Is it Safe, is it a Rip Off, is it a Scam? BoxedArt.com Review

BoxedArt Review by Rick Adams

Reviewing Template Sites: BoxedArt

There are a lot of choices and options for website design. Some sites are scams and offer bundles of downloads that you never get access to, some are rip offs and their downloads just cost way too much. We will be buying templates from multiple sites, and today we ask is BoxedArt a scam?

Testing the Site:

To test any site, we need to first make a purchase. So we made our way to BoxedArt.com's website, went through their sign up process, and placed an order. The below is our experience with BoxedArt.com.

Sign Up Page:

Options provided for “1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and 1 year” plans for “Personal Memberships” and “Developer Memberships”. They also have a free “favorites and todo list” account.”

The personal membership is for people building their own site, and the developer membership is for people building sites for their clients. I'm just ordering for my review, so I picked the cheapest option – the 1 month personal membership.

Next, I got the option to add other services including “Built2go.com, StockedPhotos.com, and Themestock.com”. Each one is another web designer resource. I skipped this step and went to checkout.

On the checkout page, there were two billing options: Paypal and Credit Card. According to BoxedArt's TOS, paypal is a recurring subscription, and Credit Card is a one off payment. Paypal is more convenient for me, so I picked that option, and then just cancelled my subscription through paypal after I made my order.

Sign Up Process Rating: 4.5/5

It was a clean and fairly easy process. The only nuisance was the upgrade offer, which might be useful to some people that want a discount on other design sites.

After the Purchase:

When I completed my order, I went to download one of Boxedart's featured jQuery Templates (it was the one with the windmills), and I got a message that I was “pending activation”, that stated BoxedArt was checking for credit card fraud on their site.

After that, I killed some time writing the first part of my BoxedArt review, which took about 25 minutes. By the time I returned I got an email about the account being active, and I downloaded about 10 templates right away. Cool beans.

After Purchase Rating: 4/5

I would have preferred to have instant access, but the wait wasn't long. I guess the site gets a lot of fraud orders submitted by phishing scams that rip off people and try to run their cards through on BoxedArt's site.

BoxedArt Customer Support:

After my first download, I made a test of the BoxedArt customer support. I made a support complaint that there were no fonts in my template download (which was true). About an hour and a half went by when I got a reply from BoxedArt's customer support ticket system.

BoxedArt's customer support stated:

“Thanks for your ticket. I reviewed this template, and it only uses standard windows fonts. They should all be installed in your computer by default. If you have any reason to believe otherwise, please let us know. Thanks.”

Looking through the PSD file, I saw they were right. The whole template only used Tahoma, so there was no need for the inclusion of fonts.

Customer Support Rating: 5/5

They answered fast, and even though I made a complaint about BoxedArt's templates that was wrong, they were still friendly.

BoxedArt.com Template Selection:

BoxedArt claims to have something like 6,000 of 7,000 designs. Not all of these items are web templates, and many are print items like brochures and flyers, etc. However, running an empty search for all products, the total number looks right on.

Template Selection Rating: 5/5

Thousands, just thousands of them.

BoxedArt Template Quality:

I learned through their blog that BoxedArt is an old site, about a decade old. Therefore, their template quality depends on how far back you look. They seem to have kept every template they ever made on their site, dating back to about the year 2000. Actually, that part was pretty cool, flipping through the pages, you saw how styles changed from one year to the next. The newest designs posted in the last few years are really hot, and are all decked out with jquery scripts and fx.

Template Quality Rating: 4.5/5

Great ones in recent years, old ones a long time ago. But since they were one of the first ones out there, it makes sense they would have old templates further back on the site. However, there are enough good templates that the old ones don't matter.

BoxedArt Membership Cost:

The price ranges from $39.99 to $149.99 depending on if you get a personal plan or a developer plan, and the term length you buy.

Cost Rating: 5/5

It is DIRT cheap, I've seen single templates that cost more than their all access plan. If you are a developer, you can use their templates for literally thousands of customers for the cost of dinner out.

BoxedArt Spam Score:

They have two newsletters. They have a weekly “template report”, that lists new items, and a “once in a while” newsletter for bigger events. So far, I've only received one template report. I also used a spam trap email that is used on BoxedArt's site only, so I would know if they sent other spam.

Spam Rating: 5/5

No spam from BoxedArt, just the newsletter I subscribed to. There is an opt out option in their account page.

Final Thoughts on BoxedArt

BoxedArt provided a safe shopping experience. Their product performed exactly as their site stated, and their support was friendly. There was a small wait for activation, however, considering the value provided by the website, it was well worth it. BoxedArt passes with flying colors and is not a scam.

BoxedArt HomePage: http://www.boxedart.com

User Ratings, User Feedback, and User Opinions on:
Is it Safe, is it a Rip Off, is it a Scam? BoxedArt.com Review

User Comments:

Donna k.
July, 20 2010
1:15 am

I LOVE BoxedArt. I have been a member for 7 years. It is the only design site I use.

Zregoo
July 21, 2010
5:09 pm

good review. i will try boxedart.

Xanty
July 25, 2010
3:22 pm

This is the best review I've seen on BoxedArt. I had questions about their subscriptions and signups. I always fear a scam on an unknown site. The advice about using paypal and cancelling the subscription was good, that is the way I am going to buy.

Carlcarlton
July 26, 2010
9:02 pm

Good job on your review, it was very thorough. I agree with your points. They have a big mix of templates, and the new jquery section is amazing. The oldest ones are really funny when you compare them. I found a blog post about the old ones, and I think it is the one you were talking about. I was surprised you didn't post a link. Here it is:

http://blog.boxedart.com/inspiration/a-template-design-retrospective-2001- %E2%80%93-2010

Rick Adams
July 27, 2010
8:15 am

Hi Carl, thanks for your post. Sorry for not posting the link. I didn't think it was relevant to the review, but yeah, the old ones are really, well old, and it looks like they keep them online for nostalgia, which is nice.