Post last updated on 2 April 2021
The DIVI Theme is one of the most powerful and popular WordPress themes around. There is also a large ecosystem around DIVI, with people giving away or selling child themes, layouts, plugins, tutorials, courses and other DIVI related stuff. In this post we look at a specific type of DIVI plugin. Or rather: DIVI plugins that are not very specific, but provide a wide range of enhancements of the DIVI theme and/or additional modules for the DIVI builder all packed into one plugin: DIVI Battle Suit, DIVI Booster, DIVI Brain Conkit, DIVI Enhancer, DIVI Essential, DIVI Extra, DIVI Hacks, DIVI Pixels, DIVI Plus, DIVI Switch, DIVI Sumo, DIVI Supreme, DIVI Toolbox, DIVI Tweaker, and Expand DIVI. Quite a list… which one is best for you?
Will these plugins slow down my site?
One argument against this type plugins is that they are a bit of an overkill when you just need one or two features that they offer. Such “swiss army knife plugins”, heavily packed with features, may slow down your site.
If you look around, you may find a lightweight, simple plugin that does exactly and only what you need. Or a bit of code that you could implement on your site to implement the feature yourself (but that of course requires at least some skills in and level of comfort with applying code – and you may be looking at these plugins because you don’t have that).
However, two of these plugins claim to have paid special attention to making sure that the plugin is lightweight and does not slow down your site: DIVI Essentials and DIVI Supreme. They claim that they are achieving that by only loading the code for each module on pages where the module is used. That definitely gives them an advantage over the other plugins!
In addition, DIVI Supreme shares screenshots showing that even when their JavaScript file is loaded on the front-end, it is really small, namely only 1.94 KB. Compare that to, for example, DIVI Plus. This plugin loads a JavaScript file of 55,39 KB even on pages where you are not using it:
DIVI Essentials may have made sure that files are not loaded on places where it is not needed. But when plugin files are loaded, they are not necessarily smaller than for other plugins in this review. The file size of their main ‘frontend-bundle.mins.js’ is actually a lot larger than is the case for DIVI Plus, namely 268,85 KB:
Of course this still sounds like peanuts compared to files sizes that you are used to (e.g. the size of photos you take). However, when it comes to site speed many small files may add up to a site that is slower than you would like to. So it is a factor to consider, although of course not the only one.
An Overview of These DIVI ‘Power Plugins’
Speed aside, which of these plugins is the best? Well, that depends of course on what you need and if/what you are willing to pay:
- Some plugins just add options to the DIVI theme or make site-wide tweaks, some just add a range of new modules to the modules that are standard present in the DIVI page builder, some do both. And one also adds DIVI layouts that you can use.
- Some plugins have a limited, free version and a premium version with more features and modules, others are just available in premium version.
Below a short intro of each of these plugins, followed by a brief assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. This is based on a detailed comparison of the features of these plugins, which I have also made available.
DIVI Battle Suit
- Free & premium add-ons (price differs per add-on group)
- Both tweaks to the DIVI theme & new builder modules
DIVI Hacks
- Free & premium version ($29 lifetime for one site up to $149 for unlimited sites)
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Switch
- Premium plugin ($29/year for single site up to $49/year for unlimited sites)
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Tweaker
- Free plugin
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Booster
- $29 lifetime unlimited sites
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Essential
- From $39/year for a single site to $199 for lifetime unlimited sites
- New builder modules & pre-made DIVI layouts
DIVI Supreme
- Free & premium version ($40/year for one site & $79/year for unlimited sites)
- Lots of new modules for the DIVI theme + some general tweaks to the theme
Expand DIVI
- Free plugin
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Brain Conkit
- $69 unlimited sites, 1 year of updates
- Mainly new builder modules, plus a couple of site tweaks
DIVI Extra
- Free plugin
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Plus
- Premium plugin ($79/annual for unlimited sites, or $149 for lifetime unlimited sites)
- Just new builder modules
DIVI Toolbox
- Premium plugin ($49 lifetime for single site, $169 lifetime for unlimited sites)
- Just tweaks to the DIVI theme
DIVI Enhancer
- Free & premium version ($27 lifetime unlimited sites)
- Both tweaks to the DIVI theme & new builder modules
DIVI Pixel
- From $49 for a single site + 1 year of updates to $299 for unlimited sites + lifetime updates
- Both tweaks to the DIVI theme & new builder modules
DIVI Sumo
- Free & premium version ($29 annual for single site, $69 annual for unlimited sites)
- Just new builder modules
(or continue below for an overview of main strengths and features)
Strong Points & Detailed Comparison
To help you – and myself! – decide on the best plugin, I made an extensive comparison of the features promised by the plugin makers. Disclaimer: what I have not done, is test all these plugins myself to see if they work well, are user friendly and do not slow down your site).
I expected in advance that there would be a lot of overlap in what they offer, but that was not the case. However, that does not mean that making a choice is easy. These plugins regularly offer offer different tweaks in the same area. E.g. several plugins give you additional options for customizing the DIVI standard header, several others give you more options for your blog, other again add all kinds of hover effects. Never can all enhancements for one such area be found in one plugin.
Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) for each of these plugin:
DIVI Battle Suit
- DIVI Battle Suit has both a free and a premium version. It offers a few general tweaks, including some unique options to make DIVI help items more visible for new users.
- Offers a bit over 20 new modules, including – but not limited to – a range of modules to create blog post templates and templates based on custom post types added with Toolset. However, these modules do not seem as useful as they were before, now that DIVI has a theme builder that allows you to create blog post templates and is able to work with dynamic content (including fields from custom post types). But check this video on DIVI and Toolset for yourself to make sure.
