I use page builders. I also build custom WordPress themes. The tool is not the thing that decides whether a site will be maintainable in two years; the architecture is.
Where builders earn their place
Page builders are good at what they were designed for: letting someone compose a page visually without waiting for a developer. For marketing pages, campaign landing pages, and teams that need to move quickly, that's valuable.
They also make it easy to hand a site to a non-technical editor. That matters. A site that nobody can update is not really finished.
Where they cause trouble
The trouble starts when the builder becomes the only place the content exists. If a service card, a testimonial, or a team member is only a widget inside one page, you can't reuse it, query it, or move it later without copying and pasting.
The performance cost is real too. Nested sections, extra wrappers, and a pile of add-ons can make a simple page heavier than it needs to be. It's not automatic, but it's common.
The rule I use
If content needs to be reused, queried, or exported, it belongs in a field or a custom post type. The page builder can handle the layout around it. That one decision makes a site much easier to maintain.
I like ACF for this. A small set of well-named fields, a template that renders them, and a clean editing screen. The editor doesn't need to know how the page is assembled. They just fill in the content.
A few practical guidelines
- Use global styles and templates instead of rebuilding the same section on every page.
- Avoid add-on packs unless you actually need them. Each one is another thing to update.
- Name things clearly. "Home hero" is better than "Section 3 copy 2".
- Keep the number of card variations small. Ten nearly identical widgets are a maintenance problem.
- Test the editing experience with the person who will use it.
Page builders are a UI. They are not a data model. Once a site understands that distinction, it can be both easy to edit and sane to maintain.
That's the balance I aim for. Use the tool that helps the team, but don't let the tool become the database.