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Dynamic Web Design Software
This Tutorial Includes a list of Top Web Design Tools along with their Features, Comparison & Pricing. Select the Best Web Design Software For Your Business:
Web Design Software is an application that has features and functionalities for creating a website. It can be categorized into Online Web Design Software and Offline Web Design Software.
Online software is a web-based application and doesn’t require installation. Offline software is standalone web editors.
Top Web Design Software
What You Will Learn: [hide]
Web Design Software Review
Benefits of Web Design Tools
List Of The Top Web Design Software
Comparison of the Best Web Page Design Software
1) Web.com
2) Wix
3) Weebly
4) Adobe Dreamweaver
5) Mobirise
6) Webflow
7) Squarespace
8) GIMP
9) Sketch
10) WordPress
11) Constant Contact Website Builder
12) Adobe Photoshop
13) Google Web Designer
14) Divi
Conclusion
Recommended Reading
Web Design Software Review
Website is an effective way of communicating to customers and many times the visitors judge the business or services based on the website. Thus a website plays an important role in improving the business. For having a good website, one should have a good Web Design Software. Feature-rich software will help you to build a feature-rich website.
Fact Check: According to the IBIS World, Web Design Services in the US has an Annual Growth of 6.6% during the period of 2014 to 2019 and total Revenue of $38 billion. According to the research performed by the Manifest website, whenever businesses plan to improve the website, they invest in the Website content and Website design. These businesses invest in website design in terms of security and user experience.
The below graph will show you the details of this research.
Stats on Web Design Software
Benefits of Web Design Tools
Web Design software is easy to use. It provides a drag-and-drop facility and thus coding skills are not mandatory to design websites. You will get professionally designed templates.
You will require minimal skills to create beautiful designs with the right web design software.
Few web design tools has the ability to automate the entire process. Web Designers create their own toolkit by combining different software. It is useful for building websites for e-commerce, graphic designers, marketers, and HTML sites.
Pro Tip: While selecting the tool you should keep your future goals in mind in terms of website scalability. The tool should be selected based on the business or individual needs, features provided by the tool, and price of the tool.
=> Contact us to suggest a listing here.
List Of The Top Web Design Software
Web.com
Wix
Weebly
Adobe Dreamweaver
Mobirise
Webflow
Squarespace
GIMP
Sketch
WordPress
Constant Contact Website Builder
Adobe Photoshop
Google Web Designer
Divi
Comparison of the Best Web Page Design Software
Web Design Software Best for Platform Features Free plan/Free Trial Price
Web.com
Web.com Logo Beginners, eCommerce Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses. Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Drag and Drop Editor, Online store creation, SSL certification, Web hosting, custom templates. No Offer Starter Package – $1.95/month, Full price of $10/month after the first month.
Wix
Wix_Logo Small-scale websites, Entrepreneurs, freelancers, and for personal use. Supported browsers: Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Drag-and-drop website builder Scrolling effects, Advanced design features, etc. Available for free to use. VIP: $39 /month,
Pro: $22/month
Unlimited: $17/month,
Combo: $13/month
Enterprise: $500/month for one website.
Weebly
Weebly_Logo HTML or CSS experts. iOS, Android, etc. Drag & drop builder, video backgrounds, custom fonts, Parallax & Reveal, etc. Free for basic use. For websites
Free: Basic use.
Connect: $5/month
Pro: $12/month
Business: $25/month.
For Online stores: Start at $12 /month
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe_Logo Skilled web developers and coders. Windows & Mac. Dynamic display on every device, fast & flexible coding, Seamless live view editing, etc. Free trial available. $20.99 per month.
Mobirise
Mobirise_Logo Small and medium websites, landing pages, online resumes, and portfolios. Windows & Mac Offline tool, perfect for non-techies, Free for commercial use, Mobile-friendliness, etc. Free plan available. $2693 or available for $97 within the offer period.
Webflow
Webflow_Logo Artists and Designers to showcase creative skills. It is best for small to large enterprises and online businesses. Cross-browser compatibility. Built-in SEO tools, flexible integrations, etc. The tool is free until launch. Site Plans: Starts at @12/month.
Account plans: Free plan available & paid plan starts at $16/month.
1) Web.com
Best for Beginners, eCommerce Entrepreneurs, and Small Businesses
Web.com Pricing: Offer Starter Package – $1.95/month, Full price of $10/month after the first month.
