Thrive Themes vs Divi. Which is the better choice?
I get this question all the time and I want to be really honest here. I don’t think there is a guide out there which cover a lot of what Thrive Themes and Divi can provide.
And in most cases, they are often one-sided due to personal preferences. I ought to be different and I hope you will find value in this post. More importantly, I hope you will be able to decide which is the best WordPress theme for yourself.
Important disclaimer
I want to disclose that I am an active affiliate for both Thrive Themes and Divi. However, I do have active purchases for both Thrive Themes and Divi (due to my nature of work). Therefore, I want you to be rest assured that I know exactly what I’m talking about.
Thrive Themes vs Divi: Overall design
Design and feel are two things that I look highly on. I am a minimalist guy and I don’t like complicated designs. Take a look at this blog and you will figure that out.
That’s only the core reason why I use StudioPress for my personal branding.
Now, Thrive Themes vs Divi, which has a better design?
Let’s take a look at what Thrive Themes can offer. By default, Thrive Themes comes with 10 themes that you can start with.
In comparison, Divi also comes with 10 inbuilt themes that you can choose from.
Until here, both Thrive Themes and Divi are both providing pretty decent designs. Therefore, I would give them an equal score here.
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Thrive Themes vs Divi: Ease of use (uploading design and demo version)
At this point of time, it felt like a fair comparison and this should be a draw, right?
No! You’re wrong and this is where nearly EVERY marketer out there doesn’t tell you.
Divi is a clear winner here and allows me to explain to you further.
Imagine you are a complete beginner and have no coding knowledge. You purchase Thrive Themes and you hope to import the demo content, load it up and walaa, you are all set to go.
Here’s the problem. There is NO complete demo content upload or download available. Therefore, you have no choice but to do everything from scratch.
Don’t get me wrong. You can download the demo and upload them but you will be shocked after uploading. You probably have the colour and that’s much. No fonts nothing. The only way is to work from scratch again and that would take some time.
If you are going to for Thrive Themes, don’t be surprised with this! Again, it is not something bad, just troublesome.
Divi is no different either (in some ways). You can download the demo themes and upload them. Now, Divi flares here because you can get the complete demo version to your site. The only downside is that Divi comes with DOZENS of features that will make your head spin.
Of course, the easiest (but time-consuming) way is to read the manual first.
Sorry, Thrive Themes but Divi is a clear winner here. Not everyone has the time or knowledge to play with codes.
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Thrive Themes vs Divi: Website loading speed
Anyone who is serious about managing a website will always take consideration of the loading speed.
On average, a website visitor expects the site to load under 2 seconds. Websites that load under a minute often rank higher on search engines compared to those sites that have slow loading speed.
Here’s one problem with these WordPress themes. Not all the WordPress themes out there are well coded for speed. Make no mistakes that there are premium WordPress themes that take ages to load.
I tested both Thrive Themes and Divi based on a new website, zero plugins and only similar content on the front page.
After three tests, the results are as below.
Thrive Themes: 1.2 seconds, 1.35 seconds, 1.2 seconds
Divi: 1.6 seconds, 1.86 seconds, 1.71 seconds
I was hoping that either one of them would hit the below 1-second mark but they didn’t. Nonetheless, the results are pretty obvious that Thrive Themes is definitely a better choice when it comes to loading speed.
The developers behind Thrive Themes are bold enough to share their mindset on website loading speed on their website (see below).
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Thrive Themes vs Divi: Customization features
If you are looking for a premium WordPress theme that doesn’t require a single line of code to customize, then you are going to love both Thrive Themes and Divi.
Both of these are the leaders in the market for drag and drag WordPress builder. By far, no one had come close to what they can offer in terms of customization.
However, when comparing both of them, who will be the ultimate winner?
Carry on reading to find out.
Thrive Themes allows you to do customization with their Content Builder. This is how it looks like in action.
Thrive Content Builder is awesome and it works like charm. Among all the content builder, Thrive Content Builder certainly makes content building much easier.
But, there’s a problem with the content builder. It doesn’t play well with CloudFlare. Again, I have no issues with Thrive Content Builder but if you want to use it with CloudFlare, make sure you turn the CloudFlare Rocket Loader off.
Divi is different from Thrive Content Builder. Here’s how it looks like in action.
Yes, Divi is just like Thrive Content Builder. Customization can be done easily with Divi and Thrive Content Builder.
Divi has its own issues as well. The most common one is the size of the page and technology behind it. Due to the wide range of features, the page loads slower and it can be annoying if you are using a slow web host. A good web host can easily solve this problem any time of the day.
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Thrive Themes vs Divi: Split testing
I know you are asking for this. Who doesn’t love split testing, right?
With split testing technology, you can test pages with different fonts, colour, and wording, to name a few. Here, Divi flares extremely well because split testing is inbuilt in all themes.
Using Divi, you can test out anything, from a small part of the page to the whole page. Basically, the sky is your only limit.
Until date, Divi is the only premium WordPress theme that allows you to do perform the split test on pages.
On the other hand, Thrive Themes do allow split testing but only on opt-in forms (email marketing). Of course, I certainly hope they will implement this in the near future.
But until then, Divi is the clear winner when it comes to split testing technology.
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Thrive Themes vs Divi: Pricing review
Pricing is always a concern and I’m sure you feel the same too.
So, which is the better deal?
This is how much Thrive Themes cost.
And this is how much Divi costs.
From the above, it is clear that Divi is much cheaper when compared yearly. Divi also is a clear winner as it has the lifetime plan which is a single payment.
In terms of face value, Divi is definitely the winner but if you would take into consideration of the unlimited use of Thrive plugins, Thrive Themes is actually the one with higher value.
When you sign up for Thrive Themes, you will automatically able to use all the Thrive plugins to further skyrocket your website. With Divi, you only have access to a smaller number of plugins and other themes.
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Recapping the Thrive Themes vs Divi review and comparison
Let’s calculate the score, shall we?
Thrive Themes and Divi both managed to earn four points after the review. So, which is the best WordPress theme?
Personally, I would recommend Thrive Themes if you are a blogger or managing a small business. Thrive Themes products are very much fitted into these categories and they will help you ‘fly’ high in the sky. See Thrive Themes in action here.
If you are looking for a professional WordPress theme for your business, Divi is a better choice because it offers more customization and features which fit well for business and professional nature. Take a look at Divi here.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and let’s discuss.