

It’s more of a website system than a theme and can grow and develop as your business does. At the time of writing this, there’s a lifetime membership option which is amazing value as you’ll only ever pay once for all the amazing updates that Elegant Themes bring to you!

However, if you’re starting with a super tight budget, there are lots of free WordPress themes to get you going. Remember, you can start with just one page and done is better than perfect – just start.

(Note that all Bloom & Brave website design clients have Divi included in their project, so you don’t need an extra license unless you’d like to have your own license and direct access to the Elegant Themes support team).

Why do we, as web designers, use Divi?

We truly believe that Divi is amazing and use it for all of the websites that we create because it means that we can create something completely unique and really customise the site to a business’s specific goals and brand.

Take a look at our portfolio here. ALL of these websites are created using Divi and they’re all totally different!

Click here to see our full portfolio

As web designers, we use Divi for all the reasons in this post but also because we are designers. We’re not developers building WordPress themes from the ground up (but have huge respect for the geniuses that do, like our colleague Holly!). We love Divi because it allows us to do what we do best, design.

We know Divi back to front and know how to create a beautiful and results-focused website using it, but we also know that most of our clients want to know how to update their website themselves. They want to have some control over their own website and know how it works, and by using Divi, they can have total control of their site. If they want to they can make all of their own edits rather than asking us whenever they need to change or add something.

And while we love building long-term relationships with our clients, we know that if they did decide to work with another web designer or if they wanted a team member to update their website, Divi is well known and it’d be easy for someone else to pick up.

Overall, Divi is a great choice for a WordPress theme whether you’re building the website yourself or working with a professional.