Website Builder Review

IM Creator

Summary of Pros

IM Creator's website builder is designed help you create a stunning website quickly and easily. IM Creator's shines with its quality design templates. There is a wide variety of theme to choose from – and all feel trendy and polished. It's perfect for people who have an eye for design but lack coding know-how.

Summary of Pros

  1. XPRS Editor
    IM Creator offers two different editors, the XPRS and the Classic Creator. The XPRS is a new editor that uses Polydoms, a new technology that let you build a website using pre-made content blocks (IM Creator calls them Stripes). With the XPRS builder, you can still use the same drag-and-drop concept, but you control how your website looks, feels and navigates through the use of Stripes. Stripes allow you to build your website in layers. Think of it as building your website the Lego™ way. Because the XPRS editor offers a completely different website builder experience from the traditional drag-and-drop editors, it can seem a bit overwhelming at first. But it is very easy to use and it doesn't require any HTML or CSS skills.
  2. Classic Creator Editor
    The Classic Creator Editor is a pure drag-and-drop editor. You can literally drag and drop any page elements (such as images, text, etc.) to anywhere on your website without any restriction – this allows you to have full creative control over where to place your content.
  3. Stunning Design Templates
    IM Creator has some of the most gorgeous templates in the industry. They are stylish, trendy, simple and polished. There are design categories for mobile sites, photographer, designer, architect, bio/resume, artist, musician, model/actor, hotel, restaurant, and much more. In addition, the templates are pre-populated are provided in an "almost done" state, so you can have your new website up and running quickly.

Summary of Cons

  1. Cannot change templates without rebuilding your content
    Once you've picked a template and published your website, if you want to change to another template, you will have to re-enter all your content again. Your existing content doesn't automatically get transferred into the new template.
  2. Limited feature set
    IM Creator is not designed to create feature-heavy websites. IM Creator's feature set is very, very basic – it lacks many of the important business features that are standard on other website builders. These features include eCommerce, blogging, online forms and membership system. For example, IM Creator's eCommerce plugin is powered by ShopRocket. It is an easy-to-use eCommerce application but it doesn't have powerful features and customization options of Ecwid or Woo Commerce. If you want advanced eCommerce features, you will need to use an HTML embed of third-party applications like Etsy or Ecwid.
Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Plans & Pricing

IM Creator offers one Free plan, one Premium plan and one Whitelabel plan.

The Free plan is rather stripped down. While you have access to their entire template collection, you only get 50MB of storage and basic support. Because IM Creator is not a feature-rich editor, their free version is really not worth it. In addition, instead of getting a free sub-domain (like you would with Weebly or Wix), you get a free URL in the form of imxprs.com/free/username. No professional website should have the word "free" in its URL. So, if you are in the market for a free website builder, Wix and Weebly are a much better option.

IM Creator only has 1 level of premium plan – the Premium Plan. With this plan, you can use your own domain name. You also get up to 10 domain email addresses. This plan also removes the footer advertistment from your website. Their pricing structure is a little strange – their lowest term option is biannual. This means there is no month-to-month option and you must commit at least 6 months at a time.

However, if you are a student, artist or a non-profit organization, there is a way to get the Premium plan for free – just email IM Creator and they will issue you a free license.

The IM Creator Pro plan is intended for website designers to white label their platform. IM Creator allows resellers to fully re-brand the system. Unless you are a website designer who's planning to resell the IM Creator platform, you don't have to worry about this plan.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Templates

IM Creator offers two separate collections of templates, one for the new XPRS editor and the other for their Classic Creator editor. The main difference between these 2 sets of templates is the way they are structured.

XPRS websites are put together like Lego™ bricks – you build your website using pre-made content blocks called Stripes. Thus, a XPRS template is made up of professionally designed and laid out stripes. All XPRS templates are responsive, and stripes are customizable. In order to use these templates, you need to sign up for the XPRS editor.

On the other hand, the Classic templates are designed to be customized with the classic drag-and-drop editor. They are fully customizable – you can add, move, modify and remove any element you want. Unfortunately, these templates are not responsive.

Both XPRS and Classic templates are image-rich, professional and eye-catching. They work particularly well for businesses, photographers, fashion and design-related, musicians, weddings, hotels, restaurants, etc.

