Open source web design software is a program that can be downloaded for free, and it can be used to create websites.
There are many different open source web design software programs, including Drupal, WordPress, Joomla!, and Magento.
Each of these programs has its own unique features and benefits. They also have their own pros and cons as well.
Open source web design software is a great option for people who want to create their own website but don’t want to spend any money on it. However, there are some limitations when compared with paid website design software like Adobe Photoshop or Dreamweaver.
Open Source Web Design Software Free Download
Here’s the list of the best free, open source web design software that will help you create responsive websites and mobile applications with no coding requirement.
- Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the most popular free web design software. It ensures fast and flexible coding with code hints and visual aids to help beginners create professional websites.
However, Adobe Dreamweaver is available on a free trial, only for seven days. After that, you have to get its paid version to continue using its amazing features.
Core Features of Adobe Dreamweaver:
- Site previews with real-time editing
- Flexible and fast coding
- CEF integration & Git support
- IDE environment
- Dynamic display for every device
- Multi-monitor support
Deployment Type: On-premise
Suitable for Business Size: Small & medium businesses, large enterprises
Pricing Mode: Plans start from ₹ 1675 per month for a single app. The monthly plan for all apps costs around ₹ 4230. Also available is a seven days free trial version.
Reasons to Buy:
- Easy to customize starter templates for building blogs, portfolios and HTML emails.
- Timely bug and security vulnerability fixes.
- Compatible with the latest Windows & mac operating systems.
Supported OS: Windows 10 & above, Linux, Mac OS 10.12 Sierra & above
Here’re a few free and open-source web design software like Dreamweaver, which provides equally amazing features and support.
- Brackets (Free and Open Source Web Design Software)
Best for: Visual tools for live previews
Brackets website builder provides pre-processor support and visual tools for writing codes and building websites. The open-source and free web design software is ideal for designing in the browser using live previews.
It provides visual tools along with editors to help web developers and front-end developers with error-free coding.
Brackets Core Features:
- Live preview
- Inline editors
- Indent guides
- Pre-processor support
- Auto prefixes
- Git integration
Deployment Type: Cloud-based and desktop
Suitable for Business Size: Small businesses and medium enterprises
Pricing Mode: Brackets is a free and open-source web design software.
Reasons to Buy: Brackets is ideal just not for web designers but also for front-end developers. It is simple to use and provides free extensions and syntax colouring.
Supported OS: Windows, Linux and Mac
- WordPress (Free and Paid)
Best for: Customizable templates
WordPress is one of the best professional web design software. The web design software offers plugins and addons for building professional quality landing pages in minutes.
Thus, you can create websites easily without the advanced knowledge of coding. In addition, it provides Pro layouts to create professionally designed websites.
Features of WordPress:
- Online store builder & booking tools
- Electronic form
- Full-text searching option
- Document classification and data export/import
- Auto file management
- Customizable templates
Deployment Type: On-premise and cloud-based
Suitable for Business Size: All business types
Pricing Mode: Starting plan costs around ₹ 292 a month. You can also get started for free with limited features.
Reasons to Buy: Best for building fast websites and blog pages. WordPress can be easily integrated with plugins from third-party apps. Several instances are also available for live hosting and testing.
Supported OS: Windows and Mac, Android & iOS
- CoffeeCup HTML Editor (Free and Paid)
Best for: Creating prototypes and mobile-friendly emails
CoffeeCup HTML editor helps businesses create an online presence with the help of professional web development tools. Implementing SEO strategies or adding web firms, all is easy with this website design software.
The best part is its HTML editor that can be used to design websites and edit the code and build mobile-friendly emails.
CoffeCup HTML Editor Core Features:
- Components’ library
- Live previews
- Custom web forms
- Custom email solution
- Visual code selector
- Semantic web-ready
- Responsive and customizable themes
Deployment Type: On-premise
Suitable for Business Size: Medium and small-sized businesses
Pricing Model: Single package with a free trial available at the cost of ₹ 2119.
Reasons to Buy: Easy to use the HTML editor to create custom web forms and share them via custom emails.
Supported OS: Windows 7 and higher
- Joomla (Free and Paid)
Best for: Powerful SEO features
Joomla is a website maker software and content marketing system, which offers command-line applications for building websites. The software’s graphical user interface offers customizable templates in varied layouts, colours and fonts to develop interactive websites and online applications.
Joomla Features:
- Cache and user management
- Publish tools and editor buttons
- Custom fields with categories
- Media manager with WYSIWYG editor
- Content versioning with CMS management
Deployment Type: On-premise
Suitable for Business Size: Small, medium and large enterprises
Pricing Mode: Joomla 3.9.26 is available for free download with premium upgrades available.
