Website Maker Software

The internet's exploding popularity, combined with the increasing importance that every individual and business have their own self-managed presence somewhere on the world wide web, means that the need for easy website designs is only increasing. One of the best ways to manage your personal image on the internet is to design your own website by using web site maker software.

This software is largely visual, operating on a "what you see is what you get" basis. Users simply drag elements onto a blank page and decide how they want it to look. Using simple tools that adjust height, width, color, and font attributes, a website can be produced and perfected in just hours or minutes.

It sounds easy, and it is -- once you've chosen the best type of software for your unique situation. But the options can be vast, confusing, and hard to distinguish between. If you find yourself scratching your head in awe of the many choices, there are some things you should know about each kind of web site maker software that will assist you in your decision.

The Established Brands

All of the major internet technology companies have developed their own web site maker software that targets entry-level internet users. These brands are good because they have a vast support network that operates through online help, phone-based customer service, discussion forums, and extensive documentation.

Users of Microsoft products (and those who have a Microsoft web hosting plan) will want to investigate that company's offerings. The Redmond-based company was widely known for developing Microsoft FrontPage, which was a standard program included with every Microsoft Office release until Office 2007.

They have since dropped the FrontPage name (and its associated FrontPage extensions technology) in favor of a more easy-to-use tool called Microsoft Expression Web. This software is perfect for people who use Microsoft Windows server hosting and need a direct connection to their files. Expression Web can upload files and images automatically, and requires no knowledge of HTML for users to experience the richness of its design experience.

Competing with Microsoft is the combined design empire of Adobe Systems and the former Macromedia suite of web design tools. In an era when Adobe and Macromedia were in direct competition, Adobe's Go Live WYSIWYG software competed directly with Macromedia Dreamweaver. Since the companies merged, both programs are actively developed for novice web design users -- though the Dreamweaver software is by far the most commonly used by beginners.

The good thing about Adobe's Dreamweaver product is that it has always adhered strictly to the World Wide Web Consortium's design standards specifications. That means that a website created in Dreamweaver displays beautifully in every browser, on every operating system. Microsoft's products have had trouble adhering to these standards, as they implement proprietary Microsoft coding techniques. These websites look great in the company's Internet Explorer browser, but don't play as well in other arenas.

For the beginner, Adobe Dreamweaver or Go Live should be the first choice of web site maker software. Those who are ultimately more comfortable using Microsoft software should not fear the company's Expression Web offering, though, as it is far more usable and standards-friendly than its FrontPage predecessor.

Open Source Alternatives

Each of the widely-used software distributions mentioned above comes with a pretty heavy price tag: Adobe Dreamweaver can cost between $100 and $1,200 depending on how a user purchases it (either standalone or part of the suite), and the Microsoft Office suite of tools can run between $100 and $300 depending on which version of the suite a user decides to buy.

Open source web site maker software is generally much more affordable -- because it's usually free. For the internet entrepreneur who isn't quite sure if they're really going to "stick with it" when it comes to designing their own websites, it might be worthwhile to check out an open source software alternative before spending the big bucks on major corporate WYSIWYG design brands.

And open source software alternatives have a great added bonus: they're actively developed by an entire community of programming professionals and web design experts. That means they are updated more frequently and add new features faster than their higher-priced counterparts. This especially matters in an age where the World Wide Web Consortium has recently approved a move to HTML 5 coding technology which differs momentously from its predecessors.