WP Profit Builder
Today Im taking a look at WP Profit Builder by Sean Donahoe
Astute readers will notice that this review is different than most others. Notice there is no pro / con section. There is no rating section. Also there is no approved / or disapproved stamp on the bottom of the article. Why? Well this review is unique among all of the reviews I have done in the past in that while I did get a review copy of this product I never got to test it. I never got to test it because I couldn’t get it to work. Well to be fair I could have gotten it to work, though it would have taken a decent amount of work from me, work that I know a lot of people would be unable or unwilling to do, so I did not do it either. Let me explain.
First before I dive into that to much I want to explain what Profit Builder is. WP Profit builder is a software that lets you build custom landing, squeeze, and sales pages on your WordPress site. It comes in two versions, as a theme and as a plugin. Also it comes with 60 premade templates and it promsses some advanced features. I did not consider this a competitor with my own SqueezeMatic software since SqueezeMatic is not a WordPress plugin.
I was impressed by a JV demo of this product and thought it might be something my readers could use. So I did what I always do. I asked for a review copy. The review access I was given was via a membership site. In my mind the plugin version is the most flexible and viable since you can use it on an existing website so I downloaded the plugin and went to installing it on my testing blog.
Right from the door I ran into a problem. You see this plugin is encrypted with ION Cube. What is ION Cube? Its a system for encrypting PHP code (and then decrypting it on the fly at run time). The reason to use ION Cube is so that people cant read your code and steal your functions. Basically its a copyright protection system. Unfortunately it can also cause some real problems for a lot of people.
For example I initially ran into a problem because this plugin was encoded with a version of ION Cube that requires PHP 5.3 , where my server is running PHP version 5.2.
Now I will be the first to admit that PHP 5.2 is a bit old. However several well known hosts still have PHP 5.2 set as the default PHP parser because a lot of other software that is still in use requires it. Upgrading the shard HostGator hosting that my blog is on is very easy. It can be done through cPanel in about 3 minutes. Because its simple I really did not think it would be a big problem for most users. So I upgraded my sites PHP version and went back to testing the plugin. Also I really did not have much choice at this point since I couldn’t uninstall the plugin, since the uninstall function is also encoded with ION Cube and thus would not run on my server unless I upgraded the PHP version.
Unfortunately this was not the end of my problems. You see in order for ION Cube to be decoded your host needs to have the ION Cube loader installed as a PHP extension. While most hosts will permit it to be installed on their servers a lot of hosts dont have it installed by default. You have to do it yourself.
Now ION Cubes website says that ‘most good hosts will have ION Cube’. Well some really big names dont have it installed by default. Some of these are HostGator, GoDaddy, DreamHost, 1and1 Hosting, BlueHost, iPage and several others. In fact based on my research most of the top hosting company’s dont have ION Cube. While these hosts normally will let you have it, they dont have it installed by default. That’s up to you.
Also ION Cube itself is not going to be much help at all with getting it installed. They seem to think that its your hosts responsibility to instruct you on how to install their software. Nice attitude ION Cube.
No I’m a fairly adept person when it comes to technical things and I’m quite sure that I can install ION Cube loader on just about any host I will say that for the novice it can be a real pain. While for some hosting company’s its just an annoyance on others its a bit difficult. Here is what DreamHost has to say about installing the ION Cube loader for example:
Is this software really worth the trouble? Well there are a lot of other page builders out there that don’t require all of this work just to get installed so Im not so sure it is.
At this point I decided to contact Dylan Kingsberry the affiliate manager for this launch and let him know about my concerns that people are going to have trouble with this being encoded with ION Cube.
He indicated that they are having trouble with ION Cube as well and will be removing it. This made me quite happy since I’m sure its going to be an issue for a decent portion of the people who buy this product.
I asked him to send me an unencrypted version of this plugin once it was ready so I could proceed with my normal product testing routine. However after a couple of days waiting I still did not get it. So I contacted Dylan again and asked him if he had it ready for me yet. The answer I got was, disappointing.
