IM Creator

Website builder IM Creator’s unique platform is as modern and simple as can be. Designed to be like a toy, it incorporates elements called “stripes” and “polydoms” to give users maximum ease of editing, with tons of advanced features and customization options. Their templates are fantastic and totally mobile responsive, with great eCommerce options as well

• Robust template library with hundreds of options
• Premium plans come with unlimited bandwidth and storage
• All plans include eCommerce features

• Pricing system is super simple
• High quality, responsive templates divided by industry
• Artists, students and non-profits get free premium accounts
• Unlimited media and video content
• A full range of advanced features available  

• Not so intuitive for beginners
• Drag-and-drop editor is not its strong suit
• Limited editing power within a pre-configured block system
• eCommerce options only offered through a third party

IM Creator has a bit of the appearance of next century’s tech. But don’t let that, or the word “polydoms” overwhelm you - the builder is actually quite user-friendly and intuitive. It was designed to function like a toy, for users (particularly beginners) to be able to enjoy themselves playing around as they put together the building blocks of their website. Each block is a section of the site, and you can combine, stack and rearrange them to fully customize your site. There’s a small learning curve - maybe an hour or two - also considering that some of the buttons aren’t clearly labeled, but you’ll get the hang of it - IM Creator really isn’t much more complex than a drag and drop editor.

IM Creator allows you to choose sections that you’d like to add or remove from your site, although you can’t move them around on the screen as you would using a drag and drop editor. It also doesn’t use widgets, which can be complicated to combine. Instead you’ll rely on their pre-configured blocks. But there are lots of options for customization. Make sure to explore before going into autopilot, as it’s easy to overlook menus, different options for features (most are displayed with tabs), etc.

Publish your website the same day you sign up - IM Creator offers an efficient and reliable solution that will look great.

There are several options for customer support. Use the onsite “Help” section to see a collection of short, easy-to-follow tutorials, how-to articles, FAQs and email support (using a ticket system). Their average email response time is under 12 hours. They’ve recently rolled out chat support for premium users, making it even easier to find the answers you’re looking for.

IM Creator offers three different pricing options, each for very specific kinds of users, which makes choosing quite simple. There’s one for students, artists and non-profits; one for premium accounts and another for unlimited access and white label. You can also use the builder for free, but you won’t be able to connect a domain. Generally, it’s a good idea to use the free service to test out the builder, and then transition to a paid plan. We’ll walk you through the options:

IM Creator has a very generous offer for students, artists and non-profits: premium service for free. You’ll get unlimited hosting, access to all templates, eCommerce features, no ads and the ability to connect your own domain. You’ll be prompted to upload your student identification, 501 (c)(3) for nonprofits, or any other documentation verifying your qualification, and to explain why you want a free license and what you’d like to build. Everyone else who’d like this plan will pay $8/month.

Unlimited Access and White-Label: Starting at $350/year, this plan is ideal for web designers, hosting companies, white labels resellers, large-scale businesses and more. It includes eCommerce, unlimited licenses for your clients, white-label, a reseller control panel, full control over users, analytics and all of the tools you’ll need to run your own website builder.

In addition to these plans, you’ll find three different white label licensing options:

-Standard White Label, for $350/year, is the plan described above. The Standard license will allow the creation of an unlimited number of websites, ideal for web designers.

-Host It Yourself, for $2,500/year, offers everything included in the Standard plan plus cPanel integration, the ability to host websites on your servers, editor’s CSS control and your own domains API. This plan will meet the needs of most cloud hosting companies and web studios.

-Servers Control, for $25,000/year provides everything offered in the above plans, with the addition of server ownership, login APIs, cPanel and API. This plan is good for hosting companies.

IM Creator boasts unlimited hosting and bandwidth, so you’ll be able to add as many pages as you want to your site. In terms of available features, there are quite a few interesting options, including entrance, mouse-over and scrolling effects, icons to add and a variety of fonts. You can also customize the page layout, color schemes, margins and add and rearrange additional elements. Use IM Creator’s image editor to modify hue and contrast, as well as to animate and add effects if you’d like.

IM Creator is a fully-responsive website builder, so a version of your site is automatically created for viewing on any kind of device, from mobile phones and tablets to Google Glass and smart watches, which places IM Creator on the cutting edge of the website builder industry.

If you’d like to launch an online store, you can do so through IM Creator. The catch is that they use a third-party service called ShopRocket for eCommerce. ShopRocket is integrated into IM Creator and includes analytics, secure checkout with credit cards and a management console (among other important online store features). So if eCommerce is your main reason for launching a website, you might want to consider other builders that prioritize online store creation - otherwise, IM Creator makes the cut.

In addition to standard website-building, IM Creator offers White Label licenses for resellers, hosting companies and designers. White label licenses give purchasers the right to use all website builder resources, with no limits. This allows you to use IM Creator’s services under your own company’s name, without their name appearing anywhere. White label can be a useful option for independent web designers, especially for those who are looking for unlimited access to the website builder or web studios. It’s also a good choice for hosting companies or corporations that would like to have their own website builders.

The IM Creator template library is extensive and has plenty of high quality options organized by industry - business, photography, music, eCommerce, etc. You can click to see a preview of each before selecting one. All templates are customizable - just click to edit - and mobile responsive. Templates come equipped with “stripes,” or pre-configured blocks, to add any kind of content you might need, from photo galleries and videos to contact forms, blogs, logos, maps and eCommerce store layouts. Stripes are constructed of different elements that can be modified, added or removed with a click. Each stripe has a setting menu located on the right-hand side where you can make adjustments, copy the stripe, remove it or relocate it to a different part of the site. There are more than 20 different kinds of stripes available.

Adding stripes is easy too - when you mouse over a stripe, you’ll see a blue “+” icon. When you’re ready to see what your site looks with after adding features, choose preview and then publish.

While great for beginners, the stripes can be a bit more limiting for users who’d prefer to have total control over the arrangement of items on their site. Stripes allow you to move sections, but not individual elements.

Overall

IM Creator is an innovative, modern builder that produces beautiful websites. Hands down, it’s a great value, particularly for artists, students and non-profits who get the exceptional perk of a premium service for free. And for small- to medium-sized businesses it’s a great choice as well. The builder is intuitive, with a system using “stripes” that - although it may take a few minutes to figure out - is easy to use and highly customizable. eCommerce services are integrated through a third party, which functions well, though is best for users whose priority is not making an online store.