The Codeless Website: Four Awesome Tools for Creating Cool, No-Tech Sites
Sometimes, even HTML is just too hard.
In this postmodern world, we're all professionally fragmented jacks of all trades, and few of us have the patience (read: OCD) for learning enough CSS and Flash to allow us to keep up with the Jonses in terms of functional, sexy web design. Here are some cheat sheets, the Cliff Notes of site creation, if you will. Read on to discover four awesome, in-browser resources for creating your own beautiful corner of the web without the horror of code.
Edicy: Sites in Seconds
Edicy is a resource we just found out about recently. The in-browser site creation and editing service gives users a simple toolbar for text, video, and images and a lower dashboard for changing page design. Users can insert tables and Google-powered maps, and the drag-and-drop image features for creating multiple galleries was awesome for achieving a visually pleasing page and would probably be great for portfolios or family websites. The blog feature was so-so; we don't really see Edicy as a competitor when it comes to the CMS game, though. Still, we created this page in about 15 minutes, making Edicy one of the fastest tools we've worked with.
YourOwn.com: Edicy offers free vanity.edicy.com domains and publishing to any domain the user chooses for about $8.50 a month.
Choose Your Own Coding Adventure: Users can only pop the hood, so to speak, on HTML for sections of text. We couldn't find a way to, for example, change the color scheme or background image or page formatting.
SEO-riffic: Edicy lets users add keywords and descriptions, but not other metadata or tags for images or other media.
Zimplit: Fully Simple, Fully Editable
Zimplit is a resource we reviewed some time ago, but we feel it's perfect for this particular round-up. We were able to create a simple, elegant page within about a half hour. It's an open-source, dead-simple application that works just as well for code-free "dummies" as well as it does for those with an inkling or two about web design on the back end. For non-coders, a gallery of great design templates kick things off, and a simple 12-button toolbar does it all after that.
YourOwn.com: Vanity URLs on Zimplit.com are available, and regular domains (plus email addresses) are available starting at around $4.25 per month.
Choose Your Own Coding Adventure: Users have complete access HTML and CSS for their pages, making this a great resource for learning as you go.
SEO-riffic: Sorry, Charlie. You'll have to access the code to tweak your metadata and keywords.
Wix: Flash Sites for Flashy Folks
We're not going to lie: Creating a Flash site in Wix will take you a little more time. But for those who desire that Flash-y touch, this is one of the best free resources you'll find. This editor will present tools familiar to those familiar with other graphic design programs such as image editing or more GUI-oriented website editing programs. The effects, behaviors, animations, and other options offer complete control. Also, we adore the horde of multimedia gallery options. You've got slide shows, Apple-like sliders, and tidy matrices. But to be honest and fair, Wix is just as strangely buggy as any Flash service you've tried to use.
YourOwn.com: There's a whole slew of premium options. Users can elect to choose their own domains for as little as $4.95 a month. An ad-free site, however, costs a dollar a month more.
Choose Your Own Coding Adventure: We couldn't see any back end here, folks. But with all the design options available through the Wix interface, we're not sure you'll need much more.
SEO-riffic: "SEO Friendly" options start at $4.95 a month.
Amplifeeder: A Catchall for the NMDs Among Us
Another site we've reviewed before is Amplifeeder. What users create there may not qualify as full-on websites, but for those who are hip, Amplifeeder creates sites that are the living end in terms of social media aggregation. Really, we all create so much content across our various networks that a personal site can be static and even redundant. Amplifeeder uses great design templates to bring together blog posts, Twitter and Facebook updates, Flickr pics, YouTube videos, and any number of other social media happenings. The page we created is beyond cool and serves as a gorgeous, clean portal to all the places we really live online. Plus, the data you put here is all portable, backup-able, and restorable.
YourOwn.com: Hosting options are coming soon, according to site creator Jon Davies.
Choose Your Own Coding Adventure: Customize your heart out with a blank CSS slate.
SEO-riffic: This part's all up to you. Your SEO will be the moment of truth: What DO you really talk about and share most? Transparency meets SEO when Amplifeeder serves an aggregation of your social streams.
So there you have four great resources for website creation, from super simple to creatively complex. Now get out there and start souping up your web presence. We just made keeping up with the Joneses that much more competitive.
