A Bricks Builder Review. Is it Any Good?
Updated September 25, 2026: refreshed for Bricks 2.4.1, corrected the pricing (the $249 lifetime deal is gone), and added a section on Etch, which now runs this site.
Updated September 25, 2026, after three years with Bricks and rebuilding DigiSavvy on Etch and Automatic.css.
I wrote the original version of this review in May 2023. It became the most-read page on this site, which is cool, mildly terrifying, and a very good reason not to leave outdated pricing advice sitting around forever.
Three years later, almost every specific needed another look.
Bricks has grown into a much more complete builder. Its user base has expanded. Its lifetime pricing changed substantially. And I can no longer say, as I did in 2023, “I have not used this tool myself” about Automatic.css.
That line was a gap in the original review. I’ve since used Automatic.css heavily and rebuilt this entire website on Etch, a direct Bricks competitor made by the same folks behind ACSS.
So this review is no longer just about whether Bricks is good. It’s about where Bricks fits after using both approaches on real production work.
One correction before we do anything else: the $249 unlimited lifetime deal I praised in 2023 no longer exists. Today, $249 gets you an annual Agency license. The unlimited lifetime license is $599.
That matters, and we’ll get into it.
What is Bricks Builder?
Bricks is a visual site builder for WordPress. It combines a theme, page builder, template system, dynamic-data tools, and a growing collection of site-building features inside one interface.
You can drag elements onto the canvas, style them visually, create reusable components, build templates, and pull data from WordPress without writing every bit of markup by hand.
Its interface still feels more like Webflow than the classic WordPress page-builder experience. That’s a compliment. Bricks exposes concepts such as classes, containers, grids, responsive breakpoints, and dynamic data in ways that feel familiar if you’ve done front-end development.
Folks coming from Elementor will recognize the broad visual-builder pattern, but Bricks expects you to think more systematically. You’ll get more from it if you understand HTML structure and CSS, even if you rarely open a code editor.
Historically, Bricks picked up momentum during the uncertainty around Oxygen Builder and the launch of Breakdance. Developers wanted a performance-focused builder that felt committed to its own direction, and Bricks landed at the right time.
It’s no longer the scrappy new option. By 2026, Bricks is an established builder with a mature feature set and a sizable ecosystem around it.
What’s changed since 2023?
A lot.
The current stable release is Bricks 2.4.1, released September 22, 2026. You can follow the details in the official Bricks changelog, but the short version is that Bricks has filled in many of the gaps I complained about in the original review.
It now includes native tools for query loops, menus, popups, WooCommerce, display conditions, and interactions. The element library has grown to more than 110 elements.
That changes the value equation. In 2023, it was easy to hit a wall and reach for an add-on. You can now complete far more of a site inside Bricks itself.
Bricks 2.4, released September 16, 2026, also added AI-assisted site editing. You can connect Claude, Codex, or Copilot and let the assistant create or edit pages, manage global classes, configure queries, and work through WooCommerce setup.
I’m usually skeptical when AI gets bolted onto a product so somebody can update a comparison table. This is more interesting because the assistant can work with the systems behind the page, not merely generate a blob of copy.
The release also introduced Builder Browser, which centralizes management for templates, components, and post types. The Media Browser received a significant overhaul with bulk actions and image optimization.
Those are practical workflow improvements. They reduce the bouncing between screens that makes WordPress site production feel slower than it ought to.
So, what are the pros and cons of Bricks?
I’m glad you asked!
Bricks remains one of the better visual-building experiences in WordPress. It’s fast, flexible, and comfortable once its mental model clicks.
But “once it clicks” is doing some work in that sentence.
The good stuff
Ease of use
If you’ve used Webflow, Bricks will feel familiar. If you’re coming from Elementor, it’ll feel familiar enough to get moving, but the class-based workflow and structural controls may require a reset.
The interface is pleasant and generally predictable. Elements sit in a visible structure panel. Styling controls use terminology that web developers already know. Responsive adjustments are easy to reach, and the builder gives you room to do the thing without hiding every meaningful decision.
For a developer or experienced builder, I’d call Bricks intuitive.
For a business owner opening the builder for the first time, I would not.
You can edit text and swap images without much drama, but building maintainable layouts requires some understanding of containers, classes, CSS inheritance, and responsive design. That’s not a flaw by itself. Powerful tools ask you to learn their rules.
It does mean Bricks isn’t the builder I’d hand to every client with a cheerful “you’ll figure it out.”