All templates are also pre-populated. Instead of the standard "this is a heading" or "Lorem Ipsum" all templates are pre-populated with actual content so all you need to do is swap out the images and edit the text to personalize them.

But one major drawback is that once you have selected a template (and editor) and published your site, you no longer have the ability to change templates without having to re-enter your content again. Your existing content doesn't automatically get transferred into the new template.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Editor

Classic Editor

When creating a website with IM Creator, you can use their Classic Editor or their new XPRS Editor. Note that the option is either or, you dont get the ability to switch editors during the website building process.

The main difference between XPRS and Creator is in the site creation process.

Classic Editor

IM Creator's Classic Editor uses the drag-and-drop technology, allowing you to literally drag and drop elements where you want them to show. Just like the editors of Wix and Website.com, IM Creator's Classic Editor gives you full control over the placement of your content.

The Classic Editor is very clean and straightforward, combining drag-and-drop and click-to-edit functions.

However, unlike Website.com where the page length auto-adjusts to accommodate your elements, you have to manually edit the page size settings.

Also to note, you can only embed a video, you can't upload one directly from your computer. IM Creator doesn't offer any stock image library within the editor. You can, however, download stock images from their stock image site, IM Free.

Like many other website builders (such as Wix and Website.com), IM Creator doesn't allow you access to edit their HTML or CSS codes.

One thing we noticed was that the editor lacks an undo or back button. If you need to remove an element, you will need to click on the delete button. While this is not a deal-breaker, it definitely is frustrating.

XPRS Editor

IM Creator's new editor is the XPRS Editor. The XPRS editor uses polydoms. Polydoms allows you to create a website using pre-made content blocks (or Stripes). With IM Creator, there is a stripe for almost every purpose: there is a stripe for a contact form, a store, a photo gallery, a product catalog, and much more. Stripes are customizable and requires no HTML/CSS skills.

Because the XPRS editor offers a completely different website builder experience from the traditional drag-and-drop editors, it can seem a bit overwhelming at first. But it is very easy to use and it can be rather fun, like stacking Lego™ bricks. Also, because all your content is stacked in stripes, this editor is perfect for building one-page websites. The concept of the XPRS editor is very similar to that of Strikingly, a website builder designed to create one-page websites.

Adding elements to your web page is easy – just click on the "+" sign, choose your stripe and it is ready for you to customize.

The XPRS editor comes with more fonts than the Classic editor. All of the fonts are modern and stylish.

Unlike the Classic editor, your page length auto-adjusts to accommodate your stripes and you can edit the page length simply by dragging the page height handles or by using the header or footer spacing editor.

The XPRS also comes with some neat customizations. For example, you can set the site menu as fixed, overlay, centered, side, hamburger or hidden.

Again, you can only embed a video from YouTube or Vimeo, you can't upload one directly from your computer. But unlike the Classic editor, you can access the stock image library (or Media Center) directly from the XPRS editor.

Like the Classic editor, the XPRS editor doesn't allow you access to edit the HTML/CSS codes. But you can add HTML code to your site header using the "Site Header code" editor – comes in handy for adding third-party apps such as Facebook tracking pixels.

It also lacks the undo or back button. So, if you need to remove an element, you will need to click on the delete button as well.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Features & Apps

Classic Editor

Probably the reason why IM Creator doesn't add much additional features to its editors is to reduce the learning curve for you. You do get all the basic tools.

Classic Editor

On the Classic Editor, you get the basic tools like adding images, text, image gallery, slideshow, contact form, HTML codes, menus, embed videos and add a limited number of widgets (such as Twitter feed, Google Maps, SoundCloud, Tumblr and Facebook buttons).

Adding storefronts and blogs is where the Classic Editor falls flat. There is no option to add an online store, not even within the available widgets. The only way to add a blog is via the Tumblr widget. This means you will need to already have an existing Tumblr blog.

As you can see, the features set of the Classic editor is pretty stripped down. Your website will look good, but it will also be awfully simple in functionality.

XPRS Editor

The range of features and tools you get on the XPRS editor is greater than that on the Classic editor.

On the XPRS editor, elements are added via stripes and the list of elements you can add to your web page is extensive.

In addition to the standard elements (ie. gallery, text block, forms, maps, etc.), you can also add pre-formatted text blocks (such as Services, Features, and Pricing), store, blog, social media buttons, call-to-action buttons and much more, and each with a variety of layout and styling options.

