My car has very basic mods (cat-less TBE) and I don't plan on any others. Many vendors sell EcuTek but if I get a flash for what I have will there be any difference in who I buy the EcuTek from?

I know the custom tunes are just that but do all the EcuTek re-sellers use the same baseline maps or does each one tweak them a little? And if they're tweaked who's got the best off-the-shelf maps for standard mods like mine?

No, they arent all the same. Some of them are downright crap. Most are decent, as there is only so much you can do for a set level of mods. However that doesnt mean one tuners idea of a safe tune is actually safe.
If you are going ecutec, the only sane choice is Vishnu. They have been doing it the longest, (here) and they have a proven track record of power and safety.

Not sure I agree that Vishnu is the only sane choice. I'd say go with a custom tune, even if you only have a few mods. Ecutek is simply a program that lets a tuner re-flash your stock PCM. It doesn't matter who you buy it from, all you're buying is a license for them to use that software.

But any off the shelf map is a compromise, no matter who does it. I agree that Vishnu is one of the top Subaru tuners. But even they can't guess ahead of time what will work best on your particular car with your particular mods. Any decent tuner should be able to take one of their base maps that matches mods similar to yours, then fine-tune it to exactly match your mods.

This is my car before and after a custom EcuTek tune. The red is with uppipe and full TBE, but stock PCM. The blue is after tuning. The difference in driveability was night and day, and the A/F curve is flat as a board at 11.5:1 from boost onset to redline, so the motor should last a nice long time. It was well worth the extra $$$ to have it custom tuned rather than relying on the off the shelf map, which had way more boost spiking, and the A/F was all over the place since it was developed for a slightly different combo of parts.

http://www.ktrperformance.com/services/Dyno_Graphs/Subaru/graph_03_WRX_11_04_04.gif

Chuck H - WOW. What a difference.

If you don't mind me asking, how much total $$$ for the EcuTek and tune?

EcuTek is generally around $650 for the license for your ECU. Then you're basically paying dyno time beyond that for the tuning. The place I had mine done is a little pricey ($200 an hour for tuning time on the dyno), but they're also very good, at least in my opinion.

EcuTek is generally around $650 for the license for your ECU. Then you're basically paying dyno time beyond that for the tuning. The place I had mine done is a little pricey ($200 an hour for tuning time on the dyno), but they're also very good, at least in my opinion.

If I bought a used EcuTek'd ECU (pay$ + my stock ECU in trade) would the license transfer to me? What do re-flashes cost if you have a license?