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title: "WordPress Page Builder Speed 2026: Elementor at 30%"
description: "Elementor passes Core Web Vitals on just 30.0 percent of mobile sites, below Gutenberg 41.5, Divi 34.5 and WPBakery 32.7. 2.1 million origins analysed."
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Data Study · WordPress
# Elementor Is the Slowest Major WordPress Page Builder, Passing on 30% of Sites
Written by [Matt Suffoletto](/resources/author/matt-suffoletto)
Published July 16, 2026 8 min read
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On This Page
- [Methodology](#methodology-source "Methodology")
- [Key Findings](#key-findings "Key Findings")
- [The Finding](#the-finding "The Finding")
- [What the Data Covers](#what-the-data-covers "What the Data Covers")
- [Popular Builders Trail Native](#the-most-popular-builders-trail-the-tools-wordpress-ships-free "Popular Builders Trail Native")
- [Damage Is in Loading](#the-damage-is-all-in-loading-not-responsiveness "Damage Is in Loading")
- [Elementor: Most Popular, Lowest Pass](#elementor-most-popular-lowest-pass-rate "Elementor: Most Popular, Lowest Pass")
- [The Full Ranking](#the-full-ranking-top-to-bottom "The Full Ranking")
- [Desktop: Softer, Still There](#the-gap-holds-on-desktop-but-softer "Desktop: Softer, Still There")
- [The Builder Is a Loading](#the-builder-is-a-loading-decision "The Builder Is a Loading")
- [Embed & cite](#embed "Embed & cite")
- [FAQ](#faq "FAQ")
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We matched Chrome field data to the page builder running on more than two million WordPress sites. Elementor, the most-used builder, passes Core Web Vitals on just 30.0% of mobile sites, below native Gutenberg's 41.5%, and the problem is loading, not responsiveness.
Analysis of 2.1M WordPress sites · CrUX + HTTP Archive, May 2026
Part of our [WordPress Speed Statistics 2026](/resources/statistics/wordpress) research.
## Methodology & Source
Data source
HTTP Archive page-builder detection (Wappalyzer) joined to Chrome UX Report (CrUX) real-user field data
Collection date
May 2026
Notes
Roughly 2.1 million WordPress origins across nine builders, measured on mobile at the 75th percentile, with a strict pass requiring good LCP, INP and CLS all present. Buckets shown have at least 20,000 mobile origins.
## Key Findings
1. 1. [Elementor, the most-used WordPress page builder, passes Core Web Vitals on just **30.0%** of mobile sites, the lowest of any major builder, and it sits below native Gutenberg's **41.5%**. ](#the-most-popular-builders-trail-the-tools-wordpress-ships-free) Copy stat
2. 2. [The three most popular third-party builders all trail native block editing on mobile: **Elementor 30.0%**, **WPBakery 32.7%**, **Divi 34.5%**, versus **WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) at 41.5%**. ](#the-most-popular-builders-trail-the-tools-wordpress-ships-free) Copy stat
3. 3. [Page builders barely affect responsiveness. Every builder is good on INP for **92% to 97%** of mobile sites. The weakness is loading: Elementor is good on LCP for only **44.8%**. ](#the-damage-is-all-in-loading-not-responsiveness) Copy stat
4. 4. [**Duda (60.7%)** and **Webflow (54.4%)**, two non-WordPress visual builders, top the table, passing at nearly twice Elementor's rate. ](#the-full-ranking-top-to-bottom) Copy stat
5. 5. [Within WordPress, closer to native wins: **Block Editor (41.5%)**, **Site Editor (43.8%)** and **Beaver Builder (42.7%)** all beat the heavier drag-and-drop builders. ](#the-full-ranking-top-to-bottom) Copy stat
6. 6. [The pattern holds on desktop but softer: **Elementor 40.3%**, **Divi 31.7%** and **WPBakery 38.8%** still trail Gutenberg's **50.2%**, with the gap again concentrated in LCP. ](#the-gap-holds-on-desktop-but-softer) Copy stat
## The finding
Elementor is the most popular way to build a WordPress site. It runs on nearly a million of the origins in this study, more than any other page builder. It is also the builder least likely to load quickly for the people who actually visit those sites. Just 30.0% of Elementor sites pass Google's Core Web Vitals on mobile, the lowest pass rate of any major builder, and below the 41.5% posted by the block editor WordPress ships for free.
That gap is not a technicality. Site speed is the first thing a visitor experiences, before a single word of your copy or a single product image. A page that loads slowly loses people before they see it, drags down conversions, and weakens search rankings, because Google treats [Core Web Vitals](/resources/guides/complete-core-web-vitals-guide) as a ranking signal. For a small business or a publisher, the builder you assemble your pages in sets a ceiling on all of that.
Page builders have long carried a reputation for weighing sites down, and to see whether it is earned we matched the builder detected on more than two million WordPress sites to how those sites perform for real Chrome users in Google's own field data. The reputation holds, with an important twist about which part of performance suffers.
