Canvas vs Divi: a Divi alternative with no builder
Divi licenses unlimited websites on one subscription and builds them in the Divi Builder. Canvas licenses 3, 10 or 100 websites and builds in the editor WordPress ships. Every Divi figure below was read from Elegant Themes' own pages on 4 September 2026.
Is Canvas a Divi alternative? Who each one is for
Divi sells one licence for every website you will ever build. Canvas sells a seat count and a page that survives without the builder. Decide which of those two you need more.
Choose Canvas if the page should outlive the builder
Canvas pages are ordinary block markup in the editor WordPress ships, so nothing has to be translated when you change theme, hand a site over or read it in five years. You also get 80 complete demo websites, AI credits in every plan and one price ladder with no bundle to decode.
Choose Divi if unlimited websites decide it
One $89 subscription covers every website you and your clients own, with a 30-day no-questions refund and thousands of independent reviews behind it. If you run dozens of sites and never want to count seats again, no seat-based licence beats that, and ours does not pretend to.
Canvas and Divi, point by point
Where Divi's own pages disagree with each other, both figures are shown. Prices are the annual figures published on the pricing page.
| Comparison | Canvas | Divi |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | 258 blocks in 10 families, 179 of them free tier and 202 in the inserter, plus 183 patterns. | 200+ elements in the site navigation and hundreds of modules on the product page. Divi 5, a rebuild of the builder, shipped in February 2026. |
| Demo and starter websites | 80 complete websites in 16 categories, each with a published page count, real menus and 42 demo content types across the set. | 2,000+ layouts in the navigation, 2,600+ on the product page, and 18 layout packs holding 139 layouts in the gallery. Quick Sites generates a site instead. |
| Builder approach | The block editor and Site Editor that come with WordPress. Your content saves as standard block markup, not as a builder format. | The Divi Builder, an editor of its own, rebuilt from the ground up as Divi 5. |
| Header and footer builder | Headers, footers, top bars, mega menus, side panels and page titles are records built from 14 header blocks in the block editor, with 92 header options behind them. | The Theme Builder, for headers, footers and templates, inside Divi. |
| WooCommerce | 22 store blocks, 18 store templates, attribute swatches and an AJAX cart, used by 19 of the demo websites. | Divi with its WooCommerce modules. Quick Sites installs WooCommerce and configures the cart and checkout pages. |
| AI | Included in every plan, in two monthly pools: 200 text and 30 image generations on Starter, up to 2,500 and 500 on Agency. | Divi AI comes with the Divi Pro bundle at $277 a year, or $115 a year on its own. The AI Agent is metered, with $60 of complimentary spend a year. |
| Price and websites covered | $39 a year for 3 websites, $89 for 10, $199 for 100 plus a whole multisite network. Renewal at the price you first paid. | $89 a year for unlimited websites, $277 for Divi Pro, $249 once for lifetime, or $297 for lifetime plus services renewing at $212 a year. |
| Refund window | 7 days on a first purchase, with no support ticket to open first. Renewals and upgrades are excluded. | 30 days, no questions asked. Money spent from the AI wallet is not refunded. |
| Updates and support | One year of updates and support from SemiColonWeb, with a 14-day offline grace period on licence checks. | Support 24/7 while the membership runs. Cancel and you keep the themes you downloaded but lose the members area, updates and support. |
| Editor lock-in | At expiry the site keeps rendering every premium block. Updates, demo imports and AI pause, and so does premium editing. Your text and images stay in the post as block markup. | Pages are built in the Divi Builder, so the layout goes when the builder goes. |
Canvas figures are counted from the shipped theme and plugin. See the block library and the pricing page for the detail behind them.
Where Canvas is stronger
Four differences, all of them downstream of one choice about where a page gets built.
Blocks, not modules
258 Canvas blocks save as standard block markup that WordPress itself understands. Divi modules render through the Divi Builder, which is why Divi 5 needed a rewrite to change how they are stored. Your content should not depend on a vendor's storage format.
AI credits arrive with the plan
Text and image credits come with every Canvas plan, from $39 a year, in two pools that reset monthly. Divi AI comes with the Divi Pro bundle at $277 a year or costs $115 a year on its own, and the AI Agent adds metered spend on top of that.
Complete websites, not layout packs
Each of the 80 Canvas demos is a whole website: inner pages, menus, forms, real content types and a page count printed on the card. Divi shows 18 layout packs and 139 layouts in its gallery while the navigation says 2,000+ and the product page says 2,600+.
Header and footer are template parts
Canvas headers, footers, top bars and mega menus are records built from 14 header blocks and rendered as real template parts, so the Site Editor can see them. Divi's Theme Builder does the same job well, inside Divi.
Where Divi is stronger
Four places where Divi beats us today, said plainly.
Unlimited websites on one licence
$89 a year covers every site you build, for you or for clients, with no seat maths and no deactivation dance. Canvas covers 3, 10 or 100 websites. For a busy agency that difference is the whole decision.
