Divi built its reputation as a friendly and innovative page builder that is affordable and accessible to millions. But like all lasting software, it faced the inevitable challenge of technical debt.
Other companies started fresh, unencumbered by years of legacy code, without committing to backward compatibility. They launched new builders that took full advantage of modern web technology from day one.
We chose a different path that honored our community and their investments. It took time (don’t we know it?) to rebuild Divi from scratch, but we made a firm commitment: every website built on Divi will keep working. There will be 100% backward compatibility, no exceptions.
With over a decade of experience in WordPress theme development and a dedicated, specialized team, we’re well-positioned to deliver new features quickly and consistently. Until now, much of our focus has been on rebuilding the foundation, but once Divi 5 is fully launched, we’re ready to lead innovation in the WordPress space once again.
Whether you launched your Divi website yesterday or years ago, it will continue to thrive when on Divi 5. You won’t be forced to rebuild from scratch, a promise few in this industry were willing to make.
This mockup shows that D5 will be a regular theme update when ready. Divi 5 is ready to be used on new websites, but it is recommended that you hold off on migrating existing sites for now.
The foundation is set, and the invisible but essential work is complete. But since February, we’ve released a steady number of features.
Divi 5 honors the past but breaks from its mold. It’s faster, smarter, and built for professionals who demand more than where Divi 4 was left. In short, it’s the builder you’ve been waiting for.
How Divi 5 Is A Serious Framework For Professionals
The vision for Divi 5 was two-fold:
- Bring the codebase up to modern standards, and
- Use that better foundation to build something special
That something special is something specific. The first steps (which we’ve been taking for a few months at this point) are focused on ensuring Divi catches up to where you need it to be. We had to pause Divi 4 development to use all our resources on the new infrastructure that Divi 5 provides. It has been uncomfortable, but it is one of those decisions that needed to be made.
Divi 5 Public Alpha launched with remarkable differences to D4 (most notably the redesigned editor UI). Since starting the public phase of our Divi 5 launch, we’ve added features that were missing in Divi 4 (better breakpoint management, advanced CSS units, nested rows).
Divi 5 is a modern design framework, and we’ve been excited to work on other new features as we finalize the Beta-blocking tasks (Woo Modules). All of this (and more) has helped the future of Divi become clearer, and we hope you take notice. We’re building Divi as the go-to design tool for professionals on WordPress.
A New Philosophy For WordPress Professionals
Professional web designers want more than tools. They want a collaborator who understands the demands of their craft, values their time, and grows alongside their ambitions. Divi 5 is that partner.
New features like Design Variables, Module Groups, Presets, and Nested Rows allow you to create your own design systems. Together, they make a scalable, flexible, and easy-to-maintain website-building experience. Instead of wrestling with scattered styles and fragile layouts, you build cohesive, adaptable frameworks that confidently serve entire websites or client portfolios.
The power lies in how these features interact:
- Define your brand once with Design Variables, and watch it update everywhere.
- Use Presets to lock in styles that flow seamlessly across different elements (Option Group Presets) or have the full suite of a particular element’s styles — no repetitive styling needed.
- Copy and paste to manage styles/content with Attribute Management, regardless of origin or complexity. Filter through modified styles of any element to quickly reach any set style.
This level of integration is unmatched in WordPress.
Divi’s Reinvented Layout System
Reimagining Divi’s layout system has been a bold, deliberate journey. While we temporarily paused on some newer layout trends, it was a conscious choice, putting our community first to ensure everyone could move confidently into Divi’s future.
Since February, we’ve built the foundation and released Custom Breakpoints and Advanced CSS Units. These give you the power to craft flawless designs that adapt elegantly to any screen size.
The Nested Rows update broke down a significant barrier by allowing rows inside other rows, finally letting designers build the layouts they envisioned without compromise. But that is what we’ve rapidly created since Divi 5’s Public Alpha — other features we’ve announced show off more of Divi’s future direction.
Nested Rows in Wireframe Mode
Flexbox is the next leap, bringing the industry’s proven standard for flexible, adaptive layouts to Divi. Thoughtfully integrated, it lets you design easily while shrinking page complexity (DOM size). We’re excited to put this power in your hands.
Built For Advanced Web Designers
Web designers today are responsible for much more than individual page designs. They build entire content and marketing systems.