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Great! Have been looking at a few of these recently. The only one i think you are missing is Squarespace.com - another fantastic tool thats gaining a lot of followers.
One thing I have concerns about with these types of services is if your site ends up on their domain for example myblog.service.com then issues arise if the person gets so popular that they should have their own domain. The hit to SEO could be huge.
Then again - maybe these types of services are not for the hopefuls out there looking to be in the top 100 blogs whatever...
Nice article, though I'm surprised Posterous wasn't included.
One small thing: Opening paragraph says five resources are reviewed, but there are only four.
Hi Jolie,
nice review, but as noted @Tom, it seems the Fifth one, is gone missing ;)
Also, I'm suprised you didn't review Soup.io, that let you put in seconds à website (altrought, they don't sell domain themselves), with all you need in term of SEO (HTML 5 semantic, etc, etc...).
cheers
we all create so much content across our various networks that a personal site can be static and even redundant. Amplifeeder uses great design templates to bring together blog posts
This is a good list of tools that can be used for your own domain. However, I think a domain name should come first because it is the only way how you can really own your online identity. There are a lot more services with a custom domain option. See http://iwantmyname.com/features/custom-domain-applications-and-dns for an overview.
a great review!
you forgot to include www.gizapage.com .
Another website builder site is scrapplet.com
Good round up - web publishing is becoming more accessible all the time. Though I think two caveats bare mentioning here.
First,a pure Flash site will make getting found in search engines difficult.
Second, it's important to think of where you might want to take your site down the road a bit. Will you need to start over if you require more control in the future?
EditMe is another option - it has the benefit of optional HTML/CSS editing if and when you decide you want or need it.
which is the best for people that already own their domain?
might want to check out weebly as well. http://www.weebly.com. a lot of cool features and pretty easy to use.
GizaPage.com is a nice tool for quickly building an individual or brand social identity site.It also helps in organizing, branding and managing multiple social profiles.
Mine is at http://www.amnigos.com
So how is Amplifeeder "codeless"? It's not for lazy people or noobs. From the directions on the download page:
"In the extracted folder you will find a file called AmpliFeederDatabaseScript.sql. Create a database in SQL Server and execute this script against it to create all of the tables and stored procedures needed by AmpliFeeder. You will need to create a user in SQL Server and give it datareader and datawriter permissions on the newly created database. You will also need to give your newly created user EXECUTE permissions on any of the installed AmpliFeeder stored procedures.
Copy the AmpliFeeder folder contained in the distributable to your Inetpub/wwwroot folder or some other place where you want IIS to serve the application from. Set up this AmpliFeeder folder to be a web application in IIS. If you are using IIS 7 you will need to set the Application Pool type to be 'Classic .Net AppPool' under the site Basic Settings.
Open the web.config file in the AmpliFeeder folder in your favorite text editor and change the value of the AmplifeederDBConnectionString connection string setting to match your installed database and environment. Browse to the root of your new application to continue."
Codeless my ass...
Very interesting post ! I didn't know those websites.
In the same way of easy-to-create websites. We are now working on a similar project http://monassoc.com it's mainly for associations but everyone can use it.
Visually we don't have so many templates as Edicy but we have some more options like a gallery, a forum, an event calendar. It's only in French but you should check this, we've focused on usability. You shouldn't have any trouble using it even if you don't really speak french.
Raphael
Nice Selection. Thanks for collecting these awesome tools. We are using this very easily.
Thanks for sharing,,
Another site you didn't mention is the social networking & publishing platform Webjam. Basically it allows you to make a site and share content on multiple pages using modules you add to the page. Check out site examples: http://www.webjam.com/explore
i tired the tools you suggested. I vote for zimplit. Couple it with the web development tool Sajax and you will see great results.
I second SquareSpace.
We spent quite a bit of time building our site using various authoring tools, could never get it quite like we wanted it, and maintenance was a hassle. With SquareSpace, we were able re-build it to look just like we wanted it to look in about 2 days. Add articles, sections, navigation, etc. is super easy and the price is good - we use the $24/month version.
Here's the site should you care to see what a SquareSpace site looks like: http://www.nextwaveperformance.com
thanks for article very
来自cnbeta
This is a very helpful list of tools! I work in a web design company and i think this resource provide all inclusive solutions to our customers. I will recommend it to my partners. Thank you!