Building a website on WordPress offers unparalleled flexibility and customization options. With thousands of themes and plugins to choose from, you can create virtually any type of site imaginable.
However, if you want complete control over your site‘s design and functionality, working with a WordPress theme builder is the way to go. These tools allow you to build fully custom WordPress themes without writing any code.
In this comprehensive guide, we will compare the top 6 WordPress theme builders in 2023 based on features, ease of use, pricing, and more. By the end, you‘ll know exactly which one is the best fit for your needs.
What is a WordPress Theme Builder?
A WordPress theme builder is a tool, plugin, or standalone theme that allows you to visually create WordPress themes. It gives you a drag-and-drop interface to customize headers, footers, page layouts, typography, colors, and more.
The best WordPress theme builders make it easy for anyone to build professional-quality WordPress themes without needing to know PHP, CSS, JavaScript, or other web development languages.
Benefits of Using a WordPress Theme Builder
Here are some of the main reasons you may want to use a WordPress theme builder for your site:
- Complete design control – Build fully custom themes to match your brand
- No coding required – Theme builders use visual drag-and-drop editors
- Faster theme development – Quickly build themes without hiring a developer
- Easy customization – Easily make design tweaks at any time
- Responsive themes – Create mobile-friendly designs with ease
- SEO benefits – Optimize code structure for better rankings
Whether you want to customize an existing WordPress theme or build one from scratch, a theme builder gives you the creative freedom to turn your vision into reality.
Factors to Consider in a WordPress Theme Builder
With numerous theme builders on the market, it can get overwhelming to figure out which one best fits your needs. Here are the key factors to evaluate:
1. Features
At their core, all WordPress theme builders allow you to create custom headers, footers, page layouts, etc.
But you‘ll want to compare the specific options each builder offers. For example, can you build custom post templates? What about WooCommerce shop pages or category archives?
Also consider the design flexibility – some may have more typography, color, and layout control than others.
2. Ease of Use
You don‘t want to spend more time learning how to use your theme builder than actually building your theme.
Look for an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, ample documentation/tutorials, and a gentle learning curve. Steer clear of tools with overly complex interfaces or fragmented UIs.
3. Pricing
WordPress theme builders range from free to several hundred dollars per year. In most cases, free versions offer limited options compared to premium plans.
Factor in your budget, needs, and how many sites you need to build themes for. Sometimes it‘s worth investing more upfront for added features and flexibility.
4. Compatibility
Some WordPress theme builders are standalone themes, while others are plugins that work with third-party themes.
Make sure to check compatibility if you already have an existing site. You want a theme builder that will seamlessly integrate without conflicts.
5. Support and Documentation
No matter how easy a theme builder is to use, you‘ll likely need some help along the way.
Check out the user forums, knowledge bases, tutorial libraries, and direct customer service options before deciding on a builder.
Now that you know how to evaluate WordPress theme builders, let’s take a look at the top options available in 2023.
The 6 Best WordPress Theme Builders Compared
Based on the criteria above, these leading theme builders stand out from the crowd:
1. Thrive Theme Builder
Thrive Theme Builder is the gold standard for building custom WordPress themes without code. It sports an incredibly intuitive drag-and-drop visual editor to customize virtually any theme element imaginable.
With Thrive, you can create custom headers, footers, templates for all pages/posts, customize archive and search pages, integrate with WooCommerce, and more. Plus, it was built for speed – themes made with Thrive are incredibly fast and score very high on page speed tests.
We also love all of the styling flexibility you get with Thrive. The typography, color, spacing, layout, and design options allow you to realize any creative vision with ease.
Thrive Theme Builder is sold both as a standalone theme and as part of the Thrive membership, which includes all Thrive plugins like Thrive Architect and Thrive Leads.
Key Features:
- Extremely intuitive drag-and-drop builder
- Total design flexibility
- Customize all theme elements
- Built for speed
- Great documentation/support
Pricing:
- Standalone Theme: $199 first year, renews at $399/year
- Thrive Suite: $348 first year, renews at $797/year
2. Elementor Pro
Elementor is one of the most popular WordPress page builders, used on over 6 million websites. The free version lets you build custom pages and posts, while Elementor Pro unlocks advanced features and custom theme building capabilities.
With Elementor Pro, you can visually customize headers, footers, archives, search pages, 404 pages, WooCommerce, and more for virtually any WordPress theme. It seamlessly turns themes into versatile “blank canvases” for your creative vision.
We love how easy Elementor is for beginners, yet it packs an incredible depth of features for pros. The UI is clean and intuitive, allowing you to drag-and-drop rows, columns, buttons, images, widgets, and more to build professional sites.
Elementor also has fantastic documentation and guides for ramping up quickly. Plus, with a user base over 5 million strong, the community support is excellent.
