Need a new website template?
There are a number of reasons to use a website template service. Often they are used by those that are not web designers, but want to create a unique website for their business that looks fantastic. Another use is to create a website for a personal reason – to create a memorial page, hold an event or profess one’s love. The ways are limited only by your imagination! They are also used by web designers that want to save time when producing websites for clients. Because templates are easily customized, the result is still unique for the clients. Most website templates offered through services are quite affordable, with some even being entirely free. Some website template services create the templates themselves, while others serve as a marketplace for buyers and sellers to meet. Web designers can really benefit from the latter as they can both purchase templates as well as sell those they have created. In some cases website templates are offered individually priced and others are subscriptions that allow for using numerous ones. Those individually priced are often offered with both single-use and multi-use pricing options. The following ten websites are popular website template services. The sites given are listed in order of their Alexa traffic count rating and any prices given may have changed since the writing of this review.
1. Envato Marketplaces Themeforest: http://themeforest.net/?WT.ac=hub_browse
Global Alexa Rating: 111
Users can buy and sell HTML templates at the Envato Marketplace. There are also themes for popular CMS products such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Prices range from $5 to $40 based on complexity, quality and the use of the file. It is the biggest marketplace of its kind and is home to a bustling community of web designers and developers. There are many different ways to find what you are looking for. Browse by category list, do a keyword search or steer towards popular files, top authors, collections or featured files. They offer a step-by-step guide for purchasing items for those new to buying website templates and themes. This is a popular place to go for websites and themes because they actively review all items for sale to ensure they are in good working order and are easy to use. The site is very easy to navigate. There are currently 3,554,745 Marketplace members and 5,034,919 items. Users can also subscribe to Envato’s newsletters. This is just one facet of the Envato company. Joining their community provides tons of other benefits as well, including education through tutorials and courses.
2. Wix: http://www.wix.com/website/templates
Global Alexa Rating: 232
Wix offers hundreds of free website templates easily categorized by business & services, music, entertainment, online shop, blog, restaurant & hospitality, creative arts, design, retail & fashion, one-pager and personal. Each category also has subcategories. They also have blank templates. Select new or most popular to see just what is popular and recent. You can also search by keyword. The templates are all customizable and are easy to use with drag n’ drop technology. They also offer full support 24/7. You get 100s of templates, unlimited pages and top grade hosting for completely for free – no strings attached. However, they do offer premium accounts as well with tons of additional features. Monthly rates run from $6.90 per month to $29.90 per month with discounts and extra goodies for those that purchase an annual membership. The lowest plan is supported by ads, but all the other levels are ad free. The full pricing matrix is available on the website and is easy to understand. There are other websites out there that use the Wix system, including templatemo and freewebsitetemplates.
3. Template Monster: http://www.templatemonster.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 658
Template Monster began in May, 2002, and since them they have developed over 46,000 templates. They offer WordPress themes, Joomla templates, PrestaShop themes, Magento themes, website templates, responsive templates, CMS templates, Moto CMS templates, E-commerce templates, PSD templates, Facebook themes, Bootstrap themes, HTML5 Site templates, Drupal themes, Turnkey websites, Flash Site templates, After Effects templates, PowerPoint templates, Flash Intro templates, SWiSH templates and so much more! All products offered are clearly described, including prices. The search feature is very easy to use and there is also a live chat feature if you get stuck. Mouse over a template and it enlarges and give you the option to view details or a live demo. There is also an area for sample free templates. Very nice website! Whether you need something basic with a single site license, a template and installation, or an exclusive license, this is a great place to go for it.
4. Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/templates/
Global Alexa Rating: 812
Using Squarespace involves selecting a template (you can switch any time), starting a free 14-day trial with no credit card required, and getting a free domain so you can put your brand to work. The website includes a nice demo video on how to use the site and build a website from a template. It shows their powerful tools and much more. Start with the tour button located at the top right of the screen. They offer a number of services. Select the ‘show all features’ button to see a very comprehensive list, including designs, image manager, galleries, audio collections, connected services, layoutengine 2, user data collection, site control, multiple contributors, blogging, commenting system, commerce, SEO, blog app, metrics app, note app, portfolio app, logos, analytics and more. After the free 14-day trial, choose the plan that suites your needs. They offer a personal plan at $10/month ($8 if annual), professional plan at $20/month ($16 if annual) and business plan at $30/month ($24 if annual). The features and limits (if any) for each plan are shown on their pricing page.