So here we are back to where we started now. Only now Im aware that the creators of this plugin not only know that ION Cube can cause problems for people trying to install this software, I know that they also had problems with it themselves. As a software developer myself I totally understand the desire that they have to protect their work however the steps they take to do it should not cause the user a hardship. The customer must always come first and ease of use (including installation) is very important. ION Cube is not required to make this software work. It has no functional value. Its just a security encryption that they chose to implement.
So what is my final opinion on this product? Well honestly I dont have one. I never got to test it (even though I do have a copy). Quite frankly installing ION Cube on my server would be a real pain, even for someone who understands the technical aspects (like myself). I will make this suggestion though. If you choose to purchase this product do not do it as an impulse buy. First make sure your server is going to be able to run the ION Cube loader. To do this your host will need to be running PHP version 5.3 at least. Your host will also need to have the ION Cube loader extension installed or if it does not it will need to allow you to install it yourself. If you need to install it yourself I would also check to see what is involved with installing it before you make your purchase. Once you know your running the correct version of PHP and know you either have the ION Cube loader or are comfortable with installing it on your host, you can then start to consider if this product is worth buying.
UPDATE: The ION Cube requirement has been REMOVED from this product! While I wont claim that this decision was made primarily because of my article Id like to think that it was made at least in part because of it. Either way though the important thing is that it has been removed. As such this article no longer applies to this product.
A quick note about the reviews I do on this site. The product vendors give me access to their products for free in order for me to do my review. However I make no promises to them regarding the results of my tests or what I will write in my review. Should you click a link that takes you to a sales page for a paid product for sale this link will be an affiliate link and I will be paid a percentage of the sales price should you decide to invest in it.
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Thanks Brett,
I had that problem with some other wso’s and hope to not have it again.
I also had some setbacks with app purchased from Sean’s affil link.
It took many a steps to get a refund.
In addition, I was scolded by app creator for not being technically astutte.
Did not have much help from Sean either.
Thanks anyway
Hey Brett,
Thanks again SO much for the time and effort you take to review products and give us your honest feedback.
Greatly appreciated, and refreshing 🙂
Hi Brett,
I just checked my hosting account at HostGator (basic shared hosting account), and it shows PHP 5.4 and ionCube Loader 4.4.3 on the server. Other plugins from Sean have required ionCube Loader, and they have worked fine on HostGator, so this new WP plugin should work too. I have hosting at GoDaddy and they do not have ionCube Loader by default, so they are probably not a good choice if someone plans to obtain WP Profit Builder.
Thanks for the update Patrick, Im glad that you wont have problems with this. Just a FYI, my own shared hosting with HostGator does not have ION Cube loader by default. HostGator has more then one data center so it might depend on what one your domain is on? Im not sure. Thats why I suggest that everyone make sure they are not going to have an issue with this plugin before they consider buying this product.
I did find an article that tells how to enable IonCube with HostGator so with them it might be installed but just not enabled by default (it does seem easy to activate according to this article), or perhaps its just that I have had this hosting account for a long time and they only started supporting it after I got this account. Either way I do know for sure that I use HostGator for my blog and I dont have it.
Also I want to be clear that Im not endorsing OR not endorsing WP Profit Builder (because I could not test it). Im just letting everyone know that you need to make sure the ION Cube encryption is not going to be a problem before you consider buying.
Hi Brett, man what a pain, I was going to promote this, but not worth the risk of refunds, Hell I barely know what the words ION Cube means, and for most people same boat. Thanks again for sharing your honest experience trying to test product.
thanks brett for the review, , great to know about that. ..
Hi Brett
Thanks for pointing this out.Good to know you got our backs.
Thanks – it does look a good product but now I’m not sure lol
I agree it does look interesting. You still might consider it, however before you do, you should check your PHP version and also make sure that you either have the ION Cube loader extension OR you are going to be comfortable installing it. Once your sure of those things, then you can think about buying this plugin.
Thanks for the review Brett, or not review 🙂 My mentor always advised against using ION Cube for wordpress plugins due to the amount of support issues it causes. I guess this proves him right.
Brett,
I am not sure if Lead Pages at $67/month is driving this flood of page builders onto the market?
