Web Design Software: Reviews

About.com: The blog guide at About.com recommends Windows Live Writer as the best blog software tool, giving it a near-perfect rating (higher than that of BlogDesk.org) and praising it for including "a vast number of features." The reviewer prefers offline blog editing because it's not only convenient, but gives you a backup copy of your posts.

MasterNewMedia.org: Publishing expert Robin Good provides a video review of the beta version of Windows Live Writer, plus a reprint of a very detailed review by Amit Argawal, covering the major features with lots of screen shots.

PaulStamatiou.com: This review is extremely detailed, with lots of screenshots, but rather outdated since it covers the beta version of Windows Live Writer.

And He Blogs (blog): This enthusiastic review (by another skeptic of Microsoft) praises Windows Live Writer as easy to use, with a host of convenient features.

TheTechBrief.com: This brief but well-illustrated review calls Windows Live Writer "an awesome tool" and describes the author's experience using it with a WordPress blog.

PC World: This review recommends off-line blog editing as best, then compares four offline blog editors.

Tech Ronin: Software developer and technology blogger Tokerud calls Infinite Sushi ecto "the most powerful desktop blogging tool on the planet." She praises the continual development of ecto, with the latest addition being support for Mac Automator to speed up work -- keeping ecto easy to use for both geeks and non-geeks.

PaulStamatiou.com: This tech student's review of Infinite Sushi ecto is brief, but quite a few readers weigh in with their experiences with ecto and other blog editors, with some useful comparisons.

ReviewSaurus.com: This review covers Infinite Sushi ecto for Windows users (though the version isn't specified), listing its pros and cons clearly and concluding that it's not worth the price -- primarily because of the two-window interface and lack of FTP client.

Download.com: The review of this earlier version of Infinite Sushi ecto doesn't rate it, but the sole user-written review here says it mangles HTML code because it uses (on a Mac) Apple's core text service.

WPDFD.com Web Page Design for Designers: This head-on comparison from Web Page Design for Designers covers four website design software programs by taking one site done in HTML and trying to recreate it using only the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) features in each product.

Smart Computing: This review compares five web publishing programs from the point of view of a relative novice, recommending CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer for users who don't want to pay the monthly fee required by using TypePad.

WebUser.co.uk: This UK magazine finds CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer fast and easy, with attractive templates.

FreeDownloadsCenter.com: Editors and a handful of users agree in giving CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer a rating of four on a five-point scale.

Tucows.com: Editors at this venerable download site give CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer a perfect five-point score, noting that it includes 70 templates.

Download.com: More than 30 users rate Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer here, giving it an average rating of 3.5 stars on a five-point scale.

Macworld: This detailed review by a corporate consultant gives RapidWeaver 4 a near-perfect rating, saying it "strikes just the right balance between customizability and ease of use." About 30 readers add comments, most praising RapidWeaver's ease of use and technical support.

ViewFromTheDock.com: This detailed review notes that RapidWeaver themes provide a lot of customization and convenient features, and is relatively easy to use.

Zakk Forchilli (blog): This enthusiastic review is fairly detailed, noting that you can "drag anything into your web page, and RapidWeaver will find a way to manage that file and put it where you want it." No drawbacks are noted.

MacUpdate.com: More than 100 users rate and review RapidWeaver here, but there's no consolidation of ratings.

PCMag.com: Microsoft Expression Web is the current Editors' Choice -- not only less expensive than Dreamweaver, but easier to use.

WPDFD.com Web Page Design for Designers: This head-on comparison at Web Page Design for Designers evaluates four website design software programs by using them to recreate a website that was done in HTML. Editor use only the WYSIWYG features in each program.

PC Pro: This British magazine favors Dreamweaver for "the widest and deepest web standard support" and rates Microsoft Expression Web 2 a point lower (five on a six-point scale).

PC World (Australia): The latest version of Microsoft Expression Web earns praise here for its integration with Photoshop and Flash, earning a rating of four out of a possible five.

CNET: This review covers the earlier version of Expression Web, giving it the same lukewarm rating as Dreamweaver CS3, with both losing points for being hard for beginners.

MerificamPress.com: Though this site is aimed at professional web designers, this review compares Evrsoft First Page 2006 with four other free web design tools, declaring First Page the best.

Download.com: Nearly 70 users give First Page 2006 quite mixed reviews that lead to an average rating of three stars out of a possible five.

Softpedia.com: About 40 users (out of 8,000 who've downloaded the software) rate First Page here, giving it the same average rating of three stars out of a possible five as at Download.com.

WDVL.com: This older review at Web Developers' Virtual Library by a professional website designer covers a much earlier version, but still gives a good idea of how the program works since it includes quite a few screen shots.

ReviewCentre.com: Only one user reviews First Page here, but it's the latest version.