Flexibility
Bricks has become dramatically more capable since my original review.
The expanded element collection helps, but its real strength is still how it handles templates, reusable systems, conditions, queries, and dynamic data. You can build more than brochure pages without fighting the tool.
My favorite example remains dynamic-data tags. Bricks lets you output data returned from WordPress functions directly in the builder:
{echo:get_post_meta({post_id},’zoom_join_url’, true)}
If you know the meta key, you can display its value through a built-in element or a dynamic tag. That gives developers a quick bridge between visual layouts and data stored elsewhere in WordPress.
Is that syntax friendly to a casual site owner? Nope.
Is it useful when you’re building custom WordPress functionality and don’t want to create a bespoke element for every field? Hell yes.
The native Query Loop Builder, Conditions, Menu Builder, Popup Builder, and WooCommerce Builder make Bricks a serious option for directory-style sites, content-heavy sites, shops, and custom builds.
When I’m doing custom WordPress development help, that ability to combine visual tooling with real WordPress data is much more valuable than a giant collection of decorative widgets.
Performance
Bricks still performs well.
It produces leaner markup than many traditional page builders, avoids loading every possible script on every page, and gives careful builders a strong base for a fast site. It doesn’t suffer from the same degree of div-itis that made older builder output painful to inspect.
Of course, Bricks can’t prevent you from uploading enormous images, loading several font families, installing a pile of tracking scripts, or putting animated nonsense everywhere.
No builder can save us from ourselves.
But Bricks starts from a sensible place. If performance is one reason you’re leaving Elementor, Bricks deserves to be on your shortlist.
Cost
Bricks is still competitively priced, but the details are different from what I published in 2023.
The current Bricks pricing is:
- Starter: $79 per year for one site
- Business: $149 per year for three sites
- Agency: $249 per year for unlimited sites
- Ultimate Lifetime: $599 one time for unlimited sites
So, yes, $249 still buys unlimited use. It’s now the annual Agency plan, not the lifetime deal.
I previously worried that a cheap lifetime license could become a long-term liability. Software requires ongoing development, support, and infrastructure, while lifetime customers stop producing recurring revenue.
Raising the lifetime price from $249 to $599 is a reasonable answer to that concern. It makes the one-time option less impulsive while preserving recurring plans for freelancers and agencies.
For an agency building enough sites, the unlimited annual plan is easy to justify. For somebody maintaining one site, $79 per year is still approachable.
The stuff I don’t love
The learning curve hasn’t disappeared
Bricks has more elements and better native tooling, but it hasn’t become a beginner-first builder.
The interface is approachable. The underlying work still involves real web concepts. If you don’t understand classes, spacing systems, semantic structure, and responsive behavior, you can make a mess quickly.
Bricks gives you freedom. Freedom is lovely right up until every heading has a different margin because somebody styled each one independently.
A framework and a naming convention help. So does deciding how your team builds before the fifth page, rather than after the fiftieth.
More native elements don’t solve every integration
My old “limited elements” complaint is mostly outdated. With 110-plus elements and the new native builders, Bricks is much closer to fully baked.
Integration coverage is a different matter.
If your project depends on a membership platform, event system, email provider, or another specialized plugin, confirm the workflow before committing. Bricks integrates well with common custom-field and SEO setups, but “works with WordPress” doesn’t automatically mean “offers a polished native element for my exact plugin.”
Developers can usually bridge gaps with dynamic data, shortcodes, hooks, or custom code. Less technical users may find those same gaps frustrating.
Build a proof of concept around the weirdest requirement first. The homepage hero can wait.
Builder lock-in is real
Bricks stores layouts in its own proprietary data model. If you stop using Bricks, WordPress doesn’t magically turn those layouts into native Gutenberg blocks.
Your content may still exist in the database, but preserving the design and structure means rebuilding or converting it. The more deeply your site depends on Bricks templates, interactions, and components, the more work that transition becomes.
This isn’t unique to Bricks. Proprietary builders usually create some form of lock-in.
But after building this site in Etch, I care about that tradeoff more than I did in 2023.
The Bricks ecosystem
The ecosystem around Bricks was already moving quickly when I wrote the first review. Bricks itself has since absorbed many features that previously required extra plugins.
That’s good for site owners. It also means you should evaluate older add-on recommendations in the context of what Bricks now provides natively.
Templates and components
Reusable templates remain one of Bricks’ strongest workflow features. I built a library influenced by Webflow’s Relume approach because starting from proven sections is faster than rebuilding common structures every time.
