Web design isn’t only important for aesthetic purposes. It’s a huge part of the user experience on your website, which can make or break their decision to do an action. If you don’t pay attention to it, it can hurt your conversion rates.
Beginners might find it hard to pay attention to the web design, though. Coding can intimidate them, and there’s a lot to learn before you can create a website design that’s both functional and effective.
It doesn’t have to be tough, however, as long as you have the right tools. Check out below what web design software you can use to help you build a website.
Mobirise
Mobirise is a web design software that uses a drag-and-drop interface. This makes it easy for people to design a website without putting in a line of code.
Choose among its pre-made templates for your website, landing pages, personal portfolio, online resumes, and more. Need to design an eCommerce website? Mobirise has advanced eCommerce tools.
You can then customize it to give it a more unique look and make it in line with your brand. You only have to drag blocks around as you wish.
Because it’s built on the Bootstrap framework, Mobirise creates responsive web pages. Your pages will look great on any screen, whether it’s on mobile or desktop.
Its interface is pretty easy-to-use, too, because of its minimalistic features. You can download this easy-to-use web design software free of cost. It’s great for beginners, but professionals will find it handy, too.
Rapidweaver
Many would tout Rapidweaver as the best web design software because of its powerful yet easy-to-use features. Aside from designing the look of web pages, this app allows you to do more.
For instance, Rapidweaver has an htaccess editor, snippets manager, resources manager, and more. You can add social media tags, browse a huge collection of royalty-free photos, and preview the look of your website on different devices, such as an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac.
It has over 50 high-quality built-in themes, but you can find hundreds more in the community. You have a lot of freedom when it comes to customizing these, as well.
You can also add over 1,500 powerful add-ons to further customize your website. You can add a shopping cart, different styles, and even CMS capabilities. You can even learn more about SEO, designing, and such with the training add-ons.
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ToWeb
ToWeb is another web design software that’s great for both beginners and advanced users alike. It’s a type of WYSIWYG software – what you see is what you get.
Its comprehensive interface is intuitive. Even those without a hint of knowledge about coding will find it easy to use.
It offers beautiful pre-made templates that are good to go, but you can customize and edit them as needed. It supports various kinds of web pages. You can make a video presentation, a photo gallery, or Google Maps.
Building an eCommerce website with ToWeb is easy, too. You can manage each step of the buying process on this platform.
The software allows you to put product listings, have a shopping cart, and calculate taxes. You can even accept payments.
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GIMP
This one is a little more advanced, although it’s more powerful if you need some advanced tools. GIMP allows you to create attractive visuals for your website. It’s a good alternative for Photoshop if the Adobe software is too much work for you.
You can create images, edit photos, and make animations. You can do enhancements and digital retouching, and it works with various formats. You can customize the interface all you want, as well.
It has tons of editing tools and features. You have almost all the features of Photoshop but on a simpler interface. The best thing about it is that it’s free to download.
You can even extend its capabilities by choosing among the hundreds of plug-ins at the GIMP plug-in registry.
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WebFlow
WebFlow is another site builder that doesn’t require users to have coding knowledge. However, what makes it different is it still keeps some of the complexity of front-end coding. In essence, it’s a visual representation of such concepts, so the learning curve for this software can be steeper.
Still, it’s not that hard to learn thanks to its intuitive interface. You do have to familiarize yourself with the tools first. But, after that, you’ll be building a beautiful web page in no time.
The good thing about this is that there are almost no constraints. You’d be trading ease-of-use with almost limitless freedom.
The WebFlow Designer, however, only allows you to create static websites. There are no CMS and eCommerce features, although you can add them. On its own, though, it’s a pretty capable website builder.
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Freeway Express
Freeway is a WYSIWYG web design software, as well, that’s based on DTP (Desktop Publishing) application. Freeway Express is the basic and free version.
It also has pre-made templates and drag-and-drop web elements. However, you’re not restricted by the templates. You can build a website from scratch without learning how to code; you can even create GIFs and graphic text.
The Master Page feature allows you to set-up navigation menus, footers, logos, and more. This becomes a template of your own so that when you create a page, these elements will already be in place. This creates consistency among all your website pages, and it saves you much time and effort.
With Freeway Express, you can also publish to a local folder or FTP. It has a built-in WebKit preview so you can preview the web page in several browsers.
Find the Best Web Design Software for You
Being a master at web design takes years of learning and experience. With the help of the right web design software, though, you can get to designing and building a website in no time.
Find the right one for you by trying out our recommendations above. If you need more tips, feel free to read more of our web design and tech guides today!