The difference between WordPress builders and custom builds
What page builders do well
The main benefit of page builders such as Elementor, Divi, Visual Composer, WPBakery and SiteOrigin is that people with relatively little experience in WordPress can create and modify their own pages.
You can easily add features like:
- Maps
- Photo carousels
- Videos
- Layout variations or extra columns
For many small businesses, this flexibility makes page builders appealing. They offer visual tools, pre-made components, and drag-and-drop editing without needing to write code.
The trade-offs of using WordPress builders
However, builders come with significant trade-offs.
Behind the scenes, builder-based pages are often filled with rows, columns, boxes, and widgets, all nested within one another. What looks simple on the live site can be complicated and time-consuming to edit in the backend.
For example, in a Visual Composer site:
- Each page section sits inside a collapsible “accordion” box
- Content is hidden behind multiple layers of options
- The left-hand WordPress menu becomes cluttered with extra settings
Editing text or images can involve digging through many boxes to find what you need.
Even though builders allow you to adjust layouts and settings, the process is slower and more complex than it should be – and all those extra elements increase the size of the page code.
Why we recreate builder-based sites
Over the last few years, we’ve rebuilt many WordPress sites that were already built with page builders.
Clients usually ask us to recreate them because of:
- Slow loading speeds
- Difficult content editing
- Inconsistent styling
- Compatibility issues with newer plugins or PHP versions
One client kindly allowed us to show both versions – their original builder site and our new custom-built WordPress site – so you can see the difference.
A look inside: old builder vs new custom site
The old site (Visual Composer)
The page was made entirely of boxes and widgets. None of it resembled the live layout when viewed in the backend, making updates confusing and frustrating. The page size was large, with many separate requests to the server, which slowed load times.
The new site (custom-built)
The new version uses WordPress the way it’s meant to be used – efficiently and cleanly.
- The text is styled using the theme’s style sheets
- Custom post types handle testimonials and sliders
- Custom fields manage extra items such as the address and map
The result is a backend that’s vastly simpler to edit and a frontend that loads faster, even though it looks very similar visually.
Performance results
Despite appearing almost identical, the custom-built site performs dramatically better.
The builder version produced:
- Larger page size
- More server requests
- Slower load times
In contrast, the custom-built version is lighter, faster, and more stable – all while maintaining the same design. Google may even reward the faster version with improved search visibility.
Why a custom-built site makes sense
A properly developed WordPress site takes advantage of:
- Native WordPress functionality
- Clean, optimised code (HTML, PHP and CSS)
- Reusable, consistent design styles
That means faster performance, easier editing, and fewer plugin conflicts over time.
We build both types of sites
We help clients with existing builder-based sites — improving or maintaining them — and create custom WordPress sites for those ready to simplify and optimise their setup.
Whether you want to refine what you have or start fresh, we’d love to help you love your website again.
Call 3366 8166 or contact us today to discuss your needs.
The example shown in the enclosed video demonstrates one page of the site only.
Both pages are hosted on the same server, use the same cache plugin, and the images have not been optimised on the custom-built site.
The speed improvement between the two pages is solely due to the HTML, PHP and CSS generated by our developer, and from removing some unnecessary plugins.