Divi vs Extra Theme: Which Elegant Themes Product Should You Buy?

If you are about to purchase an Elegant Themes membership, you might be wondering whether to focus on Divi or Extra. Both themes appear on the same membership page, both use the same builder, and both are marketed as premium WordPress themes from the same company. The question of which one to buy seems reasonable.

But here is something the Elegant Themes pricing page does not make obvious enough: you do not have to choose between them. One membership gives you access to both Divi and Extra, along with every other Elegant Themes product. You pay for the membership, not for individual themes. This changes the framing of the entire question.

The Real Question: Which Theme to Install Right Now

Once you understand that both themes come with your membership, the question shifts from “which should I buy” to “which should I install for this specific project.” That is a much more useful question, and the answer depends almost entirely on what kind of website you are building.

This is not a simplification for the sake of brevity. It genuinely is the cleanest way to think about the choice. Divi is a multi-purpose theme with complete design freedom for any website type. Extra is a purpose-built magazine and blog theme with built-in content tools that Divi does not have. Their differences are meaningful, but they apply to different project types, and once you know your project type the choice is almost always obvious.

What You Get With Any Elegant Themes Membership

Before comparing the two themes, it helps to understand the full scope of what a single Elegant Themes membership includes. This context matters because many buyers focus only on Divi and Extra when the membership actually contains considerably more.

What You Get	Details
Divi Theme	Multi-purpose WordPress theme with full Divi Builder integration, Theme Builder, and all modules. Unlimited sites.
Extra Theme	Magazine-style WordPress theme with Category Builder, post formats, review system, and post-based mega menus. Unlimited sites.
Divi Builder Plugin	Standalone plugin version of the Divi Builder. Use Divi’s visual editor on any WordPress theme, not just Divi or Extra.
Bloom Plugin	Email opt-in form builder with 6 form types and 19+ email marketing service integrations. Replaces a standalone opt-in plugin.
Monarch Plugin	Social sharing and follow button plugin with 5 placement options including popups and fly-ins.
Divi Dash	Site management dashboard for managing updates, plugins, themes, and users across multiple WordPress installs from one location.
800+ Layout Packs	Pre-built page and website layouts available inside the Divi Builder on both themes.
Updates and Support	Annual plan: one year of updates and premium support. Lifetime plan: permanent updates and support.
Unlimited Website Usage	Both plans cover unlimited installs. No per-site fees or separate client licenses required.

Pricing: What the Membership Actually Costs

Elegant Themes offers three main pricing configurations. All of them include both Divi and Extra. The choice between them is purely about how long you plan to use Divi and whether you need the Pro add-on services.

The annual plan at $89 per year gives you access to both themes plus all other membership products, with updates and support for one year. The lifetime plan at $249 is a one-time payment that covers permanent updates and support with no renewal required. For anyone using Divi for more than three years, the lifetime plan costs less in total. Divi Pro adds Divi AI, unlimited cloud storage, VIP priority support, and team seats on top of the standard membership features.

Who Should Install Divi and Who Should Install Extra

Project Type Decisions at a Glance

What Happens If You Install the Wrong One

One of the less-discussed advantages of both themes being built on the same Divi Builder is that switching between them is not as disruptive as switching between unrelated themes. If you install Divi and later realize your project would benefit from Extra’s content tools, you can switch. All pages and posts built with the Divi Builder will render correctly after the switch because the builder stores content in the same format regardless of which theme is active.

The practical difference you will notice after switching is in the surrounding theme layer: the header, footer, and global theme defaults will change to match the new theme. The Category Builder layouts and Extra’s exclusive post-level features will become available once you switch to Extra. You will need to configure Extra’s theme options and possibly rebuild any custom header or footer you designed specifically around Divi’s styling, but your page and post content itself transfers cleanly.

The reverse is also true. If you start with Extra and want to move to Divi later, your page content will continue to work. What you lose are the Extra-specific features at the theme level: the Category Builder layouts, post format styling, the built-in review system, and the post-based mega menus. These are Extra’s theme layer and do not transfer when you switch to Divi. If you have built significant review content using Extra’s native review system, migrating that data requires manual effort or a plugin-based migration.

Community Size and Third-Party Support: Divi Leads Clearly

Even though both themes come with the same membership, their ecosystems are not equal. Divi has a substantially larger community, more tutorials, more third-party plugins, and more child themes than Extra. This is simply a function of Divi being the flagship product that Elegant Themes markets most heavily and that most new members install by default.

For Divi, you can find tutorials for nearly any use case, community forums with answers to specific questions, and a wide range of premium add-ons from third-party developers. The Divi ecosystem has grown significantly because of the number of agencies and freelancers using it professionally.

Extra has a smaller community, fewer standalone tutorials, and fewer third-party child themes designed specifically for it. If you encounter a configuration challenge with Extra, you are less likely to find a ready-made answer online than you would for the same situation in Divi. Most Extra users are comfortable with the Divi Builder before using Extra, which means the learning curve is about the Extra-specific features rather than the builder itself, but the community support gap is still worth factoring in.

