Web design software has become as plentiful as almost every other type of computer program on the market. Nearly everywhere you look, you’ll find another option. That doesn’t mean all of those options are created equal. There are definitely some examples of web design software that stand above the crowd.

Determining the best best web design software, however, requires knowing what you’re looking for. What might be the best software for a professional web designer would probably not be the best software for an amateur with limited HTML knowledge or for someone just wanting to start an online blog.

For example, one of the consistently best web design programs is Adobe Dreamweaver. With the program, you can make complex web sites, including the always popular e-commerce sites. It can help you integrate multimedia elements into your site, work with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and even create database interaction. It’s fairly simple to use and is distributed by one of the biggest names in software. However, it costs around $400 so that puts it out of the ballpark for anyone but the most serious web designers.

Outside of Dreamweaver you can also use Microsoft FrontPage. Although Microsoft might eventually discontinue supporting this software in the near future, it is still one of the easier tools available to create a website quickly. I personally didn’t like using Frontpage years ago since it had the habit of rewriting some of my html code, but if you don’t go into your site’s source code and fiddle around with it than Frontpage might be a good solution for you.

Some other tools to consider when making your website are blogs. A blog can be used as a part of your site or the main part of your site. There are lots of sites online now that are using blogs as the main format of their business and most users are not even aware of it. Plus it is very easy to setup and use. The hardest part might be the setup, but most hosting providers offer one click installs where the setup is so automated that a monkey can do it. There are several types of blogging platforms available such as WordPress and Blogger. The really nice thing about these two is that you can even host your site with them for free, but this will limit the features and customizations that you can do. But if you wanted to get online quickly for free and not deal with software this is a good choice for you to look into.

On the other hand, if you just a simple web site for your small business then you’d be better off choosing Coffee Cup 2006 or Homestead Sitebuilder. Neither of these choices allow you to have an elaborate e-commerce site, but if you pay a little extra you can get a Homestead package that allows you to accept Paypal. Coffee Cup still lets you put together a fairly professional looking site, although without as many bells and whistles, but for only around $50. With Homestead, you’ll get web hosting and the tools to create a WYSIWYG site, but you’ll pay a monthly fee of $5 to $50 per month, plus an initial $20 set-up fee.

Roger Cochran

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