Microsoft Web Design Software 2013 is a comprehensive Windows 8-based solution designed to help digital professionals create online experiences that look great and also increase engagement. To get this free app on your device, you need to visit webdesignkit.com/promos from a Windows 8 device such as a PC, tablet or a laptop
Table of Contents
Microsoft Web Design Software Free
1 | Microsoft Expression Web 4 (Free)
I chose Expression Web 4 to be first on the list because, despite support being pulled, Microsoft Expression Web 4 is an actual Microsoft visual website editor. Microsoft released Microsoft Expression Web 4 in 2006 and then dropped support in 2012.
Specifically designed for Microsoft Developers, Microsoft Expression Web 4 supports ASP.Net and Microsoft Silverlight. You can edit your website code either directly or through their easy to use visual editor.
Microsoft Expression Web 4 is especially good for embedding multimedia files like videos and photos on your web pages. This website editor has some nice features and is completely free, so it’s worth a go if you are looking specifically for a “Microsoft” website builder.
Click Here To Visit Microsoft Expression Web 4
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Pros
- You can embed multimedia files
- Visual Editor/ Edit code directly
- Great for Microsoft developers
- Completely free
Cons
- Support is discontinued
- Old fashioned appearance
#2 | Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is more of a source-code editor than a website builder. However, as Microsoft website builders are slim pickings – I thought I’d throw it in. If you’re looking to get into coding like a professional developer, then Visual Studio is brilliant. It has nice syntax highlighters and it’s free and open source. VS code is made for just about every programming languages like Python, C++, C#, Batch, F# and Objective-C. You can also create CSS files to make your website look stylish. The only caviate is that you’d need to get into coding to use Visual Studio.
Pros
- Professional Set up
- Free
- Easy to use UX
- Works in both Windows and MacOS
Cons
- Not for beginners
- No templates
#3 | Wix (for FREE)
Next up is Wix – a popular website building platform that has partnered with Microsoft Office 365. Meaning you can use your Microsoft Office 365 account and get your Wix subscription free. You can even login to your Wix account with your Office 365 details. Wix is a slick, modern free website builder tool that is so easy, a young child could use it. They offer clean and professional looking website templates that you can click to select and then all you have to do is drag and drop elements to complete your design.
With Wix you have everything you need to build a website and get it up and running in a matter of minutes. You can even go in and make your pages just perfect with the Wix page editor. Wix has a wide range of helpful tutorials on using your Microsoft Office 365 subscription to create your Wix site. You can also connect an Office 365 to a domain on your Wix account.
Pros
- Easy drag-and-drop designer
- Professional website templates
- Creates modern websites in minutes
- Subscription included with Microsoft Office 365
- Great for beginners
Cons
- Not a Microsoft product
#4 |GoCentral (from $5.99 p/m)
GoCentral is the website builder tool from GoDaddy. GoCentral isn’t a Microsoft product, but like Wix, they’ve partnered with Microsoft. I like the fact that you get Microsoft Office 365 as part of your subscription with GoCentral.
GoCentral has been designed with the modern short attention span in mind. They’ve stated that the platform has been created for you to create your website in an hour or less, which is fantastic if you want to give a website idea a go and are short of time.
GoCentral isn’t wonderful when it comes to flexibility in your website creation. Also it can be quite slow. On a positive note, GoCentral is great for creating all types of website, including eCommerce sites.
Pros
- Quick and easy to use
- eCommerce sites included
- Clean professional templates
- Bundled with Microsoft Office 365
Cons
- Not a Microsoft product
- Slow
- Limited design options
#5 | WebMatrix 3 (FREE)
Web Matrix 3 is yet another website builder from Microsoft that you can access for FREE. However, like FrontPage, Microsoft Expression Web and Microsoft SharePoint Designer, support for Web Matrix 3 is discontinued, as of 2017. Hence, it’s now totally free and great for people who are working with older websites built in Web Matrix 3.
Web Matrix is a software that was created for developers, specifically for those using HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. So it’s not as user friendly as site builders like Wix, and not for the novice.
WebMatrix could be an interesting place to start if you want to learn to create websites for free. They offer a wide range of helpful tutorials that guide you through the entire process. You can jump on the WebMatrix site and download their software, select templates and even preview a mobile website view.
Pros
- Template Selection
- Mobile preview
- Great for coders and coding enthusiasts
Cons
- Not for the novice
- Support discontinued
#6 | Microsoft FrontPage
Yet another product from Microsoft that has seen its support pulled. FrontPage is great for those who want to work with legacy websites. FrontPage was one of the first website builders and a big thing in its day. However, as the internet exploded, so too did our options for website builders and editors.
FrontPage was launched in 1997 and was one of the original website building platforms. They were the first platform to provide a What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor – so you could preview your websites before you put them online. Pretty standard in 2019 but back in 1997 the feature was quite revolutionary.
As we are discussing Microsoft Website builders, I thought it was fitting to add FrontPage into the list as it paved the way for future website builders. FrontPage is SharePoint’s predecessor.
# 7 |Microsoft Website Builder SharePoint
DepositFiles has servers in 9 countries, which is great for uploading and downloading. They also offer 10GB for free. With DepositFiles there are a few catches. One is that you’ll have to endure advertisements on your FREE account. Their site and user interface is also a bit dated and not very intuitive. You can upgrade to the gold membership which gets you faster upload and download speeds and you can pay with credit card or Bitcoin. DepositFiles pricing is a bit steep at $12 per month, and with this you don’t get extra file storage.
One thing that is great about DepositFiles is the fact that you can send a link with password protection – even on the free plan. I also like the fact that they store your files for free for an unlimited time.
Pros
- Great CMS for document management
Cons
- Not for public website builds
web design software for windows 10
#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 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 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 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 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) Mobiris
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 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 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 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 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 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).
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
Conclusion
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