Bricks
Lifetime-license developer builder. Cleaner markup, lighter output, growing fast among performance-conscious agencies.
- Lighthouse
- 89 / 100 Tested May 29, 2026
- Accessibility
- WCAG AA
- Last release
- May 28, 2026 v1.10.4
- Installs
- 30,000+
Bricks is a German-developed visual builder theme launched in 2021. Lifetime license model with no annual renewals (unusual for WordPress products at this tier). Cleaner generated markup than Elementor or Divi, with native support for the CSS modern stack. Strong developer community and a fast-growing share of the performance-conscious agency market.
Pros
- Cleaner output markup than Elementor or Divi
- Lifetime license, no annual renewal
- Active development cadence with weekly bug fixes and monthly features
- Developer-friendly: dynamic content, query loops, custom code blocks all first-class
Cons
- Smaller community and template ecosystem than Elementor or Divi
- Documentation is improving but still spotty in places
Pick Bricks when you want a modern visual builder with cleaner output than Elementor or Divi, and you prefer a one-time license over annual renewals. Strong choice for agencies building performance-critical client sites.
Avoid if you need the largest possible template library out of the box or if your team is already deep in Elementor or Divi workflows.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Bricks a theme or a builder?
- Both. Bricks is a single integrated product: a WordPress theme with a built-in visual builder. You install Bricks and you have the entire stack — no separate page builder plugin required.
- Why does Bricks have a lifetime license?
- The vendor chose a one-time purchase model instead of annual renewals. Pay once, get updates and new features forever. Unusual for WordPress products at this price tier; the trade-off is a higher upfront cost ($79+) versus competitors' annual fees.
- Bricks vs Elementor?
- Bricks ships cleaner output markup, has lifetime licensing, and runs better Lighthouse scores. Elementor has the larger ecosystem, more templates, and a deeper learning resource library. Performance-conscious agencies pick Bricks; teams trained on Elementor stay.
- Is Bricks performance-friendly?
- Yes, relative to other visual builders. Generated markup is cleaner than Elementor or Divi, Lighthouse scores land in the high 80s in our benchmarks (vs mid-70s for Elementor and Divi). Not as lean as native Gutenberg, but the best performance among visual builders.
Recent releases
- v1.10.4 May 28, 2026
Query loop performance optimization, accessibility fixes
- v1.10.3 May 5, 2026
Patch release
- v1.10.2 April 18, 2026
WooCommerce module bug fix
- v1.10.1 April 1, 2026
Maintenance release
- v1.10.0 March 12, 2026
New: nestable component system, accessibility audit applied
- v1.9.8 February 20, 2026
Patch release
- v1.9.7 February 4, 2026
Sticky header fix
- v1.9.6 January 15, 2026
Maintenance release
| Product | Type | Price | Lighthouse |
|---|---|---|---|
| | Builder | From $79 | 89 |
| | Builder | From $89 | 76 |
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Performance testing
Tested on Kinsta Starter (Google Cloud C3D, Iowa). Configuration: Bricks default settings, single landing page from official starter library, mobile, 4G simulated, cold cache. 5 runs, median reported. Raw Lighthouse JSON downloadable on request.
Data freshness
Last release tracked May 28, 2026. Release history maintained from the vendor's changelog. Vendor activity refreshed on every build.