Reasons to Buy: Joomla has a smooth learning curve with various video training materials and documentation available.
Further, you can use Joomla or its metadata management capabilities and powerful search engine optimization capabilities.
Supported OS: Windows and mac OS, Linux, iOS and Android
Try Now: Designing Solutions | Graphic Design Software | 3D Design Software
- Bootstrap (Free and Open Source Web Design Software)
Best for: Grid typography and fonts
Bootstrap open source web design software offers mixins and SaaS variables and responsive grid systems for creating responsive websites. The web design software provides essential features and colours for styling webpages and making webpages behave as per their screen size.
Also available are side features like popovers, modals, tooltips, glyph icons and pagination.
Bootstrap Core Features:
- jQuery plugins
- Basic style definitions
- Various layout components
- Grid typography and fonts
- Predefined libraries
Deployment Type: Web-based
Suitable for Business Size: Small and medium businesses
Pricing Mode: Monthly plan available at ₹ 1097. Bootsrap also offers a free plan for up to 10 users and 2GB storage.
Reasons to Buy: Bootstrap free website builder is compatible with multiple browsers like Opera, internet explorer, Chrome, Safari, etc., thus making website building easy and simple.
Pre-styled customizations and components are the added advantages of using Bootstrap. Web styling is easy and doesn’t take very long.
Supported OS: Web-based
Top 12 Designing Software for Beginners Without Code
- Mobirise (Free and Paid)
Best for: Image sliders & popup builders
Mobirise is a free web design software, which is best for creating landing pages and high-ranking websites for non-profit and professional use. The web design software offers thousands of beautiful templates, blocks and website blocks to help you start quickly with the web designing process.
Non-techies highly prefer Mobirise to create Google and mobile-friendly websites without any coding knowledge.
Core Features of Mobirise:
- Bootstrap builder
- Trendy website blocks
- Form builder
- Image sliders
- Popup builder
Deployment Type: SaaS, cloud and web-based
Suitable for Business Size: Small business, mid-market professionals and freelancers
Pricing Mode: Mobirise paid plan to start at ₹10k approx
Reasons to Buy: No coding is required for building websites. The free website making software is best for beginners with not much knowledge of coding.
Supported OS: Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Mac
- openElement (Free Web Design Software)
Best for: Customizing web objects
openElement is a website editor offering a WYSIWYG interface for building websites. The website design tool helps automatically generate a code for displaying a website and its functions correctly.
openElement Core Features:
- Custom CSS
- Database management
- Search engine optimisation
- Element editor
Deployment Type: Desktop
Suitable for Business Size: Small businesses and mid-market firms
Pricing Mode: It is a completely free web design tool.
Reasons to Buy: Easy drag and drop functionality can be used to customise, insert, and modify web objects onto pages. This process is hassle-free and easy for beginners.
Supported OS: Windows 7,8, 10/ XP/Vista
- GIMP (Free and Open Source Web Design Software)
Best for: Photo enhancement & digital retouching
GIMP or GNU image manipulation program is a free web design tool offering professional features for image manipulation purposes. This web design software can also be used for designing graphical elements by changing the source code and distributing the changes.
GIMP Core Features:
- Photo enhancement and digital retouching
- Support for USB and MIDI controllers
- Channel mixer
- Advanced graphic design elements
- Support for photo manipulation
- Ensures extensibility & flexibility
Deployment Type: Desktop-based
Suitable for Business Size: Small and medium-sized businesses
Pricing Mode: GIMP is a free and open-source web design software.
Reasons to Buy: GIMP web builder helps customize your company’s logo, images and vectors for advertisement purposes. Simple interface along with various options for filtering and effects make GIMP a convenient website designing tool.
Supported OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista and 7/8; mac OS 10.6 & above
- Webydo (Free Trial)
Best for: Responsive breakpoints
Webydo is one of the best professional web design software trusted for creating responsive websites that are pixel perfect without deploying any code. What makes Webydo unique is its content management capabilities, something that makes it possible for clients to update or edit the content anytime they want.
Webydo Core Features:
- Parallax scrolling animator
- Drag & drop control
- Web fonts
- Video tools
- Design without code
Deployment Type: Cloud-based
Suitable for Business Size: SMBs and large enterprises
Pricing Mode: Free trial available for all paid plans. The start cost of the paid plan is ₹ 5473 per month.
Reasons to Buy: Intuitive drag and drop interface besides visual tools that require no static mockups.
Supported OS: Windows, Mac and Linux, Android
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) 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 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
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