Last updated: August 2026 · By Ruben Borillo, Sr. WordPress Developer
Almost nobody arrives at this comparison with a blank slate. The real question, asked by agencies who already have an Oxygen stack and a shelf of Oxygen sites, is whether the Oxygen 6 rebuild changed the answer, or whether the smart money moved to Bricks while they were not looking.
So that is the question this page answers. Not which builder wins in the abstract, but what you should do from where you are actually standing: running Oxygen Classic today, running Oxygen 6, or starting something new with no commitments.
Disclosure: some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend.
Short version. If you are already on Oxygen, stay. The abandonment worry that drove the exodus is gone, and migration is a rebuild with no client-visible benefit. If you are starting fresh with a junior-heavy team, Bricks is the easier on-ramp and the gap in output quality is small enough not to decide it. If you are starting fresh and optimise hard for cost per site, Oxygen’s one-time unlimited licence still wins the arithmetic.
Quick comparison table
| Oxygen Builder | Bricks Builder | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Plugin (works with any theme) | Theme and builder (replaces your theme) |
| Engine | Rebuilt on a modern engine in Oxygen 6 | Mature, actively developed |
| Raw performance | Excellent, minimal markup and bloat | Excellent, very close |
| Editor experience | Powerful, steeper at first | Polished, friendliest of the two |
| Built-in form builder | Via add-ons and Oxygen 6 features | Native |
| Dynamic content and ACF | Strong, loop builder in Oxygen 6 | Strong, query loop plus ACF |
| WooCommerce | Full support | Full support, slightly more refined UI |
| Licence model | One-time, unlimited sites | Tiered, annual and lifetime options |
| Licence cost at 25 sites | Fixed one-time fee, cost per site keeps falling | Depends on tier; verify current unlimited pricing |
| Migration effort in | Rebuild of templates, no importer | Rebuild of templates, no importer |
| Client handover | Client-safe edit mode | Role manager and element permissions |
| Community size | Established, loyal | Largest and fastest-growing |
| Best for | Agencies optimising for speed and cost per site | Teams wanting the smoothest editor and ecosystem |
Both vendors change their tiers periodically, so confirm current pricing on each official site before you buy. The two rows people skip are the last two on cost and migration, and they are usually the ones that decide the outcome.
Overview: two developer-first builders
Both reject the bloat of mainstream builders and give you near-clean HTML output, real CSS control and dynamic data for custom builds. The headline difference is architectural.
- Oxygen is a plugin that takes over template rendering, so it works alongside your stack and is theme-independent. The Oxygen 6 release rebuilt it from the ground up on the same modern foundation Soflyy uses for Breakdance.
- Bricks is a theme, so it is your theme, with an editor many developers consider the most refined in this category, plus a native form builder and a large template and community ecosystem.
Neither is a drag-any-box-anywhere toy. Both reward people who understand HTML, CSS and WordPress templating, which is exactly the agency audience.
One practical consequence of that split: Bricks handles forms natively, while an Oxygen build usually pairs with a dedicated form plugin such as Gravity Forms once a client needs payments, CRM routing or multi-step logic.
Is Oxygen Builder dead in 2026? The Oxygen 6 rebuild
This is the question driving most of the traffic to this page, and it deserves more than a one-line denial, because the reputation problem was real and the answer to it is specific.
No, Oxygen is not dead. Soflyy rebuilt it as Oxygen 6 after roughly a year of development and five beta releases. It is a complete rewrite of the core rather than a patch on the legacy codebase, and it shares its engine with Breakdance, which means the same team is maintaining one foundation instead of two divergent ones.
What actually shipped
The rebuild is more than a new coat of paint, and four things in it matter for agency work:
- A fundamentals-first model. Oxygen 6 maps to the browser rather than abstracting CSS behind proprietary sliders and invented names. If you know CSS, you already know the tool, which is the single biggest change to how quickly a new developer becomes productive.
- Element Studio. You can build your own elements visually rather than writing a plugin or dropping into a code block every time the builder lacks a widget. For an agency with recurring patterns across client sites, that is a reusable asset rather than a one-off.
- A variables panel built on native CSS variables. Global colours, typography and spacing managed as real custom properties, so changing a primary colour updates everywhere it is used, including inside custom code.
- An interactions engine and a rebuilt code editor. Animations and class changes triggered by scroll, mouse or load, plus CodeMirror 6 with Emmet, autocomplete and error highlighting for anyone who prefers to type.
What it means if you are on Oxygen Classic
Classic remains supported. The team has been explicit that it is not being switched off, and existing Classic sites are not on a countdown.
