Yes, yes, I realize I’m late to the Artisteer party :), but it’s been on my product review to-do list for ages.
If you use Blogger, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or have a static website and need help designing or re-designing your site from scratch, this is the post for you!
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to use, but I was even more impressed by the numerous design options offered. Usually builders/design tools have limited design choices, but Artisteer has more than average.
I also love that it can be used on so many platforms. Many design tools are for static websites only or dynamic websites only. Artisteer is for static and dynamic sites, and the code is exported with the appropriate file/folder structure.
In other words, your WordPress site will be exported just like a WordPress theme with all your WordPress files (header.php, footer.php, stylesheet, etc.) So all you have to do is upload the folder to your themes folder.
Other than the bloated CSS code it creates, it’s a pretty solid tool. And like with any design tool, the more comfortable you are with HTML and CSS, the more you’ll be able to customize your design after using Artisteer to build your initial design.
See Artisteer in action below…
Download a free trial of Artisteer here. Let me know how you like it!
Can Artisteer be used with Coffee Cup. The biggest strength is the customization aspect with the headers, columns, menus, fonts, and more. I’d love to see everyone learning a little code and getting more freedom with their sites. Someone else just asked this on my Facebook page as well.
No, it doesn’t really play well with other editors. CoffeeCup is an editor where you work within the program. Artisteer is just a design tool that is made for exporting the code after you’re done.
Aristeer looks like a very nice simple tool will be testing it for sure
thanks so much
clare
I have used Artisteer and it has really impressed me.I have seen many professional like Eli the Computer Guy who has used it to develop its website.It make the job of creating website a smooth process,and fun thing to do.It is very time efficient and completely intuitional , just like using a word processor.By the way,thank you Lista for these wonderful tutorials.
Hello Lisa
It’s my first time commenting on your site. I recently purchased the artisteer program by listening to your review. I’m using it with word press.
It’s great however, like you said it does take time to load. My new site takes around 15 seconds or more.
I understand you must make the codes shorter but I am a beginner and to learn this will take time and frusturating.
What do you suggest? Is there a program or template out there or get another party to do this for me while I focus on content?
Perhaps, I should just return to one of the free wp templates. Let me know.
thank you
I’ve never used Artisteer with WordPress, only static sites. But the loading time is due to all the code they use in the stylesheet. You can always hire someone to clean up the code for you (Elance, vWorker, etc.) but I don’t blame you for wanting to get this fixed. I haven’t had any load time issues with my static pages created with Artisteer, but blogs are much more complex so that makes sense.
Before use aristeer i fell difficult design my blog. Now it was easy to design my blog
Hello Lisa
Awesome review. I have been looking for a WP Theme creation tool like this one. Your video made it seem doable even for me. Not much knowledge with css, but I’m a quick learner.
I just thinking to Learn Web Design and Development
With out knowing Code if Aristeer give me good result I will be Glad.
……
Sayed
Aristeer is really a good tool. It’s comprehensive and really helps a lot and great review you have here.
Simply discovered your site via google and I consider it’s a shame that you’re not ranked greater since this is a implausible post. To alter this I decided to avoid wasting your internet site to my RSS reader and I will try to mention you in 1 of my posts because you truly deserv extra readers when publishing content of this quality.
The great thing about it is that you don’t even have to know programming language to use it.nice video.
Thank you so much for such a good review.
Lisa, First off, I like the distinction you made between a “web designer” and a “web builder”. My web building started with SBI. A great program for newbees.
Can Artisteer be used with Coffee Cup. You have convinced me that my next website will be built with Artisteer. Thanks
Yes Lisa, nice video and some great articles which will help us all all.
Love the video.. Thanks for sharing Lisa.
It’s arduous to search out educated folks on this matter, however you sound like you recognize what you’re talking about! Thanks
hi lisa
is artisteer good for seo?
is artisteer better than thesis? to make wordpress blogs!
if you(lisa irby) made ur website with artisteer then why does it say made with dreamweaver in the footer?
would u please tell me the way to avoid bloted css code that artisteer gives?
what if i use artisteer with out any customzation of css code in dreamweaver or something after i exported it? will it be bad for seo!
please atleast answer the last question only if u dont have time!
I didn’t create 2create with Artisteer, I said I was working on a redesign with Artisteer. Artisteer templates are all W3C Validated which can be helpful for page-loading, minimizing errors, etc. You can open your templates in DW after exporting. I do that all time. There’s no real way to avoid the bloated code. I just had to clean it up after I exported.
Hi Lisa, just wanted to say that over the past month I have been reading your posts and watching your videos, seems everywhere I turned those few weeks ago your pages keep coming up every time I do research in Google, which means your doing something right. Also, I love how simple you explain things, and in reading your posts every word keeps me going and more focused on success. After going through the pit falls of scams, it is a breath of fresh air in being able to access such informative, and honest views from someone who has truly brought their desire to succeed online to fruition. I just wanted to say thank you for all that you provide, your help in these pages and videos have inspired me to do things the right way, even if the right way takes a little longer, I understand now the difference, and how much it matters. If the internet had more people like you the word failing would not exist.