## What the data covers
The numbers here come from two sources joined together. [HTTP Archive](https://httparchive.org)'s technology detection tells us which page builder is running on each WordPress origin, and Google's [Chrome User Experience Report](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux) tells us how fast that origin actually is for the real people who load it. This is field data from real visits, not a lab score from a single test run. In total the study covers roughly 2.1 million WordPress origins across nine builders, each with a large enough audience to register in Google's data.
A site passes Core Web Vitals only when it is good on all three metrics at once: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds (loading), Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1 (visual stability). We measure at the 75th percentile on mobile, which is the standard Google uses and the harder, more honest test, because it reflects the slower phones and networks a real audience brings rather than a developer's fast laptop.
## The most popular builders trail the tools WordPress ships free
Rather than write theme code, millions of site owners drag and drop layouts with Elementor, Divi, WPBakery or the newer native block editor. Those tools are convenient, and the field data shows the convenience has a cost. Elementor, the most widely deployed builder in the dataset, passes on 30.0% of its mobile sites. WPBakery sits at 32.7%, Divi at 34.5%. All three trail WordPress's native block editor, Gutenberg, which passes on 41.5% of mobile sites.
Put plainly, the three most popular third-party page builders each make a WordPress site less likely to pass than building with the tools WordPress ships in the box. The convenience of a visual drag-and-drop canvas is real, but so is the weight it adds, and that weight lands squarely on the experience your visitors have.
30.0%
Share of Elementor mobile sites that pass Core Web Vitals, the lowest of any major page builder. Copy stat
Core Web Vitals pass rate by page builder (mobile)
Duda
60.7%
Webflow
54.4%
WordPress Site Editor
43.8%
Beaver Builder
42.7%
Block Editor (Gutenberg)
41.5%
SiteOrigin
38.6%
Divi
34.5%
WPBakery
32.7%
Elementor
30%
Source: PageSpeed Matters analysis of roughly 2.1 million WordPress origins with CrUX field data, mobile, May 2026.
The three most popular third-party builders all pass less often than WordPress's own block editor.
Copy chart embed Download PNG
## The damage is all in loading, not responsiveness
The twist is where the damage lands. It is not responsiveness. Every builder in the data is good on Interaction to Next Paint for between 92% and 97% of mobile sites. Page builders, whatever else they do, do not flood the main thread with the kind of JavaScript that ruins INP. What they add instead is markup, styles, and images that inflate loading.
A drag-and-drop builder generates the HTML and CSS for whatever layout you assemble, and generic builders tend to output more of both than hand-built or block-native pages: nested wrapper elements, per-section styling, extra fonts and icon libraries, and large hero images placed without much loading discipline. All of that lands on [Largest Contentful Paint](/resources/guides/complete-core-web-vitals-guide#lcp), which measures how quickly the biggest element on the screen renders. Elementor sites are good on LCP just 44.8% of the time, and that loading weak point drags the overall pass rate down. It is the mirror image of our framework studies, where [frameworks fail on INP and page builders fail on LCP](/resources/data-studies/core-web-vitals-by-javascript-framework).
Good loading (LCP) by page builder (mobile)
Duda
95.1%
Webflow
77.7%
WordPress Site Editor
70.6%
Block Editor (Gutenberg)
65%
Divi
52.6%
WPBakery
48.9%
Elementor
44.8%
Source: PageSpeed Matters analysis, mobile 75th-percentile field data, May 2026.
A drag-and-drop builder outputs heavier markup and larger hero images, so the main content paints late.
Copy chart embed Download PNG
## Elementor: most popular, lowest pass rate
Elementor deserves its own line because of its scale. At 982,553 mobile origins it is the most-deployed builder here, so its weak pass rate touches an enormous number of real sites. And the diagnosis is precise. Its INP is fine at 92.6% good, and its layout stability is actually strong at 92.3% good CLS. The entire problem is loading: 44.8% good LCP means most Elementor sites take too long to paint their main content on a phone.
That is encouraging, because it points to a fixable class of problem rather than something baked into the builder. Image optimization, reining in the number of widgets and fonts, and good page caching all move LCP directly. An Elementor site owner who is failing is almost never failing on the hard, structural metric. They are failing on the one that responds most readily to cleanup.
92.6%
Share of Elementor sites with good INP. Responsiveness is fine; loading is the loss. Copy stat
## The full ranking, top to bottom
Two of the top three, Duda and Webflow, are not WordPress tools at all. They are hosted visual builders with tighter performance defaults, and they pass at nearly double Elementor's rate. Inside WordPress, the tools closest to native rendering, the Block Editor, the Site Editor, and the relatively lightweight Beaver Builder, beat the heavy drag-and-drop trio. The pattern is consistent: the closer a builder stays to the markup WordPress produces on its own, the more often its sites pass. If you have not launched yet and speed matters, it is worth checking [how fast the average WordPress site is](/resources/data-studies/average-wordpress-site-speed) before you commit.
