As web design moves into the digital age, it’s more important than ever to have a platform that allows you to quickly and easily create a website. We’ll review three of the best WYSIWYG web design software applications available in 2015.
These products allow you to do everything from quick wireframing, all the way through to creating your own code. We’ll cover their pros and cons, as well as their cost. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Best Wysiwyg Web Design Software 2015
#1) Web.com
Best For:
- Easy Website Creation
- Ideal for Small Businesses
Web.com Pricing: Offer Starter Package – $1.95/month, Full price of $10/month after the first month.
As far as the WYSISWYG website builders, Web.com is the simplest and most straightforward of the bunch. With Web.com, you get a platform that facilitates the creation of basic websites. You get a bunch of industry-specific templates, a library full of stock images, and a row-based drag and drop editor that makes designing a site very simple.
Customization is made simple thanks to clean and professional-looking templates, which can be sorted according to industry type. Everything you need to edit on the website can be found on the left-hand sidebar. If you want to change the color scheme or add a widget, you can do so with just a click.
Features: Custom Templates, Drag and Drop Editor, SEO Services, Pay-Per-Click Advertising Assistance, Online Store Creation, WordPress Support, etc.
Pros:
- Easy and instant website creation
- 24/7 Customer support
- Cheap starting price
- Free domain included with each plan
Cons:
- No free plans
- Absence of advanced website building elements like booking calendars and promotional pop-ups.
- Limited customization
=> Visit Web.com Website
#2) Wix
Best For:
- Small and large businesses
- Online store
- Personal
- Blogging
Wix Pricing: Free.
Wix is the most popular website builder tool that holds about 22.61 percent share of the overall website builders market. The WYSIWYG website builder is free and you can use it to create fully immersive and responsive websites.
The highlight of the website editor is the plethora of plugins that extend the feature of the website. Moreover, there are hundreds of templates that you can select if you don’t want to build a site from scratch.
Features: Custom templates, SEO websites, social media integration, SSL security certificates, unlimited fonts, mobile-optimized, advanced design features, automatic site backup, etc.
Pros:
- Excellent value for money.
- Easy to use website editor.
- High security
- Large app market.
Cons:
- Templates can’t be changed after the website is published.
- Need to spend on paid apps for increased functionality.
=> Visit Wix Website
#3) Weebly
Best For:
- Small and large businesses
- Online store
- Blogging
Weebly Pricing: Free
Weebly is another great website editor that has the 3rd largest market share at 15.67 percent. The website design software allows you to create professional-quality websites. Considering the fact that the software is available for free, it offers excellent value for money.
Features: Professional themes, photo galleries, image editor i.e. ImagePerfect, no ads, SEO optimized, e-commerce functionalities, full CSS/HTML control, password protect pages, etc.
Pros:
- Responsive themes
- A large number of apps.
- Easy-to-use
- Team management
- Membership restriction
Cons:
- Limited customization
- No option for restore
- Lacks design flexibility
=> Visit Weebly Website
#4) Mobirise
Best For:
- Small or medium-sized businesses
- Online resumes
- Landing pages
Price: Free.
Mobirise is a free WYSIWYG website builder that lets you create a professional quality website with no coding experience required. The website editor allows you to create mobile-friendly websites using a simple drag and drop feature.
This is a great website editor for small and medium-sized businesses. The software allows you to export the website to an external editor. You can create a beautiful layout easily with this website builder.
Features: Based on Bootstrap 4 – Powerful mobile framework, Supports Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), Save sites on a local drive, FTP, Google Cloud, Amazon S3, Github Pages, or *Mobirisesite.com, Supports paid templates, Forums creation, Social media buttons, Media & Galleries, etc.
Pros:
- Free WYSIWYG website editor.
- It creates a layout quickly and easily.
- Optimized sites for mobile screens.
- HTML and CSS code is customizable.
- No watermark despite being a free editor.
Cons:
- Expensive themes.
- The software includes some code between the lines while exporting to an HTML editor.
- It doesn’t support precise customization.
- It only supports Stripe and PayPal payment gateway.
Website: Mobirise
#5) WordPress
Best For:
- Blogging
- Forums
- Small online store
Price: Free.
WordPress Editor is an open-source WYSIWYG website builder that you can use to build responsive pages easily. Similar to Mobirise, the website builder is available for download for free. You can create a website from scratch or select the existing themes.
The best thing about WordPress Editor is the large collection of plug-ins that can greatly increase the functionality of a website. Some of the plug-ins are for free while the others require you to pay a small fee.
Features: Open source, Pre-built Themes, Over 54,000 add-ons, Auto-update, Survey builder, and SEO management.
Pros:
- 100% free open source WYSIWYG website editor.
- SEO Friendly Mobile optimized sites.
- Customizable designs
- High security
- A large number of add-ons and themes.
Cons:
- Need technical support for publishing a site to a host.
