Artisteer vs. iThemes Builder theme

I've not tried them both. I use Artisteer. I do know that it supports widgets.

Artisteer does let you download a trial. The exports are watermarked, and don't let you save, but it will give you a good idea.

I know that Artisteer supports widgets. It says that on their site.

What it does NOT say is if the support it provides is compatible with the changes effective with V2.8. They simplified the underlying API considerably, changing it to a more object-oriented approach. It makes the code a LOT simpler and thus less error-prone.

Anybody with experience with iThemes Builder? Any pluses/minuses you can share?

-David

I've been using Artisteer for quite a while now, and can say with certainty that for whipping out simple themes, it'll beat iBuilder without a doubt.

The problem with Artisteer is that unless you spend some time with each theme, getting it 'just right', you end up with a cookie-cutter site that can be spotted a mile away.

I've only just started playing around with iBuilder, and in terms of layout options, it offers slightly more variation than Artisteer's 1/2/3 column options.

iBuilder's let down by a lack of variety in terms of look and feel, though. It doesn't have the range of options available with Artisteer, out of the box. Unless you want to get your hands dirty with css, Artisteer offers more variety with less manual configuration. It's click click, totally new look, within tightly defined boundaries with Artisteer, but it helps you churn sites out at an amazing rate.

I haven't had to use iBuilder support yet, so can't comment on that, but Artisteer support has been pretty good, with one or two notable exceptions. Some of their support staff have the attitude "It's you that's not using the product properly so you get the errors" but the others seem to be more open to the possibility that it might be a programming issue and take more care with dealing with customers. But that's a personal observation regarding support, not the product.

In terms of extending them both, I find that you can do a lot to vary Artisteer-generated sites by adding plugins, as it uses the base kubrick theme which seems to play well with most of the plugins out there. I don't know if this will be an issue for the 3.0 release, but for 2.7 - 2.9.2, I've had no issues.

I'm more familiar with Artisteer, so getting new sites up and running quickly is a no-brainer at this stage. I've not used iBuilder as much, but I find it harder to work with for my specific needs.

Autoblogs - Artisteer.
Custom sites - iBuilder.

That's how I'd rate the tools for most appropriate use.