Elegant Themes builds two flagship WordPress themes: Divi and Extra. Both are powered by the same Divi Builder, both are included in the same Elegant Themes membership, and both give you access to the same drag-and-drop editor. So why do they exist as separate products, and which one should you use for your next project?
The answer depends entirely on what kind of website you are building. This guide covers every meaningful difference between Divi and Extra, which features are exclusive to each, and the specific use cases where one outperforms the other.
Divi is a multi-purpose theme suited for business sites, portfolios, landing pages, agencies, and ecommerce. Extra is a magazine-style theme built specifically for blogs, news sites, and online publications. Both use the same Divi Builder. Extra adds several content-focused features that Divi lacks, particularly the Category Builder for homepage and archive layouts, seven post formats, a built-in review and ratings system, and post-based mega menus. If you are building a content-heavy publication, Extra is the better starting point. For everything else, Divi gives you more design flexibility.
What Each Theme Is Designed For
Built for any type of website
Divi is designed to handle virtually any website type without restrictions. It is the more flexible of the two themes, giving you complete control over page layout, header and footer design, and global styles. Business sites, portfolios, agencies, WooCommerce stores, landing pages, and personal blogs all fit comfortably within what Divi handles well.
Built for content-driven sites
Extra is purpose-built for blogs, online magazines, and news publications. It extends the Divi Builder with a category layout system, post-specific display tools, built-in review and rating functionality, and navigation features designed for content-heavy sites. It is not a general-purpose theme. Its strengths are specific and highly valuable for the right use case.
Important before going further: Both Divi and Extra are included in every Elegant Themes membership at the same price. You do not pay more for Extra, and you do not have to choose only one. A single license lets you use both themes on unlimited websites, so the decision is purely about which theme is the better starting point for a given project.
Get the Best Divi Deal Available
Divi 5 is already released and included in every plan at no additional cost. Both Annual and Lifetime plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What Divi and Extra Have in Common
Because both themes are built on the same Divi Builder framework, they share a significant set of features. Understanding what is common to both helps you focus on the differences that actually matter for your decision.
- The complete Divi Visual Builder with drag-and-drop editing on both the frontend and backend
- All standard Divi modules (200-plus in Divi 5) including text, image, gallery, video, slider, testimonials, WooCommerce modules, and more
- Theme Builder for designing custom headers, footers, and post templates
- The Divi Library for saving and reusing layouts across sites
- Access to all 800-plus pre-built layout packs
- A/B split testing built into the builder
- Role editor for controlling builder access by user role
- Full WooCommerce compatibility with dedicated product page design tools
- Responsive design controls with per-breakpoint editing
- Module Customizer for global module styling
- WordPress Theme Customizer integration
- Full support for child themes
The shared foundation means that experience with one theme transfers directly to the other. If you know how to build in Divi, you already know how to build in Extra. The differences are at the theme level, not inside the builder itself.
Full Feature Comparison: Divi vs Extra
| Feature | Divi | Extra |
|---|---|---|
| Core Builder Features | ||
| Divi Visual Builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| 200+ Divi modules | ✓ | ✓ |
| 800+ pre-built layout packs | ✓ | ✓ |
| Theme Builder (headers, footers, templates) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Divi Library | ✓ | ✓ |
| A/B split testing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content Display | ||
| Category Builder for homepage and archive layouts | ✗ | ✓ |
| Post formats (Video, Audio, Gallery, Quote, etc.) | Standard only | ✓ 7 formats |
| Built-in review and star rating system | ✗ | ✓ |
| User rating system for posts | ✗ | ✓ |
| Related posts section | ✗ | ✓ |
| Author box below posts | ✗ | ✓ |
| Post sharing buttons | ✗ | ✓ |
| Featured posts designation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Trending bar / newsflash ticker | ✗ | ✓ |
| Navigation and Header | ||
| Post-based mega menus (recent posts in dropdown) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Standard mega menus | Via Theme Builder | ✓ Built-in |
| Fixed / sticky header | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple header style options | ✓ | ✓ |
| Secondary header bar | ✗ | ✓ |
| Design and Customization | ||
| Blank page template | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dot navigation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multilingual support (30+ languages, RTL) | ✓ | ✗ |
| 9 page templates (Timeline, Portfolio, etc.) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Footer credits editor | ✓ | ✗ |
| Advanced footer customization | Via Theme Builder | ✓ More options built-in |
| Advertising and Monetization | ||
| Ad placement in post feeds via Category Builder | ✗ | ✓ |
| 5 advertising zones (Header, below header, etc.) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Google AdSense code integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Compatibility | ||
| WooCommerce support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Child theme support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Third-party Divi plugins and layouts | ✓ | ✓ |
Extra-Exclusive Features Explained
The features in Extra that Divi does not have are not minor styling differences. They represent a purpose-built content architecture that would take significant plugin additions and custom development to replicate in Divi. Here is what each one actually does.
