5 ms·

Show HN: Ready-made, Modular Landing Pages for Startups

55 points by colmtuite 13y ago

digitalengineer 13y ago
I like the idea very much and the fact it's self-hosted as well. Yeah, you could go with launchrock of a standard Bootstrap-carrousel page or a Wordpress template, but this is even simpler to deploy and allows for easy tweaking. Great for launch- and product pages and even small websites without a database and stuff. Did notice the button to 'video' doesn't work in Safari (6.05). Works fine in Chrome.
hannesfostie 13y ago
I betatested this. Even back then it was pretty solid. As you can tell by the landing page (eat your own dog food etc) it's drop dead gorgeous. It's easy to work with and contained a lot of modules. Took me about 30 minutes to put together a landing page. This is ideal for testing out those early ideas, or simply when you want to move ahead with a product without having to spend money or time on a landing page yet. Definately worth the money!
6thSigma 13y ago
Why should I spend $99 on this when I could spend $15 for a similar theme on ThemeForest or a site like that? (Not being snarky, I've never bought a theme on any of those sites and don't really know about how the licenses and stuff work.)
- digitalengineer 13y ago
  I think if you're a dev you're not really the target audience. Marketing and regular people are. (Or designers that can't code?)
  - markyc 13y ago
    actually, the offer here is raw html files which you need to edit manually, so it's not exactly out of the box either i can't see any difference between this theme and others from themeforest either
    - digitalengineer 13y ago
      No Wordpress, no database stuff to set up/maintain.
      - iancarroll 13y ago
        You must realize that ThemeForest doesn't just sell CMS themes, they sell HTML templates as well.
- colmtuite 13y ago
  Besides the improved visual design, the key difference with Modulz is that it's modular. Most themes come as full pages. If they don't suit, sometimes it can be hard to tailor them to your needs. There are also up to 17 different sections with Modulz, that's more than most thems ship with.
  - 6thSigma 13y ago
    Nice, thanks for the answer. Edit: So what is the license for this anyways? If I buy this, can I package it up and resell it? Can I use it for multiple clients?
    - colmtuite 13y ago
      You're free to use it for multiple websites or for multiple client sites. You can't package it up and resell it or share the files with someone else.
      - 6thSigma 13y ago
        Cool. You should put the license somewhere on the site. (If it's there, I didn't see it.)
aculver 13y ago
Any examples of what the "Skeuo" style looks like?
- colmtuite 13y ago
  Here's an image of the phlat button and the skeuo buttons side by side. http://i.imgur.com/3fDqmbz.png http://i.imgur.com/3fDqmbz.png Modulz ships with both styles anyway, so no need to worry :)
  - illyism 13y ago
    That's not skeuomorphic. It's just a few shadows. It doesn't imitate reality.
- colmtuite 13y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out, I'll upload one soon. For now, if you open dev tools on the Modulz site, go to the html element and change the "phlat" class to "glossy". Then you'll see the skeuo buttons.
sarbogast 13y ago
I'm sorry but the point still stands: excellent idea but the price gap is way too big with themeforest themes compared to the benefits. 50 bucks is the max I would set aside for this, and I consider it to be a lot.
- digitalengineer 13y ago
  I donno, Modulz looks well designed and built. I like the professional feel it provides. Hiring designer to build something similar would cost a lot more than 99 bucks. It's not that much to spend for someone who's serious about their startup and want something other than standard themeforst/bootstrap. (That is until everybody starts using this, I suppose by then there might be a lot more versions/tweaks).
- outside1234 13y ago
  I actually disagree as well. Sure, themeforest has themes, but this actually looks professional.
graycat 13y ago
Not joking: What's a "landing page"?
- colmtuite 13y ago
  A landing page is a marketing site. When startups want to launch their products, they build marketing sites to help advertise. Modulz is a collection of HTML website sections that you can customize and piece together to build your marketing site.
  - graycat 13y ago
