Breakdance vs Beaver Builder Review: Which in 2023?

WordPress continues to dominate the market being a 600 billion dollar industry across the world, so it's no surprise that page builders continuously compete to get on top.

Some builders have been around for almost a decade, while the newer ones have huge potential to be on top. Some of the most popular page builders today are Breakdance and Beaver.

Breakdance and Beaver are interesting choices because they represent opposite ends of the age spectrum. But when it comes to page builders, age isn't the most important factor. What truly matters is functionality, user experience, and speed.

Also, since website building often involves some form of coding, it's crucial to choose a page builder that aligns with your coding skills. Let's talk about the differences between Breakdance and Beaver Builder:

Why Compare Breakdance and Beaver Builder?

Both page builders are robust page builders with impressive features and dedicated followings, but they have some key differentiators if you're trying to use them in 2023. I personally like the UI of Beaver Builder more but believe Breakdance has the better features. And honestly for the features alone I'll always pick Breakdance, but they're both feasable.

Breakdance Builder is the second page builder developed by Soflyy, the same company behind Oxygen. It was launched in September 2022, initially causing speculation that it would replace Oxygen Builder. With the CEO saying both builders are meant for different audiences, it's now clear after a year that they have very different targets.

On the other hand, Beaver Builder made its debut in early 2014. Founded by Justin Busa, Robby McCullough, and Billy Young, Beaver currently powers over 1 million WordPress websites worldwide. Being eight years older than Breakdance, Beaver has had numerous upgrades over the years, but does its age make it superior to Breakdance?

Breakdance vs Beaver Builder: Detailed Comparison

Breakdance is newer, only has a single pricing plan, and lacks a bunch of pre-built themes. Beaver has a seamless interface, a larger template library, but its a lot more expensive in the long-term than Breakdance.

Comparing Key Features

* You need to purchase the Beaver Themer add-on.

Regarding their main features, Breakdance and Beaver share many similarities. Both offer a user-friendly interface (I just hate that Breakdance has a bunch of windows that open inside eachother). They both have a drag-and-drop editor and come equipped with a form builder, tons of premium elements, and ready-made templates to build your site.

Both Breakdance and Beaver support inline editing and offer responsive design options. They also seamlessly integrate with WooCommerce, making it convenient for users who want to create an online store. Out of the box, Breakdance 100% beats Beaver when it comes to WooCommerce. You can setup and start a site within minutes, with Beaver you need the themer.

Breakdance includes a full-theme builder out of the box, while with Beaver, you need to purchase the Beaver Themer plugin separately, which costs $147 per year. Breakdance has a built-in popup builder, and Beaver does not. Breakdance also boasts 130+ elements, while Beaver has 55+. Besides the normal elements that should be included in a page builder, Breakdance has packaged some pre-built modules like pricing, comparison, and other quality of life elements to kickstart your site design.

Comparing Unique Features

Breakdance Builder offers a unique approach to website building. It recommends disabling your current theme, making you design your site from scratch. This means you have complete control over creating custom headers, footers, and even custom post types. Not to mention your site is disgustingly fast right out of the box.

While Breakdance works well with any theme, this "themeless" option provides optimal performance and maximum design flexibility. It's a great choice for those who want to unleash their creativity and build a truly unique website.

Beaver doesn't make you disable your theme, but offers white labeling, which Breakdance lacks. You can replace the words "Beaver Builder" and its logo with your own custom labels and your business or company logo. This can be particularly useful for branding purposes, but this review is mainly talking about comparing the builders for your own use.

Complexity

Breakdance and Beaver cater to both beginners and developers, but there are some differences in terms of complexity. When you start exploring both builders, you'll find that Beaver has a steeper learning curve compared to Breakdance. While both platforms enable you to create complex websites with custom functionality, they have different approaches. Breakdance provides more of a straightforward solution for adding code by utilizing Code Block elements.

Beaver supports the addition of CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code, but the process can be quite intricate. For example, you can't directly insert PHP code into your post or page layouts. Instead, you have to create a shortcode using the WordPress Shortcode API or a plugin and then add it to an HTML module. While the average user might never touch PHP, I find the lack of integrated support to be somewhat of an annoyance.

