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Pros and Cons of Free Web Design Software
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First things first: why are you building this website? Is it to be a personal site, a site for a hobby or family interest, or is it to be a professional or business website? If your answer is either of the first two, then you can quit reading now and just go build your site. Find a good web host and you\'ll usually find free web design software that goes with it and that will meet your needs. If you\'re building your site for business or professional purposes, though, then you\'d better keep reading. This site will be your livelihood (or part of it, anyway) and will definitely affect your reputation and standing amongst your peers and clientčle. So you\'d better carefully consider what your site is to look like and how you\'re going to go about making it look that way before you commit to using free web design software instead of hiring a professional. No doubt you\'re head is full of ideas of how the content will read, how the site will look, and how many visitors you\'re going to be getting who\'ll be interested in buying your products or hiring your services. Well, it\'s good to have those dreams, but you\'d better keep your head in reality for a while. You have some real decisions to make. The first thing to do is decide if you really have the time, energy, and wherewithall to devote to building your own website. Even with all the great free web design software out there, it still takes a lot of time and work to make a site look professional. Not only that, but there is a lot to learn if you\'re going to optimize that site so that you can maximize turnover (visitors to sales) ratios and search engine rankings. Not to mention the website copy itself and the design elements that make the site appealing and usable to the visitor. If you\'re still up to the challenge, then let\'s look at what general kinds of free web design software are out there and which ones are best for you to use to make your new site. The two major types of free web design software out there are: stand-alone and web-hosted. Stand-Alone Software Stand-alone software is just that, it installs on your computer like any other application and is run almost entirely from there, with no Internet connection required for most functions. There are a lot of advantages to using this kind of free web design software: * portability (no ties to any single web hosting provider) * speed (it is usually not dependent on your \'Net connection speed) * backups (your site, as it is on your computer vs. the Web is a “backup”) * eases collaboration (if you have more than one person working on your site, this software can often make working together easier) At the same time, this type of free web design software has some distinct disadvantages: * incompatibility (sometimes your software is not compatible or supported by your host) * support (free software is often not very well supported, often with little or no customer support at all) * what you see is not always what you\'ll get (sometimes what you see the site looking like on your system is not what it looks like once published to the Web) * not system portable (if you work on your site from more than one computer, you may not be able to move all the data back and forth easily) * often does not integrate well with shopping carts and other web scripts (these scripts are usually built into the hosting plan and may not be able to integrate easily with your software) You can see here that there are definite pluses and minuses to using free web design software that is stand-alone. Usually, this option is chosen by more experienced web do-it-yourselfers who have an understanding of the more complex parts of web design, such as HTML scripting and such. Web Hosted or Web Based Software that is included as part of a hosting plan and that runs almost entirely through your browser falls into this category. This is the most common type of free web design software now and has gained popularity for a number of reasons, including these strengths: * easy portability (any computer accessing the web can be used to log into the software to work on the site) * what you see is usually what you get (what you\'re seeing on your screen as you build the site is probably what it will look like when people see it on the Web) * integrates almost seamlessly with host-supported scripts (shopping carts and other scripts are usually built into the web-based design software, which means they\'ll integrate nicely) * good support (if your website host provides good support, then your free web design software probably has it too) * fast setup and easy learning curve (this type of software is usually quickly set up through your host and is almost always easy to learn at least the basic operations of) There are some big advantages to using web-based software, most of which very much outweigh the disadvantages for most people. This is why it\'s gained so much popularity. The disadvantages are too much for some, though, and include: * host non-portability (once you sign up with a host and use their free web design software, you\'re probably married to them until you decide to revamp your site entirely or quit business online) * changes may be irreversible (you may not be able to save multiple versions of your site for backups or temporary changes, such as sales or promotions) * backups more difficult (often web-based software has no backup solution integrated) * functionality or custom HTML limited (often you are restricted to using only the built-in objects and scripts and sometimes you are not even allowed to hand-code portions of the HTML itself) There are definitely some ups and downs to using web-based free web design software, but as I said, these cons are often outweighed by the pros that I listed before. For many, this is the solution that fits best. Whatever your decision, it doesn\'t hurt to at least try free web design software for yourself and see if you can make the killer site you\'ve dreamed about for your business. If you fail to do so, you can always scrap it and hire a professional later. It was free, after all! |
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