Divi Child Themes

A Divi Child Theme is a WordPress Theme that inherits the functionality and styling of its parent theme, which in our case is Divi. We can use a Divi child theme to customize the design, layout, or functionality of our websites without editing the parent (Divi) theme files.

Does Divi need a child theme? No, you do not always need to use a child theme with Divi, but if you are going to edit any of the theme or plug-in files of your WordPress installation then you do need a child theme, or those edits will be lost when you then update Divi.

You will update your child theme when you need to make customizations that would otherwise involve editing the parent (Divi) theme files. There is no need to make any other updates. When Elegant Themes release a new update, you should also update your parent (Divi) theme so you can get access to any bug fixes, security patches or new features.

All Divi Child Themes are essentially the same but  will fall into 1 of 2 categories:

1. A blank or starter child theme allows you to make updates to your Divi files without losing them when you update Divi.
2. A pre-designed premium child theme is essentially a blank child theme that has had various customized files and website page layouts added already. These make up a full pre-made website.

You can download the Bare Bones Divi child theme here on Divi Theme Examples. Bare Bones is a blank child theme ready for you to add your own customizations to. To use Bare Bones, just download the zip file and upload it under Appearance > Themes > Add new and activate. You must already have Divi installed for the Bare Bones child theme to work.

A blank child theme for Divi consists of a functions.php file and a style.css file. These 2 files go into a folder (your child theme) that can be zipped up and uploaded via Appearance > Themes > Add new in the same way you uploaded the parent (Divi) theme. After you activate your child theme there will be no visible changes to your site as there are no customizations within the child theme.