**Page builder**
**Mobile origins**
**CWV pass**
**Good LCP**
**Good INP**
**Good CLS**
Duda
47,462
60.7%
95.1%
96.4%
94.6%
Webflow
64,651
54.4%
77.7%
92.2%
95.2%
WordPress Site Editor
53,180
43.8%
70.6%
93.0%
94.9%
Beaver Builder
31,357
42.7%
62.9%
97.2%
93.3%
WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg)
496,306
41.5%
65.0%
94.0%
91.6%
SiteOrigin Page Builder
20,490
38.6%
62.0%
96.6%
90.5%
Divi
168,683
34.5%
52.6%
96.2%
88.0%
WPBakery
244,889
32.7%
48.9%
94.8%
89.2%
Elementor
982,553
30.0%
44.8%
92.6%
92.3%
Duda and Webflow are non-WordPress hosted builders, kept in the ranking for contrast.
## The gap holds on desktop, but softer
The mobile number is the one your visitors feel, so do not read your desktop score and relax. The gap is real on desktop too, with Elementor at 40.3%, Divi at 31.7% and WPBakery at 38.8%, all still trailing Gutenberg's 50.2%. It is simply softer, because faster desktop connections and processors mask heavy pages that a mid-range phone cannot. Divi's 61.7% good CLS on desktop is the one notable weak spot in the table, a reminder that layout stability can slip even where loading looks healthy.
**Page builder**
**Desktop origins**
**CWV pass**
**Good LCP**
**Good INP**
**Good CLS**
Webflow
48,849
71.7%
93.4%
99.5%
92.2%
WordPress Site Editor
24,794
60.5%
85.5%
99.6%
90.7%
Beaver Builder
22,978
51.6%
74.5%
99.6%
87.7%
WordPress Block Editor
279,913
50.2%
75.9%
99.3%
84.2%
Elementor
507,725
40.3%
59.0%
99.4%
83.0%
WPBakery
142,895
38.8%
60.8%
99.5%
77.5%
Divi
90,277
31.7%
63.3%
99.7%
61.7%
On desktop the gap persists but compresses; Divi's 61.7% good CLS is the notable weak spot.
## The builder is a loading decision
The builder you choose is a Core Web Vitals decision as much as a convenience one, and for the 982,553 Elementor sites in this study it is costing a pass. If you are already on Elementor, Divi or WPBakery and failing, target loading, not responsiveness: Elementor's INP is good on 92.6% of sites and its CLS on 92.3%, while only 44.8% have good LCP. [Optimize the hero image](/resources/data-studies/page-weight) and other large media, cut unused widgets, fonts and icon packs, add page caching, and defer offscreen content. LCP is where these builders lose, and LCP is where the fix is. Our [WordPress page builder speed guide](/resources/guides/wordpress-page-builder-speed) lays out how to make a builder fast, step by step.
If you have not committed yet and speed is a priority, staying close to native gives you a better starting point: the Block Editor passes on 41.5% of mobile sites and the Site Editor on 43.8%, against Elementor's 30.0%. The gap holds on desktop too, where Elementor's 40.3% still trails Gutenberg's 50.2%, so a fast connection will not rescue a heavy build. The encouraging part is that nothing here is structural. The most popular builder on WordPress is the slowest today, but the 44.8% good-LCP problem behind that number is the kind a focused afternoon of image and caching cleanup can move.
## Embed this research
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Source: Elementor Is the Slowest Major WordPress Page Builder, Passing on 30% of Sites - PageSpeed Matters
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## Cite this study
APA Copy
Matt Suffoletto. (2026). Elementor Is the Slowest Major WordPress Page Builder, Passing on 30% of Sites. PageSpeed Matters. https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/wordpress-page-builders-core-web-vitals
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Elementor Is the Slowest Major WordPress Page Builder, Passing on 30% of Sites - PageSpeed Matters - https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/wordpress-page-builders-core-web-vitals
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## Frequently asked questions
### Which WordPress page builder is fastest for Core Web Vitals?
Elementor Passes Core Web Vitals on Just 30% of Mobile Sites.
### How was this measured?
HTTP Archive page-builder detection (Wappalyzer) joined to Chrome UX Report (CrUX) real-user field data (May 2026). Roughly 2.1 million WordPress origins across nine builders, measured on mobile at the 75th percentile, with a strict pass requiring good LCP, INP and CLS all present. Buckets shown have at least 20,000 mobile origins.
## Related studies
- [CMS WordPress Passes Core Web Vitals Least Often of Any Major CMS, at 38.4% ](/resources/data-studies/core-web-vitals-by-cms)
- [WordPress Only 38.4% of WordPress Sites Pass Core Web Vitals ](/resources/data-studies/average-wordpress-site-speed)
- [Frameworks The Fastest JavaScript Framework Isn't React, Vue or Angular - Alpine.js Passes 56.3% ](/resources/data-studies/core-web-vitals-by-javascript-framework)
- [Local Local Business Website Speed: 52.2% of 'Near Me' Winners Pass Core Web Vitals ](/resources/data-studies/near-me-local-business-speed)
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