Page builders solve a real problem: they let somebody who does not write code change a page without asking anybody. That is genuinely valuable, and I would not pretend otherwise. What they cost you is paid later, and quietly.
The cost is structural
A builder has to be able to render anything you might drag onto the page, so it ships the machinery for all of it whether you use it or not. Every layout becomes nested wrappers, because that is how a visual editor keeps track of what is inside what. None of that is bad engineering. It is the price of generality.
- Markup you did not write and cannot fully control
- Stylesheets loading rules for widgets that are not on the page
- Layouts that fight you the moment the design leaves the grid
When I use one anyway
If your site is already built on Elementor and your team knows how to edit it, telling you to throw that away is rarely the honest answer. I will work in the builder you have and write the parts it cannot do as a proper plugin. I would expect that to be days of work rather than weeks, and your team carries on editing the way it does now.
What I will not do is start a new site on one and then charge you to make it fast afterwards.
Written by Denney, a freelance developer based between Richmond and Kingston. If any of this applies to something you are planning, available for new projects.