    I'm building a Web site. What does a landing page have to do with the Web site? Is the landing page one of the pages at the site with the domain name of the site? Is the hosting the same as for the site? Does the landing page first exist before the site does, at the same time the site does, or only after the site does? Why isn't a landing page just one more page I could have at my site with the same domain name of my site? Does the landing page have links to the other pages of the site? In what sense is the landing page "marketing", keywords for search engines or search engine optimization (SEO) or something else? I understand the Web site I'm building but not landing pages -- trying to learn. I might need a landing page. So, if one reason someone might use my site is to learn about cooking, then maybe I will have a landing page intended just to attract (via search engines and keywords about cooking) users interested in cooking and from that landing page have a link to my site? In this case the landing page for cooking doesn't really tell the user much about cooking but just directs them to my site where they can learn more about cooking? And if my site is also of interest to people interested in classical music, then I might have a landing page just for users with that interest? Is that the idea? If so, then such a landing page might have difficulty doing well in page rank?
    - cocoflunchy 13y ago
      It's more of a very simple website that you are going to use before you have your actual website built, to gauge interest from potential users. Usually a 'landing page' consists of a big title / catchphrase, a few points of information about your upcoming product, and a box where you can fill in your email address if you want to subscribe to the mailing list to have more info later. Kind of like what http://launchrock.co/ http://launchrock.co/, but less minimalistic I guess.
ponyandtrap 13y ago
Nobody else think this design looks pony?
GrinningFool 13y ago
Style comments: * Assuming that dog food is consumed, do you offer landing pages without the 'scroll instead of load pages' behavior that's become [arguably] too common lately? * I understand the trend towards 'flat design', but to my inexpert eye there should be some indication that I can interact with an element - the buttons on the page and demo just look like colorful text blocks. Edit: moved this down, it's no longer relevant on second glance: I think the idea is good, and there's a need for such a service. There's just some that isn't clear. * What do I get by subscribing - unlimited sites? The rights to keep using the design I configured? * What if I just want one-and-done? EDIT: sorry, the video showed subscription in the walk-through, but this isn't something on the actual 'get modulz' page.
RogerL 13y ago
I would suggest the tag at the very bottom "Build a beautiful marketing site for your startup in minutes." is your biggest selling point, and so perhaps it belongs 'above the fold' so to speak (at the top). I would also like to see the 'beautiful' sites, and not watch a video or look at discrete elements like buttons. I'm not a customer, so don't put a ton of weight into those comments, but it's what immediately occurred to me when I went to look.
outside1234 13y ago
Great idea! (For those of you that didn't figure it out immediately either - click on the "eye" on the offers page to see what you get in both).
colmtuite 13y ago
We've decided to drop the prices based on feedback. Thew new prices are $49 and $79. Everyone who has purchased Modulz already will be refunded the difference.
- jpadvo 13y ago
  Beautiful design, and with the pricing change it is a great buy. One quick note -- when you click the eye buttons to see details, the old prices still show up.
  - colmtuite 13y ago
    Good spot. Thanks for pointing it out. It's fixed.
nodesocket 13y ago
Can we get another section, as feature in, or customers? I.E. logos of companies using the startup, or techcrunch, pandodaily, forbes, etc...
outside1234 13y ago
One question: If we launch with pack 1, can we "upgrade" to pack 1+2 when we want to go paid?
- colmtuite 13y ago
  Sure. Just shoot us an email at colm@modulz.co when you're ready to upgrade.
pbnjay 13y ago
Only 2 color schemes? Do I get an easy way to import my own too? Its beautiful but I'd rather not look like 50 other sites...
- colmtuite 13y ago
  There is currently no internal way to import your own color scheme. You can always override the CSS with your own colors. We have lots of extra features planned for the future including extra color schemes, custom color schemes, extra Modulz, web fonts, more customization options etc. If lots of people start using it, we will add new customization options very soon.
  - pbnjay 13y ago
    How many colors would I need to replace? We talking 10 minutes or a couple hours? I'll probably buy just cause I've been looking for something like this, but I'd like the path of least resistance. Great Product, Thanks.
    - colmtuite 13y ago
      It wouldn't take much work to override the base styles with your own colors. Shoot me an email at colm@modulz.co and I'll walk you through how to do it.
      - scottksmith95 13y ago
        A guide of this sort on your site would be amazing and help a lot more people.
zeckalpha 13y ago
> Choose between phlat or skeuo design styles. Both are skeumorphic and relatively flat. This is incorrect to suggest that the terms are mutually opposed.
epiddy 13y ago
Ok so it looks great in Chrome, but I fired it up in IE 10 and the first 2 pages "look" blank, if you didn't know to scroll down you'd think the page was blank. A template to be used for a landing page should be able to properly render in browsers. Just sayin...