Practically, that gives you three positions. Leave settled client sites on Classic, because a version migration on a site nobody is complaining about is unpaid work. Start new builds on Oxygen 6, where the improved model pays back immediately. And where a Classic site is due a redesign anyway, treat the version move as part of that project rather than as a separate exercise.
Both versions can be installed, so this is a per-project decision rather than a company-wide switch. The version-level detail is in our Oxygen 6 and Oxygen Classic comparison.
Does it close the gap with Bricks?
Mostly, on the dimension that mattered. Bricks won the editor comparison decisively against Classic, and Oxygen 6 narrows that to a preference rather than a gap. The fundamentals-first approach is arguably better than Bricks for a developer who thinks in CSS.
Where Bricks still leads is maturity of ecosystem, community size and the first-week experience for someone who has never used either. Oxygen 6 is newer, and newer means fewer tutorials and fewer people to hire who already know it. That is a real cost and it is not the same cost as being abandoned.
If your only hesitation about Oxygen was whether it had a future, that objection is gone. If your hesitation was onboarding speed, it is smaller but still real. See the current Oxygen Builder if you last looked at Classic and formed an opinion then.
Performance: which builds faster sites?
Verdict: functionally tied, and both comfortably ahead of Elementor or Divi on Core Web Vitals. Oxygen is the long-standing reference point for minimal output; Bricks is close enough that the difference will not decide a project.
The one figure worth carrying: in our 2025 mobile testing Oxygen recorded 0 ms Total Blocking Time against Elementor’s 3,440 ms, which is the scale of gap that exists between this category and the mainstream builders, not between Oxygen and Bricks. We have not run first-party tests against Bricks, and rather than estimate, the full methodology and every measured number is in our page builder performance benchmarks.
For an agency the deciding factor is not a two-point Lighthouse difference. It is how disciplined you are with images, fonts and third-party scripts, and both builders give you a clean enough foundation to hit green vitals if you are.
Ease of use and learning curve
Be honest with your team about this one, because it is where the money goes.
- Bricks is the easier on-ramp. The editor is cohesive, the structure panel is clear, and a developer is productive within a day.
- Oxygen is more powerful and historically steeper. Oxygen 6 narrows that considerably by mapping to CSS rather than to its own abstractions, but Bricks still wins the first week for a junior.
The flip side is that once a senior developer has internalised Oxygen’s model, build speed is excellent, and that is the seat most agencies optimise for. Weigh the first week against the next three years.
Design flexibility and features
- Bricks ships more out of the box: more elements, a native form builder, strong global classes and deep template and community resources, which means less reaching for add-ons.
- Oxygen gives deeper low-level control and a clean component model. Some features leaned on its add-on ecosystem historically; Oxygen 6 brings more of that in-house, Element Studio in particular.
If you want batteries included, Bricks edges it. If you want a minimal, controllable foundation you bend to your own spec, Oxygen fits better.
Dynamic content and ACF
For agency work this matters more than any visual feature, because it is the difference between a builder that makes pages and one you can run a business on.
Both handle it well. Bricks pairs a query loop with ACF for repeaters, relationships and conditional output. Oxygen has strong dynamic data handling and Oxygen 6 adds loop builders for posts and terms, which removes a class of custom PHP templating that used to be unavoidable.
The genuine difference is not capability, it is what happens after handover. A template built so the client edits custom fields and never opens the builder survives. One where they edit inside the builder does not. That is a design decision, not a builder feature, and it applies to both equally.
The Bricks implementation, including query loops, repeaters, relationship fields and conditional output built for editability, is covered in Bricks and ACF: building dynamic templates clients can edit.
Client projects and handover
The dimension that decides whether a build stays profitable, and the one comparison tables leave out.
Oxygen offers a client-safe edit mode that strips the interface back to content editing and hides the developer surface. Bricks approaches the same problem through its role manager and element-level permissions, letting you control per role who can open the builder and what they can touch, plus locking on structural elements.
Both get you to the same place if you use them. The commercial questions matter more than the mechanism: who owns the licence after handover, what happens when it lapses, and whether fixing a client-broken template is maintenance or billable work. Settle those in the contract, not in an email eighteen months later.
The Bricks specifics, including role configuration, template locking and licence transfer at contract end, are in handing over a Bricks site.
WooCommerce integration
Both build fully custom stores with dynamic product data, custom carts and conditional layouts. Bricks’ WooCommerce interface is a touch more refined for newer users; Oxygen’s leaner output tells on heavy store templates where markup multiplies across a product grid.
Neither is a reason to pick one over the other unless your team has an existing preference.
