Hey fellas! Do you want to get rid of your old school web development tools like Dreamweaver? Are you looking for some alternatives to it? Congrats you have landed the right place that will help you out. Dreamweaver is unmistakably powerful software for both learners, and seasoned experts. But due to its extravagant price users are looking forward toward Dreamweaver alternatives. Hence, exclusively for all our readers we have researched and compiled a list of top 10 Dreamweaver alternatives.
I n this article we are going to learn How to install Bluegriffon open source web editor in Ubuntu 16.04. Bluegriffon is a free website editor application used to develop websites. It’s an nice alternative to Adobe Dreamviewer. Bluegriffon was initially developed by Daniel Glazman using multiple programming languages i.e. Java, C++, C and released under GPL 2.0 license.
But before going to the list let us find out reasons behind switching to other alternatives of Dreamweaver. Therefore, it’s worth marking some of the bad highlights about Dreamweaver are mentioned here :-
- Confusing Interface
- Steep Learning Curve
- The WYSIWIG lies
- Bulky Dynamic Code
- Badly Written Code Snippets
- Undefined CSS Styling
- Not in Full Control of your Code
- 10% of Full Functionality Actually Useful
- Very Expensive
Also Read: Best Adobe After Effects Alternatives
Contents
- 2 Best Dreamweaver Alternatives
Top 10 Free Dreamweaver Alternatives
Let’s have a look at top 10 Adobe Dreamweaver alternatives:
- Microsoft’s Expression Web 4.0
- Aptana Studio
- BlueGriffon
- Kompozer
- Amaya
- SeaMonkey
- Aloha Editor
- Bluefish
- OpenBEXI
- Quanta Plus
Well, I hope you all wish to explore a bit more about all these alternatives. So here are a few details about each one of the following:
- Continue with the instructions in chapter 1 of the BlueGriffon tutorial to download. This will bring up a dialog box with a title 'Open a file or a template'. How to Create a Website with the BlueGriffon Free Web. Five Essential HTML5 Editors. It includes free website templates, and supports HTML5 (and HTML4), PHP, Ruby.
- BlueGriffon is a WYSIWYG content editor for the World Wide Web. Powered by Gecko, the rendering engine of Firefox, it can edit Web pages in conformance to Web Standards. BlueGriffon complies with the W3C's web standards. It can create and edit pages in accordance to HTML 4, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5 and XHTML 5.
Best Dreamweaver Alternatives
Lets now have a detailed look at these alternatives.
Microsoft Expression Web 4.0
Microsoft’s Expression Web 4.0 resembles some of the earlier Dreamweaver versions to a great extent. In case, it might prove pretty intuitive if you have been using Dreamweaver for so long.
Various feature of this alternative includes a customizable toolbars and offers design and code views. Along with the HTML 5 capability the software also supports latest design options, CSS Properties Palette, CSS management etc. Likewise, it makes light work of positioning graphics.
Goto: Microsoft’s Expression Web 4.0
Aptana Studio
Aptana Studio like Dreamweaver is an open source development tool for the open web.It is based on the open-source Eclipse project. It features different tools for assisting in HTML and CSS authoring, including code coloring and completion, debugging, and outlining of documents. It even supports JavaScript.
This feature makes Aptana Studia a strong tool for developing more complex web applications. Hence it’s more of an advanced IDE specializing in web development.
Goto: Aptana Studio
BlueGriffon
BlueGriffon is a free, open source, WYSIWYG editor. FTP is available only with an add-on. Supported features of BlueGriffon includes page preview, spell checking, templates, web fonts.
Plus it includes SVG editor for drawing vector graphics. Though some features such as a project manager, CSS style-sheet editor, and full-screen viewer cost you for money but there are many features that are free. It’s interface is similar to a word processor. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Goto: BlueGriffon
KOMPOZER
A Mozilla project, the last stable update of KompoZer (0.7.10) was in 2007, suggesting like Expression 4.0, this project has run its course. KompoZer is totally free as a download. It is a fully WYSIWYG editor which is compatible with Windows.
Unlike Dreamweaver It doesn’t allow server-side scripting. But KompoZer allows you to create templates and alos it let you open any number of pages concurrently. A CSS editor and an HTML validator is offered by KompoZer.
