This article is going to compare Divi VS Oxygen, two powerful WordPress page building platforms that allow you to completely create a WordPress website. There are several major differences between the two tools, and we have used each of them in production websites. We're going to be taking a look at the different features that both Oxygen and Divi have to offer, the pricing, the major differences, the companies behind the products, and what real users have to think.

A quick disclaimer, our agency uses Oxygen for around 90% of websites, and switched to it from Elementor and Divi. Because of that, you'll see our opinion on full display during this comparison, but we will seek to back it up with actual facts, statistics, and our experience. We have also used Divi , but that was back in 2018 before we moved to custom WordPress themes, and then Elementor, and then the Oxygen Builder.

First up in our comparison of Divi versus Oxygen, we're going to be taking a look at all of the features that each of the tools have to offer.

Divi Features

Divi has 9 main selling points. you get an Easy to use drag and drop builder that allows you to visually edit in real time period you have complete control with custom CSS, responsive editing, an many design options. You can save and manage your designs globally, as well as your styles. You also can undo, redo, and use revisions. Basically, it is a complete studio when it comes to creating pages.

Oxygen Features

The Oxygen feature lineup is very similar.

They too have drag and drop editing, and also have a deep integration with WooCommerce, as we will be discussing in the pricing section. You can also build and edit headers and footers. Like Divi, there are global colors, and you can also save reusable parts globally. A feature that is different here is that you can build with fundamental HTML elements, and write PHP, CSS, and JavaScript it directly into any page.

Features Comparison

Both allow you to do pretty much the same thing, in their own different way. Each offers a fully featured What You See Is What You Get experience, with widgets, and a GUI for most CSS properties.

Oxygen: The Major Difference That Separates It From The Pack

Now, let's discuss the major difference that sets the Oxygen Builder apart from the Divi Builder. It's up to you to determine if this is a pro or a con, but in our opinion, this is a huge benefit that the Oxygen Builder has over anything else on the market, including Divi.

Oxygen completely disables the WordPress theme system, whereas Divi utilizes existing themes to create a website. Because Oxygen completely disables this theme system, you are left with complete power and flexibility to build anything that is technically possible with CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and WordPress combined. You are not limited to any themes, and you typically end up with a much quicker loading and product.

However, if you have major investments in lifetime access to WordPress themes, or simply can't wrap your head around the fact of getting rid of them altogether and starting from scratch, then this may be a negative point for you. For us, we really enjoy the power, flexibility, and freedom that disabling and the coupling from the theme system offers us, and when paired with other powerful features that the Oxygen Builder has to offer including PHP in code blocks that can be added directly to any page, a powerful templating system, and a growing design library just like Divi, this is a big selling point.

Divi Has It’s Own Selling Points

On the topic of differences that separate it from competition, Divi is part of the elegant themes company. Because of that, it has a couple of sister plugins that you get access to for free if you purchase the main builder, as discussed in the pricing section of this article. These sister plugins allow you to easily manage popups on your website, email marketing on your website, and additional features. They integrate directly into the builder, and they're just a unique selling point that this builder has over anything else on the market.

Usability

Usability is truly personal preference, so we definitely recommend reading the conclusion of this comparison of Divi versus Oxygen. With that being said, we believe that both of these page building plugins have their own learning curve. So, you won't be able to transfer skills from one to another, instead, you'll need to spend some time learning each of them. The back end interface for both of them is a little bit different, but the end goal of creating a WordPress website using a page builder editor is achieved with both offerings.

Divi VS Oxygen: Design Libraries

On the topic of design libraries, both of these builders have their own respective design libraries, but one has a much better offering and line up event another. The Oxygen Builder is really lacking when it comes to pre built websites. There isn't really a third party community surrounding this, so finding free templates is somewhat difficult. The builder ships with around 20 pre built templates by the Oxygen team, but in many cases you'll simply want to start from scratch and build your own.

Even the premium offering of templates for the Oxygen Builder is a bit lackluster. There are several companies that have their own frameworks and products, but if you're looking for something that rivals the massive built in design library that Divi has to offer, as well as the huge third party community surrounding both free and premium templates, you will not find that with Oxygen Builder.

Divi Vs Oxygen: Frontend Website Performance

Now, a major consideration that you should have when choosing any WordPress page builder or theme, is the performance that it comes with. Website performance is a major ranking factor for Google ranking placement, and it simply leads to a better user experience, meaning that it's something that you should seriously consider when doing anything related to your website. However, apart from a solid WordPress host, the page builder that you use will have the biggest impact on any performance output.

That is where the Oxygen Builder shines, and the Divi Builder Withers. The Divi Builder has always been known for being a primarily designer oriented tool, leaving developers dismayed at the abysmal performance that it outputs. Code is bloated, and the only page builder that is worse could be elementor. In comparison, Oxygen is created to be a high performance website creation tool. Ever since the first versions, the team focused on outputing clean code, that contains no blood, no additional Dom elements, and only uses what is needed. Because of this clean code output, the Oxygen Builder blows the Divi Builder out of the water when it comes to website loading time. If you would like a complete statistical comparison, updated for 2021, comparing the same page built with all of the popular builders, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, we will be posting that in the first quarter of 2021.

Support & Communities

Because we are not users of the Divi plug-in, and haven't subscribed to a license in years, we can't really discuss the state of their support. However, are many helpful Reddit post if you are looking to learn more about the support quality that Divi has to offer.

The Oxygen Builder support is incredible, and we have asked them everything from wildly stupid questions to super complex questions, and they have been able to answer it within 48 hours every single time. They do not offer live chat support, but they do offer email ticket support.

