Okay Geek Farm
RealestateIt Steals Squarespace Website Design
Update - AgentBase and BusinessBase have been taken down (Email response at bottom)
Notice anything similar? Yeah, everything about the AgentBase and BusinessBase websites - have been copied from Squarespace by Realestateit, a website design company. @squaregirl on Twitter mentioned the “design thieves” yesterday, and I just had to take a look myself. It appears that the people running BusinessBase and AgentBase have been ripped off by their website design guys at Realestateit. This is not OK!
The design thieves have slightly modded their sites. Perhaps they didn’t understand we meant ALL of our code and ALL of our graphics.
Krystyn Heide
squaregirl
The culprits of the stolen design seem to be Realestateit, who are the ones that designed the AgentBase and BusinessBase websites, that both clearly copy Squarespace’s original design, but that’s not the worst.
According to @squaregirl (above) the design thieves have since altered the sites, so I imagine before this point, the websites we’re spitting images of the Squarespace website, and unfortunately we couldn’t get screenshots before the change but still, they have clearly copied the look of Squarespace’s original design and layout.
Screenshots of AgentBase and BusinessBase vs Squarespace
AgentBase Website Homepage
Squarespace Website Homepage
BusinessBase Footer Bar
Squarespace Footer Bar
What really pisses me off
Not only does Realestateit steal Squarespace’s fundamental design elements to build their sites, but they have stolen the outlying business elements of Squarespace itself. You know Squarespace’s signature “Try for 14 days” deal? Well, BusinessBase and AgentBase apparently let you “Try their service for 14 days free”, which is a complete knock off of Squarespace.
Also they stole the “Try for free / no credit card required” button from the header of Squarespace’s site, without even bothering to change it at all. They basically copy and pasted the image directly off Squarespaces homepage, and don’t see anything wrong with it.
Furthermore, Realestateit (the people who did this) simply ripped off both AgentBase and BusinessBase by designing their sites, which copied Squarespace’s website design. These “website designers” are clearly not skilled in what they do and they are just plain idiots. I don’t see why they think this is alright, and I will be getting in touch with them.
Update - Looks like Apple got ripped off too!
Notice a similarity? Yes, RealestateIt ripped off Apple’s homepage just like they did Squarespace, but this time it’s for their own site! The similarity is un-mistakable (click the images to view the full websites) I just can’t believe it! They even stole the MSN buddy icon!
Update #2 - Complete carbon Copy
Click to view the cached version
This was before they modded their site to look less like Squarespace. This is disgusting! Their site is a spitting image of Squarespace, I mean look at it! This was a horrid sight for all the great people at Squarespace to wake up to, knowing a bunch of jackasses stole their custom work they had spent years on.
- Thanks @mzampino
Want a new Site?
Try Realestateit, the only company who doesn’t feel creative enough to make some original design. They will carbon copy the website of your choice, and also charge you for it.
In other words, stay away from Realestateit. They are clearly not a real website design company, and instead, I recommend you use Squarespace, who are real website designers, and they host your site and everything.
Brandon Davenport
Thanks to the power of the interwebs, and the united effort of T3ch H3lp and Squarespace, AgentBase and BusinessBase have since been taken down until further revision.
Email from a representative at AgentBase
Dear Brandon,
It has come to my attention that my outsourced designer has plagiarized the Squarespace site.
I have since removed the site and placed “Under Construction” until a new design is completed.
Regards,
[confidential]