- No customer support as its an open-source software.
- Coding knowledge is required to customize design such as header image, etc.
Website: WordPress
wysiwyg responsive web design software
Creating a Responsive Web Page in WYSIWYG Web Builder
Step 1
Let’s start with a standard template: Click File->New Website from Template and select ‘WWB Template 10′.
In these steps we will create a mobile version for this page with a breakpiont at 320 pixels, which is a common width for mobile phones.The different variants generally share the same content (text, images etc) and you can change the position and size of objects for each breakpoint. You can also add unique content for specific screen widths, which makes it possible to hide objects on smaller screens.
To switch between breakpoints click the ‘Breakpoints’ drop down menu and select the desired breakpoint. To go back to the default layout, select ‘Default’. There is also quick menu for switching breakpoints available in the upper right corner of the Ribbon.
Important notes about Responsive Web Design
Objects can have a different size, position and visibility state per breakpoint. For some objects it is also possible to change the color, font and other properties in breakpoints. The responsive properties per object are documented in the help.
Although objects can have different sizes in breakpoints, there are a few exceptions. For example shapes and other drawing tools will have the same size in all breakpoints. The reason for this is because only one image will be published and if you change the size of that image in one breakpoint then it would look distorted in another breakpoint. But you can use multiple shapes, one for each breakpoint and hide the ones you do not use in other breakpoints.
Note however that if you select ‘Publish as CSS3’ in the shape’s properties, then the shape will be responsive!
If you share text between multiple breakpoints then set the ‘output format’ in the compatibility option to ‘Default’, because the other options optimize the text for a specific width. If you really need to use one of the compatibility options then consider using a separate text object for each breakpoint, so it can be optimized for that specific width.
Objects can only be part of one Layer (and Form, Carousel, Tabs, Accordion, Dialog). So if you move an object to a layer in one breakpoint then it will automatically be part of the same layer in other breakpoints!
If you add a new object to a breakpoint then it will initially be hidden on all other breakpoints. You can use the Object Manager to unhide it if you also want it on other breakpoints. This behavior can be disabled in: Tools->Options->General->Hide new objects on other breakpoints
If you delete an object from a breakpoint then it will be removed from all other views as well. If you want to hide the object then you can use the Object Manager.
You can test breakpoints in your desktop browser. Resize the browser window to activate breakpoints.
Some browsers also have dedicated tools for testing responsive web sites. For example, FireFox has a Responsive Design View which is great to test breakpoints. Consult the documentation of the browser for more details.
Browsers that do not support CSS3 media queries, will display the default layout.
Step 2
First make sure the Output Format of all text is set to Default. Otherwise the text objects cannot have different sizes in different breakpoints!
Step 3
Next we add a breakpoint.Click Page->Responsive Web Design->Manage Breakpoints then add a breakpoint with a max-width of 320.
Click OK to confirm and OK again to close Manage Breakpoints.Step 4
If you take a closer look at this template you may notice that a large shape has been used behind the 4 headers. It’s important to keep in mind that a shape has the same size in all breakpoints. So if you resize the shape in one breakpoint then it will get the same size in other breakpoints too! Therefor in this layout we will make a copy of the shape so we can give it a different sizes.
Make a copy ‘shape5’. Then use the Object Manager to hide ‘shape5’, because we do no longer need it in this breakpoint. For this breakpoint we will use the copy of the shape, so we can resize it without affecting the layout on other breakpoints.
Now let’s resize the shape and reposition the text objects to optimize the layout for mobile phones.
Activate the breakpoint by selecting ‘320px’ in the ‘Breakpoints’ menu.
You will now see a copy of the default layout. Also notice that the title of the workspace tab has changed to indicate that we are working on a breakpoint.
The next step is to resize and reposition all objects so they are within the 320 pixel boundary.
Step 5
You may also have noticed that the CSS menu is a little bit to wide for the target screen, so we will use a different menu for this breakpoint.
Make a copy ‘CssMenu1’. Then use the Object Manager to hide ‘CssMenu1’, because we do no longer need it in this breakpoint.
Change the Layout mode of the new menu to ‘vertical’ and set the button size to ‘Stretch’.
Step 6
Finally we can resize the other objects. Text objects and layers can be resized without affecting other breakpoints, so we do not need copies for that. The final layout may look something like this:
Use preview to see the result in the browser. Resize the browser window to activate the breakpoint at 320 pixels.Tips:
• Set all rectangular shapes to ‘CSS3 output’, this will make the shapes responsive.
• Set the output format of all text objects to ‘Default’ (otherwise they will have a fixed size).
• You can use the keyboard combination Shift+Ctrl+R to outline all non-responsive objects.
• If you need to duplicate an object, so it can have different properties in another breakpoint then you can quickly clone and hide the original object with the ‘Clone and Hide‘ option in the object’s context menu.
Conclusion
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