Website builders are tools that typically allow the construction of websites with manual editing. They fall into two categories:
The first websites were created in the early 1990s. These sites were manually written in HTML. Over time, software was created to help design web pages and by 1998 Dreamweaver had been established as the industry leader; However, some of them have been criticized as being overblown and linking on tables. As the industry moved towards W3C standards, Dreamweaver and others were criticized for not being compliant. Compliance has improved over time, but many professionals still prefer to write. Open source tools have been developed, and made fewer exceptions for the then-dominant Internet Explorer’s deviations from the standards. The W3C started Amaya in 1996 to showcase Web technologies in a fully featured Web client. This is a framework that integrates W3C technologies into a single, consistent environment. Amaya started as an HTML and CSS editor and now supports XML, XHTML, MathML, and SVG. GeoCities was one of the first modern site builders that did not require any technical skills. Five years after its launch in 1994 Yahoo! bought it for $ 3.6 billion. After becoming obsolete, it was shut down in April 2009.
Online website builders typically require customers to sign up with the web hosting company. Some companies provide examples of fully functional websites made with their website builder. The range of services varied from one of the world’s largest and most popular online web sites. The main advantage of an online website is that it is quick and easy to use, and often does not require prior experience. Often, a website can be built and run on the Internet quickly. Technical support is usually provided, as is how-to video and help files. But there are many general websites builders you can find a website builder created especially for a specific niche (dating, medical etc.) with features needed for this niche. Sites are generally created using either HTML or Adobe Flash. Flash is a proprietary format that has become de facto standard, with the support of a browser extension. However, it has a diminishing popularity, since it has been superseded by Web standards (HTML5) and is no longer supported by major mobile operating systems iOS (Apple) and Android (Google). Flash is more resource-intensive than HTML. HTML tools are divided into those of WYSIWYG mode. Offline web builders cater to professional web designers who need to create web pages for more than one client or web host. Modern offline web builders are usually both WYSIWYG and allow direct editing of source code and cascading style sheets (CSS) styling. They generally require at least a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Although they are more flexible than online builders, they are often expensive. However, some open source website builders may be downloaded free of charge by “freemium” license model.