The Category Builder
The Category Builder is Extra’s most significant exclusive feature and the primary reason to choose it over Divi for a blog or publication. It extends the Divi Builder to work on homepage and archive (category) pages with a dedicated set of post-based modules that do not exist in the standard Divi module library.
Instead of displaying a standard WordPress blog feed on your homepage or category pages, the Category Builder lets you design exactly how posts are presented using a visual drag-and-drop interface. You can build layouts that combine different post display styles in the same page, assign different layouts to different categories, and create the kind of multi-column, multi-format homepage you typically see on professional news and magazine websites.
Post-based modules available in the Category Builder include: posts grid, blog feed masonry, blog feed standard, featured posts slider, posts carousel, tabbed posts, and ads. Each module lets you specify which category of posts to display, how many to show, and how they should look. Multiple modules can be combined on the same page, creating a homepage that shows different post types from different categories in different visual formats simultaneously.
This is functionality that Divi alone cannot replicate without third-party plugins. For a magazine or publication site, it is the difference between a theme built for content curation and a general-purpose theme adapted for content.
Seven Post Formats
Extra supports seven distinct post formats, each of which changes how the post is displayed in feeds, on the archive page, and in the post itself. This gives editors and publishers control over post presentation at the individual post level without needing to customize layouts manually for each piece of content.
A video post automatically surfaces the video as the primary visual element in feeds. A gallery post displays images in a gallery format rather than a single featured image. A quote post formats the excerpt as a pull quote. These formats make it easy for a publication to maintain editorial variety across its content without manual design work for each post. Divi does not have these post formats built in.
Built-In Review and Rating System
Extra includes a native review system that works at both the editorial and user level. At the editorial level, you can add a structured review to any post that includes a score, criteria, and a formatted rating display. This is particularly useful for product review blogs, technology publications, and any site where content regularly includes scores or verdicts.
At the user level, Extra includes a star rating system that allows readers to rate posts directly. User ratings appear alongside the editorial review and add a community dimension to the content without requiring any third-party plugin. Both systems are integrated into the post display framework Extra provides, meaning they appear consistently in the right places without custom development.
For a Divi site to have this functionality, you would need a third-party review plugin and manual styling to make it match your design. Extra includes it out of the box.
Post-Based Mega Menus
Extra’s mega menus go beyond the standard link-list format. In addition to standard mega menu layouts that consolidate multiple dropdown links into columns, Extra includes post-based menu formats that display actual content from your site directly inside the navigation dropdown.
The featured articles mega menu shows three large article previews from the selected category when a visitor hovers over a top-level navigation item. The article list menu shows a grid of recent posts combining two large and four smaller previews. This makes the navigation itself a content discovery tool, allowing readers to see what has been recently published in a category before clicking through.
This is a feature typically associated with large news sites and online magazines. Extra includes it natively. Divi can approximate mega menu layouts through the Theme Builder, but the post-based dynamic content display Extra provides is not part of Divi’s standard toolkit.
Author Box, Related Posts, and Social Sharing
Below every post in Extra, a formatted author box displays the writer’s name, bio, and social links. Related posts appear automatically based on the post’s category and tags, keeping readers engaged with additional content. Social sharing buttons are built into the post display without needing a social sharing plugin.
All three of these features are standard expectations on professional publication sites. Extra includes all of them natively. In Divi, achieving the same result requires either a third-party plugin for each function or custom development within the Theme Builder post template. Extra eliminates that setup overhead for content-focused sites where these elements appear on every single post.
