What are Tools?

This is one of the easiest ways to build a website, and will certainly suit anyone that just wants to have their own hobby or small business website. The Wix website builder has become incredibly well known over the last few years, in part due to their many marketing campaigns which have run on many sites including Facebook and Google. Today Wix is the biggest player in the website builder landscape and hosts a massive 80 million websites.

The visually impressive layouts are designed for hobbyists, small businesses, restaurants, online stores and artists such as musicians and photographers. They are optimized for mobile devices and can be spiced up with one of the numerous apps available from the Wix App Market.

Wix is available for free for as long as you want, but if you require professional features like your own domain name or priority support, you can choose from one of their premium plans.

You will not become a professional website designer using Wix, but you will have a pretty cool website in very little time!

A common misunderstanding with Wordpress is that there are two versions of Wordpress. Wordress.com and wordpress.org.

Wordpress.com

The most popular is wordpress.com, which is where you get a free sub-domain and hosting, along with a WYSIWYG editor and thousands of themes (both free and commercial). It is really a blog, but a blog is just a website that is updated more frequently, and many would argue- more easily.

Hosting with WordPress.com means that your site will be free forever, but you can also pay to upgrade your site to achieve your specific needs. It also means your site will be well looked after with top of the line spam-fighting power and automatic security updates.

All you need to do is sign up and choose your blog name, then design your site. You won’t have to worry about installing the software since it’s all managed for you instantly. You can visit it here.

Wordpress.org

WordPress.org is where you can grab your own copy of the WordPress blogging/Content Management System (CMS) software for free. It currently powers 24% of the web.

With the software comes the responsibility of finding your own hosting company to house your WordPress site along with your own domain name to point visitors to it.

You’ll also have full control over the WordPress software and your site. The only limitation you might have could be the resources you’re allotted in the hosting package you pick.

WordPress.org also includes extensive documentation and a community forum where you can ask questions if you get stuck or help someone else. It’s also the site to go to if you would like to get involved and join many other volunteers in contributing to the WordPress core code, mobile apps, translations, and accessibility. You can visit it here.

This is a free sitebuilder that still does a very nice job of creating web pages. It hasn't been updated since 2010 but that doesn't mean it doesn't work well, in fact it's one of the nicest pieces of software I've used for creating web projects. KompoZer may not be using the latest incarnation of HTML but the pages created display just fine in all browsers. WYSIWYG editor using W3 CSS and HTML 4.01

I would highly recommend Kompozer for the novice looking to get their feet wet in the world of web page creation, as you can code using formatting tools similar to those found in MS Word, but you can also switch to the code view and learn how a change in the WYSIWYG look makes changes "under the hood".

KompoZer has a relatively simple (albeit old-fashioned) interface, good documentation, lots of videos on YouTube as well as courses that use it (try Alison.com) and is fairly easy to get started.

You just download it and run it to start you first webpage, but do check out some tutorials first

This is a premium product, and thus will cost in the region of €300 at the time of writing. Many training centers offer web design courses. If a center is using a WYSIWYG, the chances are that they are using Adobe Dreamweaver! It is not just for the home user, but many businesses use it as well.

Adobe Dreamweaver has one of the longest legacies of any web design tool and while you may think those years have made today's version outdated, quite the opposite is true. When Adobe transitioned to an 'always developing' model with the introduction of Creative Cloud in 2012, it meant we could update the website builder as soon as the industry changed and not wait for the next box.

It also means that Dreamweaver has very tight integration with other Adobe desktop tools, and a way to access, share and ruse Web design assets with Creative Cloud Libraries. In short, Dreamweaver is more agile today than it's ever been.

As with anything that has a long life span, there are some legacy perceptions about Dreamweaver that are no longer true for the tool today. Even in the five years since the last box version (CS6) Dreamweaver has undergone massive change to improve the user experience and keep pace with industry innovations.

It is more advanced than other WYSIWYG editors, but to be successful and create websites with Dreamweaver, you do need to learn and understand HTML/CSS code. However, Dreamweaver provides toolsets for both advanced and new web developers that intend to learn the skill so you don't have to start as an ace. Features like code hinting, CSS designer and Live View help you in learning to write HTML/CSS. Adobe offers other tools targeted to those with less coding experience, like Adobe Muse, which is code free and developed for graphic designers who want to develop websites.

This is the "New Kid on the Block" when it comes to designing websites from an application that you install on your computer. It is certainly impressive!

Mobirise runs on Windows and Mac devices and can be used on or offline to create entire websites, landing pages, resumes, portfolios, and most of the other types of online content you can think of. There’s also an Android version available, which you can use on smartphones and tablets running this mobile operating system.

Mobirise is a free, responsive website builder that fundamentally differs from its contemporaries. Rather than follow the freemium web-hosted model that has practically become the industry standard, Mobirise is an offline program, available as a free download. Mobirise is the first serious offline website builder with these features that I’ve come across, so I was happy to be able to explore something that differs fundamentally from the pack.

Based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Mobirise officially released its website builder in August of 2015, so it’s relatively new to the scene and is likely to become more fully-featured as time goes on. The fact that Mobirise is an offline program can be seen as inconvenient, though this arrangement isn’t without its benefits. Though many on-the-go startup owners and enthusiasts won’t be enthusiastic about the need to find a web host for their Mobirise site, others will be pleased to be able to change hosts at will – with many hosted website builders, you can’t take it with you.

This website builder has been created to be easy to use for non-coders, while also aiming to enable developers to work faster. It’s also free to use, with premium extensions available if needed.

Therefore, if you’re seeking a tool to help you create professional looking websites more efficiently, this solution could be just what you’re looking for. One of the key features of Mobirise is its drag-and-drop, point-and-click user interface. Once you’ve fired up the app, you can simply start creating your web page designs by clicking on the canvas and then interacting with the context-sensitive controls that are displayed.

Keep in mind that Mobirise is an offline program, free for personal and commercial use. It does have a code editor, but this is a one-time purchase, so you get the ease of a WYSIWYG with the convenience (some may not call it that) of modifying the code as you see fit as well. Certainly an interesting player in the market and it is definitely worth checking out!