If you’ve ever built a WordPress site using the Avada theme and its Fusion Builder, you’re probably familiar with how powerful — and shortcode-heavy — the system can be. But what happens when you switch to a different theme or page builder? Suddenly, your post content is littered with [fusion_*] shortcodes, making your site look broken or cluttered.
In this post, we’ll break down:
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What the Avada Site Builder is and how it works
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Why shortcodes remain in your content after switching themes
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How many websites use Avada today
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And how to clean up those leftover shortcodes easily using a custom plugin
What is the Avada Site Builder?
The Avada theme, developed by ThemeFusion, is one of the most popular premium WordPress themes of all time. At its core is the Fusion Builder (now known as Avada Builder), a powerful drag-and-drop visual page builder that allows users to design pages using custom shortcodes behind the scenes.
Each content block you add — a text area, a column, a button, an image, etc. — is wrapped in a unique shortcode like this:
[fusion_text]Your content here[/fusion_text]
[fusion_image src="..." /]
These shortcodes are interpreted by the builder to render styled and structured content on your page.
How Many Sites Use Avada?
As of recent data, over 900,000 websites have purchased and used the Avada theme, making it one of the most widely adopted WordPress themes ever sold on ThemeForest.
With that popularity, it’s not uncommon for developers, designers, and site owners to eventually migrate away from Avada as their design or performance needs evolve.
Why Do Avada Shortcodes Stay After Switching Themes?
When you deactivate Avada or switch to a different theme (like Astra, Kadence, or GeneratePress), WordPress no longer knows how to process those [fusion_*] shortcodes. Since shortcodes are just text wrapped in square brackets, WordPress leaves them as-is in your post content. This leads to messy pages like:
[fusion_builder_container][fusion_text]This is your post content[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_container]
In many cases, this results in unreadable posts and a poor user experience unless you manually edit each one — which is extremely time-consuming.
A Simple Plugin to Remove Avada Shortcodes (While Preserving Content)
To solve this problem, I created a lightweight WordPress plugin that automatically removes all Avada shortcodes from blog posts, while keeping your actual text and images intact.
This tool was built specifically for post-migration cleanup when moving away from Avada to another theme or builder.
This project was developed independently before I became aware of similar tools. It offers a different implementation approach that may be useful depending on your needs.
How the Plugin Works
The plugin scans all your posts (post post type) and:
✅ Removes all [fusion_*]...[/fusion_*] shortcodes
✅ Keeps the content that was inside those shortcodes (e.g., text, images)
✅ Removes any self-closing shortcodes like [fusion_separator]
✅ Cleans up leftover closing shortcodes like [/fusion_text]
All of this is done with a single click inside the WordPress admin panel.
How to Install and Use the Plugin
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Download the Plugin
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Visit the GitHub repository or download the
remove-avada-shortcodes.phpfile and place it in a folder calledremove-avada-shortcodes.
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Upload to Your WordPress Site
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Zip the folder and go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin in your WordPress admin.
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Install and activate the plugin.
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Run the Cleanup Tool
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Navigate to Tools > Remove Avada Shortcodes in the admin menu.
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Click “Run Cleanup” to scan all blog posts and strip out the builder shortcodes.
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That’s it! Your post content will be free of Avada shortcodes and ready to be used in a new theme or page builder.
Bonus: Extend the Plugin
If you’re also using custom post types or want to process pages instead of (or in addition to) blog posts, you can easily update the plugin to support other content types like so:
'post_type' => ['post', 'page', 'your_custom_type']
Final Thoughts
Migrating away from Avada doesn’t have to be painful. By using this cleanup tool, you can save hours of manual editing and quickly get your site ready for a new theme or builder — with clean, shortcode-free content.
If you found this useful or have ideas for extending the plugin, feel free to fork it or open a pull request on GitHub.
Need help with other post-migration tasks? Feel free to reach out to us!