Goto: KOMPOZER
Amaya
Amaya is free, open source, comhttp://www.w3.org/Amaya/patible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Features a WYSIWYG editor, spell checking, page preview, SVG, and MathML. Frames, Java, JavaScript, XSLT, XForms, RSS, or Atom aren’t really supported by Amaya. Plus CSS2 is also only partially supported. Despite of all those constraints it requires a high-resolution monitor, to view all features. There is no FTP support, and it is not an intuitive interface, because many standard keys such as HOME and END do not move the cursor to the start and end of lines, as other editors do.
Goto: Amaya
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a community continuation of what was once a Mozilla-produced internet application suite. While Mozilla decided to narrow its focus to individual projects, SeaMonkey continues to make regular releases of its full suite, which includes SeaMonkey Composer, a WYSIWYG HTML editor.
Bluegriffon Templates For Websites 2017
Goto: SeaMonkey
Aloha Editor
Aloha is yet another strong candidate in the list of top 10 Dreamweaver alternatives. It offers HTML5 editing and compatibility with current browsers.
Also, it features a “floating” toolbar that alters depending on which part of your site you are working on. It is an extremely viable Dreamweaver alternative.
Goto: Aloha Editor
Bluefish – Adobe Dreamweaver Alternative for Mac
Bluefish is free, open source, compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, and Unix systems. There is no WYSIWYG editor feature and you cannot do shared editing. Multiple browsers are useful to check work. However it is similar to Dreamweaver’s support for developing HTML, XHTML, CSS, etc, and in addition it supports Google Go, Vala, ColdFusion, Ruby and Shell.
It has auto-recovery of changes after a crash as well as a FTP upload, server-side scripting, spell checker and page preview feature.
Check now: Bluefish
OpenBEXI
This is an open source, free, WYSIWYG editor compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux with a browser-based interface. Designed to drag and drop widgets including images, text, graphs, and more. Includes FTP upload and allows server-side scripting.
However, it is difficult to get objects to work when added to a page and you need to use a server. It allows for creating a Mac style menu, you can create line, pie and bar charts plus it supports RSS. However, it does not support MathML, Xpath, or shared editing.
Goto: OpenBEXI
Quanta Plus
Quanta Plus is a free, open source, Linux-based program. It closely resembles the Dreamweaver environment, with similar features for supporting JavaScript, CSS2, XForms, RSS, etc. It also posses features syntax highlighting support for PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, XML and others. Though, it doesn’t support SVG or HTML5. There are drop down menus and auto completion for parsing linked documents from CSS to PHP.
Goto: Quanta Plus
So if you want a Dreamweaver alternative without all the bells and whistles, these might be considerable options for you. Here comes the time to bid bye. This was our list of top 10 best Dreamweaver alternatives. Drop down your favorite one from the above list. In case we missed any potential alternative let us know through comment section. Keep visiting our website for more such stuffs.
This article has been updated as of August 2019 to ensure that all the HTML editors listed are still available for free download. Any new information on latest versions has been added to this list.
During the original testing process, over 100 HTML editors for Windows were evaluated against more than 40 different criteria relevant to both professional and beginning web designers and web developers, as well as small business owners. From that testing, ten HTML editors that stood above the rest were selected. Best of all, all of these editors also happen to be free!
NotePad ++
What We Like
Small download and program size.
Loads fast, and runs light.
Auto-completion for words and functions.
Plugin options to extend functionality.
What We Don't Like
No Mac version available.
May be less useful for languages like Java.
Notepad++ is a favorite free note taking app and code editor. It is a more robust version of the Notepad software that you would find available in Windows by default. That being the case, this is a Windows-only option. It includes things like line number, color coding, hints, and other helpful tools that the standard Notepad application does not have. These additions make Notepad++ an ideal choice for web designers and front end developers.
Komodo Edit
What We Like
Extensible through plugins.
Customizable appearance.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
What We Don't Like
No WYSIWYG editor.
Not the best editor for beginners.
There are two versions of Komodo available, Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.
is open source and free to download. It is a trimmed down counterpart to IDE.
Komodo Edit includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Additionally, you can get extensions to add language support or other helpful features, like special characters.