Ad Placement in Post Feeds
Extra includes five dedicated advertising zones: header, below header, footer, above post, and below post. All five accept either banner image ads with a target URL or Google AdSense code. Importantly, Extra also allows ad modules to be placed directly inside post feed layouts through the Category Builder, meaning ads can appear naturally between posts in a grid or list format rather than only in fixed sidebar or footer positions.
For sites that rely on display advertising as a revenue source, this level of integrated ad placement is a meaningful feature. Divi has no equivalent built-in ad management system.
Get the Best Divi Deal Available
Divi 5 is already released and included in every plan at no additional cost. Both Annual and Lifetime plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features Divi Has That Extra Does Not
Blank Page Template
Divi includes a blank page template that removes the header, footer, sidebar, and all theme chrome from a page. This is essential for building custom landing pages where you want a completely clean canvas with nothing inherited from the theme. Extra includes nine page templates covering various content types but does not include a blank template. If you need a fully custom landing page built entirely from scratch within Extra, you work around this limitation using the Theme Builder rather than a dedicated blank template.
Full Multilingual Support Including RTL
Divi has been translated into more than 30 languages. This includes the front-end elements visible to site visitors, the Divi Builder interface itself, form fields, and descriptions. Divi also includes full right-to-left layout support, automatically shifting the user interface to match RTL languages like Arabic and Hebrew. If you are building a multilingual site or a site for an audience whose primary language reads right to left, Divi handles this natively. Extra does not have the same breadth of translation support or RTL handling.
Dot Navigation
Divi’s dot navigation displays a vertical row of dots representing each section on a page. Clicking a dot scrolls directly to that section. It is useful for one-page websites, long landing pages, and scrolling presentation-style sites. Extra does not include this navigation style. For sites structured as single-page experiences with section-by-section scrolling, Divi handles this more cleanly out of the box.
Which Theme Should You Use for Each Project Type?
Business sites need flexible page layouts, clean landing pages, and professional design control. Divi’s multi-purpose architecture is purpose-built for this. Extra’s content-curation features are unused overhead for a business site with no publication component.
Extra’s Category Builder, post formats, mega menus, and author tools are exactly what a publication needs. Building a magazine-style homepage in Divi requires significant plugin additions and custom work to replicate what Extra provides natively.
The built-in review system with editorial scores and user ratings, combined with author boxes and related posts, makes Extra the obvious choice for review-focused blogs. Tech review sites, product comparison blogs, and consumer guides all benefit from these built-in features.
Portfolio sites are about showcasing work with visual impact. Divi’s blank page template, dot navigation, and general-purpose layout flexibility serve portfolio design better than Extra’s content-centric structure. Extra’s magazine layout features are largely irrelevant for this use case.
Both themes support WooCommerce, but Divi’s design control is more suited to building unique product pages, category layouts, and checkout flows. Extra’s WooCommerce integration is functional but secondary to its content-publication design philosophy. Divi handles ecommerce design with greater flexibility.
Extra includes author profiles, per-post author boxes, and multi-author page templates. A site with multiple contributing writers benefits from these built-in author management display features. Divi requires third-party plugins to achieve the same level of author presentation.
Landing pages require blank canvas control, dot navigation for scrolling sections, and no inherited theme chrome. Divi’s blank template makes this straightforward. Extra has no blank template, making single-page campaign sites harder to execute cleanly.
A simple personal blog works fine on either theme. Divi handles it with its standard page builder. Extra adds category organization and post formatting that becomes valuable as the blog grows. If you anticipate expanding into structured content with multiple topic categories, starting with Extra saves setup time later.
Performance: Does Either Theme Load Faster?
Both Divi and Extra run on the same Divi Builder framework and receive the same performance updates from Elegant Themes. With Divi 5’s architectural improvements, both themes benefit from the React-powered builder, block-based content storage, and reduced HTTP request count that the new framework delivers.
