Divi 5 Public Alpha: First Impressions and What It Means for Our Users

The Good: Improved Speed and Interface

Early tests of the Divi 5 alpha show promising improvements in speed and user interface:

• The new builder loads significantly faster than Divi 4
• The interface is cleaner and more intuitive
• Editing feels snappier and more responsive

These enhancements suggest that Divi 5 will offer a much-improved user experience once it’s fully released.

The Not-So-Good: It’s Still an Alpha

As with any alpha release, there are some issues to be aware of:

• Some features, like the Theme Builder, may not be fully functional
• Users may encounter bugs, especially when working with more complex layouts
• The migration process from Divi 4 to Divi 5 isn’t perfect and may cause issues with existing content

Why Divi Engine is Not Participating in the Public Alpha

You may notice that Divi Engine plugins are not compatible with the Divi 5 alpha. Here’s why:

1. Focus on Development: We’ve opted out of the public alpha to concentrate our resources on developing Divi 5-compatible versions of our plugins.
2. Avoiding Support Overload: Supporting partially-compatible plugins during this early stage would divert our attention from creating fully-optimized versions for the final Divi 5 release.
3. Ensuring Quality: We want to ensure that when we do release Divi 5-compatible versions of our plugins, they meet the high standards our users expect.

What to Expect When Using Divi Engine Plugins with Divi 5 Alpha

If you attempt to activate a Divi Engine plugin on a site running the Divi 5 alpha, you’ll see a message stating that the plugin cannot be activated. This is intentional and helps prevent potential conflicts or issues that could arise from using our current plugins with the new Divi 5 architecture.

Our Commitment to Divi 5

While we’re not participating in the public alpha, we’re actively working behind the scenes:

• Our team is hard at work creating new versions of our plugins optimized for Divi 5
• We’re exploring new possibilities that Divi 5’s architecture offers to enhance our plugins
• We’ll continue to release development updates through our “Dev Letters” to keep you informed of our progress

Should You Try the Divi 5 Alpha?

If you’re curious about the future of Divi, by all means, give the alpha a try! However, we strongly recommend:

• Only testing on development or staging sites, never on live production sites
• Being prepared for bugs and missing features
• Not relying on third-party Divi add-ons, including Divi Engine plugins, during testing

Looking Ahead

We’re excited about the potential of Divi 5 and what it means for the future of WordPress website building. While there’s still work to be done, the improvements in speed and user experience are promising.

Rest assured, Divi Engine is committed to supporting Divi 5 upon or some time close to its official release. We’re working diligently to ensure our plugins will not only be compatible but will leverage the new features and improvements Divi 5 brings to the table.

Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your patience and continued support as we work towards an even better Divi experience!