Microsoft Visual Studio Express alternatives

Ranked alternatives

1. 1
   
   Quanta PlusFree

   Quanta Plus is an open-source web development platform for creating HTML, CSS, XML, PHP, XHTML, or any other type of XML-based website. The exceptional about this tool is that it is capable of both WYSIWYG hand-coding and designing. There are only a few web integrated development tools capable of doing so, and this one is among these limited IDEs platforms. In a single IDEs system, it provides the options like tag editing via script language, dialog interface, project management, CVS support, and much more. The best about Quanta Plus is that it supports external plugins that enhance its functionalities.

   Most of its features have been merged into another project named KDevelop. However, it can still be used as a medium for developing a professional level of websites. The Main highlighted features and functions of the Quanta Plus are project management, HTML & XML support, script language support, CSS support, templates, user toolbars and actions, extensibility, plugins, integrated previews, and context help.

   Quanta Plus alternatives
2. 2
   
   BlueGriffonFree

   BlueGriffon is a cross-platform and open-source web editor and development tool. This IDE is based on the rendering engine of Mozilla Firefox. Like most IDEs, its editing system is also based on the WYSIWYG editing system. As the WYSIWYG support is part of the BlueGriffon, it is also known as a content editor for websites of all types. The best about this tool is that it is a brand new web editor that is best for developing modern standard-based web pages supported by all types of web browsers.

   It is free to download and available for three leading operating systems, including Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems. Moreover, the availability of this IDE in multiple international languages makes its users use it in their own native languages. Being a web author, either beginner or professional, you will first get a user-friendly interface that will ultimately make you able to create professional-looking websites. The languages supported by the BlueGriffon are HTML5, CSS3, SVG, MathML, and few others.

   BlueGriffon alternatives
3. 3
   
   KompoZerFree

   KompoZer is a free and open-source web authoring platform that will let you deal with any website type. This web authoring software combines a WYSIWYG editor and web file management system at a central platform. If you want to enjoy both in one place, then it will be one of the best options to consider.

   This software is designed to deliver a user-friendly environment for non-technical users to develop a professional level of websites without technical knowledge of web coding or programming knowledge. The key features of KompoZer are it provides you with an FTP site manager, a new style of the color picker, CSS editor, tabs, a dash of style, customizable toolbars, forms, cleaner markup, XFN, visible marks, table, cell resizing rulers, and automated spell checker.

   KompoZer alternatives
4. 4
   
   OpenBEXIFree

   OpenBEXI is an open and free source, a WYSIWYG editor with a browser-based interface. It is crafted to drag & drop widgets, including images, text, graphs, and more. It enables a Mac-style menu and allows you to create a line, pie, and bar graphs, along with support for RSS. This web editor will let you edit and view texts, images, and all of the widgets right from its platform, similar to as you are viewing them in published form. This universal web development platform is integrated with advanced features that will meet your requirement for creating, managing, and publishing web projects on any web hoster.

   Simile timeline, dynamic charts, DOJO toolkits like an editor, chart flow system, input validations, and various other intelligent applications are integrated into the OpenBEXI to make your web development easy and simple. There is an on-line tutorial for the developers, from where they can easily learn things step by step, like building their own web pages and utilizing the selection, resizing, and drag & drop features.

   OpenBEXI alternatives
5. 5
   
   CoffeeCup HTML EditorPaid

   CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a web designing and web development tool containing a professional HTML editor, CSS editor, and QuickStart system. Its QuickStart system is basically to start the development work from the templates. So whether you want to create stellar websites or that professional one, then this is the perfect tool to enjoy the tag references system and various other intuitive tools like code completion.

   Its website components get updated automatically, along with Live previews, pages, and various other extraordinary features. Some of its advantages are a smooth workflow system, highlight corresponding code, edit components, and a multifunctional platform. It has a wide range of start options that will allow you to get started on your work in seconds. You can create new HTML or CSS files from scratch or start from the existing theme. The exceptional thing about it is its compatibility feature that will let you start your in-progress site. Open the file from the system or the webserver and start working on it using this tool.

   CoffeeCup HTML Editor alternatives
6. 6
   
   AmayaFree

   Amaya is a web editor that is used for creating and updating documents directly on websites. It integrates a seamless browsing system that is packed with the features of editing and remote access. The best thing about this tool is that it is backed by the original version of the websites as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium.

