While many web developers are heralding the latest version of Dreamweaver as the greatest editor of all time, the more financially-challenged members of the design community are left sighing in frustration. Adobe has certainly made its mark on the program in this first release since the company acquired the product from Macromedia, offering much tighter integration with Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash, as well as improved Ajax support. However, the software giant shows no signs of reneging on its quite ludicrous pricing policy, commanding $200 dollars for an upgrade, or $400 for the full product which puts it out of reach for many budding web designers.
The key benefit of Dreamweaver is the way it allows you to create pages within both a visual and a code-based environment, which eases the learning curve of mastering complex code, while still giving you precise control over your pages. Thankfully though, there are plenty of cheaper (and in some cases, free) alternatives to the program that offer a combination of a GUI and a text editor. Top of the pops is Amaya, an open source app created by the W3C, which allows you to design and code within a flexible environment while adhering closely to web standards. Here’s our run-down of the top freeware and shareware web page editors on Softonic:
1. Amaya – Easy-to-use HTML Editor
2. WebXselerator – Create rich data-oriented web sites
3. DHE Editor Site Builder – Excellent and easy-to-use development visual editor
4. CoffeeCup HTML Editor – Intuitive two-in-one HTML editor
5. Spider Writer – Powerful editor suporting many formats
6. HTMLPad – Sophisticated all-in-one HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XHTML editor
7. Web Builder Deluxe – Generate HTML pages from your database
8. Araneae – Simple, yet powerful multi-language coding editor
9. VisualScript XML – Program XML more easily through a visual interface
10. Alleycode HTML Editor – Quicker and better web programming