For most buyers this is not a decisive factor, but for those who rely heavily on community resources and tutorials to work through challenges, starting with Divi reduces friction in that regard.

Advice for Freelancers and Agencies

If you are a freelancer or agency building websites for multiple clients, the most practical approach is to use both themes depending on the project type. This is exactly what your membership is designed to support. You are not committing to one theme for all future projects.

A common workflow among experienced Divi users is to default to Divi for the majority of projects, business sites, portfolios, landing pages, and ecommerce, and to reach for Extra specifically when a client is running a content-heavy publication with regular posting across multiple categories. Both themes share the same builder, so switching between projects using different themes does not require relearning the interface.

The Divi Library works across both themes as well, meaning layouts you save while working on a Divi project are accessible when building with Extra, and vice versa. Your growing library of reusable sections, modules, and page templates applies to work in either theme.

The one operational consideration for agencies is the community support gap mentioned earlier. When training team members or onboarding contractors, Divi has far more self-service resources available. Extra-specific knowledge tends to come from hands-on experience rather than finding tutorials online. This is a minor consideration for experienced teams but worth noting for those who frequently bring in contractors or need to hand off projects to clients who will self-manage.

Can You Just Use Divi for Everything, Including Blogs and Magazines?

Yes, you can. Divi is capable enough through its Theme Builder and standard module library to build functional blog and magazine-style sites. Many successful content-focused sites run on Divi. The Theme Builder lets you create custom archive page templates and post templates, and you can configure the Blog module and Post Slider module to display posts from specific categories in various layouts.

What you give up by using Divi for a content site instead of Extra is the native convenience of Extra’s purpose-built tools. The Category Builder in Extra produces multi-category, multi-format homepage layouts with less configuration effort than replicating the same output through Divi’s Theme Builder. Extra’s post formats change feed presentation automatically. Extra’s review system works without a plugin. Extra’s author boxes appear without custom template work.

None of these are impossible to achieve in Divi. All of them require more effort in Divi than they do in Extra. For a professional publication that is going to be maintained and expanded over years, that difference in setup overhead is meaningful. For a simple blog with infrequent posting and no complex category structure, Divi handles it fine and the Extra-specific tools would go unused anyway.

The Practical Recommendation for New Buyers

If you are purchasing an Elegant Themes membership for the first time and are not yet sure what type of site you will build most often, here is the most practical path forward.

Purchase the membership, which gives you access to both themes immediately. If you are building a business site, portfolio, landing page, or ecommerce site right now, install Divi and start building. The learning resources, community support, and third-party ecosystem for Divi will support you throughout the project.

If your first project is a blog or content publication, install Extra instead. Spend an hour exploring the Category Builder and post settings before you start designing. Extra’s learning curve is minimal if you are already comfortable with the Divi Builder, and the content-specific tools will save you significant setup work compared to building the same site in Divi.

If you are a freelancer building for multiple clients, use whichever theme fits each project type and build familiarity with both over time. The builder experience is identical, so moving between them only requires learning each theme’s exclusive layer, not relearning how to use the core tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I pay extra to get both Divi and Extra?

No. Every Elegant Themes membership, including the annual plan at $89 and the lifetime plan at $249, includes both Divi and Extra at no additional cost. You also get the Divi Builder Plugin, Bloom, Monarch, and Divi Dash in the same membership. There is no tier that includes only one of the themes.

Can I use Divi and Extra on the same website at the same time?

No. A WordPress site can only have one active theme at a time. You choose whether to use Divi or Extra as the active theme for a given website. However, you can use Divi on some sites and Extra on others under the same membership license, with no restriction on how many of each you install.

Which theme gets more updates from Elegant Themes?

Both themes receive updates as part of the same development cycle. When Elegant Themes releases improvements to the Divi Builder, those improvements apply to both the Divi Theme and Extra since they share the same builder framework. Theme-level updates that affect Extra-specific features (Category Builder, post formats, review system) are released as part of Extra’s own update cycle, which Elegant Themes maintains alongside Divi.

Is Extra harder to use than Divi?

No. The core building experience in Extra is identical to Divi because both use the same Visual Builder. Extra adds a few additional feature areas (the Category Builder, post format settings, review system configuration) that require their own learning, but these are relatively straightforward. Anyone already comfortable with Divi will adapt to Extra within a short building session. The larger challenge with Extra is finding tutorials, since Divi’s community resources significantly outnumber Extra-specific content online.

What happens to Extra if I cancel my Elegant Themes membership?

Your installed themes remain functional on your sites after a membership lapses. You will lose access to future updates, new feature releases, and premium support, but Extra will continue to run on any site where it is currently installed. The practical risk over time is compatibility issues with future versions of WordPress and PHP as updates accumulate without corresponding theme updates.

Should I tell clients which theme I am using?

This is a professional judgment call rather than a technical one. Most clients do not need to know which specific theme powers their site. What matters to clients is whether the site looks and works the way they want. Documenting your theme choice for handoff purposes is good practice so clients and future developers can find support resources, but active disclosure during the project is optional.