If you’re like me, you have probably wasted hundreds of hours of your life trying to fix glitches in your CSS-based designs. Cross-browser issues, alignment issues, and various CSS bugs like the IE peekaboo bug, make standards-based design a massive headache.
Some time ago I learned about two new services that offer outsourced CSS/XHTML coding. This was a pretty interesting concept and so I took both for a test drive. They both essentially convert your design from a PSD (Photoshop), Adobe Illustrator, JPG, or any type of “flat” file into standards-based CSS and XHTML. If you’ve ever “sliced” up a design into tables (back when that was the norm) – you get an idea of what these services do. But proper CSS/XHTML is quite a bit more complicated than slicing a design into tables, so it’s imperative to know what you’re doing to get cross-browser compatible, valid, accessible code.
Basically these services take the economies of scale approach to outsourced semantic coding. Since these people are pros and do it full time, they can crank out very good code in a lot less time than it would ordinarily take you.
Here’s an overview of the two services:
XHTMLized
XHTMLized is a network of 12 coders from 7 different countries who share the workload for the service.
- Time to completion: 7 days.
- Included:
- Support for all major browsers – IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Mozilla, etc.
- SEO-friendly code
- Accessibility compliant
- Pricing: $149 for 1 page, $259 for 2 pages, $359 for 3 pages, $439 for 4 pages, $499 for 5 pages, etc.
- Payment terms: Pay via paypal or moneybookers once work is completed. If you’re not happy with the quality of the work, you don’t pay.
My experience: The process took 1.5 days or approximately 36 hours from the time I submitted the work to the time it was emailed back to me. I needed a few tweaks that I had not specified originally and they were happy to oblige. Once again the work was delivered back very quickly – within hours. Total cost was $149 for one main page and another slightly modified version of the same page. The code was everything they promised (seo, cross-browser, lightweight, etc.) and worked well in IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. The CSS was well commented.
PSD2HTML
PSD2HTML is a single company (as opposed to a distributed group of coders) that offers 3 different levels of markup: basic, professional, and high-end. They offer a menu of options in addition to the three levels such as “optimize for load speed” and “implement dynamic menus”. They make it very easy to contact them via email and every type of instant messaging service available and offer expedited and weekend work options (at a premium, I’m sure).
- Time to completion: 8 hours, sometimes longer depending on workload (12-16 hours)
- Included:
- Varies depending on level. See site for details. All include IE and Firefox compatibility.
- Pricing: $117 for basic, $153 for professional, $211 for Hi-End. Each additional page is 50% off.
- Payment terms: Work is paid up front via 2Checkout.com. There is a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied.
My experience: The process took 24 hours from when they received the order, 36 hours from when I actually placed it (which was in the evening at 8PM EST). The communication was good during and after delivery. The CSS/XHTML code was lightweight and efficient and worked well in IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. I opted for the professional level of markup and received everything as promised. My total cost: $243 for 2 pages.
Overall, I was very pleased with both services – they both produced excellent code and delivered everything they promised within a very short amount of time. Personally I think PSD2HTML offers too many options and levels, but some people might like that. Also, on the business end, I think the XHTMlized business model might do better since it’s distributed and can scale a bit more as needed. I for one am very happy that these services are available – they will help me save a lot of time and avoid all the aggravation that comes with trying to create valid, cross-browser-friendly, accessible code.
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Thank you for your post and seeing the value.
Let me make a couple of comments /clarifications on http://www.psd2html.com
“Time to completion”: This is the time per page. Usually a primary page takes 8 hours; secondary pages take 2 times less.
“Sometimes longer depending on workload (12-16 hours)”: We always make sure our customers see probable timeline adjustments (up to 12-16 working hours) before they post the order.
“Business model”: psd2html’s business model allows reaching high quality and tight timelines by having all its employees in-house. It ensures effective management, regular trainings for markup developers and strong quality assurance process.
In order to improve customer experience we launched a ticket system (www.psd2html.com/client-area.html) where customers can track all their orders and requests; see all their psd2html-related communication in one place.
I wish I had come across this post about 3 months ago!! It would’ve saved me endless amounts of heartache when trying to launch our new site as a XHTML-compliant beast. Instead we got a designer who said he knew how to do XHTML (but clearly didn’t – although I could tell that already when I hired him). After 3 months of revisions to the code however, I’m starting to think this service would have been a potentially better option. Someone who really knows what they’re doing is inevitably faster.
I’ll be giving xhtmlized & PSD 2 HTML a trial for sure.
