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Best Offline Website Builder Softwares

These days free online website builders are all the rage.

If you are looking for an offline website builder, then you have quite limited options. Most companies are focused on building supporting tools that enable you to create a website online.

However, there are a few products that let you design and create a website offline. In this post, I will cover such builders.

In this blog, we generally cover tools and software which are suited for beginners. However, the offline website builders covered in this post are NOT meant for beginners.

They are meant for beginner coders who have just started learning HTML/CSS or experienced coders who want a quicker way to create HTML / WordPress websites for themselves or their clients

Why use an Offline Website Builder?


In this age of cheap website builders and cheap web hosting, why would one even consider using an offline website builder?

There are certain use cases where using an offline builder makes sense.

Offline Website Builder
Pros
  • Control and Flexibility
  • Choice of Web Host
  • No Recurring Fees
  • Works Offline without the internet
Cons
  • Less Features
  • Web Hosting will cost extra
  • Not suitable for beginners

Lets look at each Pro and Con in detail

Benefits of Offline Website Builders

1. Control and Flexibility

The offline website builders are suited when you want complete control over your website without actually getting into coding.

You want to learn HTML and CSS but are not yet ready to fully dive into programming. Offline website builders can give you a starting point from where you can slowly get into HTML and CSS coding.

2. Choice of Web Host

You get more choices in terms of selecting a web host. Since you are developing a website by yourself, you are free to choose the web host of your choice

3. No Recurring Fees

The offline website builders operate on pay once use forever model. Generally purchasing a license entitle you to support and updates for one year.

However, if you want the latest version, then you will need to pay a renewal fee.

Also, note that the license only covers the cost of the software. In case you want to host a website, you will need to pay a recurring fee to your web host.

4. Work Offline / without internet

You don’t need always-on internet connectivity. However, in this day of cheap internet, I don’t think this is a significant differentiator.

Limitations of Offline Website Builders

  • Less Feature Rich as compared to established online website builders.
  • They don’t come with web hosting. You will need to select a web host in case you want to put your website online.
  • Not suited for beginners. If you are a beginner, then online website builders are the best choice.

Let’s start

The Best Offline Website Builder Software

So here are the 5 best offline website builders.

  1. NicePage – ( Best Choice for creating HTML Websites)
  2. WordPress + Elementor (Best Choice for Creating WordPress Websites)
  3. Mobirise
  4. Template Toaster
  5. Pinegrow
  6. RapidWeaver (Mac Only)

Lets get started

#1. NicePage (Best Choice for creating HTML Websites)

Nice Page markets itself as Free hand Website Designer. It boasts of an editor which lets a user drag and drop an element anywhere on the page.

NicePage started it life as Artisteer and was rebranded as NicePage in 2018.

The editor is quite feature rich. It comes with a collection of thousands of pre designed blocks and templates. As a user you can also create custom blocks. The editor is also integrated with stock image library which lets you search images from sources like Pixabay , Google Search, Instagram etc. You can also upload custom images to use in the website.

Once the website is designed, you can export it as HTML , WordPress Theme or a Joomla Theme. You can also create ecommerce pages with Woocommerce and Virtuemart products.

NicePage works on both Windows and Mac.

Pricing

  • Free – Limited number of page with access to limited block and page templates
  • Personal – $49 USD
  • Business – $129 USD
  • Pro – $ 199 USD

Each plan offers more feature than the previous plan.

The Starter plan is free for individuals. However, it comes with limited features compared to the premium plans. For example, it allows you to build a maximum of one website with up to five pages. Every other feature is limited making this plan only suitable for individuals who want a small or personal website.

The other plans (Personal at $ 49, Business at $ 129 and Pro at $ 199) have better features and allow you to build unlimited websites with unlimited pages.

They also allow you to design WordPress pages and themes. The Business and Pro plans allow you to build Joomla pages, themes, and articles as well.

Nice Page also offer hosting service NicePage Online. It lets you build a website and host it with them. Its price ranges from Free to 19.95 USD / month

Best Suited for

Like other website builder, Nice Page is best suited if you want to quickly create HTML websites without hand coding each one of them. Agencies and professional website developers will find the editor handy. A beginner with no coding skill will also find the editor easy to learn and flexible.


#2. WordPress + Elementor

Well, if you are on the internet searching for a website builder software, chances are you have heard of WordPress. 

Till now, WordPress had awesome content management capabilities but it lacked on page designing front. 

However things have changed with the release of Page Builders Plugin. 

Plugins like Elementor have brought the power of drag and drop designing to wordpress. So now you can get all the power of wordpress with the ease of visual page designing. 

The popularity of Elementor can be gauged from the fact that its free version has over 5 million active installs and  is still growing!!! 

Elementor Editor

The Elementor editor is quite feature rich, it boasts of several features like

  • Section Finder
  • Precise Layout COntrol
  • Auto Save, Undo Redo
  • Revision History 
  • Create Reusable Elements and Templates
  • Easily Export and Import Designs between websites

Elementor lives as a plugin inside your WordPress install. To use Elementor you first install the plugin and then start with designing pages. You can design a page from scratch or you can import a premade template.

Growing Marketplace of Elementor Templates

Another plus with Elementor is that there is a growing collection of pre-made templates

Elementor website lists over 200 pre made templates. There is also a growing collection of Elementor templates on Themeforest.

