Bricks Builder has been quietly winning over performance-focused agencies since 2022. We tested both builders on 8 client builds in 2025 to settle our internal debate. The honest verdict: Bricks ships cleaner, faster code; Elementor ships faster builds. Which matters more depends on you. Here's the full comparison.
1. TL;DR — when to pick which
2. Performance: real Lighthouse data
We rebuilt the same homepage in Elementor and in Bricks on identical hosting (Hostinger Business plan), same theme baseline, same images, same caching (WP Rocket). Tested with mobile Lighthouse:
| Metric | Elementor build | Bricks build |
|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse Performance | 87 | 96 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 2.4s | 1.6s |
| Total Blocking Time | 180ms | 40ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| DOM nodes | 1,840 | 980 |
| CSS payload | 312 KB | 87 KB |
| JS payload | 520 KB | 110 KB |
Bricks ships 40% less DOM, 70% less CSS, 80% less JavaScript — for the same visual output. The difference is structural: Bricks generates clean, minimal markup; Elementor wraps everything in nested divs with inline styles.
For a brochure site that loads once a week, an 87 vs 96 Lighthouse score is a marginal improvement. For an ecommerce site, a high-traffic blog, or a local SEO site competing on Core Web Vitals, the gap matters significantly. Lighthouse is also a Google ranking factor for mobile — Bricks gives you a structural advantage on contested local terms.
3. Designer experience
Both builders offer drag-and-drop visual editing. The differences are stylistic:
- Elementor is more visual / less code-aware. You drag a widget, configure it via panels, and it works. Less powerful but easier for non-developers.
- Bricks exposes class-based styling more directly (closer to working in actual CSS). Steeper learning curve. More control once you're past it.
For non-technical users, Elementor wins on time-to-first-page. For developers comfortable with structured CSS thinking, Bricks rewards the investment with cleaner workflows.
4. Code quality and bloat
This is where Bricks' philosophy diverges most. Compare the typical output:
Elementor: a single button widget produces
- Nested div wrapper
- Inline-styled span
- Inline-styled icon
- ~6-8 classes, mostly auto-generated and non-semantic
Bricks: the same button
- Single <a> tag with semantic class
- Optional icon as nested span
- 2-3 classes, mostly user-defined and semantic
The compounding effect across hundreds of elements per page is the performance difference shown above. Gutenberg sits in between Elementor and Bricks for code quality.
5. Feature parity (and where they differ)
| Feature | Elementor Pro | Bricks |
|---|---|---|
| Theme builder (header, footer, archive, single) | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic data (custom fields) | Yes | Yes |
| WooCommerce builder | Yes | Yes |
| Popups | Yes | Yes |
| Forms | Yes | Yes |
| Custom CSS support | Limited | Excellent |
| Reusable global classes | Limited (kits) | Native, powerful |
| Third-party widget ecosystem | Massive (1000s) | Growing (~50) |
| Hosting tier required | Mid-tier | Even cheap hosts work fine |
| Loading state during edit | Slow on complex pages | Fast |
6. Template ecosystem
Elementor has a 5-year head start. The Elementor template marketplace, third-party widget libraries (Crocoblock, Stax, Element Pack), and tutorial ecosystem are vast. Bricks has fewer templates but the available ones tend to be higher quality and more developer-oriented.
If you depend heavily on pre-built templates to speed up delivery, Elementor's ecosystem is hard to match. If you build mostly custom designs, Bricks' starter templates are sufficient.
7. Pricing in 2026
| Tier | Elementor Pro | Bricks |
|---|---|---|
| Free version available | Yes (limited) | No (paid only) |
| Single site | $59/yr | $79/yr |
| 5 sites | $99/yr | $159/yr |
| Unlimited sites | $399/yr | $249/yr |
| Lifetime license | No | $249-$499 one-time |
Bricks costs more for low site counts but its lifetime license at the unlimited tier is a one-time cost vs. Elementor's annual subscription. For agencies running 20+ client sites, Bricks lifetime pays back within a year.
8. Client handoff considerations
Most clients we've worked with have heard of Elementor and not Bricks. This matters less than you'd think — they care about the result, not the builder name. But if a client plans to edit content themselves after handoff, Elementor's interface is easier for non-developers. Bricks rewards a build-and-train workflow more than a hand-off-to-marketing-team workflow.
Sites where the client will heavily edit content → Elementor. Sites where we maintain or where performance is critical (ecommerce, local SEO, news) → Bricks. About 60% of our 2026 builds are still Elementor for client-handoff reasons. The 40% Bricks builds outperform their Elementor counterparts on Core Web Vitals consistently.
9. Should you switch?
- Existing Elementor sites: Don't migrate without reason. The cost is high — Bricks doesn't import Elementor designs. You'd rebuild from scratch. Justifiable only if performance is hurting business outcomes.
- New builds: Try Bricks for one project before committing. The learning curve is real but reasonable for any developer who understands CSS. Most teams that try it stay on it for performance-sensitive work.
- Mixed workflow: Many agencies (including us) run both. Use Bricks for builds where it adds value, Elementor where the client or template ecosystem makes it the right pick.