I used to build websites with page builders. Elementor, WPBakery, you name it. They worked fine, and clients loved being able to drag things around. But after a few years, I started noticing patterns I didn’t like.
Every site looked similar. Not identical, but close enough that I could spot a “page builder site” from a mile away. The code was bloated. A simple three-column layout would generate 200 lines of nested divs. And when something broke, debugging meant digging through layers of markup I didn’t write.
About two years ago, I switched to custom-built WordPress themes. Pure PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. No page builders, no drag-and-drop, no “visual editors.” Here’s what I learned.
Load time dropped by half
I rebuilt a client’s Elementor site as a custom theme. The old site loaded in about 4 seconds. The new one was under 2. That’s not because the code was better. It’s because there’s no page builder engine running in the background. No shortcodes being parsed. No 50 CSS files being loaded just in case you might use a certain widget.
Clients actually preferred it
I was worried clients would miss the drag-and-drop interface. Most of them didn’t. The ones who used it before had broken their layouts at least once and had to call me to fix it. Giving up that “control” was a relief. They send me changes, I make them. No accidents.
It’s faster to build once you have a system
The first custom theme took me two weeks. The fifth one took three days. I built a starter theme with the patterns I use most: a hero section, a services grid, a contact form. Every new project starts from there, and I modify what I need.
Would I go back to page builders? Probably not. But I also don’t judge developers who use them. For certain projects, a page builder is the right call. Just know what you’re giving up.