Web.com Dashboard
Web.com is an ideal website builder for small businesses and beginners who are making their first attempt at designing a website. The platform features over 100 templates, layout designs, and drag and drop editor that makes website creation really easy.
It also offers further features like inventory management and order tracking if you want to create an eCommerce store. The site also takes care of domain registration, hosting, SSL certification, and more, thus offering a full-cycle website building service. If website creation is too overwhelming for you, then you can try seeking expert service.
Here, a dedicated expert will be assigned to you by Web.com who will help you design a site from scratch and even help you with functions like SEO and PPC advertising.
Pros:
Cheap Starter packer for the first month.
Get experts to design websites from scratch.
24/7 Customer support
Industry-specific templates
Free domain with each plan
Cons:
Limited customization features
The price after the first month is expensive.
Verdict: Web.com shines as a website builder because of the entire suite of features it offers to make website creation simple. Its editor is easy to use, helping you design a website, add or remove elements within it with just a click. This is a tool we recommend to beginners who have no experience building a website.
=> Visit Web.com Website
2) Wix
Best for Artists, Photographers, and Musicians for showcasing the portfolio. It will work best for small-scale websites, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and for personal use.
Wix Pricing: Wix is available for free to use forever. To upgrade the site, it provides Premium plans i.e. VIP ($39 per month), Pro ($22 per month), Unlimited ($17 per month), and Combo ($13 per month). Enterprise package will cost you $500 per month for one website.
Wix
Wix provides a cloud-based platform for development. It has all the features required for creating a completely personalized and high-quality free website.
Wix provides hundreds of fully customizable templates and an extensive collection of images, clip arts, and icons. It can also provide marketing solutions such as email marketing, SEO assistance, etc.
Wix will help you with building an online presence with free and secure web hosting. You will get a mobile-optimized version of your website. You can access the Wix App Market for free apps. With a free plan, it provides 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth.
Pros:
Wix Editor will allow you to access 500 designer-made templates.
You will get a drag-and-drop website builder.
You can upload your own fonts or can use more than 100 existing fonts.
It provides the features to add scrolling effects such as zoom-in or fade-in scrolling.
It provides advanced design features that will allow you to add animation, video backgrounds, and scroll effects to your websites.
Cons:
As per the reviews, it is difficult to revamp the website with Wix as it will not allow you to switch the theme once your website will be up and running.
Verdict: Wix will help you to create a free and professional website. You will get free reliable web hosting, top security, best SEO, and a dedicated support team. Wix can provide enterprise services such as Onboarding & Scale-up services, Professional Services, Security, etc.
=> Visit Wix Website
3) Weebly
Best for HTML or CSS experts.
Weebly Pricing: Weebly is free for basic use. It offers three more pricing plans for websites i.e. Connect ($5 per month), Pro ($12 per month), and Business ($25 per month). For online stores, there are three pricing plans i.e. Pro ($12 per month), Business ($25 per month), and Business Plus ($38 per month).
Weebly
Weebly provides a free website builder for creating a website, blog, or online store. There will be customizable templates, domains, and easy-to-use tools. It provides a built-in editor that will help you to personalize the website extensively.
Pros:
Weebly provides SSL Security for free.
It provides unlimited storage with its premium plans.
It provides features like password protection, advanced site stats, and site search, etc.
Cons:
Weebly’s drag-and-drop functionality is not perfect and hence you should have programming skills to customize the website.
It doesn’t provide control to restore the website on your own. You will have to contact the Weebly team in case the website goes down.
Verdict: This platform will let your customers pay as per their choice as Weebly is a part of the Square product suite. It provides support through chat, email, phone, and community forum.
=> Visit Weebly Website
4) Adobe Dreamweaver
Best for skilled web developers and coders.
Price: Adobe Dreamweaver is available for $20.99 per month. It offers a free trial for the product.
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe provides web design software that is useful for making powerful HTML websites and apps. It is a code-free web designing tool. It will allow you to code efficiently with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
By using coding shortcuts, multi-line editing, error-checking & line previews, it will help you to work faster.
Pros:
Dreamweaver provides the features for fast and flexible coding such as code hints, visual aids, and allows editing of HTML, CSS, etc.
You will be able to use the assets form your library and Adobe Stock as Dreamweaver is a part of the Creative Cloud.
You can preview the websites and you will be able to edit them in real-time.
It provides the features of seamless live view editing, multi-monitor support for Windows, Redesigned & modern UI, and Git Support.
