Which web design tool is right for you?
If you are a professional web designer or even a business owner looking to make a simple website for yourself, this article is for you! Building websites entirely from scratch using HTML and CSS are long gone and you’re left with a few options. Adobe Muse and WordPress are two of the biggest web design platforms on the market but which one is better? To compare the two, we’ve set up a number of criteria:
Cost
WordPress: Totally free. The only thing you have to pay for is hosting, which can cost as little as $10 a month depending on where you choose to host (and you’d have to pay for hosting a Muse site too). If you choose to use a generic theme for your site, there will be a price but it’s relatively inexpensive and not required.
Muse: Because it’s a part of the Adobe Creative Suite, the price is pretty steep. $50/month (with a 1-year commitment) is the price for the suite, but you also get access to everything else such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Dreamweaver, and more! If you’re fortunate enough to be a student, you are entitled to discounts but it’s still much more expensive than WordPress.
Winner: WordPress
User Interface
WordPress: This features a clean, clear, and simple UI which makes it a web designer’s dream! On the left navigation bar it’s possible to access your site’s pages, blog posts, comments, media, plugins, landing pages, and other tools with one simple click. Editing or creating new pages requires no coding experience, although having a background knowledge can help immensely.
Muse: If you are familiar with Photoshop or Illustrator, then the interface of Muse is quite familiar. However, there are a large number of features that need to be learned. Muse is very easy for those who wish to literally drag-and-drop, but customizing certain widgets can be a pain.
Winner: WordPress
Responsiveness
WordPress: If you purchased a theme for your WordPress site, then it most likely comes with pre-established responsiveness. This means you really don’t have to do any work to make it responsive! But if you choose to build your site from the ground up, some HTML and CSS knowledge is required.
Muse: While Muse has made drastic improvements over the last few years in terms of responsiveness, it still fails to reach the level of ease that WordPress offers. A few months ago Muse rolled out an update that allows the user to manually add breakpoints at any interval, but as a seasoned Muse professional, it took weeks to fully master. Again, it’s an improvement over the “Desktop, Tablet, and Phone” templates that came standard with Muse, but it’s still not as simple as using a WordPress theme with pre-built responsiveness.
Winner: WordPress
Blogging
I’ll make this one as simple as possible, WordPress is the winner. Muse does not have any blogging features at this point. Blogging is great for SEO value and WordPress makes it so easy to do.
Community Support
WordPress: Being open-source, the community around WordPress is very strong and grows every day. There aren’t many issues that can’t be solved without a quick Google search.
Muse: As much as I love Adobe, I don’t think they put as much time and resources into Muse as they should. Most problems can be solved with a quick Google search, but there were times when I was on the phone with tech support for hours trying to solve simple problems that WordPress never gave me.
Winner: WordPress
Muse Widgets/WordPress Plugins
WordPress: With over 45,000 plugins on the market right now, plugins are a huge part of what makes WordPress so great. Not to mention the fact that they are usually a one-click install. While there are paid plugins, all of the basic necessities are free. Even the paid ones are relatively inexpensive for how beneficial they are.
Muse: Muse only has a couple dozen widgets, all of which are one-click installs. Access to all of them comes with a one-time fee of $69 but in my opinion there isn’t much of a diversity of widgets yet.
Winner: WordPress
When it comes down to it though, it really depends on your experience as a coder and what exactly you need out of your website. To get the most out of your SEO value, WordPress is the way to go but maybe your client has a smaller budget and won’t be going on an SEO plan– then Adobe Muse might be the way to go. I’ve had success with both but found that WordPress is the one that I tend to lean towards. What do you think? Do you have any experience with either? I’d love to take a look at some of your WordPress or Muse sites!