User Interface and Editing Options

Both of these builders offer intuitive interfaces and drag-and-drop editors. They're responsive and easily customizable by default to fit all screen sizes.

Breakdance provides a straightforward method for resizing elements and designing them with proper sizing (rem, vh, vw, etc), and Beaver does the same.

Both page builders support inline editing, allowing you to directly edit text on the page. You can also move elements directly within the visual editor, but that's not really recommended as sites get bigger (more messy). Beaver doesn't support the right click option when editing, while Breakdance does.

Beaver allows you to adjust zoom levels (50%, 75%, 100%, fit) when designing. Furthermore, you have more options for defining breakpoints, giving you greater control over the responsiveness of your design across multiple devices. You can also choose breakpoints with Breakdance, so there's no real winner here.

Themes and Templates

Breakdance highly suggests you to build your website from scratch, disabling the WordPress theme system. However, if you prefer to use your current theme, you can most likely keep it.

There are some discrepancies between using BD with a theme but it really just depends on what you're trying to do & how old the theme is.

Keep in mind that using your own theme might have an impact on the design of Breakdance elements. If you want to keep your theme, Breakdance recommends using its Zero (boilerplate) theme alongside your chosen theme.

On the contrary, Beaver Builder provides a wide range of themes to choose from. This gives you the flexibility to select a theme that aligns with your desired design/style and then start customizing.

If you want to expand the functionality of your page builder, you have the option to purchase the Beaver Themer. It's also worth noting that Beaver Themer is priced at $147 per year, which is not included in the default basic licenses of Beaver.

Breakdance currently only has around 15 pre-built template themes while Beaver offers dozens. In addition to defaults, you can browse Themeforest for a few minutes and find a bunch of 3rd party themes.

Breakdance vs Beaver Builder Pricing

Breakdance Builder currently provides a single premium plan called Breakdance Pro, priced at $149 per year, with claims of rising to $349 sometime soon. While there is a limited free version of Breakdance is available, if you want true customization you'll eventually have to upgrade. Both the free and paid versions allow use on unlimited websites.

Beaver Builder offers four premium plans to choose from. The Standard plan is priced at $99 per year, the Pro plan at $199 per year, the Agency plan at $399 per year, and the Ultimate plan at $546 per year.

Like Breakdance, all of these plans provide unlimited usage across multiple websites and don’t offer a lifetime license option.

Breakdance offers a 60-day money-back guarantee, while Beaver only offers 30 days. Beaver does offer a free version called Beaver Builder Lite, allowing users to get a taste of its features and capabilities, and in addition to the free version of Breakdance, you can demo the full version of BD in a sandbox.

Support and Community

Neither Breakdance nor Beaver offer a 24/7 live chat assistance, but you can submit support tickets/send emails. Both of them also provide multiple channels and have communities where you can get help and support.

Breakdance offers an official Facebook Group boasting vibrant community of over 7.3K members. Many of the group members, including their CEO, are actively engaged. Breakdance Pro users also benefit from Premium Support, providing faster response & support times.

Beaver also has an active and helpful community allowing you to participate in discussions on their Slack group or on Facebook, which has over 16K members. If you're a Beaver user looking to buy or sell page builder templates, you can also explore the some other theme communities.

Which Should You Use?

If you're a beginner seeking simplicity and enjoy the fast speed, I personally think Breakdance is the better option. If you desire extensive customization capabilities and like all of the theme options on the market, Beaver is also worth considering. It's also important to note that Beaver's performance may be impacted by the additional add-ons and code ran on page load, potentially causing slower loading times.

I lean towards Breakdance rather than Beaver since it's newer, has a fresh community, and really combines everything you'd want in a page builder in 2023.

Don't get me wrong though – Breakdance being a really new page builder has ample room for improvement. I just think in the long run it's a way better choice.

Ultimately, the choice between Breakdance and Beaver is going to depend on your specific needs, time frame, and website experience. Neither are bad choices, and I'm sure you'll be creating some awesome websites regardless of which one you choose!