Cons:
It may take time for beginners in getting familiar with the tool.
To use this tool, you should have coding skills.
Verdict: Adobe Dreamweaver is a tool for creating, coding and managing dynamic websites. It provides a smart and flexible coding engine. Dreamweaver will help you to build responsive websites that can fit any screen size.
Website: Adobe Dreamweaver
5) Mobirise
Best for small & medium websites, landing pages, online resumes, and portfolios.
Price: Website Builder Kit is available for $2693. Mobirise is providing a 96% discount till 29 Nov 2019 and thus it is available for $97. Mobirise is available for free to use for personal as well as commercial use.
Mobirise
Mobirise is a free web design software. It supports Windows and Mac platforms. It provides more than 1800 website blocks, templates, and themes. It can be used by non-techies. You will be able to build mobile-friendly websites with Mobirise.
Pros:
For small customer’s projects & fast prototyping, the tool works great for pro-coders.
It will allow you to create a unique mix by combining blocks from different themes.
You can host your website on a local drive, FTP, or Amazon S3, Google Cloud, GitHub pages, etc.
It will allow you to choose the Fonts from a list of more than 800 Google Fonts and retina-ready free icons.
Cons:
As per the reviews, documentation & support needs to be improved.
Software updates need to be installed manually.
Verdict: Mobirise provides the platform that has the features of a drag-and-drop editor, inline editing, preview & publish, more than 2000 website blocks, webpage templates, and contact forms.
Website: Mobirise
6) Webflow
Best for Artists and Designers to showcase creative skills. It is best for small to large enterprises and online businesses.
Price: Webflow will allow you to start building for free. Then you will have to add a site plan for going live. It offers two types of plans i.e. Site Plans & Account plans. Site Plan for websites starts at $12 per month and the Site plan for e-commerce start at $29 per month.
It provides a free account plan for individuals. It can be upgraded starting from $16 per month. Account Plans for teams start at $35 per person. All the prices are for annual billing.
Webflow
Webflow provides a variety of products like Designer, Interaction, CMS, E-Commerce, etc. You can drag the unstyled HTML elements or pre-built pieces. It provides cross-browser compatibility.
Webflow can provide the features of enterprise-grade scalability, security, and support. It can be a complete platform if integrated with marketing tools and collecting from data & storing backups.
Pros:
You will be able to create immersive interactions and animations.
The tool will allow you to use any font.
You can adjust everything from tracking to line-height.
You can define global color swatches and will be able to update every instance of color in one edit.
It provides an intuitive editor i.e. even clients and colleagues can update the content.
Cons:
It doesn’t provide a phone or live chat support.
Verdict: With Webflow, you will get the features of unlimited projects, client billing, enhanced staging, code export, white labeling, site password protection, and team dashboard. It will allow you to export code for download. The code can be downloaded in a ZIP file for all the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and other assets.
Website: Webflow
7) Squarespace
Best for Photographers and artists to showcase the designs and creativity.
Price: Squarespace is available in four pricing plans i.e. Personal ($12 per month), Business ($18 per month), Basic Commerce ($26 per month), and Advanced Commerce ($40 per month).
Squarespace
Squarespace is useful to entrepreneurs, photographers, restaurants, small businesses, etc. It is an all-in-one platform. The created websites will be mobile-optimized.
Pros:
Squarespace provides modern templates that will be compatible with modern browsers and mobiles.
Its style editor will have hundreds of customizable fonts, colors, and page configurations.
It provides free typeset fonts, starter layouts, chart blocks, free google fonts, etc.
Cons:
Squarespace has a learning curve or you need to get familiar with the tool to customize the website with drag-and-drop features.
There is no app store and thus you have to use its built-in features only
Verdict: Squarespace provides unlimited storage and bandwidth with all the plans. You will get SEO features for site visibility.
Website: Squarespace
8) GIMP
Best for small to medium businesses and freelancers.
Price: GIMP is a free and open-source tool.
GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a free and open-source tool for image editing. It can perform the tasks of image retouching & editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, etc.
It supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Sun Open Solaris, and FreeBSD. The tool will help you with creating icons, graphical design elements, and art for user interface components and mockups.
GIMP will allow you to change the source code and distribute the changes. It can be used by graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, scientists, etc.
Pros:
GIMP supports C, C++, Perl, Python, Schema, etc.
It has top-notch color management features so that you will get high-fidelity color reproduction over digital and printed media.