A new paradigm for layouts in Divi is only the beginning. Our upcoming Loop Builder will change how you connect content to design, fully aligning Divi with dynamic content such as blog feeds and product listings. With this, your designs become living systems that adapt to advanced content scaffolding.
This will offer the freedom to build detailed, flexible designs without sacrificing control. It will help you standardize and scale your work, transforming one-off projects into reusable, scalable, and maintainable systems.
The power of Divi 5 multiplies when combined with Divi Pro. For instance, Divi Cloud stores and allows the sharing of design assets across a whole agency, while Divi AI can connect AI to your particular design tasks. Divi VIP delivers reliable and premium support to help you keep projects running smoothly. This integrated ecosystem of tools in Divi Pro supports every stage of your web design process — from concept to launch.
In short, Divi 5 respects your craft’s complexity and helps you succeed on your own terms.
A New Interface, Designed For Work
Time is your most valuable asset. Divi 5’s interface is engineered to safeguard every second.
It strips away distractions and delivers what you need, right when you need it. A fully customizable workspace means Divi adapts to your workflow, not the other way around.
Say goodbye to hunting through confusing menus or slow loading. Divi’s redesigned UI is cleaner, faster, and gets you where you want with fewer clicks.
Get familiar with the new Settings Search & Filter bar at the top of the options panel. You can type keywords to jump straight to your desired style or setting. Plus, you can filter by modified styles, colors, fonts, and more. This is the fastest way to identify and adjust what matters most, especially when working on complex layouts or unfamiliar templates.
Settings Search & Filters help you find particular styles to edit, but the Attribute Manager lets you apply content and styles across element types. It encourages the use of repeated content and styles in the most extensible way possible and works with element content, styles, and presets.
If you spend your work week in the editor, you will grow to depend on these features. Getting to know them unlocks shortcuts that reduce friction and time spent at every turn.
What This Means for You
Freelancers and agencies will see the biggest gains, saving hours every week thanks to Divi 5’s richer toolbox and smoother workflows.
Divi 5 is built to compete and win against the best page builders while offering you affordable pricing plans. It also protects your existing sites with 100% backward compatibility.
We’re just getting started. Flexbox, Loop Builder, HSL colors, and more innovations are coming soon to keep raising the bar for WordPress site building.
Divi’s future is here, and it is quickly becoming the tool of choice for professional web designers.
I have converted over completely to Divi 5 for my sites.
I was dragged kicking and screaming into Divi 4 a decade ago by a client. I saw a lot to like, but as a hand-coder, I had a lot of frustrations. So I typically used Bootstrap or Divi for a project depending on my mood and the project’s needs.
But as much as Divi 4 was a mixed bag to me – and don’t get me wrong, it was good enough that I bought a lifetime license – Divi 5 is truly a joy to work with. I feel like I’m no longer working against Divi, but partnering with Divi to get what I want done.
The new features are so powerful and freeing. Module groups and nested rows allow me to do things that I could only do in Bootstrap before.
And the layers sidebar with the properties sidebar working together – one of my biggest gripes was trying to figure out where spacing was coming from, but with those two making it easy to switch between each layer, plus x-ray helping me see the div boundaries… it’s usually easy to figure out what’s going on and how I want to fix it.
It’s going to take me so long to really push the boundaries of the power in Divi 5.
I think so far, the only thing I’m really missing is some sort of shortcode system for variables. If I want my copyright statement to have the current year, I have to limit myself to just that variable and have the before- and after-text, and that’s it. It would be amazing if I could use these variables in any module that supports text as part of the text editor – as shortcodes in text mode and as clickable inline buttons in visual mode. I think that would truly unlock the power of variables in text. What if we were able to use our visitor’s names if they were logged in? Or date they joined? That sort of thing. It would be a start toward being able to have useful user pages and things like that. But even outside of that, being able to use a variable for our company name and the year in the same copyright statement – update the companyname, update the copyright and the name across the entire site. I know that’s the vision of these variables. 🙂
I have build 3 Sites in DV5 now and its awesome.
About 30-60 Pages are waiting to get updated. I have been building with DIVI since the beginning of DIVI in November 2013.
I will start my first update in dev environment soon.
Looking forward that also wpml is supported, it was really messy and also global variables are not translatable now.
Thanks to the whole team for your effort and bringing divi to the next level and ready to kick elementor and others from the throne.