   It is a simple yet powerful web development platform. It will provide you all those frameworks that are integrated with W3C technologies. This web development platform is created to demonstrate the technologies in action while taking advantage of their combination in a single and consistent environment. It starts its functions as a CSS and HTML-based style sheets editor as it is an open-source editor so that you can change its code as per your own requirement.

   All of its versions support HTML, XHTML, XHTML Basic, HTTP, MathML, SVG and CSS languages. There is an SVG editor to display and partially edit XML documents. Among many advantages, the main one of using it is its advanced, user-friendly interface with a customizable set of tools, menus, contextual menus, and predefined themes. Remote publishing and link management are the key features in this hypertext editor, and these features need seamless integration of editing and browsing features.

   Amaya alternatives
7. 7
   
   ArtisteerFree

   Artisteer is the first and only Web design automation artefact that immediately originates incredible looking, distinct website templates and blog themes. With this, you can easily design superb WordPress Blogs, professional Joomla and Drupal templates, and nice Website patterns in moments.

   Artisteer features visual editing of website templates, design elements capable of being configured manually; the output of the finished design is compliant with ‘XHTML 1.0 Transitional’ and contains validated HTML and CSS conforming to the W3C web standards.

   Two main products of Artisteer are simple Artisteer and Themler. Artisteer will make you web design expert, and Themler will allow you to create professional CMS themes without coding. Overall Artisteer is quick and easy to use web design generator for the Windows integrated with thousands of options and export support for Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuke, and Blogger.

   Both Artisteer and Themler are designed to create anything from simple designs to the professional and most advanced design. It is suggested to start working from Artisteer and when you feel Artisteer is not enough then export the design to Themler and enjoy the advanced features of animations, parallax, transitions system, multiple page templates and much more. Now two version of Artisteer is at your disposal so that you can master in the power of design either it is simple or complex.

   Artisteer alternatives
8. 8
   
   GeanyFree

   Geany is a web editing platform that contains the standard features of an IDE. This web editor was primarily designed for dealing with small and medium-size websites but in a highly powerful and professional environment. It has its own independent infrastructure; however, it has a limited dependency on external packages. The main highlighted features and functions of this tool are code folding, syntax highlighting, symbol name auto-completion system, construct completion, snippets, auto-closing of XML & HTML tags, call tips, support for various file types (including HTML, Python, C, Java, Perl, PHP, Pascal and dozens of others), symbol lists, code navigation, build system to compile and execute the codes, simple project management system and availability of plugin interface.

   Geany is a multiplatform editor fully compatible with the Windows, Mac OS X, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris Express, and OpenBSD operating systems. It is fully compatible with all those operating systems that the GTK libraries support. Moreover, it provides a tabbed main editor window and doesn’t support the split windows in the core. The plugin infrastructure of this tool will let you extend its features as per your own requirement.

   Geany alternatives
9. 9
   
   BracketsFree

   Brackets is an open-source code editor and web developer for professional web designers and developers. This open-source code editor is perfect for front-end developers and designers. Adobe supports it, and most of the features are based on Adobe Dreamweaver. The best thing about it is that it delivers the inspecting variable and easy control. The main focus of this web designing platform is on visual tools and preprocessor support. This modern text editor makes it easy for developers and designers to design their websites in the browser.

   A Creative Cloud Extract feature is used to get the minimal CSS straight from a PSD with no generated code. It is a simple yet powerful and modern text editor. Many visual tools are integrated into it so that you can enjoy all those functions that you really need. It has its own independent set of extensions that are available for developers.

   Brackets alternatives
10. 10
    
    jEditFree

    jEdit is a programmer text editor by professional programmers. It is a cross-platform editor based on Java. It is a highly customizable platform that has its own independent plugins system. The best about this platform is that it provides the full source code to its users for free and, in the same manner, becomes advanced as compared to most of the expensive and leading development tools and features. It is a user-friendly platform that will deliver you step by step guide.

    JEdit is a multiplatform text editor available for the VMS, Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows operating systems. Some of its key features are built-in macro language, extensible plugin architecture, availability of macros plugins, plugin manager to download and install plugins, auto-indent system, syntax highlighting system, support for character encoding system, folding for selectively hiding regions of text, word wrap system and almost all those basic features that you encountered in the leading editors and IDEs. The best above all is that it is a highly customizable and configurable text editor.

    jEdit alternatives
11. 11
    
    First PageFree

    First Page is a free web builder to design and manage the professional level of websites as you want. It is basically an HTML editor designed for professional developers and designers for web developers and designers. If you want to use the standard level of WYSIWYG editor, then it is a platform that will deliver you more level of editing functions. In fact, the editing system is quite the opposite of WYSIWYG. According to the professional developer, WYSIWYG wastes the users’ time by delivering the time fixing and inappropriate cleaning and code correcting system.

