Free Web Design Software

Check out this list of free web design software. For web building beginners and "weekend warriors" one of these should suit your needs. These free tools have more features than they used to. If you are new to web design (or even if you are not) see this article: Web Design Basics.

Covered in this article:

  • KompoZer
  • Arachnophilia
  • Fusion Essentials
  • Trellian WebPage

KompoZer (Free)

Download the latest stable version at: KompoZer Download.

This is my top pick (right now) for free web design software. Look at Kompozer's screenshots to get a feel for it.

KompoZer has a "feel" similar to DreamWeaver (the software that I use). List of features:

  • KompoZer is available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users.
  • You can login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages directly from your site.
  • HTML code creation is reliable and will work with all of today's popular browsers.
  • Jump between WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing and HTML editing using tabs.
  • Each page has its own tab so working on multiple pages is easy.
  • Create forms, tables, and templates.
  • Available for both PC and MAC users.

Arachnophilia (Free)

Download the latest version at: Arachnophilia Download.

Arachnophilia is a tool that can be used by anyone from beginners to advanced website builders. If you are a beginning website builder check out this page to get you started: How to create HTML with Arachnophilia. If you like it, give it a try. The price is right and as you grow you can grow into this tool.

From arachnoid.com: Arachnophilia is a powerful programming editor with some special HTML production and editing features.

You can do these things (and more) with Arachnophilia:

  • Create HTML pages using powerful tools.
  • Upload your website to your Internet service provider.
  • Fully customize menus, toolbars and keyboard commands.
  • Beautify and analyze the structure of your Web pages, so they will be more likely to be error-free and work correctly with more browsers.
  • Check your spelling.
  • Globally search and replace text on all open pages.
  • Use the built in tutorials on HTML, JavaScript and frames.

Fusion Essentials (Free)

Download the latest version at: Fusion Essentials Download.

Fusion Essentials is a free web design software tool that offers many core features found in Fusion 11.

Fusion Essentials has these features:

  • WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web editor
  • Drag and drop website layouts
  • Site management tools
  • Functionality to upload your web pages
  • Rollover images
  • Support for Flash and Quicktime movie types
  • An e-commerce tool
  • Form builder

Trellian WebPage (Free)

Download the latest version at: Trellian WebPage Download. Don't bother with the beta version if there is one. That's the version they are still testing.

This is an interesting free web design tool. They say it's free now and will always be free. Interesting! It's definitely worth a look. The features of this software are interesting too. See screenshots here: Trellian WebPage Screenshots.

From the Trellian Webpage Site:

  • Intuitive Interface
  • Imports pages compatible with today's browsers
  • Absolute positioning of HTML elements
  • Color Highlighted HTML Editor
  • Meta Tag editor
  • Drag & drop interface
  • Imports all major image formats including PNG & JPEG
  • Support for current Internet technologies
  • Built-in document spellchecker
  • Support for 1000's of Photoshop Plugins
  • Easy image conversion and resampling tools with unlimited undo's
  • Create search engine friendly pages, so that your site can be found.

Free web design software is definitely the way to go if you are just starting out building websites or if you are just doing it part time. The tools listed above are a good starting point for someone in the market for a web editor. For more information please see: Free Web Design Software.

Website Building Tip

Back in the day you couldn't get a job as a Web Designer if you didn't know how to write HTML "by hand." Web design software wasn't very good so you needed to know HTML cold.

Now if you can use an HTML editor you can do almost anything you need. And only rarely do you have to "adjust" the HTML.