Both plugins also have Facebook groups, though the Oxygen Builder Facebook group is the most helpful WordPress Facebook group that we are a part of, hands down. Unlike many other groups, they don't completely moderate out anything not related to Oxygen, So it's really helpful for anything WordPress. We think that the Oxygen community is truly the best on the Internet, and this is a major selling point that people should be aware of. We invite you to join the Oxygen group, and see the level of community support and engagement that goes on there.

Pricing Comparison

Oxygen Builder

The pricing structures that each of these WordPress page builder offerings follow are a bit different. First, let's discuss the pricing structure of Oxygen. The Oxygen pricing structure offers you a lifetime deal. What that means is that you purchase a single license one time, and then have unlimited access to unlimited websites for as long as you want.

Because it is a lifetime purchase, this is a bit more expensive than the annual price of any competitors, but when you factor out your costs, the lifetime deal is simply much more appealing monetarily. The company behind Oxygen is able to do that because they are also the developers of the popular plugin called WP all import export, which operates on an annual subscription model, and gives them the cash flow that they need to continue the Oxygen project. Additionally, after speaking to the development team, this lifetime deal pricing model is actually sustainable into the future, so one should not worry about the viability of the company.

With that being said, there are three lifetime licenses to choose from. The first one is your basic Oxygen Builder tier. This only gives you access to the Oxygen Builder.

If you are looking to sell products, you definitely want to go for the second pricing tier which gives you access to WooCommerce elements. These WooCommerce elements show up as builder widgets, which you can easily add to the page, building out individual product templates, archives, shop pages, and more with WooCommerce.

If you're an agency, you could opt for the third, agency tier which gives you a gutenberg integration. This is great if you are looking to edit your pages without having to initialize the entire builder on the back end. Instead, you can simply point and click on individual gutenberg blocks, while building your own, editing that way.

Divi Builder

The Divi Builder offers a more traditional annual pricing approach, but then also has a lifetime license offering as well. $89.00 per year, you get complete access to the builder, as well as the sister plugins, the design library, and additional resources. However, if you want to go for a lifetime license, you can get the same for a 1 time payment of $249.00.

If you are trying to compare the pricing between the Divi Builder and the Oxygen Builder, you should probably be taking a look at their lifetime deals.

The Verdict

Of course, due to the fact that we are an agency that uses the Oxygen Builder in pretty much all of our projects, we're going to choose that one as our winner for this comparison. But, we're not choosing it because we want to, we are choosing it because it truly is the better offering on the market. In our opinion, the Oxygen Builder is the best WordPress page builder on the market, because it isn't just a page builder, it's a complete solution for creating 100% custom websites with WordPress.

Website performance is becoming increasingly important in 2021. It's a major Google ranking factor, and, leads to better conversions. A slower website will have a higher bounce rate, and if you're trying to sell something, that is not good for your bottom line. That is where the Oxygen Builder truly excels, out putting some of the cleanest code on the market, and resulting in truly the fastest WordPress websites that you could create with a page builder.

Now, this may be a pro or a con depending on the individual reading this article, but in our experience starting from a blank canvas allows you to be completely creative with what you make. You have complete control over the header the footer and the content within a website. You can style your archive pages as need be.

The only thing that is missing when comparing Divi to Oxygen is the massive design library that comes with the Divi purchase. Oxygen has a design library, they have designed kids, but there are very few free template offerings, and only a handful of premium template offerings (though they are quality products).

However, a major concern that many people have doesn't hold much weight when looking at both builders side by side, that being the usability of each. Some people claim that the Divi Builder is much easier to use than the Oxygen Builder, but in our experience, both have a learning curve, and once you are fluent in one of them, you will be as efficient as you need to be.

The Pushback

But of course, the Divi Builder holds its own, and wins out in some categories. If you really need a major design library, then the Divi Builder is for you. They have tons of complete website designs, that you can use as is, or modify. While the Oxygen Builder has this, it does not have as many.

Additionally, the sister plugins integrate directly with this builder, making things a bit easier if you are looking for a marketing solution, popup solution, or something else. With that being said, Oxygen has pop-ups, but the sister plugins is something that sets Divi apart in this regard.

Different Products For Different Markets

While there is a ton of overlap between these two products, many make the case that the Divi Builder is created for designers who are not as technically inclined, in relation to PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and the Oxygen Builder is made for developers. However, we believe that both have major overlap on the WordPress page builder spectrum, and a designer could easily use Oxygen, as a developer could easily use Divi.

Conclusion

In all of these major comparison articles, we tried to mention this single fact. Every individual and every use case is completely different. You can read as many comparison articles as you want, but until you try both of the two builders in the real world, you won't know which is best for you. In some circumstances, the Divi Builder may be better than the Oxygen Builder. In some circumstances the Oxygen Builder may be better than the Divi Builder.

You simply will not know unless you try either both of them. And, something that is super great about the current WordPress plugin ecosystem is the fact that pretty much every company offers a money back guarantee. This allows you to try the product risk free, and if it doesn't workout for you , get a complete refund of your money. We always tell our readers to make use of these generous offerings. In the case of the Oxygen Builder, you get a 60 day money back guarantee. So, you can try it out, and if it doesn't work for you, get a complete refund.

In the case of the Divi Builder, They have a 30 day money back guarantee. What we recommend is if you have the cash on hand, go ahead and purchase both of the tools, and tried to build the same page with each of them. Then, opt for the builder that has the better performing page, and the one that was easier to use on the back end for you. Again, it's 100% up to you which option is best.

We hope that this comparison gave you some points to ponder, and if you have any additional questions regarding the Divi versus Oxygen Builders, feel free to reach out in the comments section below. If you have any additional points in regards to either one of them, also leave that in the comment section below.