<b>How to actually measure builder bloat</b>

<b>How to actually measure builder bloat</b>
Reviewers quote total page weight, which is useless — it's dominated by images. The number that matters is render-blocking builder overhead.

Method: load a blank page with one heading, open DevTools, filter requests by the builder's slug. Count CSS/JS kilobytes that ship before you've added any content.

Typical floor on an empty page: Elementor ~120-160KB CSS+JS, Divi ~90-130KB, Bricks ~30-50KB, Gutenberg blocks ~10-20KB.

Pros of this method:
— Isolates the builder tax from your content
— Reveals what 'optimized mode' settings really save
Cons:
— Ignores per-widget JS that loads only when used
— Caching plugins can mask the real first-paint cost

Best for: anyone deciding a builder on a content-heavy site where every blocking kilobyte hits LCP.