Thank you Lucidity. That means a lot!
I have this, and I love it. I have been using it for 2 years now. I am a designer, but this? software makes it very fast and simple. Time is money.
Hi Lisa,
Love the video and you tell them “snarky” designers to back off lol 🙂
Great review. Now having a website is not difficult 🙂
If you have little CSS/HTML knowledge I would STRONGLY advise you to look at lisa’s videos. I believe the 4 CSS videos are on http://YouTube.com/2createawebsite
Also look at flash4real’s HTML for dummies videos. It helped me a lot!
Hi, Lisa.
I am VERY interested in Artisteer; however, I do have the Thesis theme in place currently. If I could use Artisteer for headers and other aspects, that would be a tremendous help to me and worth the $50. Can you take these aspects from what you create on Artisteer and use them on a WordPress site with Thesis? If so, how much CSS knowledge is needed? Thanks so much for your help!
Take care of you.
Tina
You absolutely could, just keep in mind that dissecting the CSS an HTML code may be a challenge if you aren’t comfortable with manipulating code. In fact, if you were going to merge Artisteer and Thesis this is probably the way you would do it. Nevertheless, if you are not comfy and have trouble with CSS then it could turn into a major headache. 🙂 It will be important for you to know and understand which code to grab and then you would need to add the appropriate CSS to your Thesis custom.css file. So as you can see, that could get tricky.
But if you can pull it off, Artisteer can be a great asset to any blog theme. However, I suspect most people use it to create a fresh theme, not modify and existing one.
I think this is something that I should check! I have a free blogger blog and the content id pretty good and now I need a more promotional looking one.
I second Lisa’s comments on Thesis and Art’s mutual exclusivity. That said, I prefer the Thesis theme more so because of the added SEO capabilities and the clean back end code. Both are good options, but I would go with Thesis even if I were to do it again. Tweaking is relatively easy on both providing basic HTML knowledge. The Thesis forums are a great resource with tons of experts who are willing and able to lend a hand to anyone in need.
great Post,
I will try it out for my new project. This is my first time hearing about a software to automate the creation of a wordpress theme
The first thing i mention, is that creative web design is always an ongoing process and the initial creation cannot be done in a day.
Thanks for the review, looks like a great product!! On the note of designers being threatened by these type of products. I think not, any designer that finds a tool that makes their life easier and feels threatened by it, its time for a career change! I think this would be a great way to throw together mockups in seconds, also an easy way to train clients to maintain their own site. Nice find Lisa!! I’ll decently be adding this to my box of goodies.
Absolutely, Jeff. In fact a lot of designers use this to get inspiration for their clients.
I find Artisteer as one of the best theme generators available.
Like Lisa described, I usually find a free theme I like and then customize it. But to start that process, I have to sift through thousands of themes online. After a while they all start looking the same.
With Artisteer, I can just click one button — and do it offline! — until I see something that looks interesting and then start working with it. The biggest strength is the customization aspect with the headers, columns, menus, fonts, and more. If I am hacking someone elses code its a much more intensive process.
My critique: I wish there was a tighter connection to the CSS after exporting the design so using the tool was more like a complete project instead of just a start into a project. Designs can be saved and modified with the full version but the code can’t be changed outside of the application (?). It would be sweet if the application would scan the project directory for changes and bring those into the graphical tool.
Maybe we’ll see that in Artisteer 3! 😀
I agree Michael! Or it would be awesome if we could edit the CSS right there in the design phase instead of having to wait to export it. But I guess that would make it a full blown editor. Then it would REALLY be powerful and cut into the Dreamweaver market.
Dear sister, You designed your website by using which theme? it looks wonderful, i would like to know, what are all the things that you have been followed till now to produce a great design and customization!
Thanks, I used the Thesis theme. I have a video on it here https://blog.2createawebsite.com/get-this-theme/
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for this post. I’ve never heard of this software before.
I remember when I first began experimenting with website builders. Some of my first ones were freewebsitebuilder.com, weebly.com, and godaddy’s sitebuilder.
Oh the struggles I’ve had with these! 🙂
I wish I’d known about Artisteer back then (heck I wish I know about SBI! back then)! It looks like I would have had an easier time building a functional site. I had a crazy difficult time with the others and it made for tedious work.
I suppose freewebsitebuilder.com, weebly.com was okay for a beginner with no knowledge of html or css, but they weren’t very flexible at all.
Ah well… I’ve graduated to better things since then. I’m thrilled about where I am in my site building efforts today.