It supports various file formats ranging from simple such as JPEG & GIF to special ones such as multicolor-depth Windows icon files.
GIMP provides the features of Customizable Interface, photo enhancement, and digital retouching.
Cons:
As per the reviews, the interface is a little messy.
Verdict: Artists will get the power and flexibility for creating unique creations through the tools that will be required for high-quality image manipulation. It is a highly extensible and customizable platform.
Website: GIMP
9) Sketch
Best for small to large businesses and freelancers.
Price: Sketch provides two options for buying new licenses, one for a personal license ($99) and the Volume license ($89 per device for 2 devices). To renew an existing Personal License, it will cost you $69. Renewing existing volume license price starts at $64 per device. You can try the product for free.
Sketch
Sketch is useful for creating, prototyping, collaborating, and turning the ideas into marvelous products. Using Anima Toolkit, you will be able to create timeline animations. It provides various plugins such as Bitmap compressor, Material Theme Editor, Pexels, etc.
Pros:
Felipe plugin has the functionality for converting wireframes into UI elements.
It will be easier to create, update, and share all the design components with your team.
The tool will allow you to use real and diverse data sets for adding faces, names, places, etc.
Cons:
The tool is not suitable for old machines as it slows down them sometimes.
Cloud sharing can make a pixelation and distortion.
Verdict: Sketch provides the platform that will let you create, prototype, and collaborate with designers, developers, and stakeholders.
Website: Sketch
10) WordPress
Best for beginners, online stores, small businesses, freelancers, or for personal use.
Price: You can start using WordPress for free. There are four pricing plans i.e. Personal ($4 per month), Premium ($8 per month), Business ($25 per month), and e-commerce ($45 per month).
WordPress
For site customization, WordPress provides a lot of free themes. It will also help you with Marketing and Monetization Tools that includes SEO Tools, Simple Payments, and Recurring Payments.
Pros:
With the premium plan, you will get access to unlimited Premium themes.
It provides functionalities for advanced design customization.
It offers email and live chat support.
Depending on the plan, it provides storage space ranging from 3 GB to 200 GB.
Cons:
Unavailability of a built-in drag-and-drop website builder.
Verdict: WordPress provides tools to create a website or a blog. You will get dozens of free, customizable mobile-ready designs and themes. It provides free hosting and support.
Website: WordPress
11) Constant Contact Website Builder
Best for small to large businesses.
Price: Constant Contact offers a free plan. It has two more pricing plans i.e. Starter ($10 per month) and Business Plus ($20 per month).
ConstantContact
Constant Contact is a website builder that can be used for websites, stores, and domains. It will create a mobile-responsive website. The created website will be visible on any device. You will get a fully-customizable and SEO-optimized website.
You will get speed and reliability as all the developed websites will get built on CDN. You can choose from a variety of layouts to make engaging product listings. It provides a facility for easy online payments with the help of PayPal, Stripe, and Mobile.
Pros:
Constant Contact provides an AI-powered Logo Maker. It will allow you to download the logo for free. While designing a log, the tool will allow you to customize every element including color and fonts.
It provides domain-related features like free-domain privacy, free domain for a year, domain management, domain-based email, auto-renewal, and expert customer support.
For e-commerce, it provides features like coupons & discounts, store analytics, tax management, mobile optimization, etc.
Cons:
Constant Contact doesn’t have image editing features.
Verdict: Constant Contact provides a free image library through integration with Unsplash. This access to the image gallery will make more than 550000 images accessible. Constant Contact provides unlimited storage with all the plans. It provides support through chat, email, phone, and priority support.
Website: Constant Contact Website Builder
12) Adobe Photoshop
Best for freelancers and small to large businesses.
Price: Adobe offers a free trial for the product. It offers the pricing plans for Individuals (Starts at $9.99 per month), Business (Starts at $24.99 per month per license), Students & Teachers ($15.99 per month), and Schools & Universities ($14.pp per month).
You can choose from the various plans available, Photography ($9.99 per month), Adobe Photoshop Single App ($20.99 per month), Creative Cloud All Apps (Get a quote), and Students & Teachers (Get a quote).
AdobePhotoshop
The tool can be used for posters, packaging, banners, and websites. You can add colors and effects. You will be able to crop, remove objects, retouch, and combine photos.
Pros:
Adobe Photoshop will allow you to combine photos and text for creating new images.
