Oxygen is often mentioned in the same breath as Elementor, and that is misleading. The two do not solve the same task for the same people.
Elementor is a tool for website owners. Oxygen is a tool for people who build websites and want to stay as close to HTML and CSS as possible — just without typing everything by hand.
Anyone who confuses the two buys the wrong product. I have seen enough clients left with an Oxygen site they could not operate.
I have drawn the direct comparison of Oxygen with Bricks elsewhere. Here it is about Oxygen against Elementor.
The short answer
Oxygen, if you have mastered HTML and CSS, want full control over the output, and nobody but you works on the site.
Elementor, in practically every other case.
That is unusually clear-cut for a comparison, and I explain why below.
The fundamental difference: Oxygen replaces your theme
This is the point that surprises most people.
Elementor is a plugin. Your theme remains in place and provides the frame — header, footer, the basic structure. Elementor designs the content inside it, and with Pro the frame as well.
Oxygen effectively switches your theme off. It takes over the complete output of the website, from the first line of HTML to the last. What you do not build in Oxygen does not exist.
That is the source of its greatest strength — nothing loads that you have not created — and of its greatest harshness: you really do have to build everything yourself. There is no frame to design into. There is only the blank page.
Elementor and Oxygen at a glance
| Elementor | Oxygen | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | plugin, theme stays | replaces the theme entirely |
| Free version | yes, extensive | no |
| Licence | annual subscription, tiered | one-off, unlimited websites |
| Prior knowledge required | none | HTML and CSS |
| Code output | functional, more nesting | minimal, largely self-determined |
| Templates | very many | few |
| Theme Builder | in Pro | the product's core principle |
| German-language material | a great deal | next to none |
| Available specialists | very many | very few |
| Development | strong | subdued |
Where Oxygen scores
Control over the output. You determine the HTML structure down to the individual element. No bundled theme CSS, no wrappers somebody else thought necessary. For someone who knows how a good document is built, that is liberating.
The lean delivery. A well-built Oxygen page delivers considerably less CSS and HTML than a comparable Elementor page. That is real and measurable.
A one-off payment for unlimited websites. No subscription. For someone maintaining many projects, that is a clear difference over the years.
Working with classes and selectors. Oxygen thinks in CSS classes, not in per-element settings. Anyone wanting to hold a consistent design language across sixty pages works much faster with it.
Where Elementor scores
You can operate it without having learned it. That is the decisive argument, and it applies to the overwhelming majority of people who run a website. In Elementor you get a decent page in one evening. In Oxygen you spend an evening in front of a blank area and a manual.
You will find help. For Elementor there are German-language tutorials, videos and people within reach. For Oxygen there is practically nothing in the German-speaking world. If in two years you need someone to take over your Oxygen site, that will be a difficult and expensive search.
You can test it for free. Elementor Free is a usable tool. Oxygen costs money from day one.
The product is being developed. And here comes the point that has to be spelled out.
The point that has to be spelled out
The developers of Oxygen launched a second product, Breakdance, aimed at a broader target group. Since then the development of Oxygen has visibly lost pace, and part of the user base has read that as a signal.
I do not want to dramatise it: Oxygen is maintained, sites keep running, and a product is allowed to mature without gaining new features every quarter.
But if you are facing the decision today to build a website on Oxygen for the next five years, this observation belongs in your reasoning. Anyone who values Oxygen's technical direction should at least look at Bricks and Breakdance before committing.
Elementor Pro: If you choose the more accessible route, Theme Builder, forms and popups — precisely what Oxygen brings from the ground up — sit in the Pro licence. View Elementor Pro
On performance
Yes, Oxygen delivers leaner pages. Considerably leaner, when somebody has built them well.
And nevertheless: in the websites that come to me for optimisation, the problem is almost never the builder. It is images nobody compressed, hosting without an object cache, missing caching, and a handful of third-party scripts somebody added three years ago and never looked at again.
A well-optimised Elementor page is faster than a badly built Oxygen page. The builder is a factor, but not the first one. The effective levers are set out in Optimising Elementor performance and WordPress Page Speed 2026.
Switching — unpleasant in both directions
There is no transfer from Elementor to Oxygen. You rebuild the pages, and you also rebuild the header and footer, because Oxygen replaces your theme. That is more work than any other builder switch.
From Oxygen to Elementor is similarly demanding: when you deactivate Oxygen, it is not just the layout that is missing but the entire output. You first need a working theme again before you see anything at all.
Plan for a website rebuild in both directions, not for a conversion.
My recommendation by situation
Oxygen, if you have a confident command of HTML and CSS, if you want to determine the output down to the detail, if you do not want a subscription, and if you maintain the site yourself — for the long run and on your own.
Elementor, if you run your own website, if you do not write CSS, if you need German-language help, and if somebody else is meant to work on the site at some point.
Look at Bricks or Breakdance, if you find Oxygen's technical direction convincing but want a product with more active development. That is the most common sensible answer to the question that brought you here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Oxygen harder than Bricks?
Both assume technical understanding. Oxygen goes one step further, because it leaves no theme frame at all.
Can I use Oxygen and Elementor together?
No, not sensibly. Oxygen takes over the entire output of the site; a mixed setup leads to conflicts.
Is Oxygen available in German?
Practically not. Documentation and community are English-language, and the community is small.
Is Oxygen dead?
No. It is still maintained and existing sites keep running. But the vendor's attention is visibly on Breakdance, and that should feed into a fresh decision.
In closing
Oxygen is a good tool in the right hands. The problem is that it very often ends up in the wrong ones — with people who had a website built for them with it and afterwards have to commission every text change.
If you want to keep your website in your own hands, Elementor is the more practical route. If you want to go deep technically, take a look at Oxygen — but compare it with Bricks and Breakdance first.
Further comparisons: Oxygen vs. Bricks Builder, overview of page builder comparisons and Block editor versus page builder. If you would like to talk the decision through against your own specific project: Elementor training.
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