Your Divi dashboard has been showing an “Enable Divi 5 Updates” button for months. Everyone says Divi 5 is faster and better. But your site works fine today, you have paying customers, and you’ve heard stories about layouts breaking after the upgrade.

So should you click it?

Quick answer: Divi 5 has been the stable version since February 26, 2026, it’s a free update for anyone with an active Elegant Themes membership, and for most sites it’s worth upgrading now, on a staging copy first. Wait if your site depends on third-party Divi modules that aren’t Divi 5-ready yet. Divi 4 still gets security fixes, but Elegant Themes only promises that for at least 12 months after Divi 5’s release, so “never” isn’t an option.

I’m a WordPress and Divi developer and build and fix Divi sites for clients. This post is based on Elegant Themes’ own documentation (checked November 2026) and my own experience. There’s an offer at the end if you’d rather have someone do the upgrade for you.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them you pay nothing extra, but I may earn a small commission.

Divi 5 vs Divi 4 at a glance

	Divi 4	Divi 5
Status (Nov 2026)	Security and critical fixes only. No new features	Stable since 26 Feb 2026. New features added regularly
How layouts are saved	Shortcodes inside the post content	A new storage format (no Divi shortcodes)
Layout tools	Rows and columns	Flexbox, CSS Grid and nested modules
Reusing styles	Global presets, Extend Styles	Design variables, option group presets, stacked presets
Responsive design	3 fixed views (desktop, tablet, phone)	Customizable breakpoints
Dynamic content	Dynamic content, but no loop builder (needs a plugin)	Built-in Loop Builder
Third-party modules	Everything works	Updated modules work. Old ones run in “backward compatibility mode”
Price	Included in membership	Free update with an active membership

What actually changed in Divi 5 (in plain English)

Divi 5 isn’t a redesign of the builder you already know. It’s a rebuild of the engine underneath it. Here’s what that means for you as a site owner.

1. No more Divi shortcodes

Divi 4 saved every layout as a long string of [et_pb_section] shortcodes inside your post content. That’s why switching away from Divi 4 left a mess of brackets on every page. Divi 5 stores layouts in a new format instead. Shortcodes from other plugins (contact forms, galleries and so on) still work as before.

2. Modern layout tools

Divi 5 adds Flexbox and CSS Grid layouts and lets you nest modules inside each other. In Divi 4, a lot of layouts needed custom CSS or an extra plugin. In Divi 5 you can build them in the builder.

3. Design variables and better presets

You can save your brand colors, fonts and sizes as design variables and use them everywhere. Change the variable once and the whole site updates. Presets now work per option group (for example, just the button styles) and can be stacked. “Extend Styles” and “Quick Actions” from Divi 4 are gone.

4. Custom responsive breakpoints

Divi 4 gave you desktop, tablet and phone, and that was it. Divi 5 lets you set your own breakpoints, which helps on large screens and small laptops where Divi 4 layouts often looked slightly off.

5. Loop Builder

You can now build custom lists of posts, products or custom post types right in the builder. In Divi 4, this usually meant buying a third-party plugin.

Is Divi 5 faster?

Elegant Themes says Divi 5 is “faster, more stable, and more reliable than Divi 4”. The builder itself feels noticeably quicker to edit in. But I couldn’t find any official before-and-after speed numbers for live pages, so treat big percentage claims you see elsewhere with care.

There’s one important catch: if a page has even one old Divi 4 module that hasn’t been updated, Divi 5 loads the whole Divi 4 framework on that page. Elegant Themes says to expect “a small performance cost” on those pages. So your speed gain depends on how many of your third-party modules have been updated.

Speed also depends a lot on hosting and caching. If your Divi site is slow today, fixing those will often make a bigger difference than the upgrade. See my Hostinger Cloud Hosting review for what I recommend for Divi sites.

What breaks when you upgrade to Divi 5

Core Divi modules convert cleanly in most cases. The problems almost always come from things added on top of Divi.

When you open the site after upgrading, you may see a “Backward Compatibility Mode Enabled” notice or orange warning icons. That isn’t an error. It’s Divi telling you which pages still use old modules.

How long will Divi 4 be supported?