There are so many to choose from, so we don’t need to consider a plugin that will not work right out of the box or one that we need a special setting to operate. Squeezmatic seems to work fine and Shane Melaugh has just released his Thrive Content Builder that also works great. Enough with the page builders already.
And many thanks for your “non-review”.
Jeff B.
hey, is this the same as php soap? I bought one program and ipage doesn’t support this? I have to look for another hosting plan that does….thanks,
No its not the same. SOAP is a web transfer protocol. Its likely that whatever program you are using needs it so it can use a third party API. Most servers are going to support SOAP.
Good to know your opinion on WP Profit Builder so thanks Brett. I joined Seans Innercircle membership I did read on the group that monthly members get the product free.
In any case best hosting is hosting managed by a internet marketer . I have loaded INNER CIRCLE plugins therefore I assume my hosting is suited as an internet marketer knows what it takes to keep a website performing the way it should. I trust in that.
Hey there,
As the creator of the tool let me just cover a few things. Most good hosts have ioncube installed by default. Hostgator, Coolhandle, and many other shared hosts do. In fact 99% of good hosts do and we have used IonCube on all of our plugins for the last 2 years without many issues at all.
The only issue we had was stopping some blackhatters trying to steal the product before launch. This is why we were looking at alternatives.
However, 99% of all good hosts have it, and the ones that don’t usually install it for you (its 1 click on most systems). We even have as part of our training on how to check if you do have it and what is needed to be done if you have to ask your host.
If you don’t have it installed (as I say most do) then our plugin will let you know and it wont “Break” your site. The version Brett was trying was a beta test version.
In all honesty, the ones that make it complicated are very lazy hosts. Dreamhost is on my list of “Do not Use” because they really don’t help the customers at all.
We have details on how to quickly and easily make sure it is all set up nicely and once you see the power of ProfitBuilder you will see its as easy as it seems.
If you run into issues with IonCube, just ask your host as it is a staple used on most commercial plugins and software. If they don’t help, it may be time to look for a new host 😉
All the best
Sean
As I said I totally understand your desire to protect your software. However there are a couple of things that I noticed about the post you just made.
1) “99% of good hosts do”.
This is not accurate at all. Well I guess it ‘could’ be accurate since it uses the word ‘good’ and one can say only good hosts have ION Cube. More accurate would be to say that most hosts support it (allow it). Many dont have it active by default.
2) “We even have as part of our training on how to check if you do have it”
This is backwards. I say people should 1st make sure they are going to be able to run ION Cube and then 2nd consider buying your plugin. (in fact saying that is the point of the article)
3) “If you run into issues with IonCube, just ask your host as it is a staple used on most commercial plugins and software. If they don’t help, it may be time to look for a new host”
ION Cube is used by most commercial plugins and software? Are you kidding? I guess ‘most’ is a subjective word. But ION Cube isnt that popular, especially for plugins.
Anyway as I have said, I dont approve or disprove this product. I do however strongly suggest that people make sure they have the proper PHP version and ION Cube loader available to them BEFORE they purchase, not after.
Great work – thanks Brett. I’ve had numerous problems with Sean’s stuff over time and much of it due to ION Cube.
Sounds like they’re going to have a lot of refunds. I agree with Brett … All of that security for a squeeze page builder is not necessary.
🙂
Thanks Brett. I am with Go Daddy and have run into Ion Cube before and the instructions were so extensive that there was no way that I was figuring it out, I was looking forward to checking it out, but now I won’t.
Kim, exactly that was the issue why I cancelled my GoDaddy account. The instructions did not work for installing ionCube and support was of no help. I am happy with my new hoster now and am looking forward to this plugin.
Thanks again for your honest advice re this offering.
You are part of a rare breed that only recommends what is a good buy.
Most others are only concerned with the return they will get from recommending a product.
Thinking of themselves and not the people on their list.
Again, I really appreciate your honesty 🙂
Q: What do you get when you combine a genius marketer and a snake oil salesman?
A: The creator WP Profit Builder.