It saves the work on the cloud and hence gives you the freedom to start on the iPad and finish the work on the desktop.
It provides features like object selection tool, enhanced transform wrap, and improved properties panel.
Cons:
As per the reviews, it will be difficult to render high-quality graphics.
It may be difficult for beginners to get familiar with the interface.
Verdict: Adobe Photoshop provides the features and functionalities for various creative projects such as Photo editing, compositing to digital painting, animation, or graphic design. It can be used on the desktop as well as the iPad.
Website: Adobe Photoshop
13) Google Web Designer
Best for web developers and for creating ads. It works best for medium to large businesses.
Price: It is available for free to download and use.
Google Web Designer can be used for creating engaging and interactive HTML-5 based designs and motion graphics. This design and graphics will be compatible with any device. It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. It will allow you to make use of animation and interactive elements.
Google Web Designer is seamlessly integrated with other Google products such as Google Drive, Google Ads, etc.
Pros:
You can add multiple scenes in projects by creating multiple pages. This will give your audience a different experience.
You can drag-and-drop the different components such as video players, maps, or image galleries.
It provides the functionalities to make your creative react to user’s actions such as touch, rotation, or shaking.
You can create responsive Ads that will fit any screen size. With the help of Dynamic Ad Workflow, you will be able to tailor your ad.
It provides functionalities for creating and manipulating 3D content.
Cons:
Google Web Designer doesn’t provide the features for text content creation.
You may not be able to open the HTML files created using other web design tools.
To get the exact result, you may have to investigate the source code.
Verdict: Google Web Designer is a complete design suite and has the capacity to allow you to edit HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can switch between Design View and Code View to understand the rendering of changes. A wide range of display and video ad formats is supported by Google Web Designer.
Website: Google Web Designer
14) Divi
Best for freelancers, agencies, and website owners.
Price: There are two pricing plans i.e. Yearly access ($67 per year), and Lifetime access ($187).
Divi
Elegant Themes offers Divi, a WordPress Page Builder. This website building platform will let you build the website visually. It provides ease and efficiency to design professionals and newcomers for creating spectacular designs.
Pros:
For visual building, it provides the functionalities like effects, shape dividers, bulk editing, layout library, transforms, hover-states, and find & replace.
It provides more than 800 pre-made designs.
It includes powerful design tools and will help you with promoting the website on social media.
It provides a hover option interface that is unique and easy to use.
Divi will provide you the features like responsive editing, fonts & text styling, shape dividers, border options, transform controls & effects, advanced code editing, filters & effects, drop shadows, text shadows, animations, and background images, colors, gradients, & videos.
Cons:
It doesn’t provide a Popup builder.
Verdict: Every part of your website can be designed and customized by this complete design framework. This tool provides easy to use for beginners and also provides advanced features to teams. You will get a complete design control over everything.
Website: Divi
Conclusion
Adobe Dreamweaver, Mobirise, Webflow, Wix, and Weekly are our top recommended solutions as a Web Design Software. GIMP is a free and open-source Web Design tool. Adobe Dreamweaver, Constant Contact, and WordPress offer cost-effective pricing plans when compared to the other tools.
Mobirise and Sketch are expensive software. Few Web Design tools offer a free plan but with limitations. There might be a limitation like you can use the tool for free for designing the website, but you will have to pay charges for hosting.
best professional web design software
The very best web design software is essential to make your work run smoothly and efficiently. As such it’s worth taking the time to review your design toolkit once in a while, to make sure you’re not missing a trick. After all, if a new web design tool can make even a small improvement to the speed you complete your work, it could save you serious time and money in the long term.
In this article, we highlight the best web design software available today that range from website builders to Adobe design apps. All are best-in-class, and should boost your productivity. To see more, also read our longer list of best web design tools, and why not check out our guides to the best web hosting and best website builders too?
Best web design softwarecb badge
(Image credit: Wix)
- Wix
The best web design software if you’re starting out
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2006Developers: Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami, and Giora KaplanCost: Free to $18/monthPlatform: Windows, Mac OS
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Wix Connect Domain
£3/mth
Wix Connect Domain
£3/mth
VISIT SITE
at Wix
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy to use
+User-friendly
+Loads of features
REASONS TO AVOID
-Empty List
This is our top pick of the web builders, and web design software in general – Wix is one of the most popular site makers in 2021, and for good reason. It offers a range of payment tiers (including ‘free’), with befitting features. With the entry level free version, you’ll have to negotiate Wix adverts and and a 500GB space cap, but pay as little as $6, and you’ll bypass the ads, have a free domain for a year, get 2GB bandwidth, and 3Gb storage space.