This is the question most people actually want answered. In its migration guide (September 2026), Elegant Themes says Divi 4:

• still gets security patches and critical bug fixes, but no new features;
• will be fully supported for at least 12 months after Divi 5’s release on February 26, 2026, so until at least late February 2027;
• “will eventually reach end-of-life”, with the date tied to Divi 5 becoming fully stable.

An earlier announcement (January 2026) said “at least six months”, so the window has already been extended once. Either way, staying on Divi 4 is fine for now, but it’s a short-term choice. Plan your upgrade in the next few months rather than waiting for the end-of-life email.

Should you upgrade? My recommendation

If you run an online store, don’t upgrade in late November or December. Do it in a quiet week, after Black Friday.

How to upgrade from Divi 4 to Divi 5 safely (checklist)

This follows Elegant Themes’ official process, plus a few steps I add on client sites.

1. Make a full backup: database, uploads, themes and plugins. Your host’s backup tool or a plugin like UpdraftPlus is fine. Download a copy off the server.
2. Create a staging site. Most hosts (including Hostinger) can make one in a few clicks. Do every step below on staging first.
3. Update everything. WordPress, all plugins, and Divi itself. You need Divi 4.27.6 or later to see the Divi 5 update.
4. Check your Divi plugins. Look for “Compatibility with Divi 5” on each Marketplace product page, or ask the developer. Write down any that aren’t ready.
5. Don’t open any pages in the builder yet. Opening a page in Divi 5 before migrating converts it with no rollback.
6. Enable Divi 5: Divi → Dashboard → Enable Divi 5 Updates, then update the theme.
7. Run the Divi 5 Migrator (Divi → Divi 5 Migrator). It scans your pages, posts, Theme Builder templates, products, library items and presets, and flags anything that will use backward compatibility mode. Then click Migrate This Site to Divi 5. It usually takes seconds to a couple of minutes.
8. Test properly. Click through every template type on desktop and phone: home, a page, a blog post, the blog archive, forms, menus, the footer. For stores: add to cart, checkout and a test payment.
9. Compare speed before and after in PageSpeed Insights, so you know what you gained.
10. Repeat on the live site once staging looks right, at a quiet time of day, with a fresh backup.

Can you roll back to Divi 4?

Yes, with limits. The migrator saves a copy of your Divi 4 content before converting anything, and you can click Restore Divi 4 Content in the migrator and then reinstall Divi 4.

But Elegant Themes calls it “a one-way update”. Rolling back is easiest right after migrating. The more you edit in Divi 5, the harder a clean rollback gets, and anything you edit in Divi 5 after migrating won’t come back with you. That’s why the full backup in step 1 matters more than the built-in restore.

Frequently asked questions

Is Divi 5 free?

Yes. Divi 5 is a free update for anyone with an active Elegant Themes membership.

Is Divi 5 stable enough for a live site?

Yes. Divi 5 has been the official stable version since February 26, 2026. Elegant Themes still recommends testing the upgrade on a staging site first, and so do I.

How long will Divi 4 be supported?

Elegant Themes says Divi 4 will be fully supported for at least 12 months after Divi 5’s release on February 26, 2026. It gets security and critical fixes only, with no new features.

Will my third-party Divi modules still work in Divi 5?

Usually, yes. Modules that haven’t been updated run in backward compatibility mode. They keep working, but pages that use them load the old Divi 4 framework and are a little slower.

Will my child theme work with Divi 5?

In most cases, yes. Custom CSS, child themes and custom code should keep working, but code that depends on Divi 4 internals may need adjusting.

Can I go back to Divi 4 after upgrading?

Yes. The Divi 5 Migrator saves your Divi 4 content and has a Restore Divi 4 Content option. Rolling back gets harder the more you edit in Divi 5, so keep a full backup too.

Final verdict

Divi 5 is the future of Divi, and Divi 4 is now on a countdown. For most sites, the right move is to upgrade in the next few months, on staging first, after checking your third-party Divi plugins. If a key plugin isn’t ready, or it’s your busiest season, wait a few weeks, but don’t wait for the end-of-life notice.

Don’t have Divi yet? New sites start on Divi 5 straight away, so there’s nothing to migrate.

Get Divi from Elegant Themes →

Have a question about your own site? Ask in the comments and I’ll reply.