Let me preface this post by saying that I am a huge fan of iThemes. Some of their plugins are the best I’ve ever used, and they have top notch support. That said, I’m not thrilled after my experience with Builder, for reasons I’ll outline below.
What is iThemes Builder?
Builder is a WordPress platform that allows you to “build WordPress sites quickly and easily by creating your own layouts.” Basically, instead of installing a prebuilt theme, you can drag and drop modules to make the layouts you want, and you can even use different layouts on different pages of your website. Each installation of Builder allows you to create a completely custom look, meaning you can use it on multiple websites without making them look identical.
One of Builder’s biggest selling points is its Style Manager. From the iThemes website:
Not a coder? WebDesign.com can help with that. But if you want to change the background, try a different font, or match the theme to the colors of your brand, Builder’s Style Manager plugin can help you do it fast and without touching the code.
Sounds good, right? As a web designer, I’ve been drooling over the idea of a theme that would let me make fast customizations without spending so much time editing CSS. In fact, there are tons of testimonials from designers and developers who swear by Builder for all their clients’ sites. This would change the way I do business, I thought. At the time, I couldn’t justify the $197 for the developer pack, so I decided to wait.
My Experience with Builder
My opportunity to try Builder came when a new client had trouble with her existing installation. The customizations she was making in Builder’s Style Manager weren’t translating to the live site, and she couldn’t figure out why. A quick look at her WordPress backend showed me that she was using a very outdated version of the Builder core (supplied by her previous designer), so I encouraged her to update.
I made the purchase on her behalf (the Builder Core with no child themes or extras is $80), loaded it on her site, and started making changes in the Style Manager. I remember thinking, This is really easy! Except my changes weren’t applying either. I headed over to the iThemes Builder support forums to figure out what was going on. My answer was found right in the iThemes Codex under the Style Manager section:
So in other words, even though you can do some things with Builder (such as alter your layout) without coding, there are also lots of things you can’t do. In this situation, I had two choices:
- Spend time learning the Builder admin panel (which has a bit of a learning curve) and make changes the old fashioned way, like I would with any other theme.
- Switch my client to the Weaver II theme so she would be able to make changes on her own, which is what she wanted in the first place.
For me, it made much more sense to convert my client’s site to Weaver. I was able to replicate it exactly as it looked on Builder and it didn’t take long at all. She can now tweak the look of her site with checkboxes instead of getting frustrated with a WYSIWYG style editor that didn’t function as expected. (For the record, I also shaved a few hours off my rate to absorb the money she spent updating Builder for no reason.)
The Bottom Line
iThemes Builder is not a terrible product. For customized layouts, you can’t beat the drag-and-drop functionality, and there is EXTENSIVE support available to learn to use Builder. Also, there are 60 child themes available, so you might be able to find one that matches the general look you want. However, since I typically need to complete client sites very quickly, I simply don’t have time to spend an hour searching the support forums or watching a video to learn how to change something. It’s easier for me to use another theme altogether or just create one from scratch.
As for non-designers, if you have plenty of time to play around with your theme and use Firebug to find the CSS you want to change, Builder might be worth looking at. But if you need something very simple and straightforward to use, Builder is probably not the best choice for you. Nothing is worse than spending money on a theme, only to find that it doesn’t do what you think it will do.
When I was researching Builder for my own use, every review I found was just a summary of the information available on the iThemes website. I watched a number of videos in hopes of getting more information, but none of that research really prepared me for the hands on experience I gained by trying Builder for myself. For that reason, if any of you would like to try Builder, just let me know - I’d be happy to load it on a test site and let you try before you buy.
Overall, I think Builder has a number of great features. However, for a truly custom look (and not just a custom layout), there are much better themes out there that aren’t as costly or time-intensive to use.
Too bad I read this after buying iThemes…and I think I purchased the full package at $350+ only to find out that unlike DIY Thesis, where there is a plug-in to access the css-tags for each section of the website, I would have to figure out the tags of EVERY element I wanted to alter and then dig through the CSS file. Going back to Thesis.