[Technology] Website Design Software – Recommendations?

[Gilliver's Travels]

I'm needing to replace my out of date website. Looking for a straightforward web-design app (probably template-based) that I can use to build the new site and then upload to my current web host, using my existing domain name.

I've checked out Wix. It looks okay for site build but apparently any Wix-created site can only be hosted on their own servers.

So, any recommendations for a simple but decent looking web design/upload app that would do the job?

 

[BBassic]

I've not used it but I get relentless ads on YouTube about Squarespace so I'm going to say Squarespace.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Presuming you're not selling any products and it's to advertise your services I'd got for Squarespace - I've not used it personally as I code my sites from scratch but I've heard from colleagues Squarespace is pretty good now for most people's needs. If your selling products go with Shopify.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

Presuming you're not selling any products and it's to advertise your services I'd got for Squarespace - I've not used it personally as I code my sites from scratch but I've heard from colleagues Squarespace is pretty good now for most people's needs. If your selling products go with Shopify.

Many thanks for the suggestions - will check them out.

Any more to recommend?

 

[orange zeemeeuw]

I've just started looking at https://carrd.co/ - bit of a learning curve coming from Squarespace as it's designed for single page sites, so to get that multi-page feel it's a bit less intuitive. Still only a few hours in with checking it out, but it's so much cheaper and I put together a number of sites for musicians and events which are not exactly flush with cash so was looking for cheaper alternative.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

I've just started looking at https://carrd.co/ - bit of a learning curve coming from Squarespace as it's designed for single page sites, so to get that multi-page feel it's a bit less intuitive. Still only a few hours in with checking it out, but it's so much cheaper and I put together a number of sites for musicians and events which are not exactly flush with cash so was looking for cheaper alternative.

Thanks for all your replies. Wix and Squarespace do look pretty good design-wise, but seems that any websites their customers create can only hosted on the Wix/Squarespace servers.

In contrast, I want to upload the new website to my existing host (Krystal) and keep everything there. That must be possible, no?

 

[Knocky's Nose]

I use Squarespace. Decent.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

It’s a while since I’ve built any websites but like a lot of people I installed Wordpress (free) on my web space and then bought readymade themes from ThemeForest (loads of other providers out there). You can run decent demos of all their themes before buying. Themes aren’t expensive. There are plenty of free themes out there too but it’s usually better to buy one as you then get more reliable maintenance and troubleshooting.

Also look up Elegant Themes and Divi. You can spend hours, days, browsing the possibilities. All depends what you’re looking for. Your web space possibly already comes with WordPress installed.

Just me perhaps but I looked at and rejected things like Wix and Squarespace. I didn’t want to pay a subscription forever, plus I felt that I didn’t have enough control. Many people like them for exactly those reasons — that there’s a lot of handholding available.