Hey, you’ve got a nice blog by the way. Nice style of writing; good opinions. I was at Pubcon Vegas last week too – bummer we didn’t bump into each other.
Apparently there’s also a company called psdxhtml.com (without the “2″) but I will not be linking to them since they basically tried to submit a long advertisement for their service via the comments here.
Sorry but trying to advertise without adding anything to the conversation is comment spam in my book.
I had the same problems trying to do the CSS myself. Cross browser was a bummer … I eventually found this company and I await the result. I found it hard to contact them on the messanger service they advertise and they would not answer questions there sort of leaving me feeling i had to buy the product then talk to them but for the money involved i will give them a spin… Others might not and might want to talk . It appear to me to be no frills coding , lets hope despite the no frills its top css …
Which company are you referring to David?
I took a look at the markup for one of the sites designed by PSD2HTML, and they used images for rounded DIV corners. I thought to myself “what can you expect?”
I just checked out the XHTMLized websites they have created, and I must say, the markup looks very clean. Impressive, overall.
PSD2HTML.com gave us a fantastic service with our recent order. We will definitely be using them in the future for this. The conversion from the png file to css and xhtml is perfect.
Great job! The customer service is solid throughout the process and the final product was just as I designed. Thanks for the help, I will be placing another order soon.
I used PSD2HTML recently during the redesign of our website which is due to launch at the end of March 2007. As a web design agency, we needed a website which was fully standards-compliant, well coded and well-structured. PSD2HTML delivered a near-pixel-perfect conversion in a very short timescale. Their code was well commented and easy to follow. I am currently plugging the template into my Code Igniter framework and its goimng very smoothly.
The fact that they offer so many different options means that I can use PSD2HTML for most of my clients, whether they need maximum compatibility and Strict DocType etc, or just a simple conversion of a template.
I havent tried XHTMLized but would highly recommend PSD2HTML as they delivered a top-class product within a very short space of time which makes it very easy to manage this phase of the web development lifecycle for each client.
I will be using PSD2HTML again for my future projects, although I’m sure i’ll be checking out the alternatives, if only to make sure i have my bases covered.
I wanted to convert our site at http://www.vibracious.com from table based html to straight css. I even bought a book from Amazon.com with the intention of doing it myself. Well, you know what they say about “good intentions.” I was surfing the net one day and came across the site for PSD2HTML.Com. I took the chance and purchased their high end option with the commented code. I am very happy with the results. The code is professional, clean and lightweight. The expertly commented css will help me in the future expansion of the site. I highly recommend their services and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.
This company has changed my life. I run a small company dedicated to websites for non-profits. Accessibility and standards-compliant code is major for my clients. The cost, speedy delivery and quality of the psd2html code is irresistible. I am totally converted. On 6 projects they haven’t let me down.
While doing a search for psdxhtml (without the 2) I came across the comment above about how they tried adding a listing and you considered it spam. That’s more than reasonable, but either way I wanted to share my experience with them. I dont know what the setup is over on there side, but they do amazing work. After researching for a conversion service that was not only inexpensive but reliable and fast as well, we found them. They were friendly through email, and explained the entire process to us ahead of time. We had a very complicated design as far as the main template was concerned (even most of the subpages were a bit “cluttered”). They had a flat fee for each page which was what we wanted, and so we sent them the psd’s, and they just sent them back as they finished them which was about a page every day. We have a large number of programmers involved in this project (unfortunately they are all too busy on the backend to be working with css coding) and all of them have been amazed at how clean and organized the code is. Everything is labeled perfectly and implementing it with the backend is going as smooth as it possibly could. And so, in return I write this review on psdxhtml.com. Now if you still dont want them to have a listing on here that’s fine, but I figured the least I could do for them (and any future customers of there’s) is to write this review.
Thanks!
- Matthew
I have used PSD2HTML on several occasions, on each occasion the result has surpassed my expectations. We have work on projects ranging from £250,000 to £250 and until we used PSD2HTML, the HTML has always been a let down. Now, our HTML is exactly as good as the design templates, sometimes better. This adds to the user experience, and ensures the projects we start with good intentions are not tainted at the last stage by poor HTML.
For me the biggest thing each time I have sent work is that I wince when I hit the send button expecting them to reply saying they cannot do it, or that it will come back and be a little bit hacked, but I must say on each occasion, I have chuckled when I get it back, when I read through the code, it has made me think, wow, that is very clever.
