- Image via Wikipedia
If you want to try your hand at web design but don’t want to shell out the hefty price for the latest professional-grade web design software, you still have options. There are now free programs available for download online that rival or even surpass their purchased counterparts. These programs support some or all the industry standards: Java, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, XHTML, PHP and more. They run on multiple operating systems — Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Ubuntu – and many have versions for each, making them very accessible to anyone.
Because web design is a very competitive field and there are dozens of web design software choices out there, each program has been crafted for great functionality in order to convince you to use it instead of the others. Any aspiring web designer is spoiled for choice of free software to work with!
Here are some of the best free web design programs available online:
- HTML-Kit – Free text and HTML editor with tag completion and HTML, CSS and accessibility validation.
- NetBeans – An excellent, full-featured Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) with support for writing CSS and HTML.
- Bluefish – A complete Linux-based web editor that includes native executables for Windows and Mac. Bluefish features auto complete tags for HTML, PHP, CSS and more, auto-save, project management, and spell-check that accounts for code.
- SeaMonkey – Mozilla’s all-in-one web suite, SeaMonkey supports WYSIWYG editing and includes a web browser, so you can easily test your web pages as you create them. Also comes with an embedded FTP to make publishing your site easier.
- Komodo Edit – A well-designed XML editor that also supports coding in HTML and CSS. Extensions are available by purchase, but the basic free version is excellent for XML. In addition to Komodo Edit, there is also Komodo IDE, which supports Ruby, Ajax and more as well.
Give these programs a try before you go out and buy their expensive counterparts–you won’t be disappointed.