A 30-day refund against our 7 days
Divi publishes no-questions-asked refunds within 30 days on the pricing page, the FAQ and under CTAs across the site. Canvas gives 7 days on a first purchase. Ours is honoured without a support ticket, but theirs is four times longer and we would rather say so.
Independent review proof
Divi publishes badges from Trustpilot with more than 24,000 reviews, Capterra with 1,100+, G2 with 200+, and aggregates over 15,000 on one page. Canvas is new as a WordPress theme, so we ask you to judge it on inventory you can count. Reviews are something we have not earned yet.
A lifetime option and a public rollout
Divi sells a $249 lifetime licence and publishes a changelog file, per-release notes, a five-phase rollout plan, a public beta repository and a status page. Canvas offers no lifetime plan and its changelog starts at version 1.0.0.
Moving a website from Divi to Canvas
Everything WordPress stores as content moves with you. Everything the Divi Builder drew has to be rebuilt, so start with the templates that repeat across the site.
What carries over
- Posts, pages, media, categories, tags, users and menus, exactly as WordPress stores them.
- Your WooCommerce store: products, variations, orders, customers and their history.
- Plugins you installed yourself, with their settings and their data.
- Blog posts written in the default editor, not in the builder.
- Your domain, your host and your URLs, so nothing needs redirecting.
What you rebuild
- Every page built with the Divi Builder. Rebuild with Canvas blocks or one of the 183 patterns.
- Theme Builder templates for headers, footers, archives and single posts, which become Canvas records and block templates.
- Global modules, design presets and anything stored in Divi Cloud.
- Divi forms and Bloom opt-ins, which become Canvas form blocks with their own submissions table.
- Divi theme options and any custom CSS attached to modules.
A faster route on a small site: import the closest of the 80 demo websites, then move your text and images into it.
Canvas and Divi, asked plainly
Five questions that come up before a switch. Everything else is in the full FAQ.
Does Canvas license unlimited websites the way Divi does?
No, Canvas licenses a set number of websites, and that is a real difference. Divi covers unlimited websites on one subscription. Canvas covers 3, 10 or 100 websites, and Agency additionally activates a whole multisite network. Staging and development copies of a licensed site are free, and a seat returns to your pool the moment you deactivate it. If unlimited sites is the deciding factor, Divi wins it.
What happens to each one if I stop paying?
Canvas renders but freezes: every premium block keeps rendering for visitors, and updates, demo imports, AI and premium block editing pause until you renew. Divi says you keep using the themes you downloaded and lose the members area, updates and support. Both promises are published; ours is printed on the pricing page.
Divi 5 is a rewrite. Is it not block based now?
Divi 5 dropped shortcodes and changed how layouts are stored, which is a genuine engineering improvement, but it still renders through the Divi Builder where Canvas uses the editor WordPress ships. Canvas content is core block markup, which is why an expired Canvas licence can keep rendering your pages at all.
Does Canvas have an equivalent of Divi AI?
Canvas generates and rewrites text and generates images straight into your media library, from inside the block editor. Credits come with every plan, in two monthly pools, and there is nothing extra to buy. Divi AI is part of the Divi Pro bundle at $277 a year or $115 a year on its own, and the AI Agent is metered on top. See the AI page for what it does and does not do.
Divi's own comparison table lists Avada at $199 a year. Is that right?
Not as far as we can tell: Avada's point of sale is a $69 one-time ThemeForest licence covering one live site and one staging site, which is what the Canvas vs Avada comparison uses. Check any comparison table against the vendor's own page before you trust it, including this one: every figure here is linked to its source.
Is Canvas a Divi alternative?
Yes, Canvas is a Divi alternative if a page that survives without its builder matters more to you than unlimited websites on one subscription. Divi licenses every website you will ever build for one price and builds them in the Divi Builder; Canvas licenses a seat count and saves pages as ordinary block markup, so nothing is translated when you change theme or hand a site over. If you run dozens of sites and never want to count seats, Divi still wins that round.
Where the Divi figures came from
Read on 4 September 2026. Prices are the annual figures on the pricing page; the layout counts are quoted from the three Divi pages that publish them.
- Divi plans and pricingwww.elegantthemes.com/join/
- Divi features and moduleswww.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/
- Divi layouts and layout packswww.elegantthemes.com/layouts/
- Quick Siteswww.elegantthemes.com/quick-sites/
- Divi AIwww.elegantthemes.com/ai/
- Divi 5www.elegantthemes.com/divi-5/
- Terms of service, including the refund policywww.elegantthemes.com/policy/service/
Keep comparing
Divi, Elementor and Avada are the three products that build in an editor of their own. If you are weighing them against each other, these two go next.
See the inventory before you decide
Preview every demo website live, browse the block library and read the licence terms before you spend anything.