Pricing and licensing
Summary, then the detail lives elsewhere.
| Oxygen | Bricks | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | One-time, unlimited sites | Tiered, annual and lifetime options |
| Cost per site as you scale | Falls with every site added | Depends on tier and site count |
| Renewal exposure | None once purchased | Depends on plan chosen |
| Main risk | Vendor risk on a lifetime licence | Tier ceiling as portfolio grows |
If you ship a high volume of client sites, Oxygen’s unlimited one-time model usually wins total cost of ownership, and the per-site figure keeps improving rather than degrading. The counterweight is genuine: a lifetime licence is only as good as the company honouring it. The five-year arithmetic across builders is worked through in our builder licensing and ROI comparison.
Migrating from Oxygen to Bricks
Short answer: for most existing Oxygen sites, do not. There is no importer, migration is a full rebuild of templates, classes and dynamic bindings, and it produces no client-visible improvement. The abandonment fear that drove people to consider it has been answered by Oxygen 6.
Migrate when you have a positive reason, such as team onboarding speed or native forms, and treat it as a project with a project’s budget. The full process, including what has no equivalent and needs a genuine rebuild, is in migrating an Oxygen site to Bricks.
Agency perspective: which I reach for
For my own client work the calculus is performance plus unlimited licensing plus a now-modern editor, which lands on Oxygen for the bulk of builds. Bricks is the pick when a project, or a junior-heavy team, benefits more from the smoother editor and native forms than from the licensing model.
Both are professional-grade. There is no wrong answer here, only a wrong fit.
Which should you choose?
If you are starting fresh
Weigh onboarding against cost per site. A junior-heavy team or one with regular turnover gets more from Bricks in the first month than it loses on licensing. A small senior team shipping a high volume of client sites gets more from Oxygen’s one-time unlimited licence, and the advantage compounds with every site added. Both will produce a fast site.
If you are running Oxygen Classic
Stay on Oxygen. The reason most people considered leaving was abandonment risk, and that has been answered. Keep settled sites on Classic, start new builds on Oxygen 6, and fold version migrations into redesigns that are already funded. Moving to Bricks means rebuilding every template for no client-visible gain, which is difficult to justify to yourself and impossible to justify to a client.
If you are already on Oxygen 6
You are on the newest foundation in this comparison and there is nothing to do. The gap that made Bricks attractive was mostly editor quality against Classic, and Oxygen 6 closed most of it. Revisit only if you hit a specific limitation, and if you do, the honest question is whether a form plugin or an add-on solves it more cheaply than a migration.
FAQ
Is Oxygen Builder dead in 2026?
No. Soflyy rebuilt it as Oxygen 6 on a modern engine after about a year of development and five betas, with active development and a forward roadmap. The abandoned reputation predates that rebuild and is the single most out-of-date belief in this comparison.
What is new in Oxygen 6 compared with Oxygen Classic?
A complete rewrite rather than an update. The headline changes are a fundamentals-first model that maps to CSS instead of proprietary abstractions, Element Studio for building your own elements visually, a variables panel using native CSS custom properties, an interactions engine, and a rebuilt code editor with Emmet and autocomplete.
Should I move existing Oxygen Classic sites to Oxygen 6?
Not as a standalone exercise. Classic remains supported, so a settled client site nobody is complaining about does not need moving. Start new builds on Oxygen 6, and fold the version change into a redesign when one is already scheduled and funded.
Which builder produces faster websites?
Both are excellent and far leaner than mainstream builders. Oxygen is the long-standing reference for minimal output and Bricks is essentially tied. Your discipline with images, fonts and third-party scripts matters considerably more than the gap between them.
Is Bricks or Oxygen easier to use?
Bricks has the friendlier learning curve, particularly for junior staff, and wins the first week. Oxygen is more powerful and Oxygen 6 narrows the gap by mapping to CSS rather than to its own abstractions. Choose based on team turnover: high turnover favours the easier on-ramp.
Which is better for WooCommerce?
Both build fully custom stores. Bricks’ WooCommerce interface is slightly more refined for newer users; Oxygen’s leaner output is an advantage on heavy store templates where markup repeats across a product grid. Not a deciding factor for most teams.
What about pricing and licensing?
Oxygen is one-time with unlimited sites, which usually wins the cost-per-site maths for high-volume agencies, against vendor risk on any lifetime licence. Bricks is tiered with lifetime options. Check current prices on both vendor sites before deciding, because tiers move.
Should I switch from Oxygen to Bricks?
For most existing Oxygen sites, no. There is no importer, migration is a full template rebuild, and the client sees no improvement. Switch when you have a positive reason such as onboarding speed or native forms, not to escape a reputation problem that Oxygen 6 already resolved.
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