Divi is a powerful and popular WordPress theme. It has a lot of features, but it can be difficult for beginners to know how to get started. We’re often asked what to do first. In this article, we’ll show how to purchase Divi, what your purchase options are, how to install it, and what to set up first.

This is the second of a series for beginners where we’ll cover Divi basics and a lot more. For part 1 of this series, see Getting Started with Divi: Purchase, Installation, and Setup.

Purchase Options

Divi is available from the company that created it: Divi . It has two purchase options:

• Yearly Access – $89 per year
• Lifetime Access – $249 1-time

Both get you the same features and tools and include access to Divi, Extra, the Divi Builder plugin, Bloom, Monarch, built-in layouts, and unlimited usage. The Divi Builder plugin is for use with other WordPress themes. Bloom and Monarch work with any WordPress theme.

The difference between the two plans is how often you have to pay to keep getting updates and premium support.

Yearly access must be paid every year to have access to the built-in layouts and get updates and support. If you end your membership you get to keep and use everything you’ve downloaded.

Lifetime access is a one-time payment and you’ll never have to pay again. You’ll always have access to updates, the built-in layouts, and premium support.

Lifetime access is our favorite option. If you can’t afford it, then we recommend purchasing yearly access until you can afford the lifetime plan. We recommend that you keep a check on sales at the Elegant Themes website. Elegant Themes runs amazing Black Friday deals and they often have special sales throughout the year for their anniversary and other occasions.

How to Download Divi

When you log into your account you’re taken to the Members Area where you’ll see a link to download the Divi theme and the Divi plugin. You only need to download the Divi theme. The plugin adds the Divi Builder to any WordPress theme, but the Divi theme already has the Divi Builder built-in. You only need the plugin if you want to use a different WordPress theme.

You can also access links to the product documentation. They include detailed articles on how to install the products and use them.

Under the Divi download area, you’ll see the other ET products. Here, you can download Extra (a magazine theme that runs on the Divi Builder), Bloom (a plugin that adds an email option form), and Monarch (and social media follow plugin). Download Divi to your computer and make a note of where you saved it.

Installing Divi

Install Divi in the Themes menu of your WordPress dashboard. Go to Appearance > Themes and click Add New at the top of the screen. Select Upload Theme. Click Choose File, navigate to the folder that you saved the download and select it, and then click Install Now. Wait for the upload to complete.

Once Divi is finished uploading, you’ll see a message informing you the upload is complete and gives you several options. Click Live Preview if you want to see how your website will look before activating Divi. Click Activate to use Divi.

Divi is now the active theme. It won’t have any special design until you create pages or add styling to your current pages. You can now customize the site with Divi’s amazing customization tools.

If you have blog posts and sidebars already in place, they will display as a normal blog.

Most Basic Setup

Here’s a look at the most important things to set up first once you get Divi installed and activated.

API Key

In your Elegant Themes membership screen, select My Account at the top and click API Keys in the menu on the left. This provides an area where you can copy your username and API keys and manage API keys.

You can use a single key for all of your websites or create a new key for every website. Make as many keys as you want and give them a label so you know what they’re for. Click on a key to copy it.

To add your key to Divi, go to your WordPress dashboard and select Divi > Theme Options. When Divi Theme Options opens, select the Updates tab. Add your username and API key and save changes. You can now get updates and use the built-in layouts.

Logo

You’ll want to add your logo to your website. Fortunately, Divi lets you upload a custom logo in the theme options. Logo is the first option in the General tab. Select Upload.

Upload or choose your logo from your Media library. Click Set As Logo. Save changes.

Social Media Links

Divi allows you to add social media icons with links to your accounts in the footer. In the Divi Settings General tab, scroll down until you see toggles to enable the accounts you want to use. Disable any accounts you don’t want to use. If you keep them enabled, the icons will display in the footer. Delete the hashtag and add the URL to your social media pages.

Optional Settings

Several settings are optional but very helpful when you first get started. The sooner you set them up the better, so I’ve included them here.

Classic Builder

By default, when you create a page or post, WordPress will use Gutenberg. This allows you to build on the backend and includes a button to build with Divi on the frontend. Whether you use the original editor or Gutenberg is just a matter of preference.

If you want to use the Divi Builder on the backend, you can enable the WordPress Classic Editor. In the Divi Settings, select Builder > Advanced and click the button to enable the Classic Builder and then save changes.

Now, when you create a new page or post you’ll see the Classic Builder with a button to enable the Divi Builder if you want to use it. Once you enable the Divi Builder, you’ll be able to build on the backend or frontend.

Secondary Menu

Divi adds a Secondary Menu that appears above the main menu. To create a Secondary Menu and assign it so it will display, go to Appearance > Menus in the WordPress dashboard and click create a new menu in the section called Select a menu to edit. Add a name for the menu and click Create Menu.

Create your menu and select Secondary Menu to assign it. Save the menu.

The Secondary Menu now appears above the Primary Menu. My secondary menu is showing in blue in the example above.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an important tool for tracking your traffic. It shows your website’s most popular content, where your traffic comes from, the number of users, sessions, bounce rate, etc. The insights can help you know more about your audience and the types of content they’re the most interested in.

It’s free and easy to use. During the Analytics setup process, Google will ask you to add some code to your header. Divi makes this process easy. In the Divi Theme Options (as seen in the example above), go to the Integration tab, enable the header code, and paste your code into the field that says Add code to the < head > of your blog. Save the settings and you’re now ready to use your Google Analytics.

Ending Thoughts

That’s our look at how to purchase Divi and get it set up to start building your website. Divi has a lot of options that we haven’t covered here, but we’ll visit many of them in future articles. These are the basic options and the most common optional settings that you’ll need as soon as you install Divi.

This is the second article in this series for getting started with Divi. Be sure and check out the first article, Getting Started with Divi: What is Divi?, and stay tuned for part three of this series where we’ll cover how to create pages with the Divi Builder.

We want to hear from you. Are you new to Divi? Let us know about your experience in the comments.