DIVI Booster
- One great thing about DIVI Booster is that the maker also offers a tutorial with code snippet(s) for many of its features. So if you’re comfortable with code and just need a few features, you don’t need to apply a ‘swiss army knife’.
- This plugin has especially a lot of options for small styling tweaks to the standard DIVI header & menu – far more than any of the other plugins in this comparison.
- It also offers very small tweaks to various standard DIVI modules, and a number of options for improving site performance and the WP sidebar. And offers some hover effects for specific places (such as for links).
- You can import & export the plugin settings to re-use on other websites
DIVI Brain Conkit
- DIVI Brain Conkit adds more than 25 modules to the DIVI builder, several of them allowing you to do more with images.
- Unique in comparison to the other plugins are the modules to integrate an instagram feed and to create ‘list groups’.
- In addition, it offers the ability for unfiltered file uploads, to create a custom WordPress login page, and to use shortcodes to display items in the DIVI library anywhere.
DIVI Enhancer
- DIVI Enhancer – there is both a free and a premium version – mainly adds lots of new modules to the DIVI builder.
- A nice feature is that the free version allows you to add any module, row or section to a light-box popup.
- Furthermore, it seems to be the best plugin in this comparison for giving you lots of hover effects that can be applied on all modules. However, note that the DIVI in 2018 also already added a lot of hover effect options, so those may be all you need.
DIVI Essential
- DIVI Essential offers more than 35 additional modules.
- The plugin is unique amongst the plugins discussed in this post in offering not only lots of additional modules, but also various designs for each module that you can download freely from their website.
- It is one of two plugins in this review that claims to be optimized for speed (see discussion earlier in this post).
DIVI Extra
- DIVI Extra, a free plugin, offers just a few DIVI tweaks, so is less of a ‘Swiss army knife’ than some of the other plugins in this comparison, but it may just offer what you need.
- A nice feature, for example, is that it allows you to use the default Site Title, when no logo is set. The ‘text logo’ will use the H1 html tag .
DIVI Hacks
- DIVI Hacks – there is both a free and a premium version – offers many options for making custom (archive) pages. However, these seem to have become redundant now that DIVI has its own theme builder.
- But Hacks among others also offers a lot of options to improve the standard DIVI header and the responsiveness of DIVI websites, and a range of options to do more when designing modules, columns and rows. There are also various tweaks available in other areas.
DIVI Pixel
- DIVI Pixel offers more than 25 additional modules for the DIVI Builder. It has several modules which are unique in comparison to the other plugins, such as a module to create a grid of buttons, to use panorama images that can be scrolled horizontally and to add a ‘reading progress bar’ for the page visitor.
- It offers various options to customize your blog pages (such as adding icons to meta-data and displaying related posts) and to customize the mobile menu (such as changing the hamburger icon and collapsing sub-menus).
DIVI Plus
- DIVI Plus, a premium plugin, is different from all the other plugins in this overview in that it does not offer any DIVI tweaks, just new modules for the DIVI builder. This includes modules to work with Confact Form 7 and Caldera forms and to create flipboxes and timelines. Very nice is also a module that allows you to create ‘hotspots’ on images that allow you to trigger an animation on mouse hover.
- Interesting: the “How To Schema module of the Divi Plus plugin would ease the process of creating structured data”
DIVI Sumo
- DIVI Sumo adds a little over 10 new free modules to the DIVI Builder, none of which are unique in comparison to the other plugins. But it may just have the combination of free modules that you need. This includes two modules for Facebook.
- The premium version adds more than 25 further modules, some of which are unique in comparison to other plugins in this post. This includes a module to display cascading images and a carroussel of team members.
DIVI Supreme
- DIVI Supreme in its premium version adds more than 40 new modules to the DIVI builder. Several modules allow you to do more with text (such as rotating it or adding animated gradients). Unique is a module to add colore shapes (like ovals and hexagons) to your pages
- Additional features include that it enables you to schedule the publication of DIVI modules / rows / sections, allows you to add DIVI library items anywhere – including sidebar widgets – with a shortcode, and makes it possible to turn any DIVI library item into a popup.
- It is one of two plugins in this review that claims to be optimized for speed (see discussion earlier in this post).
DIVI Switch
- DIVI Switch is a premium plugin that especially gives you lots of additional options for the standard DIVI menu, header, footer and blog.
- But it also offers various DIVI enhancements in a range of areas, as well as some general WP upgrades, such as the ability to upload SVG images.
- This plugin has not only an option to import and export the settings, but also a really unique possibility to turn the settings that you are using in a standalone plugin that you can install on a (client’s) site instead of DIVI Switch,
DIVI Toolbox
- DIVI Toolbox is a premium plugin that is especially strong in offering a range of options to make the standard DIVI header and menu even more responsive.
- However, it also offers various tweaks for standard DIVI modules, the WP sidebar and the DIVI blog.
- Plus a couple of hover- and visual effects.
DIVI Tweaker
- DIVI Tweaker is a free plugin that adds various options to improve site speed / performance, some of which can also be found in more general speed plugins, some of which are unique (option to remove DIVI CSS & Scripts unless DIVI builder is used on page / post),
- Also offers a range of other general DIVI tweaks, but does not stand out in one particular area
- Unique however is the option to start creating page transition effects.
Expand DIVI
- Expand DIVI is a free plugin that can be found in the WP repository. The plugin does not stand out in any particular area, but it may just have one or more features that you really need.
- Unfortunately, according to WordPress the plugin has not been tested with the last 3 major releases of WordPress. Generally WordPress experts warn against that, as it may mean that you take performance and security risks (although it is not always a problem). As the website of the maker of this plugin is also no longer operational, I would hesitate to use it.
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