The eCommerce app is powered by ShopRocket. It is a simple shopping cart platform but it is relatively light-weight – it doesn't have powerful features of platforms like ECWID or WooCommerce. Also, the integration is rather confusing. For example, you need to login to ShopRocket to manage your products, including adding a product, setting prices, setting up payment gateways and shipping settings, etc. Also, ShopRocket comes with a 2% fee per transaction.

Adding a blog is also another one-click operation. But then it all gets a bit confusing. For example, to add a new post, you need to click on the "Add Post" button that is hidden inside the Blog Settings panel. And what this does is it adds a placeholder blog post onto your blog stripe. Next, you will need to click on the image, title and content separately to edit. The blog tool lacks typical blog features: no comments, no draft posts, etc. It seems that rather than create an actual blog tool, XPRS simply creates layouts of text and image blocks to mimic the look of a blog. If you are a blogger or need an easy-to-use but proper blogging tool, then Website.com and Wix would be a better website builder.

The form builder is also a little too simple – you can only add text and multi-line fields. There is no radio buttons, checkboxes, file uploads, etc. There is also no form data management as form submissions are sent to an email address and not saved anywhere else on the editor. You can edit the success message of a form, but you can't set a custom success page.

Other than the offered widgets and stripes, IM Creator doesn't offer support for other third-party apps.

Like the Classic editor, the XPRS editor doesn't allow you access to edit the HTML/CSS codes. But you can add HTML code to your site header using the "Site Header code" editor – comes in handy for adding third-party apps such as Facebook tracking pixels.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Working with Images

The Classic Editor comes with very limited image editing tools. You can replace the image, crop, enter a title, description and anchor information, add a Like button, and set the display ratio.

The XPRS Editor comes with a bit more image editing tools. In additional to replacing and cropping the image, you can also set filters, opacity and parallax options.

You also get a variety of gallery and slideshow layouts that can be further customized, including adding image hover effects.

While it can't compare to the advanced image editing options of Squarespace and Strikingly, it does offer more customization options than website builders such as Website.com and Weebly.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Mobile App

In addition to the Classic and XPRS editors, IM Creator also has the Self editor, an iPhone app that allows you to edit your XPRS website, upload photos and add blog posts.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Domains & Email

IM Creator's Free plan doesn't support custom domain names. Instead, you will be assigned a i-m.co/username/sitename directory name as your website's URL. In order to use a custom domain name on your website, you will need to subscribe to their Premium Plan. But unlike its competitors, IM Creator doesn't offer any free custom domain names. If you already have a domain name, you can simply link your website to your domain name during the publish site process. If you don't already own a domain name, IM Creator offers domain name registrations at $10/year.

And just like Wix and Squarespace, you get your own custom email address through Google Business Apps. While you have to pay extra for this with Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, the email service is included in your Premium subscription.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Support

IM Creator has a very comprehensive user manual for you to download in PDF format. The manual covers all functions within their Classic editor. Currently, there is no manual for the XPRS editor.

IM Creator also has the Frequently Asked Questions and How To's sections where you can search for more help articles. There is a community forum as well as a company blog covering various topics on website design, optimization and more.

And if you need further assistance, IM Creator also has a ticketing system where you can send their support team an email, along with any screenshots that describes your question or problem.

Unfortunately, IM Creator doesn't offer phone or live chat support.

Website Builder Review - IM Creator

Conclusion

So if you need a feature-heavy website or if you are looking for advanced features, then IM Creator may not be for you. Your better options would be Wix, Squarespace, Weebly or Website.com. But if you want a relatively basic website that looks stunning and professional, then you should give IM Creator a try.

What makes IM Creator different from the other website builders is that it lets you create a professional looking website quickly and easily. Their templates are gorgeous but their feature set is relatively weaker than the competition. IM Creator struggles particularly with blog and ecommerce features. IM Creator can work well for photographers, fashion & design related fields, musicians, weddings, hotels, and restaurants.

The IM Creator new XPRS editor is a good editor for building one-page websites and while it offers more customization options than Strikingly, a website builder designed specifically for one-pagers, Strikingly's Simple Blog and Simple Store apps offers better blogging and eCommerce functionality.