Hi,

Which site creation tools are good for customers who want a website but don't know HTML?

What do you think of them?

Thanks,

Louis

I think that site creation tools are a bad way to go. What happens when you want to change hosting providers?

Site creation tools make you stuck with one hosting company because you always need their tool to manage your website.

Instead, a program like Microsoft Frontpage or something else may be a better choice, so you own the tool, and then you have freedom to use any hosting company!

Hi,

I see your points, but I look at it as offering site creation tools as an *additional* offering for those who don't know HTML and don't care to buy or use Frontpage.

Please note I'm not talking about forcing anyone to use site creation tools -- just offering it as an option they can use if they so choose.

So, for a host wanting to offer site creation tools as an additional benefit to those customers who want a website but don't know HTML or want to buy Frontpage, what would you suggest?

Anyone have suggestions or experience with offering site creation tools to hosting customers?


Thanks for sharing,

Louis

Wrong forum :confused:

A company called HiByte do one called AutoSites that's fair. Try http://www.hibyte.co.uk

SiteStudio is good.

Personally I have no problem with site creation tools. They create HTML in the end so you can move to another host if you so desire.

TRELLIX (http://www.trellix.com/products/integration.asp) has what you are looking for I think. That is what Tripod uses as a builder for their members, or used to use anyway if I remember right.

You might also consider just making a page with some links to various html editors listed for your customers to consider getting.

Hi Hiccups,

Thanks for the mention of trellix.

As for a page with links to HTML editors, that would be nice, but what I'm wanting to know about are those tools a customer can create a site with without knowing HTML at all.

Anymore of those type of site development tools anyone think would be good?

The tool for people with zero knowledge of HTML is NetObjects Fusion, recently taken over by WebsitePro's (www.netobjects.com). Great product.

bleh, never got used to NOF...
Dreamweavers really nice... some HTML though, just editing tags and such.

Maybe I should clarify some more.

What site creation tools can you think of that a host could put on their server to use for customers who don't know HTML and who don't care to buy a program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver -- either that or provide to customers as a free download that's free for them to use -- and is of good quality and easy to use?

Especially low cost or free site creation tools either a host could put on their servers for their customers to use, or that customers could download for free on their windows (not linux) machines?


Thanks again,

Louis

Hi Louis,

Topline offers the Trellix application running from their servers so you don't have to install anything and your customers can just use it through your web site.

www.toplineventures.com

WOW! Those set up fees will kill you. and $5 a month per user? Heck, some hosting plans start at $5, so that means you would have to start at $10 to cover it. Seeing as how mostly newbies look for the under $5 plans, it stands to reason that anyone intelligent enough to consider plans of $10 or more would probably know some html.
Besides when I used Trellix through fortunecities years ago, they were real slow, and not that great either. Sites made with Trelix are obvious because there are only so many images being used over and over. Plus, I wouldn't want my customers to think that our site was slow when really it was trellix.

I hate remotely hosted products. No matter how much control they say you have, if it isn't on your server, you don't have much control.

I bought MS FrontPage 98 and then the Upgrade to FrontPage 2000, so I don't have any experience with FrontPage Express. It comes with MS Windows. My belief is that FrontPage Express is a scaled down version of the full program, but it will probably work well for those with modest needs.

Site Studio from psoft is very good. We use it and our customers love it.

Macromedia Dreamweaver is the way to go! Been using it since version 2. You can get a 30 day trial from their site. If your making a simple site that more then enough time to make it... :)