We are not specialists at CSS, we specialize in getting brands communication well, using great tools, that we have built, but, I have thought on many occasions prior to using PSD2HTML, that the project failed to get into the portfolio due to the UI functioning across browsers and platforms. PSD2HTML produce UI that are rich and exactly as intended, they also can be coded to integrate easily into CMSs and blogs, a feature that we require on each occasion to ensure reduced development time during integration.
I have yet to use the email service, but will do so as soon as I can! I would recommend this service to anyone, I have never seen better code, price or turn around time.
Gary Clark – low-res
Another very reliable service:
You give us a design in any of common formats (PSD, PNG, JPG, GIF etc)
and you receive a high-quality XHTML-CSS page in 24 hours.
http://www.mydesign2html.co.uk
I just tried PSD2HTML – but it was a huge disappointment. They could not return the design at the promised time. They have promised me a full refund – hopefully I will at least get my money back.
-Jairam
I must update my previous review of PSD2HTML. The management team from PSD2HTML stepped in after I cancelled my order and I had the markup returned on the same business day that I was originally promised. They offered not to charge me for it as well. And I must add that the code looks really clean.
The short story is that I am pleased overall and I will do business with PSD2HTML again.
Does anyone know of any comprehensive reviews of the 40-50 odd production services out there since 2005?
Most people don’t know there are really fast and affordable companies around that do the same thing twice as fast and in just half the price. Check out http://www.image2markup.com – for only $99 you get your design hand coded to valid XHTML and CSS in under 4 hours!
Does this service still exist? I’ve been sending them several support mails over the last few days but I’ve received no reply.
@Bart: which service did you email?
@Markus: info@psd2html.com, twice. Never got a reply. Never got a reply on their skype address either. I decided to give them a try anyway and after ordering, everything went extremely smoothly. Well worth the money.
Hi there,
As a PSD2HTML.com representative let me add some clarifications.
The situation that we did not receive emails from our client could happen because our email server has spam protection which requires confirming the email by the sender. This might be a reason of the occurred problem. As for the Skype it may be some technical problems these days.
But I assure you that our ticketing system works always well so you can easily contact us anytime. All the communication is carried out in the Client Area. The advantage of it is that it shows the whole message history and your message will not get lost. Be fully confident our support team answers each question and is always ready to assist you with your project.
There are several similar service providers around the web now, and the one we are working with is called Web Outsourcing Services Group and its XHTML/CSS division (http://xhtml.weboutsourcingservices.com). These guys are fantastic, very efficient, quality work at a very reasonable price.
I just found this blog yesterday. I contacted Image2Markup.com to give them a chance. Things were going smoothly at first. They say they can have it done in 4 hours, I contacted them on a weekend so I figured it would take longer than that. After sending them a screenshot of my mockup they said they could have it done the next day. Not quite 4 hours, but I was happy with that especially for weekend service. I sent them my PSD and emailed them the next day to make sure they got it ok. I was then told they were too busy. So, I asked what the timing would be like now.. Monday.. Tuesday or later. I then got an email back saying they were too busy to do it at all. At first Ivan with image2markup.com was very nice but something changed and they weren’t helpful at all which makes them feel sketchy to me now. I would go with one of the other services mentioned on this blog that have had good reviews.
I would definitely recommend the service of the Psd Slicing Team. They do very hq work at a competitive price binded with their great after sale support.
has anyone tried webslicers.com?
I had experienced the services of PSD2HTML, it is ok (however I was expecting a little bit more)….. Then, I tried some other service providers, but my search came to an end, when I experienced the services of http://xhtml.pixelcrayons.com, these guys are really kewl and always make me happy with their work…cheers pixel
i think there are so many options apart from the regular psd to xhtml. I tried htttp://www.webartsense.com which gave me a reasonable price of 90 USD for 1 psd to XHTML. they also gave me the code back in about 30 hrs. that was good. I think if you scale more you can find more companies. So dont stop looking till you find your priced work
i recommend http://xhtmlcandy.com/ service they done a great job for me it was a magento template + a html email template to use with magento.
hi, thanks for the post, yes there are many options availble to outsource the CSS part and people can even work with freelancers. Though i beleive that outsourcing with company ios better for level trust and long term services.WORXpro (http://www.worxpro.com) is one of css outsourcing companies, where you can outsource at much cheaper cost than psd2xhtml or other companies
Thanks for this great review. we have also collected a resource of 20 best PSD to HTML service providers on the basis of basic industry fundamentals like market reputation, brand popularity, quality of work, turnaround time and pricing. You can check the list at http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com/20-best-psd-to-html-service-providers/