Useful to read and see.for us mortals who are not technical ,can some send link on how to do ion and let us see if this really tricky or give us list of other domains companies that are tested before and worked in the past.
i was thinking of this useful tool and saw demo ,but if this takes me more than 4 hours trying to get this to work may not be work for me or others .
thanks jv
4 hours! Your a lot more patient than I am 🙂 If your willing to spend 4 hours installing a WordPress plugin then I think you should be fine with this one.
Just got this email from Sean who launched WP Profit Builder.
We just released an update 1.1.3 for ProfitBuilder that makes
adaptions for more restrictive hosts.
We have also removed IonCube as a requirement, so if you have
any issues with IonCube, redownload and you will be all set 😉
To get the update just go to your plugins and click “Check for Updates”
on ProfitBuilder and you should see the update to apply.
So the requirement for ionCube Loader has been removed.
Good news for everybody!!
Yep I just got done chatting on Skype with them about this. Im actually in the process of reviewing it right now 🙂
Probably I’m on the other side with this 🙂
I think it’s a good plugin – I’m currently “playing” with it – and so far have had no issues…
Marian
Now that they have removed the encryption I have tested it myself. I agree it is a good plugin. This article was not a review of the plugin it was a warning about ION Cube. However they removed that so this no longer applies.
So, now that the ION Cube issue is resolved, how about someone answering these question re: WP Profit Builder:
What makes it better than other landing page builders?
Since it is a plugin, how much will it slow site loading times?
No one can answer your first question. Since you just say ‘other landing page builders’. You dont give anything specific that you want to compare to.
For your second question technically yes it will slow site load times, but this is the technical answer, the slowdown will be measured in milliseconds so practically, from a users perception it will not like cause a slow down that can be noticed.
OK… how, specifically, does it compare to your SqueezeMatic? Based on your reviews, I’m confidant you can be objective, Brett.
… and any thoughts right now, as a marketing genius strategy, on making SqueezeMatic available for sale at a discount for the next few days to your subscribers?
Ha. Well thats not fair. Of course Im going to say mine is better 🙂 .. But in honesty this is a WP plugin which makes it a lot more convenient for heavy WordPress users where as SqueezeMatic is not a WP plugin (though we do have a plugin add on to pull in your pages) The advantage of this over SM is that you can put the plug in on your clients pages and let them do edits themselves if they like. With SM you cant do that since the pages are built in our members area.
However SqueezeMatic does come with more templates and has more features. It also lets you put pages on Facebook and has a better drag and drop functionality.
What Im trying to get your to understand is that there is no better as a general rule. Its what is better for YOUR needs. Here is another example. I am really into motorcycle riding. I ride a GSXR 600, this is a sports bike, its fast, corners well, and has fantastic handling, on a country road going 2x the speed limit, riding it feels like flying. My friend however rides a Goldwing. Its big, heavy, but very comfortable on long distance rides. Its not designed to ride fast a furouse for 2-3 hours at a time its designed to be a tour bike, to sit on 12 hours a day travel the country. So which bike is better? Neither! Because they are both well suited for their application. It all depends on what you want to do.
I hope this clears things up. Basically dont ask generally which is better, ask what do I want to do, which is better for me.
PS) No we wont be offering any more specials on SqueezeMatic. At least not in the near future. We ran specials for all of August.
You know I also purchased this product and one of the OTOs, but over all I have not really been able to use the product, I have it but so far its not really that impressive, I am hoping that they make it a better product as they promised, but I am not holding my breath, one thing I will say is that if they do not keep their word on this product I will not be making any future purchases from this Guru.
As a product reviewer I always try to have a neutral perspective, as such I have to comment on what you just said. You just complained that its ‘not really impressive’ yet you admit you have ‘not really used it’. I would suggest that you might not really be the best person to comment on a software’s functionality considering you didn’t even really use the software. As for the comment ‘they do not keep their word on this product’, that’s far to vague to have any credibility. While I thank you for your feedback I would like to point out that we try to keep our discussions productive and useful here. Cutting down a product that you have not even used and giving negative feedback feedback with no description is not productive.