Key Features:
- Customize any theme element
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Extremely intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Massive library of templates & widgets
- Great for beginners and experts alike
Pricing:
- Personal Plan: $49/year
- Plus Plan: $99/year
- Expert Plan: $199/year
3. Oxygen Builder
Oxygen is an incredibly powerful WordPress theme builder used by over 300,000 websites. It sports an easy-to-use visual interface while also offering extreme levels of design flexibility for developers.
With Oxygen, the only limit is your imagination. You can visually build headers, footers, custom post layouts, shop pages, 404s, and virtually anything you can dream up. There are also hundreds of pre-built templates and UI elements to choose from.
We love Oxygen’s flexibility for developers. You get full control over custom CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. Advanced users can supercharge custom features and build complex themes faster.
For beginners, the drag-and-drop builder and abundance of templates make getting started easy. So it works great for users of all skill levels.
Key Features:
- Build any theme element from scratch
- Developer-friendly flexibility
- Drag-and-drop editor for beginners
- Hundreds of templates
- Works with any WordPress plugin
Pricing:
- Personal: $129/year
- Professional: $249/year
- Agency: $399/year
4. Divi Builder
Divi Builder comes bundled with the highly popular Divi WordPress theme. Together they make visual theme building easier than ever, even for total beginners.
Divi sports an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder right within WordPress. You can use it to customize headers, footers, blog posts, archives, 404 pages, and WooCommerce pages.
We love Divi’s abundance of pre-made layouts and module templates. With over 800 designs to choose from, you can build beautiful, custom themes faster than ever.
The Divi community is also one of the largest and most helpful. With constant theme updates and excellent customer support, Elegant Themes clearly cares about its users.
For those wanting theme building made as easy as possible, Divi is a fantastic choice loved by over 800,000 users.
Key Features:
- Extremely easy visual theme builder
- Over 800 pre-made templates
- Customize any theme element
- Built-in full page builder
- Excellent documentation & support
Pricing:
- Personal: $89/year
- Developer: $249/one-time
5. Beaver Builder (Beaver Themer)
Beaver Builder is a hugely popular WordPress page builder used on over 1 million sites. It allows you to create beautiful custom page designs without touching code.
While Beaver Builder doesn’t include theme building features out of the box, the add-on Beaver Themer unlocks custom theme functionality.
With Beaver Themer, you can visually customize your header, footer, blog posts, custom post types, archives, and more. It also includes dozens of pre-made templates to start designing from.
We love how Beaver Builder keeps things clean and simple, providing just the essential theme-building tools most users need without feeling overwhelming. It’s great for beginners who value simplicity.
Combined with the Beaver Builder page builder functionality, Beaver Themer makes custom WordPress theme development easier than ever.
Key Features:
- Simple, easy-to-use theme builder
- Customize all key theme elements
- 60+ pre-made templates
- Seamless integration with Beaver Builder
- Active community forum
Pricing:
- Standard: $199 first year, renews at $199/year
- Pro: $399 first year, renews at $399/year
6. Brizy
Brizy is a newer entrant into the theme builder space but has quickly made waves with its incredibly fast and easy drag-and-drop builder.
It makes visual theme editing simple, allowing you to customize your header, footer, blog templates, 404 page, archives, and more without code. For basic theme changes, no other builder makes it easier.
We love Brizy’s beautiful pre-made template library including over 300 designer-made layouts to kickstart your creativity. Themes you design in Brizy also load incredibly fast – twice as fast as other popular builders.
While Brizy doesn’t offer quite as many complex customization options as some builders, its speed and simplicity make it a fantastic choice for many users.
Give Brizy a try if you want beautiful themes that load at lightning speeds with minimal effort.
Key Features:
- Insanely fast load speeds
- Easy drag-and-drop theme editing
- 300+ pre-made templates
- Customize key theme elements
- Great for beginners
Pricing:
- Personal: $49/year
- Business: $99/year
Choose the Best WordPress Theme Builder for You
All of the builders on our list allow you to create beautiful, custom WordPress themes visually without needing to code.
Choosing the right one comes down to your specific needs and preferences around features, pricing, ease of use, and more.
Here is a quick recap to help you decide:
- Thrive Theme Builder – Best overall features and customization options
- Elementor – Easiest to get started and most beginner-friendly
- Oxygen – Most flexibility and control for developers
- Divi – Best library of pre-built templates
- Beaver Builder – Best for simplicity and clean interface
- Brizy – Best for speed and very fast theme building
We hope this guide has helped you better understand WordPress theme builders and which option best meets your needs.
With the ability to create custom-designed WordPress themes faster and easier than ever, you now have the creative freedom to build virtually any type of site imaginable.
