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In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Eleanor Spenceley
I used to be a devout Freeway user until its demise a few years ago, it appears there is a new application being built by the company called Xway but this is still a long way from being a viable alternative and I'm worried if it'll ever see a finished release.

These days most people do not run native applications to build their websites, instead there are online companies such as SquareSpace, Shopify, Wix offer pretty good online web builders. The benefit of these businesses is it's really easy to build useful online shops with all the payment headaches pretty much handled for you.
The drawbacks to these sites is once you're in, you're in! It's hard to move to another web provider without rebuilding your website from scratch with their own tools. But more importantly (to me) these providers are expensive, you could easily be spending £30 a month to have your website with them.

But what if you just want a tiny website or a website you can move to other cheaper web host providers in the future?

The most popular Web Building App for the Mac is Rapidweaver. Problem is, no matter how much I've tried to like this App, I just cannot get to grips with it. Time and again, I find I am prevented from changing stuff in their rigid template frameworks. It is a very frustrating App!

So my search goes on and this weekend I think I might have found what I am looking for. The App is called Sparkle, it has recently had a major update. I find the interface intuitive, polished and pretty comprehensive. It is really designed for responsive web pages and if you wish you could create a web page similar to Apple's, it might get you close without the pain of being a web coder. It doesn't support 'template' pages so I wouldn't want to do a big site with it and online shopping requires some background 'hacking' at the moment but this app certainly has some potential...

Anyhow early days and I'll report further if I take the plunge and buy this App to do my small website.

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Mick Burrell
Barry Guyer (Salisbury) is a one-man advert for Sparkle!

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Tony Still
I use Blocs which is Mac only. It's certainly better, in my opinion, than rapidWeaver. I don't know Sparkle so can't compare to that.

If you have been using Freeway, I don't think you'll have any problems with Blocs: it is a little quirky but very powerful. It automatically makes your web sites responsive (ie to different screen sizes), has an active support forum and is under current development by a responsive (British) developer. There are plug-ins available for more complex functions but the basics are quite well covered.

There's a free, time-limited, demo version.

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Eleanor, as a fellow FreeWay user, I await your report on Sparkle with particular interest. Apart from the learning curve with any new app, the issue that I find really daunting is the transition. My site (Bartonhewsons.uk) has expanded over the years and so, whilst it doesn’t use any particularly advanced features, it is large and heavily interlinked.

Re-working the whole site at once is not feasible so I’d be looking to progressively migrate sections as and when they are modified, whilst maintaining the integrity of the whole. I had hoped that XWay would come to my rescue but I’ve not read anything that encourages me to believe that, if and when it is eventually finished, it will import or convert legacy FreeWay documents. So for now, I’m re-booting into Mojave every time I need to update my website, so no Apple silicon for me for a while!

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Eric Jervis
That's an interesting bike Trevor, but does it rhyme with anger,banger, or danger?

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Tony Still
Trevor - When I switched to Blocs, I had an existing iWeb site. It was quite easy to link into the existing pages from new ones as long as I didn't try to change the existing pages. I added a new home page and linked from there to both new and old content.

In theory the existing pages can gradually be replaced; in practice, they're still there and they still work. So it may not be as much work as you fear.

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Thanks for the encouragement Tony - not enough to tip me into undertaking the task now, but maybe enough to save me losing sleep over the prospect!

Eric - Banger of course :) Apologies to everyone else who hasn't explored my website to the depth that Eric clearly has!

Re: In search for a new Website Builder

Avatar Eleanor Spenceley
I've purchased the Sparkle App, it's fun and easy to use, but there are reservations.

1. You need to go through and fix the layouts for all the Device types you wish to support (from Mobile to extra wide screen). (This is optional mind).
2. Posting Forms via a defined User ID is crashing the App at the moment.
3. If you wish to insert something in the middle of a long page, you end up having to move everything below it manual.
4. No template pages, but you can fix something to all pages.

It'll do a quick webpage layout which is what I wanted and there's a lot more still to learn.
 
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