There has bee a lot of discussion around the web regarding the relative speed of Elementor and Beaver Builder, so I decided to run some quick tests. The Astra WordPress theme has a number of website demos that come in both Elementor and Beaver Builder versions. We're going to run ten of those demos through Google's PageSpeed Insights tool to see how they stack up.
Methodology
We ran each demo site through the PageSpeed Insights tool three times and averaged the results. This was to limit the effects of any network or server anomalies.
Table of Contents
These are the demo sites we tested. Jump straight to any comparison using the table of contents.
Outdoor Adventure
Learndash Academy
Pet Care
Simply Natural
Online Health Coach
Organic Store
Deeplight Restaurant
Online Courses
Online Programming Course
Courier & Delivery Service
Outdoor Adventure
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
54 | 67 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Speed Index | 3.1 | 3.0 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 6.2 | 5.0 |
| Time to Interactive | 6.3 | 6.1 |
| Total Blocking Time | 523 | 413 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.286 | 0.002 |
| Desktop |
96 | 96 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Speed Index | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.0 | 0.7 |
| Total Blocking Time | 23 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.003 | 0.003 |
Learndash Academy
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
49 | 65 |
| First Contentful Paint | 4.9 | 3.2 |
| Speed Index | 4.9 | 4.5 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 6.0 | 4.7 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.7 | 7.2 |
| Total Blocking Time | 413 | 267 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Desktop |
94 | 92 |
| First Contentful Paint | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| Speed Index | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.2 | 1.3 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Total Blocking Time | 7 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.002 |
Pet Care
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
48 | 72 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.5 | 2.5 |
| Speed Index | 3.5 | 2.5 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 5.3 | 4.1 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.0 | 6.4 |
| Total Blocking Time | 877 | 393 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Desktop |
95 | 98 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Speed Index | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Total Blocking Time | 23 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Simply Natural
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
52 | 69 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.5 | 3.3 |
| Speed Index | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 5.2 | 4.8 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.3 | 6.6 |
| Total Blocking Time | 720 | 283 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.014 | 0.008 |
| Desktop |
95 | 96 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.3 | 1.2 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Total Blocking Time | 30 | 10 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.004 | 0.002 |
Online Health Coach
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
51 | 58 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| Speed Index | 3.8 | 3.3 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 7.9 | 6.8 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.8 | 7.0 |
| Total Blocking Time | 367 | 213 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.689 | 0.857 |
| Desktop |
93 | 94 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.6 | 1.5 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.4 | 0.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 3 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.009 | 0.119 |
Organic Store
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
46 | 67 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.9 | 2.8 |
| Speed Index | 3.9 | 3.1 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 9.0 | 7.3 |
| Time to Interactive | 8.3 | 6.1 |
| Total Blocking Time | 403 | 127 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.562 | 0.014 |
| Desktop |
88 | 91 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 2.0 | 1.8 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.7 | 0.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 17 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Deeplight Restaurant
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
63 | 76 |
| First Contentful Paint | 2.8 | 2.6 |
| Speed Index | 2.8 | 3.3 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 5.4 | 4.6 |
| Time to Interactive | 6.2 | 5.6 |
| Total Blocking Time | 377 | 183 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.233 | 0.031 |
| Desktop |
96 | 96 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.2 | 0.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 33 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.009 | 0.066 |
Online Courses
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
46 | 62 |
| First Contentful Paint | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| Speed Index | 3.6 | 4.2 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.1 | 6.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 870 | 247 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.125 | 0.003 |
| Desktop |
96 | 62 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Speed Index | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Total Blocking Time | 17 | 3 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Online Programming Course
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
48 | 79 |
| First Contentful Paint | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed Index | 4.0 | 3.7 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 4.7 | 3.3 |
| Time to Interactive | 7.6 | 6.3 |
| Total Blocking Time | 820 | 207 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Desktop |
97 | 98 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 10 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.003 | 0.004 |
Courier & Delivery Service
| Elementor | Beaver Builder | |
| Mobile |
70 | 75 |
| First Contentful Paint | 2.8 | 2.6 |
| Speed Index | 3.0 | 3.9 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 4.1 | 3.4 |
| Time to Interactive | 6.8 | 6.2 |
| Total Blocking Time | 407 | 353 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.018 | 0.022 |
| Desktop |
96 | 97 |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Speed Index | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Time to Interactive | 1.5 | 0.8 |
| Total Blocking Time | 23 | 0 |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.027 | 0.023 |