u/Competitive_Claim424

I’ve audited probably 150+ WordPress sites in the last few years, and the pattern is almost always the same: bloated page builder, 40+ CSS files, render-blocking scripts, and a homepage that takes 6-8 seconds to load on mobile. Elementor isn’t evil, but the way most people use it (stacking add-ons, unused widgets, no cleanup) turns a simple 5-page site into a 3MB monster. I’m not saying “switch to hand-coded HTML,” I’m saying: if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, the builder isn’t your problem — how you’re using it is. Curious what others think. Anyone actually measured the speed difference between builders vs. custom themes on similar sites