Bricks Library also offered thoughtful templates and components for folks who wanted a running start. Libraries like that can save hours, especially when your alternative is staring at an empty canvas and wondering why you forgot how footers work.
Today, I’d first look at the native component and template workflow. Then I’d add a third-party library only if it matches the way my team actually builds.
Workflow tools
Bricks Navigator is a free plugin that adds shortcuts around the Bricks interface and useful links in the WordPress admin. I used it because it made moving between common screens quicker. It was simple, purpose-built, and stayed out of the way.
Then there’s Automatic.css.
In 2023, I wrote, “I have not used this tool myself.” Since then, I’ve used it extensively and rebuilt DigiSavvy with it. So, uh, consider that particular gap closed.
ACSS handles fluid typography, spacing, sizing, colors, utility classes, and other repetitive CSS decisions through a configurable framework. The value isn’t that it writes CSS so you never need to understand CSS. The value is that it makes your decisions systematic.
That consistency becomes especially useful across client projects and teams. It lets you change a rule at the system level instead of chasing the same value through dozens of elements like a sad little pixel detective.
Add-ons I used
BricksExtras added useful elements, interactions, and dynamic tags to my Bricks workflow. I liked it because its elements were thoughtful and performance-conscious.
Bricksforge was broader. I primarily used its global class manager, which gave me a practical way to manage a CSS framework inside Bricks. Its animation tooling felt clumsy to me, and I generally prefer smaller tools that do one job extremely well.
Those are descriptions of what I used and why, not blanket recommendations for their current versions. Bricks now covers more ground natively, so compare any add-on against the features already in the builder before adding another dependency.
Community resources
The wider Bricks community has been a meaningful part of the product’s usefulness. WebSquadron tutorials, Sridhar Katakam’s BricksLabs material, Facebook groups, and the official forum have all helped users learn patterns that documentation alone may not make obvious.
The forum has been especially useful when I needed a specific implementation detail.
If you choose Bricks, spend time with the community resources. Smart eggs have already solved many of the problems you’re about to encounter.
Bricks vs Etch
Here’s where this review gets more complicated.
DigiSavvy now runs on Etch and Automatic.css. I documented more of how I rebuilt the DigiSavvy site with Etch and Claude, but the key point is simple: I liked Bricks, then used its direct competitor for my own production site.
Etch is made by Digital Gravy, the team behind Automatic.css and Frames, led by Kevin Geary. Kevin was prominent in the Bricks ecosystem, but he isn’t part of the Bricks team. Etch is a competitor, not a successor to Bricks and not a fork of it.
Version 1.0 shipped January 30, 2026. The current release is 1.6.7, dated September 3, 2026, and releases have arrived on a roughly weekly cadence.
Etch bundles visual building with custom post type and custom-field management, a media manager, SEO tooling, and a templating and logic engine. Its pitch is partly that one system can replace several premium plugins.
The architectural difference matters more than the feature checklist.
Etch writes everything to native WordPress Gutenberg blocks through what it calls Auto Block Authoring. Bricks stores layouts in its proprietary data model.
| Dimension | Bricks | Etch | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layout storage | Proprietary data model | Native WordPress blocks | Determines the work required to migrate |
| Output format | Bricks layouts | Gutenberg blocks | Etch content remains native to WordPress |
| Current version | 2.4.1 | 1.6.7 | Bricks is more established |
| Release timing | Updated September 22, 2026 | Roughly weekly cadence | Shows how actively each product is moving |
| What ships in the box | 110+ elements and native site builders | CPTs, fields, media, SEO, templates, and logic | Changes how many extra plugins you may need |
| Annual agency pricing | $249 for unlimited sites | $199 for 25 or $299 for 75 live sites | High-volume agencies may favor Bricks |
| Lifetime option | $599 for unlimited sites | No verified lifetime tier listed | Changes the long-term cost calculation |
| Dev and staging sites | Unlimited on Agency | Don’t count toward live-site limits | Matters for agency workflows |
If you stop paying for Etch, the content remains native WordPress blocks. If you move away from Bricks, retaining the layout generally requires a rebuild or conversion.
That doesn’t automatically make Etch the correct choice.
Bricks is more established, has a larger user base, offers unlimited-site licensing, and has had more time for its builder workflow to mature. If I needed to produce many sites with a proven visual system, Bricks would remain very attractive.
Etch is the more compelling choice when native WordPress data portability is a central requirement, when ACSS already matches your workflow, or when its bundled site-management tools replace plugins you’d otherwise maintain separately.