5. Artisteer: http://www.artisteer.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 6,281
Artisteer is a tool for designing your own web template or blog in just minutes with no need to learn Photoshop, CSS, HTML or other technologies. There is a demo on the website showing a bit about how Artisteer works. There are also screenshots and samples. Artisteer is a program to download offering a home & academic edition for $49.95 and a standard edition for $129.95. The best idea is to evaluate the free product trial prior to purchasing to be sure it is what you want. Included in the price is one year of free product updates and upgrades. They provide updates two to three times per year. The program can continue to be used after the year without getting updates, or you can purchase another year of updates at any time, which currently costs up to 50% of the product price. They are currently working on a professional edition. If you have more questions about the software or need some help from your peers, check out the forums. There are also tons of articles, reviews, videos and tutorials on the website.
6. Dream Template: http://www.dreamtemplate.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 12,438
Dream Template offers 7500+ templates with unlimited downloads for one set price for a full year subscription. It can be used for those involved in web design for clients, but is limited to 50. The regular price is $149 but they do offer limited time offers from time to time. The subscription includes premium quality website & flash templates, Microsoft Office Word templates, fonts, logos, textures, documents, illustrations, stock vector icons and so much more. Premium members get access to six other sites, including PSD station, Webmaster tools, WebApp skins and more. The website is easy to navigate, allowing you to see thumbnails of templates so you can get an idea of what is available before purchasing a subscription. The addition of other types of files such as word templates makes this a nice business tool going beyond just web design.
7. 4 Templates: http://www.4templates.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 37,309
4Templates offers templates priced individually so you only pay for the one(s) you want. They have premium website templates, WordPress themes and business card templates. You won’t find thousands of templates as you could with other sites, but they are affordable (under $20 for website templates, $30 or less for WordPress templates and under $10 for business card templates) and unique designs. Currently there are 877 website templates, 29 WordPress themes, and 18 business card templates. They have high quality code under the hood created by hand coding the HTML and CSS for all their designs. They also have fantastic customer support – with actual humans! The site includes some nice tutorials and a FAQ section.
8. Templates.Com: http://www.templates.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 40,121
Registration to Templates.com is free for both buyers and sellers of templates. It is a unique marketplace service aimed towards bringing mutual benefits to both buyers and sellers. Templates are offered at a regular price for one use or a unique price for multiple use and makes the template momentarily removed from sales. All prices are shown in credits which is converted into regular currency when you download. For example, at the time of this review 1 credit = 1 USD. The view feature gives a larger picture of the site as well as the option to see the advanced full-size preview. A good idea is to subscribe to their newsletter because that affords you a 10% discount on their products as well as being notified about special offers and upcoming events. They deal with a number of different products in addition to website templates including WordPress themes, 3D models, Joomla, Mobile, Drupal, ZenCart, Magento, PowerPoint, VirtueMart, 3D clip art, illustrations, stock music, icon sets, wallpapers and free twitter backgrounds.
9. i3d THEMES: http://www.i3dthemes.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 76,606
i3d THEMES began in 2001 from very humble beginnings – a storage room in Victoria, BC, Canada! Things went so well that they were able to move into a real office in 2004 and they’ve been growing ever since. They recently launched a community forum and added Webmastering to the mix of services they offer. Their website templates are available in a number of different formats, such as Dreamweaver Templates, Expression Web Templates, FrontPage 2003 Templates and SharePoint Designer 2007 Templates. This allows the user to choose which editor they want to use at the time of download. They have also added mobile ready and responsive products. All of their web templates are built in-house by talented designers and are created specifically for functionality. Each design is custom crafted for a unique and creative look and feel. Their products are designed and intended to be for the DIYer, but they offer additional services for those that want or need them such as inserting graphic logos, replacing images, colorization, sit setup and content transfer. They include a toll-free number for those that have questions or desire a specific quote. They also have hosting options including a basic plan, premium plan and ultra plan.
10. Allwebco Design Corporation: http://allwebcodesign.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 89,232
Allwebco Design Corporation offers developer quality HTML web templates that are mobile friendly with full instructions, CSS text menus, multiple pages and built-in scripts and features. The place to go when you want your website to look great on tablets and Smartphones as well. The website goes into all the features included in their websites, which are quite extensive compared to some other ones out there. They offer step-by-step instructions and the ability to use any HTML or text editor. They even work with many free editors! They have Javascrtips and features built-in as well as replaceable .jpg and .gif images. The list goes on and no special software is needed. You can order with or without hosting. Their hosting plans are quite reasonable beginning at just $9.95/month for their value plan. They also offer some pretty nice add-on features. The website includes links to a number of Allwebco website template user websites. Their website templates come with a 30-day unconditional money back guarantee and a 90-day unconditional exchange guarantee. The quick tour is a great way to fully comprehend what they offer.
As you can see, they are all a bit different, so your choice about which to use will depend on your needs and whether you are an end-user or a designer. Some will have thousands of offerings and some just a few. Generally speaking, designers will want those with lots of options. As an end-user you may only need one website, so it makes no difference whether the one you end up liking comes from a small service or a large one. Look for quality and ease of use for the best results, and consider what other features they have that might be useful to you.
