{"id":1374,"date":"2026-07-09T12:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/massruum.ee\/?page_id=1374"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:21:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:21:42","slug":"why-we-dont-use-page-builders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/massruum.ee\/en\/why-we-dont-use-page-builders\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we don’t use page builders (Elementor, WPBakery)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\t\n\t

Home<\/b> \u00b7 Page builders vs custom code<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

Why we don’t use page builders (Elementor, WPBakery)?<\/h1>\n\t\n\t\n\t

Page builders promise a fast build, but you pay for it later – a slower site, bloated code and dependence on a plugin you don’t control. We hand-code every WordPress site with clean, custom code that stays fast and stays yours.<\/p>\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t

Short answer<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

A page builder is worth considering if you’re building a small site yourself and design experience is limited – but the result is almost always slower and harder to maintain than hand-coded WordPress.<\/strong> Elementor and WPBakery add their own framework on top of every page – extra code, CSS and JavaScript the browser has to process on every load – and your content gets saved in the builder’s own format rather than as plain WordPress content. Massruum writes sites by hand, without a builder: our sites typically have sub-second load times and Lighthouse scores in the 90s on desktop, while a page-builder site is carrying a lot more weight before it can even try to match that.<\/p>\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t

The real cost<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

What a page builder actually costs you.<\/h2>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

01<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Performance and code bloat<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Elementor and WPBakery turn every page element into a “widget” with its own CSS file, JavaScript and HTML wrapper. Even a simple page ends up loading dozens of extra files and hundreds of kilobytes of code it doesn’t actually need. That’s not a hypothesis – it’s how both tools work technically: every page carries the weight of the whole plugin framework, regardless of how little of it the page actually uses.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

  • Every widget ships its own CSS\/JS file<\/li>
  • Render-blocking scripts slow down first paint<\/li>
  • Rendering depends on the builder’s own engine, not just WordPress<\/li><\/ul>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t
    \n\t\t\n\t\t
    \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

    02<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

    DOM and markup bloat<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
    \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

    Page builders often wrap a single paragraph in dozens of nested <div><\/code>s, because every visual setting – column, spacing, alignment – needs its own layer. A deeper DOM means more work for the browser, slower rendering, and markup that’s harder for search engines and screen readers to parse.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

    • Dozens of extra <div><\/code>s for one simple section<\/li>
    • Inline styles that override your CSS<\/li>
    • Harder accessibility and SEO crawling<\/li><\/ul>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t
      \n\t\t\n\t\t
      \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

      03<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

      Vendor lock-in<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
      \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

      Elementor and WPBakery content is saved either as expanded shortcodes or in a builder-specific JSON format, not as plain WordPress content. That means if you switch the builder off – or the builder disappears from the market one day, as has happened to other plugins – your site is left with a pile of unreadable shortcodes or a broken layout. Moving to something else usually means rebuilding the page, not migrating it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t