While there are so many types of web design software for Mac, it has become very difficult to get the actual best in good time. You are going to find countless promotions and reviews all over the web telling you this software is the best as the rest say the first software has some defects so their recommendation is the best way to go. Needless to say, it can be really mind boggling to know and get what you would term your best fit.
The sales pitch of every promotional information on each software can lead you to believe that they’ve got everything or probably more than you would require in a software. And that’s why you are going to want to know, from the people who’ve tested and confirmed, which of the software is worth investing in to help you make a desirable website for your business without the need of prior coding knowledge and skills.
Here are the 4 best Mac web design software in 2016 that have beaten all the others by ease of use, efficiency and speed among others as you are going to see. More to that they’ve been found perfect for beginners as well professional coders and developers who would want to create and run a complex program in such software. So without any further ado, let’s get into this worthwhile Mac software:
1. Weebly
Weebly is among the best of software that have got amazing speed and a tight up security. They take their services to the next level by having their own hosting for all the websites they offer. The website loading time is amazingly fast. And they take it upon themselves to protect all the sites from people who spam sites and hackers as well. The software also make installations and maintenance of SSL for business purposes.
They give the option of launching your own website in your own domain or having a free one with a “.weebly” extension. Their prices are relatively cheap with the starter plan going for about $8 if paid there and then. For the pro version, you get, with around $12, a good fully functional website that highly optimized. The good thing about Weebly is that it doesn’t work with caps like most of the other site builders. For the same price, everything including emails, unlimited storage space, unlimited pages are all at your disposal.
The website building process is quite intuitive and in any case you get stuck, there are some alerts that appear when you mouse over a button, that will give the description and function of each of them. This means that, within not time, you’ll have understood which button serves what purpose and do it with much ease. For the geeks, you can add your custom CSS file and have it run perfectly fine with the site. There are also other better features like placement of page level custom code, URL redirects and others that go above and beyond what most builders give.
What is interesting is the customer service response. To start with they’ve given out to the paid accounts, including the starter, a phone number, an email and a chat. You don’t have to scratch your head wondering how to get something fixed. Usually, the response time is about 5 minutes.
2. Squarespace
Even though the website loading speed is slightly slower than Weebly, Squarespace’s speed is something to be envied. They have a page loading time of 1.53 seconds which is 0.30 seconds slower than Weebly. They also provide hosting for all the websites built through the software and the hosting price is included the monthly payment the developer pays.
Their security is pretty strong as well as having an automatic backup system for all the updates you make in your website. Spammers and hackers are well handled with a robust anti hacking and spamming system that keeps them well at bay. What Squarespace has won with through the years is the templates. They own wonderful templates that really make a site outstanding and are mostly based on the photography niche. So if you as a photographer get to make your site with this software, you have an upper hand than all the others. And they do allow you to upload your template and use it also.
The administration area is well planned out and easy to use. With most of the things well laid out for you, the website development experience is thrilling. Basically, features are well categorized and labelled for your utmost convenience. They also provide you with most of the statistics for your site which you’d otherwise have to spend some extra money to get. Things like traffic overview, that is detailed in all sense of the term, search engine queries, mobile usage and a lot more.
You are also allowed to import and export content from various popular sites like Tumblr, shopify, squarespace 5, Blogger and Big Cartel to and from your website. The customer service also is pretty good with live chats and emails available throughout the day. If they had a phone number, it would be much better. Their pricing plans are as follows: For the personal account, you pay $12 while the business account you pay $18.
3. Homestead
This is yet another amazing software that people have received with much love. There’s one hurdle though, you have to give your billing information as you are signing up for an account. This, on the positive side, will help you protect yourself from other malicious hackers who’d want to rob you. Soon after you’re done with the signing up, you are going to have to answer some few questions that will help them know you and your plans better, and take you to the right direction.
The ease of use of the software is great like the others. Things are very simplified and intuitive. They offer a wide range of ready-made widgets like maps, polls, photo albums and Guestbooks among others. You also get the option to choose either Simplestore, which gives you the ability to make sales of over a hundred products with places to get them at different prices or Weblistings, that will get your website much popularity and help reach out to potential customers.
If you want, you are given a tour that will take you through the basics of operation and get you up and running in a few. There also a community that you can ask questions, disclose your area of expertise and also get to hang out with other users. The support system offers you a phone number and live chat where you can get your issues fixed. As for the pricing, there is no free account for you. There is a 30 days trial period after which you will be billed $5.99 for a starter membership. If you wish, you can choose the business account that goes for $20.99 a month or a business plus account at $60.99 monthly.
4. RapidWeaver
This one seems to be more popular than you’d expect. It has had some versions with RapidWeaver 7 currently on. What is powerful about it is that you don’t necessarily need to have a strong internet connection as it works offline very well. More to that, the new version has been fed with great features like:
• Mobile Friendly – As Google continues to evolve and change its terms for good rankings, this software keeps you updated and always on top. They offer you a mobile friendly website which will get you ranked well on both the mobile search results and computer search results.
• Highly optimized – They’ve also gone a step ahead to make sure what you do on the site is at its best. All the things that popular search engines love have been worked on your site such that with little effort you are well ranked around other authoritative blogs and sites.
• High Compatibility – If you have troubles logging into your admin’s area, you’ll want to get this software as it is well compatible with all browsers even with the weak ones like internet explorer. The experience in each of them is the same elevated one.
• Site Health Check – The software, using the factors that influence a favourable site health, will be regularly checking the health of your site and constantly updating you on where you need to improve upon to stay on top of the game.
There are more other features that have been added like a faster FTP, ability to add your own banner images, new themes like Yuzool, Realmac and MultiThemes among others, ability to publish from many locations, JavaScript and CSS minification, ability to transfer documents to different Macs and a lot more other great features. The price for a new software goes for $99, if you just want an upgrade, you can do it for $59 and you can still buy the software for five Macs at $189, which is well worth the money!
Now, Which is The Best?
Well, if you are looking for a good software that will give you a wonderful experience, a good foundation for your business and a good amount of value of website development knowledge among the four, then you should go for RapidWeaver. With more than 12 years of continuous evolution to make sure every pocket of potential web developers is well catered for, this is one software that will change the entire web.
Simply put, it has got everything you need, the best way you need to approach this lucrative opportunity, and all the best resources to get you to the level of success you are looking for.
All these programs are very useful and interesting for web design. I believe that the best is Homestead, because it is very simplified and easy to use.