Sparkle, Visual Web Design 4+

Best and only website builder that works

I've used Sparkle for years and it's been a joy seeing it grow so much. I'm now managing 3 websites (personal, portfolio, second business) and it just works like a charm. Templates will give your website an incredibly premium feeling, but with a little bit of patience (and I swear, it's just a little bit) you can create whatever you want from scratch and it will still feel and look amazing on any device. That's the best part, the websites adapt easily to any device and I basically don't have to do a single thing. More or less... If you have zero knowledge on how to create websites, look no further and get this app. Seriously, you won't regret it. Btw, I've started with the super basic free account, a couple of weeks later I've upgraded to PRO which is now a one time purchase and not another annoying subscription! That's another great plus for me

Expensive - UPDATED

I wanted an application that would create a bunch of html and associated files so I can create newsletters. So I didnt need fancy stuff, just simple visual editing. So i tried the free version and found that saving to disk was not possible, i needed to upgrade to version One. After paying £38 for the upgrade I found that I needed to upgrade again to the Pro version, another £38. Now I have a £76 application that I can use to create simple HTML that I can use as email templates. Expensive!

Also I discovered that Mac doesnt support email templates including images, in the way that it was described in a few web sites. So even though the software seems quite extensive, I will probably end up using word and creating a PDF!

Sorry not the fault of the software but it is only worth 1 star to me as I cant use it. How do i get my money back?

—Update—
The review I gave previously was unfair. Actually the software seems very easy to use and seems full of useful features for a web designer wanting to build a web site using visual tools rather than coding. In which case it is great value for money if that is what you are looking for.

In my case I was trying to use it for a purpose it was not designed for. No fault of the software.

BTW, still looking for a tool to create email templates (stationary) for Mac Mail including images.

Developer Response ,

I'm very sorry Sparkle didn't work out for you. I have to say Sparkle is an amazing value for what it does, if it's useful to you. Clearly that wasn't the case for you, I'd suggest the "expensive" moniker isn't an absolute characterization of Sparkle, and the 1 star impacts Sparkle unfairly. You probably shouldn't need to know, but email HTML is a very specialized type of coding, due to the quirks of email apps out there, it's not something we have developed Sparkle for. It is definitely possible to get a refund, no reason to be unhappy. Get in touch and we'll figure it out: feedback@sparkleapp.com

Really extremely competent!

Update: Dang, this latest version of Sparkle is so cool! It blows away any other WYSIWYG site builder I've ever used (and I've used a lot of them); its handling of graphics in particular is legendary. But with the addition of search, password-protected pages, full subscription/shopping support etc., it's also becoming a really serious alternative to CMSes like WordPress et al. Colour me impressed!
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For those in need of creatively interesting websites, Sparkle is the only realistic option. The inclusion of a search engine as a standard feature is exceptional – you very rarely find such a thing in web design apps of this kind (I can only think of one, actually: Website X5, which is exclusive to Windows). Where Sparkle is particularly impressive is in its treatment of graphics – multiple versions of included images are automatically created to match the parameters of various different devices, meaning that regardless of the platform, images always look pin-sharp.

The app is under constant development, and the developer is also very responsive – an admirable trait! I've used this to create fairly complex websites, but also to rough-draft websites; it's ideal for both purposes.