In practice, Extra can have slightly heavier page weight than Divi on content-heavy layouts because the Category Builder modules designed to display multiple posts with images are inherently more data-heavy than a standard page layout. A homepage built in Extra that pulls featured posts from four categories, displays a post carousel, and runs a featured slider is loading more dynamic content than a typical Divi business homepage. This is not a flaw in the theme, it is the expected behavior of a publication-focused layout. Optimizing Extra sites for performance follows the same principles as any content-heavy WordPress site: image optimization, caching, and a fast hosting environment.
For standard pages and posts built with the Divi Builder, performance between the two themes is equivalent. The differences appear specifically in the Category Builder-driven layouts that are unique to Extra.
Do You Have to Choose Between Them?
No. Every Elegant Themes membership includes both Divi and Extra at no additional cost. The license covers unlimited website installations of either theme, meaning you can use Divi on some projects and Extra on others without any pricing impact.
A common approach for freelancers and agencies is to use Divi as the default theme for business and general-purpose sites, and switch to Extra specifically when a client project involves a blog, magazine, or news publication. Having both available means you always start with the theme that fits the project rather than adapting the wrong one to work around its limitations.
The Divi Builder layouts you create in one theme are also largely compatible with the other. Standard page layouts built in Divi work in Extra, and vice versa. The Builder itself is the same, so design assets and saved layouts in the Divi Library transfer between themes without rebuilding.
Final Verdict: Divi vs Extra
Divi and Extra are not competing products. They are complementary tools from the same company built for different project types. Choosing between them is not about which is better in an absolute sense, it is about which is better for what you are building right now.
Extra wins clearly for any project where content curation, publication structure, and reader engagement features matter. Its Category Builder alone justifies choosing it over Divi for magazine and news sites because it provides native homepage and archive layout control that Divi simply does not offer. Add the review system, post formats, author tools, and post-based mega menus, and Extra becomes the obvious starting point for content-focused publications.
Divi wins for everything else. Business sites, portfolios, landing pages, agencies, and WooCommerce stores all benefit from Divi’s broader design flexibility, blank template, multilingual support, and the enormous third-party ecosystem of child themes and plugins built specifically around it. For general-purpose web design work, Divi is the more versatile tool.
Since both themes are included in your Elegant Themes membership, the practical advice is simple: evaluate your project type before installing anything. If the site’s primary purpose is publishing and organizing content for readers, install Extra. If it is anything else, install Divi. The builder experience will be identical either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch from Extra to Divi later without losing my content?
Pages and posts built with the Divi Builder transfer between themes because the builder stores content in its own format. Your standard page layouts, hero sections, and post content will continue to work after switching themes. What you lose by switching away from Extra are the Extra-specific features: Category Builder layouts, post format styling, the review system, and the post-based mega menus. These are tied to Extra’s theme layer and do not transfer to Divi.
Does Extra include all the same Divi modules?
Yes. Extra includes all the standard Divi modules available in the Divi Theme. It also adds additional post-based modules exclusive to the Category Builder, such as the posts grid, featured posts slider, posts carousel, and tabbed posts. These extra modules are only available within Extra’s Category Builder context and do not appear in standard Divi Builder page editing.
Can I use Divi child themes with Extra?
Child themes built specifically for the Divi Theme are not directly compatible with Extra because the two themes have different base structures. However, Divi Builder layouts that only use the standard builder modules work in Extra because the builder layer is shared. For child theme purposes, Extra has its own set of compatible child themes from third-party developers.
Is Extra better for SEO than Divi?
Neither theme has an inherent SEO advantage over the other. Both produce clean, structured HTML and integrate with standard WordPress SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast. Extra’s post-based features such as author boxes and related posts can contribute to reader engagement metrics that indirectly influence SEO, but the themes themselves are equivalent in terms of their base SEO output.
Can Extra handle a WooCommerce store?
Yes. Extra is fully compatible with WooCommerce and includes the same WooCommerce module support as Divi. The practical difference is that Extra’s design philosophy is oriented toward content publication rather than ecommerce, so building a store-first site in Extra requires more deliberate customization to deprioritize the magazine-style elements. For a site that combines a blog or magazine with a small shop, Extra handles both reasonably well. For a site where ecommerce is the primary function, Divi provides a more natural starting point.
Get the Best Divi Deal Available
Divi 5 is already released and included in every plan at no additional cost. Both Annual and Lifetime plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