55 points by colmtuite 13y ago

I like the idea very much and the fact it's self-hosted as well. Yeah, you could go with launchrock of a standard Bootstrap-carrousel page or a Wordpress template, but this is even simpler to deploy and allows for easy tweaking. Great for launch- and product pages and even small websites without a database and stuff. Did notice the button to 'video' doesn't work in Safari (6.05). Works fine in Chrome.

hannesfostie 13y ago

I betatested this. Even back then it was pretty solid. As you can tell by the landing page (eat your own dog food etc) it's drop dead gorgeous. It's easy to work with and contained a lot of modules. Took me about 30 minutes to put together a landing page. This is ideal for testing out those early ideas, or simply when you want to move ahead with a product without having to spend money or time on a landing page yet. Definately worth the money!

6thSigma 13y ago

Why should I spend $99 on this when I could spend $15 for a similar theme on ThemeForest or a site like that? (Not being snarky, I've never bought a theme on any of those sites and don't really know about how the licenses and stuff work.)

digitalengineer 13y ago
I think if you're a dev you're not really the target audience. Marketing and regular people are. (Or designers that can't code?)
- markyc 13y ago
  actually, the offer here is raw html files which you need to edit manually, so it's not exactly out of the box either i can't see any difference between this theme and others from themeforest either
  - digitalengineer 13y ago
    No Wordpress, no database stuff to set up/maintain.
    - iancarroll 13y ago
      You must realize that ThemeForest doesn't just sell CMS themes, they sell HTML templates as well.
colmtuite 13y ago
Besides the improved visual design, the key difference with Modulz is that it's modular. Most themes come as full pages. If they don't suit, sometimes it can be hard to tailor them to your needs. There are also up to 17 different sections with Modulz, that's more than most thems ship with.
- 6thSigma 13y ago
  Nice, thanks for the answer. Edit: So what is the license for this anyways? If I buy this, can I package it up and resell it? Can I use it for multiple clients?
  - colmtuite 13y ago
    You're free to use it for multiple websites or for multiple client sites. You can't package it up and resell it or share the files with someone else.
    - 6thSigma 13y ago
      Cool. You should put the license somewhere on the site. (If it's there, I didn't see it.)

aculver 13y ago

Any examples of what the "Skeuo" style looks like?

colmtuite 13y ago
Here's an image of the phlat button and the skeuo buttons side by side. http://i.imgur.com/3fDqmbz.png http://i.imgur.com/3fDqmbz.png Modulz ships with both styles anyway, so no need to worry :)
- illyism 13y ago
  That's not skeuomorphic. It's just a few shadows. It doesn't imitate reality.
colmtuite 13y ago
Thanks for pointing that out, I'll upload one soon. For now, if you open dev tools on the Modulz site, go to the html element and change the "phlat" class to "glossy". Then you'll see the skeuo buttons.

sarbogast 13y ago

I'm sorry but the point still stands: excellent idea but the price gap is way too big with themeforest themes compared to the benefits. 50 bucks is the max I would set aside for this, and I consider it to be a lot.

digitalengineer 13y ago
I donno, Modulz looks well designed and built. I like the professional feel it provides. Hiring designer to build something similar would cost a lot more than 99 bucks. It's not that much to spend for someone who's serious about their startup and want something other than standard themeforst/bootstrap. (That is until everybody starts using this, I suppose by then there might be a lot more versions/tweaks).
outside1234 13y ago
I actually disagree as well. Sure, themeforest has themes, but this actually looks professional.

graycat 13y ago

Not joking: What's a "landing page"?

