The Hidden Cost of Page Builders

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The Hidden Cost of Page Builders: Why Brag Design Says No to Elementor, Divi & WP Bakery

At Brag Design, we’re passionate about building fast, elegant and functional websites using WordPress as it was meant to be used — not bogged down by clunky page builders or overridden interfaces. Yet every month, we receive urgent calls from business owners struggling with underperforming websites built in Elementor, Divi, WP Bakery and other similar platforms. In fact, over 60% of our web development projects are rebuilds or fixes to sites originally created using these tools.

While page builders have their place in the DIY and hobbyist market, they present serious issues for businesses that need scalable, secure and easily customisable websites. Here’s why we recommend steering clear of them — and why Brag Design only builds with native WordPress, GeneratePress and GenerateBlocks.

Page Builders Look Slick — But at a Serious Cost

Page builders such as Elementor, Divi and WP Bakery have grown in popularity due to their drag-and-drop simplicity and visual appeal. On the surface, they seem like a dream: beautiful templates, flexible design tools and seemingly endless layout options.

But behind the scenes, these builders are layered with excessive code, scripts and proprietary structures that introduce more problems than they solve.

1. Performance: A Slow Site is a Dead Site

Page builders inject large amounts of unnecessary code, bloating your site and dragging down load speeds. This slows down user experience, reduces conversions and hurts your Google rankings.

  • Slower load times
  • Poor mobile responsiveness
  • Lower Google PageSpeed scores
  • Negative SEO impact

A slow site is a serious liability. And the worst part? Most business owners don’t even realise it’s happening until they’ve lost visitors — or sales.

2. Nightmare Customisation

Want to tweak a page built in a builder? Good luck.

What should be a 5-minute change becomes a maze of hidden panels, overlapping CSS rules and unpredictable layout shifts. Page builders often lock your content into proprietary shortcodes or module systems, making it hard to cleanly edit or evolve your site.

Developers are often forced to either reverse-engineer or completely rebuild — wasting valuable time and increasing costs.

3. Incompatibility with WordPress’ Native Tools

Page builders override WordPress’s Gutenberg block editor, introducing complexity and creating conflicts with plugins and themes that rely on WordPress’s natural structure.

This can result in:

  • Visual bugs
  • Unexpected plugin errors
  • Compatibility issues after WordPress updates
  • A frustrating editing experience for site owners

What should be a clean, intuitive platform becomes bloated, confusing and fragile.

4. Template Culture & Generic Websites

Many developers using page builders rely heavily on templates. The result?

  • Generic websites with no brand personality
  • Pages filled with unused elements and legacy code
  • Difficult-to-edit layouts not built for your business
  • Unnecessary animations or scripts slowing things down

While these templates look impressive on day one, they rarely serve a business’s long-term goals — and they become harder to maintain as time goes on.

5. Difficult to Maintain or Handover

Want to switch developers or remove the builder later? You’ll likely be stuck.

Page builders don’t uninstall cleanly. They often leave behind:

  • Broken layouts
  • Residual shortcodes
  • Abandoned styles and scripts

This can make future updates, SEO improvements, or redesigns far more difficult (and expensive) than they need to be.

Why Brag Design Builds with WordPress, GeneratePress & GenerateBlocks

We believe in building lean, scalable websites that are easy to edit, maintain and optimise. That’s why we build exclusively with:

  • GeneratePress: A lightning-fast WordPress theme focused on performance and stability.
  • GenerateBlocks: A powerful block-based toolkit that enhances Gutenberg without overriding it.

This combination allows us to create highly customised designs — without sacrificing:

  • Speed
  • Simplicity
  • SEO
  • Future scalability

Best of all, your site remains easy for you to manage, without needing to learn a builder’s quirks or risk breaking something.

Over 60% of Our Work is Rebuilding Page Builder Sites

Every month, we’re approached by business owners frustrated with:

  • Slow Elementor sites
  • Divi design issues
  • WP Bakery layout glitches

And it’s no surprise. These tools are often used by inexperienced developers or hobbyists relying on cookie-cutter templates rather than tailoring a solution for your business.

We’re not here to patch poor work — we rebuild from the ground up using best-practice development techniques and future-proof tools.

Final Thoughts: Avoid the Builder Trap

Page builders are seductive. They promise instant design freedom, but the long-term costs are real — and they’re often hidden.

If your website is slow, bloated or difficult to manage, chances are a page builder is the culprit. Don’t settle for a short-term solution that creates long-term headaches.

At Brag Design, we use the best tools available — not the most popular plugins or trends. Our websites are fast, clean, easy to manage and built for business growth.

Need Help?

If your current site is built in Elementor, Divi or WP Bakery and you’re facing performance or editing issues — we can help. Whether it’s a complete rebuild or a smart clean-up, Brag Design delivers websites that work.

📞 Contact us today to discuss your options — and let’s build something better.