Author and poet, Paul Cookson, said that “websites will promote you 24/7. No employee will do that.” His point is that because your website is promoting you 24/7, it needs to be clean, user-friendly, and up-to-date at all times. That starts with having the right website design. The trouble with website design is that if you get it professionally done, you’re likely to spend quite a bit of money, not to mention that custom-built websites take time.

Template Monster is a website that provides customers with website templates. If you’re starting a new business, or just looking to design a new website, it’s tempting to go the quick route and purchase a template. Although templates are a useful way to get started, it’s always wise to first have a full understanding of the product you intend to purchase. Sometimes professional services may make more sense, especially if you’re not much of a coder.

About Template Monster

Template Monster is a depot of website templates, founded by David Braun in May 2002. He is the current CEO, and the company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Since its inception, Template Monster has partnered with Magento, Drupal, WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomla, WooCommerce and more.

According to the website, the company has serviced over 1 million clients. In addition to website templates, Template Master offers installation, hosting, customization, and SEO copywriting. The company also has a professional blog to keep clients up-to-date on new website designs, news, infographics, and discounts.

Unfortunately, something the company doesn’t offer is additional scripts to go with the code of the website templates. Things like newsletter subscriptions, search fields, forums, and image galleries are inactive. You would have to write or obtain additional scripts to activate those functions.

Template Selection

Template Monster offers more website designs than any other online company with over 20,000 to choose from. There are several types to choose from, as well. The company offers:

Many of the flash templates come with non-flash versions so that you can incorporate flash style without the animation. Once you decide on the design and flash style, you can choose between standard text templates and commerce templates.

The commerce templates cost more than regular templates. However, they are complex and come with a lot of features. Those templates are specifically designed for online stores, and they include several content pages, shopping cart availabilities, and different PHP configurations.

The company recently rolled out a turnkey package which includes not only the template, but also an editor, a domain name, hosting, email, and other features. This package is great for small businesses launching their first website. It includes three hours of webmaster assistance a month, access to stock images, 24/7 support, and unlimited email accounts.

The templates are well-designed, and look fantastic. You can customize each design to fit your needs, and you can even purchase them for exclusive use, meaning that Template Monster will remove the template from their online choices available to other users. This allows your website to remain fresh and unique.

Prices

The price for each template varies based on the level of detail, and whether it is a unique price or a non-unique price. Prices start at around $45 and go up to about $200. Unique prices could cost more, depending on the options that you choose.

Prices are also based on the partner you choose to work with. For example, WordPress themes typically run about $75, but PrestaShop themes – which include e-commerce options – run about $140.

Customer Support

Template Monster offers customer support through an online help center with FAQ’s, online chat, and free sample templates to try out the product before deciding to buy. It also provides help ticket system, a complaint form, and a wish box. It doesn’t have a phone number listed on its website, which is a bit unusual for a company of this size.

FAQs

Here are a few of the FAQs that Template Monster answers on its website.

[+] What are the advantages of purchasing a website template?

According to Template Monster, the main advantage is that you can get a high-quality website design for cheaper than paying a web designer or studio. The other advantage is the time it takes to set up a template. It would take a professional anywhere from 5-15 days to design and implement the website coding. A template is plug-and-play.

[+] What do you receive when you order a template from TemplateMonster.com?

After you complete payment through the company’s secure server, you will receive the instructions for downloading the product that you purchased. The download package will vary based on the type of product purchased.

[+] What am I allowed and not allowed to do?

The template allows you to build a website, using the template any way you’d like. You cannot resell or redistribute the templates, claim intellectual or exclusive ownership to any of the Template Monster products, modified or unmodified, or make more than one project with the same template.

Competitor Comparison

One of Template Monster’s main competitors is Web.com. The company is one of the oldest website building companies in the industry, which makes it pretty formidable competition. Web.com offers many of the same features as Template Monster, but it only has about 10,000 templates whereas Template Monster has 20,000.

After Web.com, the next company that competes directly with Template Monster is GoDaddy. GoDaddy only has a little more than 800 templates, which is a far cry short of what Template Monster offers, but the company does make up for that with over 20,000 images in the image library. That really gives owners a lot of leeway when designing their content. However, GoDaddy’s interface isn’t as user-friendly as some of the other websites out there.

Most of the other competitors out there pale in comparison to the number of templates that Template Monster makes available. And, the company’s willingness to sell exclusive rights to its template to one owner puts Template Monster a step above the competition. Not to mention its pricing is competitive, and it offers excellent support options to its clients.

The one area that most of Template Monster’s competitors excel is in the refund department. Many of other template website builders offer reasonable refunds if the product doesn’t turn out the way the customer envisioned. Template Monster is quite adamant that refunds are not issued unless the situation matches on of the company’s exceptions. However, with well-crafted templates and a plethora of resources, you should never need a refund.

Conclusion

Template Monster has a lot to offer new businesses looking for a quick, inexpensive way to set up a website. With over 20,000 templates to choose from, you can create a unique web experience for your visitors. The company offers you to try a sample template so you can see how everything works before making a purchase. Template Monster also has resources in place to assist you should something go wrong, and it has a number of support options when resources fail to do the trick.

Template Monster offers more templates at affordable prices than any other website building company out there. The number of templates available primes Template Monster to prepare your website quickly and conveniently. It makes getting your business up and running faster and easier. Not even a professional website designer can match Template Monster’s turnaround time. Template Monster is leaps and bounds ahead of its competition in that regard.