Hey Brett. I know this is a little late in the game for this software but I can tell you that there are impressive things about this, as it build some pretty nice websites and pages, but there are several very annoying issues that keep popping up with this that have quite literally stalled out my website completion. I do have my website live, but have not promoted it in any way. Most of the issues deal with certain plugins NOT working with the theme, including those that come in the second OTO from Sean. I spent a pretty good some of money when it was all said and done to have what seems to me like a great piece of software to allow me to quickly put up my product site and have all of the bells and whistles I needed. I, having been in website development for several years, have spent most of my time finding work arounds for most of the issues I have had. I have had my share of tickets in to Sean’s support desk, with the only resolutions being what I have resolved myself with work arounds. I am impressed with the templates and the looks and functionality you can potentially add to your page to create very unique looks and navigation. The potential of great websites and sales pages is there ten fold. Only thing I am not impressed with is that there are a lot of little annoying issues that don’t seem to be getting resolved very quickly and there has only been one update that seems to have wiped out my ability to use the shortcode left side bar when editing my page. If they can get some of these little annoyances and hiccups fixed, it will build a lot more of my money sites for sure.
Oh, by the way, the installation was pretty dang easy and I had no issues with that part, thank goodness, and I am on HostGator.
I just happened onto this forum as I was looking to see if anyone else out there has had as much trouble with PB as I have. Bought it in Oct/14 and have spent way more time generating and following up on tickets than actually building my sites. I didn’t have any Ion Cube problems (didn’t even know what it was) fortunately, but have had tons of other trouble. Can’t control fonts/colors. Various features on various elements don’t work. Text spacing/bolding/underlining not working. But the worst,… I have PB on three domains and two of them have been hacked/destroyed in the last couple of weeks (according to Blue Host’s tech guys – who are really good)! Their best guess is simply that PB and all the various plugins (I’ve got the “Ultimate Bundle” BTW) have way too many security issues – way too easy to be hacked. I’m about to the point where I have to consider all this PB stuff as “Unusable”. Wish I could get my money back, but we know that’s not going to happen. I think Sean took advantage of us by selling us a bunch of stuff that wasn’t done yet, not properly tested, and not written with top security in mind (against hacking – not protecting his code). BTW – I’m a retired Software Engineer – 20 years with GE – I know all about bugs and testing,… Brett, I appreciate your work here for having the chance to tell others about my experiences with this product. But sadly, it’s been mostly BAD experience.
You should not report a ‘security’ issue about someones product that is based on a 3rd party’s, ‘best guess’. If your going to degrade someone else in public it should be based of facts and not guesses. For the other issues in your report though, thank you for taking the time to share with us.
The last version give me a white screen… I was forced to reinstall the older one to have my site come back. I don’t know if it’s because we use french WordPress or if it’s a bug in the plugin, but it’s not funny at all….
Did you hit up their support?
Hello Sylvie,
I had the same problem with white screen frozen. The solution to the problem is that I uninstalled completely the plugin and its files. Then I reinstalled it directly by WP with the zip file. (do not do it by FTP, otherwise it does not work, why?). And then when I turned it on it worked!
I have noticed recently my tickets got deleted. I see their submission, I get confirmation email but a day or two later they are not documented on helpdesk. They say they merged them but I still didn’t find my inquries.
@Brett How does this plugin work for you? Do you know if plugin offers “radio button” for choices selection on opt-in form?
Thanks
Well as I said in the article, I did not do extensive testing of this.
Hi, i tried so hard to find a way how to activate Profit builder.
I did all what i can but, i am still can’t activate it,.
Anybody can help me on it? Already paid 67.5USD and i only see more buttons asking to pay again and again.
Thanks in advance
Vi
So how does this plugin work now? The Inner Circle is still there for $47/mo with a LONG list of advantages if you upgrade.
Brett Rutecky is a perfect example of how you make money online. He’s honest, funny, respectful and misspells words!! He has a huge following because people can “feel” him.
🙂 thanks for the kind words .. for the review though, that one is quite old (4 years is forever in internet time), Im not sure if they are still supporting the product honestly.