There’s up to 500 templates to choose from, and you can easily start personalising with animations, image editing, social media buttons and various backgrounds – with plenty of further options to change as well.
We love the intuitive design of this web builder, and with the abundance of customisations, and loads of beautiful straight-out-the-pack templates on offer, it’s a cracking website builder for all levels of ability.
Adobe XD screenshotscb badge
(Image credit: Adobe)
- Adobe XD
The best web design software for prototyping.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2016Developer: AdobeCost: Free to $9.99/monthPlatform: Windows, Mac OS
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Adobe XD – Single App Monthly
US$9.99/mth
VISIT SITE
at Adobe
REASONS TO BUY
+Feature-rich
+Creative Cloud integration
+Cross-platform
REASONS TO AVOID
-Full version requires subscription
The fight to become web design’s favourite UI design tool has been a close-fought one over the last decade, with Adobe XD, Sketch, Affinity Designer and others scrapping it out. But for our money, the amount of effort Adobe has put in to developing XD makes it essential web design software for creatives.
This vector-based tool is available for both Mac and (unlike Sketch) Windows. It plays nicely with other Adobe tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, and you can easily import assets like Adobe Fonts and Adobe Stock. So if you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber already, it’s kind of a slam dunk.
Even if you aren’t, though, we feel this is the best web design software for creating mockups, prototypes and wireframes. With a clean and intuitive interface, there are so many cool features including a ‘Repeat Grid’ for fast designing, auto-animation, voice triggers, good collaboration features, tons of storage for your design files, an array of plugins, and lots of integrations with other web services.
In short, XD is the complete package when it comes to prototyping, and there’s even a capable free version. The many different ways to get XD does get a bit complicated, though, so check out our guide on how to download Adobe XD to check out your options.
The best web design softwarecb badge
(Image credit: Weebly)
- Weebly
The best web design software for e-com
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched : 2006Developer: Square, Inc.Cost: Free to $18/monthPlatform: Windows, Mac OS
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
Weebly Starter
£4/mth
Weebly Pro
£9/mth
Weebly Business
£18/mth
VISIT SITE
at Weebly
REASONS TO BUY
+Looks great
+Mobile-friendly
+Loads of customisation
REASONS TO AVOID
-Empty List
Having been around for 15 years, Weebly does what it does very effectively. And that is provide user-friendly templates and e-commerce options for everyone.
If you’ve got little to no coding experience (let’s see a raise of hands!), then Weebly is a great web design option. There’s super easy drag-and-drop tools for site creation, and with its build framework options, you can also build online stores, should selling your wares be essential to the site.
Less is definitely more with Weebly, and although you get a limited number of templates and themes to select from, what there is are a good range of clean and clear options that have enough room for personalisation to keep creatives happy.
As is the way, you can try out a free version of Weebly for restricted use of its features, which is perfect for seeing if this is the right choice for you. If you feel it is, there are further tiered options available, depending of what you want.
Best web design software
(Image credit: Webflow)
- Webflow
Another great website builder for starters
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched : 2013Developer: WebflowCost: Free to $36/monthPlatform: Browser
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
CHECK AMAZON
Visit Site
REASONS TO BUY
+Cross-platform
+Easy drag and drop
REASONS TO AVOID
-There are better interfaces
Yet another web-based option that is perfect for beginners wanting to create a quality website with minimal fuss. As is common with the best web design software, there’s a super-easy-to-use drag and drop approach to building a Webflow website, using many of their well-thought out templates.
You can start creating a website with Webflow with zero coding experience, but there’s room to move if you want to get to know a bit more about coding. There’s also a handy, free demonstration of all Webflow’s features at the click of a button, so you can head over to the site and see if what it has to offer is for you, without spending any money. From there you can create two sites for free to see the features in action, and then it’ll cost you to build more.
Icons explaining concept behind Pattern Lab
(Image credit: Dave OIsen and Brad Frost)
- Pattern Lab
The best web design software for building design systems.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2013Developer: Dave OIsen and Brad FrostCost: FreePlatform: Browser
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Free
+Clear focus
+Intuitive interface
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not a website builder
Building a design system for your web work? Pattern Lab is a frontend workshop environment that can serve as your hub, and it helps you build, view, test, and showcase your UI components. And it’s totally free.