colmtuite 13y ago
A landing page is a marketing site. When startups want to launch their products, they build marketing sites to help advertise. Modulz is a collection of HTML website sections that you can customize and piece together to build your marketing site.
- graycat 13y ago
  I'm building a Web site. What does a landing page have to do with the Web site? Is the landing page one of the pages at the site with the domain name of the site? Is the hosting the same as for the site? Does the landing page first exist before the site does, at the same time the site does, or only after the site does? Why isn't a landing page just one more page I could have at my site with the same domain name of my site? Does the landing page have links to the other pages of the site? In what sense is the landing page "marketing", keywords for search engines or search engine optimization (SEO) or something else? I understand the Web site I'm building but not landing pages -- trying to learn. I might need a landing page. So, if one reason someone might use my site is to learn about cooking, then maybe I will have a landing page intended just to attract (via search engines and keywords about cooking) users interested in cooking and from that landing page have a link to my site? In this case the landing page for cooking doesn't really tell the user much about cooking but just directs them to my site where they can learn more about cooking? And if my site is also of interest to people interested in classical music, then I might have a landing page just for users with that interest? Is that the idea? If so, then such a landing page might have difficulty doing well in page rank?
  - cocoflunchy 13y ago
    It's more of a very simple website that you are going to use before you have your actual website built, to gauge interest from potential users. Usually a 'landing page' consists of a big title / catchphrase, a few points of information about your upcoming product, and a box where you can fill in your email address if you want to subscribe to the mailing list to have more info later. Kind of like what http://launchrock.co/ http://launchrock.co/, but less minimalistic I guess.

ponyandtrap 13y ago

Nobody else think this design looks pony?

GrinningFool 13y ago

Style comments: * Assuming that dog food is consumed, do you offer landing pages without the 'scroll instead of load pages' behavior that's become [arguably] too common lately? * I understand the trend towards 'flat design', but to my inexpert eye there should be some indication that I can interact with an element - the buttons on the page and demo just look like colorful text blocks. Edit: moved this down, it's no longer relevant on second glance: I think the idea is good, and there's a need for such a service. There's just some that isn't clear. * What do I get by subscribing - unlimited sites? The rights to keep using the design I configured? * What if I just want one-and-done? EDIT: sorry, the video showed subscription in the walk-through, but this isn't something on the actual 'get modulz' page.

RogerL 13y ago

I would suggest the tag at the very bottom "Build a beautiful marketing site for your startup in minutes." is your biggest selling point, and so perhaps it belongs 'above the fold' so to speak (at the top). I would also like to see the 'beautiful' sites, and not watch a video or look at discrete elements like buttons. I'm not a customer, so don't put a ton of weight into those comments, but it's what immediately occurred to me when I went to look.

outside1234 13y ago

Great idea! (For those of you that didn't figure it out immediately either - click on the "eye" on the offers page to see what you get in both).

colmtuite 13y ago

We've decided to drop the prices based on feedback. Thew new prices are $49 and $79. Everyone who has purchased Modulz already will be refunded the difference.

jpadvo 13y ago
Beautiful design, and with the pricing change it is a great buy. One quick note -- when you click the eye buttons to see details, the old prices still show up.
- colmtuite 13y ago
  Good spot. Thanks for pointing it out. It's fixed.

nodesocket 13y ago

Can we get another section, as feature in, or customers? I.E. logos of companies using the startup, or techcrunch, pandodaily, forbes, etc...

outside1234 13y ago

One question: If we launch with pack 1, can we "upgrade" to pack 1+2 when we want to go paid?

colmtuite 13y ago
Sure. Just shoot us an email at colm@modulz.co when you're ready to upgrade.

pbnjay 13y ago

Only 2 color schemes? Do I get an easy way to import my own too? Its beautiful but I'd rather not look like 50 other sites...

colmtuite 13y ago
There is currently no internal way to import your own color scheme. You can always override the CSS with your own colors. We have lots of extra features planned for the future including extra color schemes, custom color schemes, extra Modulz, web fonts, more customization options etc. If lots of people start using it, we will add new customization options very soon.
- pbnjay 13y ago
  How many colors would I need to replace? We talking 10 minutes or a couple hours? I'll probably buy just cause I've been looking for something like this, but I'd like the path of least resistance. Great Product, Thanks.
  - colmtuite 13y ago
    It wouldn't take much work to override the base styles with your own colors. Shoot me an email at colm@modulz.co and I'll walk you through how to do it.
    - scottksmith95 13y ago
      A guide of this sort on your site would be amazing and help a lot more people.

zeckalpha 13y ago

> Choose between phlat or skeuo design styles. Both are skeumorphic and relatively flat. This is incorrect to suggest that the terms are mutually opposed.

epiddy 13y ago

Ok so it looks great in Chrome, but I fired it up in IE 10 and the first 2 pages "look" blank, if you didn't know to scroll down you'd think the page was blank. A template to be used for a landing page should be able to properly render in browsers. Just sayin...