    However, on this tool, you will notice that it is not wasting or ruining your HTML code at all. The best part here is that it will not add any unwanted HTML code to your project at all. This HTML base editor will make you able to write, edit and improve your HTML-based projects. The powerful editing functions will make you able to develop faster and reliable websites. There are dozens of website builder tools on this platform that are website promotion system, link popularity to link queries in multiple search engines, search engine analyzer, global whois system to search the domain name, code encrypter, meta tag generator, expired domain search, site traffic rank checker, TransLingo to make site multilingual and bandwidth tester to test the speed of the net connection.

    First Page alternatives
12. 12
    
    openElementFree

    openElement is a platform that will assist you in piloting your website. This web editing, designing, and management platform will allow you to efficiently manage your websites using a simple yet powerful intuitive editor. Using this editor and developer, you can easily generate the SEO-ready and W3C compliant website, despite the programming language behind it. This web editor will deliver you total control over your websites and create websites without any limit. A lot of modifying elements and styles are part of this platform.

    The rest of the advantages are intuitive interface, editable content, managed code, page layers, reusable styles & elements packs, HTML5 & CSS3, cross-browser, SEO, multilingual websites, responsive design, fully customizable, image & code optimization, a local web server for PHP & DB tests and much more. By using this, you can use, modify and create custom elements. You can optimize your website for an advanced user experience and a higher position in search results.

    openElement alternatives
13. 13
    
    Serif WebPlusPaid

    Serif WebPlus is a leading website design solution created for Microsoft Windows by a UK-based company Serif. The solution allows users to create the design easily and upload their websites onto the internet without any knowledge of web technologies. Just like Microsoft Word, Serif WebPlus also uses WYSIWYG drag and drop editing to add and position images, text, and links as they would appear on the finished web page. Once a user has designed the entire website, this program can preview the browser before uploading the site using its in-built FTP. There is also a site structure view that gives you an overview of the entire site’s structure as a tree and enables pruning and grafting of pages.

    Although it is user-friendly than the Site tab, it is far less useful for restructuring the website than the outline view which the site tab provides. Unless your website is less than 10 to 20 pages, it won’t fit the window at the size big enough to read the page name. Serif WebPlus is a comprehensive website design solution that comes with all the core features and tools. Such as audio player, CSS magnifying glass, exclude a page, manage online resources, SFTP upload, slider studio, SWR enhancements, watermarking and startup assessment, etc. Overall, Serif WebPlus is one of the best website design solutions as compared to others.

    Serif WebPlus alternatives
14. 14
    
    DreamweaverPaid

    Adobe Dreamweaver is a proprietary web development tool that is developed by Adobe Systems. It is a web design and development service providing a visual WYSIWYG editor and a code editor with standard features such as syntax highlighting code completion and code collapsing and more civilized attributes such as real-time syntax checking and introspection for producing code hints to help the user in writing code. It is particularly designed for web developers and graphic makers to create a visually designed and develop a modern, and responsive website.

    This web development tool is known for being the advanced packed toolset for font developers and web designers. By using this tool, users can easily create code and manage websites. There is no limitation on creating a website for any platform. You can quickly create a responsive website for any platform. Dreamweaver will make you able to extract assets and styles for creating a professional level of websites.

    Dreamweaver alternatives
15. 15
    
    Microsoft Office – FrontPageFreemium

    Microsoft Office – FrontPage is a software that enables users to edit their web pages through its WYSIWYG HTML editor. The platform comes with built-in support for automated web templates, and all these templates have an automatic navigation system. The main advantage of this software is that it hides the details of HTML code from the users and allows them to create web pages easily.

    The software is simple to use and comes with an integrated data display with Office products like Access and Excel. Moreover, users can change the URL of a web page, and all other links of that page are also changed. Microsoft Office – FrontPage comes with a built-in image editor, and it contains a built-in feature for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Moreover, it supports CSS-based themes, and users can edit any content on the web page with this software. Lastly, it helps users in navigating through their site.

    Microsoft Office – FrontPage alternatives