Anyone tried or is using Awiz?

[jorgebianco]

Hi, based on what I read in another post, I'm planning to buy Awiz to develop a new paysite from zero. I checked their site and it looks very competitive (79 euros, one time fee, for the basic version, upgradeable).

I was just wondering if any of you tried it or is using it. If so

- how does it work?
- the 79 euros is all, or there are hidden charges?
- does it offer a good variety of templates for the design?
- is it easy to set up?

Your opinions are more than welcome.

Thanks!

[Paul]

I have the gold edition of AWiz.
The install went fine without any major issues. There was some confict between CCBill and AWiz with regard to the HTACCESS file but that was fixed within 20 minutes.
The templates that come with the script are not great but are totally customizable. The instruction book is okay but very basic at best. You will find the most usefull information on the support forums or by e-mail with tech support.
The security functions in AWiz are okay at best. AWiz does not play well with Strong Box (which I absolutely love) but can be fixed by turning off some mods and reconfiguring the rewrite mod.

Luke used AWiz for a while over a number of sites and may have a different opinion or be able to offer more insight.

[jorgebianco]

Thanks a lot, Paul.

I don't use CCBill but Verotel, and Pennywize instead of Strongbox (though I've been thinking a lot moving to Strongbox). But I assume integration will be worked out somehow.

You are supposed to have paid 199 euros for the gold edition. Was that all? No further or hidden charges?

Thanks again :)

[basschick]

a few years ago, i had gotten the entry level awiz, then paid $30 per hack for a couple hacks - which, btw, they completed very quickly. in my expereince, it's a good program, and a good value.

it didn't offer any templates, but then i don't think most cms's do. the awiz guys set the program up for me as their default. for a reasonable fee - their fees are all quite reasonable, btw - they'll probably integrate your current design or a new design. or you could easily learn to do it yourself.

i didn't use their security, btw, i used strongbox.

[Paul]

I had the same as Bass.
There were two very minor changes I wanted done. It cost like $50 for both and they literally were finished the next morning when I got up. ( the awiz guys are in the Netherlands so 5 hours ahead of me)

The advantage for me to get the gold was (just in case) to run more tha 1 site and I really wanted to have the model bio pages. In the grand scheme of things looking back at how much I have spent on other software, cameras, DV tapeslights, external hard drives, hosting, models, and travel; the $450 was a drop in the bucket.

One of the many things that I would do different if starting a new site is to get the AWiz up front and all configured BEFORE I told anyone about the site or spent a lot of time coding everything in Dream Weaver. Once your content is in the AWiz database you can make all the changes to the look of the site very easy. I'm sure that other CMS is the same but as a totally new webmaster that knew less than crap I didn't know about CMS when I started out.


Thanks a lot, Paul.

I don't use CCBill but Verotel, and Pennywize instead of Strongbox (though I've been thinking a lot moving to Strongbox). But I assume integration will be worked out somehow.

You are supposed to have paid 199 euros for the gold edition. Was that all? No further or hidden charges?

Thanks again :)

[jorgebianco]

Thanks, Paul and Patti.

I'm starting an entirely new site, so I'm gonna take Paul's advice on starting it with Awiz from the beginning.

Then, once I get familiar with Awiz, I will see if I can also integrate my current site (authenticfootballers) through them.

I also did not know the existance of cms and now AF is too big to be moved to a new platform. But may be it can be done anyway.

Thanks for your opinions!