Komodo doesn't outshine as the best HTML editor, but it's great for for the price, especially if you build in XML where it truly excels. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.
Eclipse
What We Like
Plugin design makes adding new languages simple.
Open source with large community makes problem solving easier.
Runs on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux
What We Don't Like
A large program that's not as light as other editors.
Consumes considerable system resources, especially on large projects.
Eclipse is a complex development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on various platforms and with different languages. It is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something you just find the appropriate plug-in and go to work.
If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.
Aptana Studio 3
What We Like
Good for JavaScript.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Plugins expand supported languages.
What We Don't Like
Lack of updates and announcements since 2014.
Bulkier and sometimes slower than some other editors.
Aptana Studio 3 offers an interesting take on webpage development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications. That may not make it the best fit for simple web design needs, but if you are looking more in the way of web application development, the tools offered in Aptana may be a great fit.
One concern about Aptana is the lack of updates that the company has done over the past few years. Their website, as well as their Facebook and Twitter pages, announce the release of version 3.6.0 on July 31, 2014, but there have been no announcements since that time.
While the software itself tested great during initial research (and it was originally placed 2nd in this list), this lack of current updates must be taken into consideration.
NetBeans
What We Like
Version control functionality.
Customizable appearance.
Specialized for Java.
What We Don't Like
Takes some time to learn.
Consumes a lot of system resources while running.
Can be slow to execute commands.
NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications.
Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because it doesn't often work in the same way that web editors work. Once you get used to it you’ll find it very useful, however.
The version control feature included in the IDE is especially useful for people working in large development environments, as is the developer collaboration features. If you write Java and webpages this is a great tool.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community
What We Like
Well supported with updates and the addition of new features.
Wide range of programming languages supported.
Nice design that is beginner-friendly.
What We Don't Like
Premium features come with high price tag.
Heavy program that consumes significant memory and processing power.
Bit of a learning curve for new users.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community is a visual IDE to help web developers and other programmers get started creating applications for the web, mobile devices and the desktop. Previously, you may have used Visual Studio Express, but this is the latest version of the software. They offer a free download, as well as paid versions (that include free trials) for Professional and Enterprise users.
BlueGriffon
Godaddy Templates For Websites
What We Like
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
WYSIWYG editor with previews.
Good for beginners
What We Don't Like
Can suffer lag during use.
Lots of options may bewilder new users.
BlueGriffon is the latest in the series of webpage editors that started with Nvu, progressed to Kompozer and now culminates in BlueGriffon. It is powered by Gecko, the rending engine of Firefox, so it does a great job of showing how work would be rendered in that standards-compliant browser.
BlueGriffon is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux and in a variety of languages.
This is the only true WYSIWYG editor that made this list, and as such it will be more appealing for many beginners and small business owners who want a more visual way to work as opposed to a purely code-focused interface.
Wordpress Templates For Websites
Bluefish
What We Like
A fast and lightweight program.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
What We Don't Like
Primarily a code editor without a WYSIWYG interface.
Lacks an easy FTP upload feature.
Bluefish is a full-featured HTML editor that runs on a variety of platforms, including Linux, MacOS-X, Windows, and more.
The latest release (which is 2.2.10 or 2.2.10-2 for High Sierra) fixed some of the bugs found in previous versions.
Noteworthy features that have been in place since the 2.0 version are code-sensitive spell check, auto complete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management and autosave.
Bluefish is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, however, if you’re a designer by nature and you want more of a web-focused or a WYSIWYG interface, Bluefish may not be for you.
GNU Emacs Profile
What We Like
Included with most Linux systems.
Powerful with plenty of features.
What We Don't Like
More complicated than other editors.
Not the best choice for beginners.
GNU Emacs is found on most Linux systems and makes it easy for you to edit a page even if you don't have your standard software.
Emacs is a lot more complicated some other editors, and so offers more features, but I find it harder to use.
Feature highlights: XML support, scripting support, advanced CSS support and a built-in validator, as well as color coded HTML editing.
This editor, whose latest version is 26.1 which was released in May 2018, can be intimidating to anyone who isn't comfortable writing plain HTML in a text editor, but if you are and your host offers Emacs, it is a very powerful tool.