Not really sure of the benefit of using Artisteer though when SBI! provides much more help when it comes to SEO traffic.
I suppose the template diversity and flexibility is a benefit as far as the look and feel opposed to SBI!’s limited template selection.
Thanks for the review anyhow, very informative 🙂
Ti Roberts
Hi Ti,
Agree. Artisteer is no match for SBI!. The two don’t even compare since Artisteer only helps with design. I could see someone using it to re-design their SBI! site if they want to switch from the SBI! templates to their own custom design. In fact, I may use it to redesign my SBI! at some point since I’ve already converted out of the block builder and do my own CSS. But no you’re right. It doesn’t have any of the marketing/brainstorming help that SBI! has. Artisteer is for design only.
Lisa, this looks great. Loved the video. I was just checking out the site, looking at what they offer, the demo, price, etc and if I figured it out, in free trial you can create a theme and export it?
Isn’t that like everything most people want to do? I mean it is the main feature I guess.
Anyway, I never heard of it so thanks for the review 🙂
Thanks for watching, Brankica. You can do everything with the free trial that you can do with the paid version, but with the free trial your site will have an Artisteer watermark on your template.
I enjoyed watching your video. On your recommendation, I’m using the Thesis Theme, but I haven’t done a lot of tweaking yet, mostly from lack of knowledge and because I’ve been busy creating content. Are Artisteer and Thesis mutually exclusive? Or can they be used together? Thanks!
I would say yes they are for the most part, Doug. Thesis is a theme on its own and Artisteer creates a new theme. So incorporating your Artisteer into your Thesis design could be tricky without enough comfort with CSS and PHP. Now, I could see you using Artisteer to get ideas or maybe use it to develop certain aspects of an existing theme (the menu, header, etc.) But I wouldn’t try to merge the two.
In my opinion, Artisteer is best if you are starting from scratch. Great question, though. Someone else just asked this on my Facebook page as well.
Thanks for an awesome review. I am sure to give it a try as Artisteer has been around for while and I haven’t a chance to try it.
Very interesting, I will give it a try although I doi have a bit of experience in web design
LOL Thais the second Time this Week i typed .blogpress.com As my Domain. Wenn will i learn?
I will get it once i have made $50. Cant get it bevor that because i don’t have a Credit Card.
Excellent video Lisa. This is why I keep your blog’s RSS feed on my Igoogle dashboard.
By the looks of things it’s pretty easy to work with. Like everything that is associated with web design, I’m sure it requires a hefty learning curve.
When you mentioned changing the CSS, I lost all interest in the product.
My experience with learning about code hasn’t been very good. Most people that post tutorials about working with code, speak in a different language. They hardly ever consider that a beginner is reading what they have posted. It is for this reason, I avoid trying to learn.
To me, simplicity and editing CSS, HTML, PHP or any website or blog codes DO NOT go hand-in-hand!
Great post though!
I understand Jordy. Yes, if you really want to enjoy the full experience of any type of design tool or editing software, it pays to know how to get in and move things around and edit the CSS. Otherwise you’re just stuck with the default template that Artisteer generates. It’s not necessary but very helpful indeed! Thanks for watching!
another step in making life easire for people who don’t speak “code”. It was either that or start picking up books with the word “dummies” in the title
I like the fact that blogspot people can use this. I’d love to see everyone learning a little code and getting more freedom with their sites.
Your tutorials on html and css are really good enough for anyone to learn and edit their own code.
One thing about changing designs too much. I might think I’m on the wrong site if it doesn’t look familiar. So, I think slow, gradual changes are better than huge changes every week.
Loved the video Lisa. This now makes it even easier to design your own wordpress theme. I think I might give it a try and then publish some wordpress themes of my own 🙂
The great thing about it is that you don’t even have to know programming language to use it.
LOL Lisa knows enough CSS to become dangerous (loved that statement Lisa 🙂 )
Thanks for the heads up
Awesome review, Lisa! 🙂 I’ve been using Artisteer for about 5 months now, and I think it’s fabulous. The only *slight* issue that I can see is that the code is quite ‘bloated’. However, I’m a certified e-commerce designer who is used to hand-coding, so these things tend to really stand out to me.
Still, despite that one little thing, the code itself still validates against W3C standards. Since I work on government websites as part of my job, accessibility and W3C compliance is more important than anything else – even SEO 😉
The site designs that you can create with this software are virtually unlimited because there’s so much that you can control — and as Lisa mentioned, you can even export the designs to WordPress, Joomla, etc.
I tend to create a quick design in Artisteer, then export the code and bring it into Dreamweaver where I can further customize, create Dreamweaver Templates, etc., but that is not required. Artisteer designs are good-to-go once you’ve completed your design.
I’m keepin’ it around for a while! 🙂
That’s exactly how I use it too Michelle. Glad you’re enjoying the software!