Its current pricing is $99 per year for three live sites on Freelancer, $199 per year for 25 live sites on Agency, and $299 per year for 75 live sites on Agency Elite. Development and staging installs don’t count against those limits.
Compare that with Bricks’ $249-per-year unlimited Agency tier or $599 lifetime license. An agency producing many sites may prefer Bricks’ unlimited model. A smaller team may care more about Etch’s native-block architecture than the site cap.
My decision framework is this:
Choose Bricks if you want a mature visual builder, broad native capabilities, strong performance, unlimited-site options, and a workflow your team can standardize around.
Choose Etch if you prioritize Gutenberg-native output, want ACSS at the center of the system, and care deeply about what remains if the builder subscription ends.
For our website building and design work, I’m much more likely to ask about ownership, portability, maintenance, and team habits before recommending either one.
Two good tools solve overlapping problems differently. The question isn’t which logo belongs on your builder toolbar. It’s which set of tradeoffs you want to live with.
Is Bricks here to stay?
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
I can’t promise the future of any WordPress product, but time has answered part of the question I asked in 2023.
An April 2026 industry telemetry sample estimated Bricks at 0.34% of WordPress sites, compared with Oxygen at 0.44%, Divi at 5.72%, and Elementor at 32.67%. In that same sample, Bricks was the fastest-growing builder in the group at roughly 71% year over year.
Industry estimates also put Bricks above 150,000 active installs. The original review referenced roughly 15,000 sites, so the estimated footprint has grown about tenfold in three years.
Treat third-party telemetry as directional rather than gospel. Even so, the trend is difficult to miss.
Bricks has shipped major native builders, expanded beyond 110 elements, released AI-assisted editing, improved its management interfaces, and revised pricing in a way that makes more financial sense than the old lifetime offer.
Is survival guaranteed? Of course not. WordPress is full of confident predictions aging like milk.
But Bricks no longer looks like a builder-of-the-moment experiment. It looks like an established product with real adoption, continued development, and a much stronger answer to the viability questions I raised in 2023.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bricks Builder worth it in 2026?
Yes, Bricks Builder is worth it in 2026 for developers and experienced WordPress builders who want speed, flexibility, and strong dynamic-data tools. Its native feature set now covers far more of a complete site build than it did in 2023. Beginners should still expect a learning curve, and every buyer should understand the proprietary data model before committing.
Bricks vs Elementor: which should you pick?
Pick Bricks for leaner output and a developer-oriented workflow; pick Elementor when broad familiarity and its larger footprint matter more to your project. Bricks rewards structured classes, reusable systems, and an understanding of CSS. Elementor may feel easier to hand off to users who already know its interface.
Does Bricks Builder slow down your site?
Bricks Builder does not inherently slow down your site and generally produces lean, performance-conscious output. Your hosting, images, fonts, plugins, tracking scripts, and design decisions still matter. Bricks gives you a good foundation, but it cannot make reckless choices fast.
Is Bricks good for SEO?
Yes, Bricks is good for SEO because it supports clean structure, responsive layouts, fast output, and compatibility with established WordPress SEO plugins. A builder doesn’t create a search strategy for you, though. You still need useful content, sensible headings, internal links, metadata, and technically sound templates.
Can you migrate off Bricks later?
You can migrate off Bricks later, but you should expect to rebuild or convert layouts because Bricks stores them in its proprietary data model. Your underlying WordPress content may remain available, but Bricks templates and visual structures don’t automatically become Gutenberg blocks. This is the clearest architectural advantage Etch has over Bricks.
Bricks or Etch?
Choose Bricks for a more mature visual-builder ecosystem and unlimited-site licensing, or choose Etch for native Gutenberg output and tighter integration with Automatic.css. I use Etch and ACSS on DigiSavvy today, but I’m not anti-Bricks. The better choice depends on your team’s workflow and how much you value long-term data portability.
So, is Bricks any good?
Yes. Bricks is very good.
It’s faster and more capable than the builder I reviewed in 2023. Several of my original complaints have been addressed, the ecosystem has matured, and the pricing now offers a more believable path for long-term development.
I would still use Bricks for projects where its mature builder experience, dynamic data, native tools, and unlimited licensing outweigh the cost of builder lock-in.
I’d use Etch when native WordPress blocks, ACSS integration, and future portability sit near the top of the requirements list. That’s the choice I made for this site.
What do you think? Have you used Bricks, Etch, or both? I’d love to hear where each one fits into your workflow.