It’s all based on the concept of Atomic Design, which involves breaking a website down into its basic components and then working up from there to create a site. That mental model is baked into its interface and feature set, making it remarkably intuitive and easy to get started with.
Understand, though, that this is not a production-ready framework. You don’t actually build websites with Pattern Lab; you build components and design systems, which will in turn allow you to create prototypes and finished websites much more quickly and consistently.
Bootstrap logo
(Image credit: Bootstrap)
- Bootstrap
The best framework for web designers.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2010Developer: Open sourceCost: FreePlatform: Browser
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Excellent documentation
+Responsive-first
+Promotes best practice
REASONS TO AVOID
-Sites can look samey
The time when web designers were expected to write every piece of code, time after time, are now long behind us. There are countless frameworks out there helping you to avoid continuing reinventing the wheel, and instead build sites quickly and consistency. And one of the oldest and best is Bootstrap.
Originally created by designers at Twitter to create consistency among their internal tools, Bootstrap is a free and open-source framework directed at responsive, mobile-first front-end web development.
Now maintained by a small team of developers on GitHub, Bootstrap allows you use HTML and CSS templates for web-based content such as forms, buttons, navigation and more. You can also use JavaScript plugins.
Bootstrap comes with excellent documentation, which is not all that surprising. Because ultimately, Bootstrap is not so much a framework as a methodology, and so is a great way to stay on course with best practices and accessibility. Check out our selection of the best Bootstrap themes.
Sublime Text screengrab
(Image credit: Sublime HQ)
- Sublime Text 3
A super-strong web design software choice.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2008Developer: Sublime HQCost: $80Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Fast
+Lightweight
+Extendable
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not free
To write code, you need a decent code editor, and our pick of the bunch is Sublime Text 3. With a streamlined and easy to use interface, it’s fast, lightweight and responsive. And the lack of even tiny, fraction-of-a-second delays in its operation makes a difference when it comes to getting into the flow of programming.
Developed by a former Google engineer, Sublime Text 3 is very flexible too, with a huge range of plugins available. Which basically means it’s suitable for any kind of web design project and any level of web designer, from novice to veteran.
There’s a free trial, but beyond that you’ll have to pay an $80 licence. You may balk at that when there are so many free code editors available. But let’s be real: time is money, and if it makes you more productive, the best code editor will pay for itself many times over.
WordPress templates
(Image credit: Automattic)
- WordPress.org
The best content management system for web designers.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2003Developer: AutomatticCost: FreePlatform: Windows, Mac, Linux
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Free
+Scalable
+Extensible
REASONS TO AVOID
-Learning curve
Once you’ve built a website for a client, you don’t want them ringing you up every time they want to update the information on it. So you want it to be built on a flexible and customisable CMS (content management system), and WordPress is far and away the most popular of these, for good reason.
One of the best web builders around, WordPress.org is free, open source, well documented, and supported by an enthusiastic worldwide community. (Note that WordPress.org is separate and distinct from WordPress.com, which is a paid-for web builder service.)
WordPress sites are SEO friendly, and well protected against security vulnerabilities. You can speed up website creation by using either free or paid-for themes. And there are thousands of plugins to help you add virtually anything to your sites that you want. No wonder WordPress powers almost 40 per cent of the internet in 2021.
Google PageSpeed logo
(Image credit: Google)
- PageSpeed Insights
The best web design software for testing performance.
SPECIFICATIONS
Launched: 2013Developer: GoogleCost: FreePlatform: Chrome browser
TODAY’S BEST DEALS
VISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Detailed reports
+Easy to understand
+Useful suggestions
REASONS TO AVOID
-Sometimes a little vague
It doesn’t matter how fancy your website is: if it doesn’t load quickly, visitors will go elsewhere, particularly if they’re on smartphones running on slow or dodgy connections. So every web designer in 2021 needs to have website speed test tool in their armory, and our favourite has to be PageSpeed Insights.
PageSpeed Insights was created by Google, which has a direct interest in making sites run faster, so they’ve put a lot of effort into making this useful and efficent. Built into the Chrome browser’s developer tools, It basically analyses your web page for you, provides a detailed report on how it performs on different platforms, and makes suggestions about how to make it run faster.
You just type in the appropriate URL and the software does the rest. These suggestions can occasionally be a little vague, but even then they at least send you in the right direction.
Conclusion
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