Speed is of the utmost importance for eCommerce sites, and we want to help users of WooCommerce find the fastest page builder for their store.
The same way themes affect the page speed, page builders do as well.
To fully understand how we tested the page builders, read the Testing Methodology section below the results.
Page Builder Speed Test Results
Let’s jump straight to the results. Results are median average, and in all cases but PageSpeed and YSlow score, the lowest is best.
Overall Results
This includes the median average of all tested subpages.
| Page Builder | Version | Requests | Total page size | PageSpeed | YSlow | Fully loaded time (ms) |
| Beaver Builder | 2.2.4.3 | 47 | 578,980 | 96 | 76 | 1005 |
| Gutenberg | 5.2.3 (WP) | 41 | 542,017 | 96 | 76 | 1080 |
| WP Bakery | 6.0.5 | 49 | 585,468 | 94 | 74 | 1163 |
| Visual Composer | 19.0.0 | 51 | 576,955 | 94 | 75 | 1218 |
| Divi | 2.0.0 | 53 | 764,507 | 93 | 71 | 1232 |
| Elementor | 2.7.1 | 48 | 413,662 | 96 | 77 | 1817 |
Summary
The fastest page builder tested is Beaver Builder. That said, all other page builders, except Elementor, are within a 20% range of the best fully loaded time.
When looking at other Page Builder reviews, Beaver Builder is one of the most praised page builders for ease of use and features. We’re adding praise for page speed!
If you’re looking for a fast page builder for your WooCommerce store, Beaver Builder should be your choice.
Here are other details about the test:
- WordPress: 5.2.3
- Astra Theme: 2.0.1
- Date tested: 2019-09-12
The following data is showing the results per page tested.
Homepage Load Time Results
This includes the median average of the homepage.
| Page Builder | Requests | Total page size | PageSpeed | YSlow | Fully loaded time (ms) |
| Beaver Builder | 52 | 809,852 | 96 | 75 | 934 |
| Gutenberg | 39 | 714,868 | 96 | 76 | 993 |
| Divi | 59 | 1,050,556 | 92 | 70 | 1150 |
| WP Bakery | 56 | 849,266 | 92 | 72 | 1163 |
| Visual Composer | 59 | 810,200 | 92 | 73 | 1334 |
| Elementor | 54 | 468,751 | 95 | 77 | 1917 |
Product Page Load Time Results
This includes the median average of the product page.
| Page Builder | Requests | Total page size | PageSpeed | YSlow | Fully loaded time (ms) |
| Beaver Builder | 42 | 348,108 | 96 | 76 | 1076 |
| Visual Composer | 42 | 343,710 | 96 | 76 | 1101 |
| WP Bakery | 41 | 321,669 | 96 | 76 | 1163 |
| Gutenberg | 42 | 369,165 | 96 | 76 | 1166 |
| Divi | 47 | 478,457 | 94 | 72 | 1313 |
| Elementor | 41 | 358,573 | 96 | 76 | 1717 |
Shop Page Load Time Results
This includes the median average of the shop page.
| Page Builder | Requests | Total page size | PageSpeed | YSlow | Fully loaded time (ms) |
| Gutenberg | 48 | 371,539 | 98 | 81 | 916 |
| WP Bakery | 48 | 363,441 | 98 | 81 | 971 |
| Divi | 53 | 492,544 | 96 | 5377 | 991 |
| Visual Composer | 49 | 367,142 | 98 | 81 | 1098 |
| Beaver Builder | 48 | 363,023 | 98 | 81 | 1106 |
| Elementor | 48 | 371,622 | 98 | 81 | 1776 |
Testing Methodology
To make sure the tests are reliable and consistent, we’ve set strict testing criteria.
We use the free Astra theme. Page builders are used to create the homepage with the same sections – above the fold with image, three images for categories, featured products, and a text FAQ section.
Stores are hosted on WooCart hosting on Google Cloud Platform. There is no CDN running on the stores. Caching is enabled.
All stores have the same plugins installed: WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, SendGrid, and Redis Object Cache.
Stores have been set up with the WooCart Turnkey store settings. This gives all stores 35 demo products, 81 images for the products and homepage, and subpages for contact, about and legal.
Speed Testing
The speed testing service is GT Metrix. The test location is London (UK), and the browser is Chrome (desktop). We use their API, and run all tests in the same batch.
We run the tests five times per each page: homepage, product page, and shop page. The pages are mixed when testing so there are no consecutive tests for the same page builder.
We calculate the median result of the page load times.
Why median?
We calculate the median because it is far better than average for
If you’re interested in the full test data, take a look at the full spreadsheet.
Conclusion
We really hope this helped you with the selection of the page builder for your WooCommerce store!
We’re running these tests regularly and if you want us to include another page builder, contact us.