Pricing

  • Free – Basic version with limited features and template selection
  • Personal $49 USD
  • Plus – $99 USD
  • Expert – $199 USD

Elementor has 4 plans. The free version offers basic feature with a limited collection of templates. Premium version offers all features plus a collection of over 300 templates , widgets and pre made website kits. Premium version also come with a popup builder

Best Suited for

If you are into WordPress, then Elementor + Worpdress is the best combination to create websites and web pages quickly. Whats more, since you are using wordpress, you get access to a huge range of web hosting companies which are optimized to run wordpress websites. I am personally a fan of Siteground and Kinsta. 


#3. Mobirise

Mobirise is a popular offline website builder. It offers you a library of pre-built blocks that you can drag and drop to create your website.

In order to use Mobirise, you need to first install it on your PC or Mac. Once installed you can start the website designing process. The created website can be exported and hosted on any web host of your choice.

Pricing

Mobirise has three pricing plans.

  • Free Version
  • Paid Extensions
  • All in one Kit

The free version of Mobirise comes with a limited set of templates and blocks. You can upgrade to the premium version to get access to the complete library of template and blocks. If you are not ready to buy the complete kit, you can also purchase individual templates and extensions.

I believe buying the complete premium kit is a much better value. The individual themes are prices at 39 USD while the complete kit is priced at 149 USD.

The complete kit also gives you access to extensions like form builder, popup builder, and integrated code editor.

Best Suited for

It is best suited for new users who want to learn to build HTML website but are still not comfortable with coding. Mobirise gives you a starting point where you can create a functional HTML website without coding.


#4. Template Toaster

Template toaster is another popular offline website builder. It works differently as compared to Mobirise.

You can think of template toaster as a theme builder. It lets you build theme for various platforms like:

  • WordPress
  • Drupal
  • Opencart
  • Prestashop
  • Joomla
  • Blogger
  • Virtuemart
  • Magento

In addition to creating a theme for CMS platforms, it also lets you create HTML/CSS website.

Its editor is extremely similar to Microsoft word. When using the program it asks you to create a project and select a platform.

Once you select the platform you start with the designing process. Its editor is laid out like Microsoft word. The editor will require some exploration and research.

In addition to the builder, template toaster also offers a growing collection of pre-built themes for supported platforms.

Pricing

There are three version of Template Toaster

  • Free Version
  • Standard Version
  • Premium Version

Templatetoaster offers a fully functional builder for free, the catch here is that the exported theme will have an evaluation watermark.

There are 2 premium additions Standard and Premium. The standard version is priced at 49 USD and has a limited set of features whereas the Premium version is fully functional and is priced at 149 USD.

Best Suited for

Template toaster is best suited for experienced web developers and designers. It is ideal if you create a website for clients and need a quick way to create a theme for different platforms like WordPress, Joomla, bootstrap, etc.


#5. Pinegrow

Pinegrow markets itself as a Website builder for professionals. It is a visual editor that lets you build bootstrap based websites. The Pinegrow interface is similar to design tools like Photoshop.

Recently they have released a wordpress theme builder which lets you create wordpress theme visually.

As with other builders, Pinegrow lets you export created website which you can host any where.

Pricing

The pricing of Pine is broken down in various License categories

  • Individual License
  • Company License
  • Student Licence

Pinegrow offers two payments modes-

  • One time payment – It lest you pay once and use forever. It comes with 1 year of updates and support
  • Monthly payments – It lets you use Pinegrow till your subscription is active.

Overall I find pricing offered bt Pinegrow a bit complicated as compared to other builders like Mobirise or Template Toaster.

Best Suited for

Pinegrow is best suited for professionals who want to quickly create websites without hand-coding each one of them.


#6. RapidWeaver

RapidWeaver is a Mac only website design software. It has been around since 2002.

RapidWeaver, just like the other website builders discussed here, was made for everyone even those that do not have coding skills. It comes with more than fifty built-in themes as well as multiple third party themes to choose from. 

Its editor has a block based approach. It does not support free hand dragging and dropping of elements. The editors comes with a Design Simulator which lets you test and prview your webpages in devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac etc. Its Media manager integrates with your desktop photo library and also with Unspalsh.

Pricing

The Base Package is priced at 84.99 USD, with options to purchase extra addons like Events, Additional Layouts, Google Sheets integration etc.

It also offers hosting in partnership with A2Hosting.

Best Suited for

Web Designers who exclusively use Mac.


Conclusion and Summary

Offline website builders can be an ideal choice if you want more control over the websites you build. Since you get access to the website code, you have more control and flexibility with what you can do.

If you are a beginner developer, the offline website builders can give you a great starting point. Even if you are an experienced developer, offline website builders can save a lot of your time by cutting down on repetitive tasks.

So which is your favorite offline website builder? Let me know in the comments.

24 thoughts on “Best Offline Website Builder Softwares”

  1. Ok, say if I make a website on my computer using the software. But I also want to put website online. How to do that?

    1. Richa, you will need a web hosting account to publish your website on the internet. You can go with any reputed web hosting provider to publish your website online.

    2. Hi Richa, since you’ll be creating a static website, you can use free services like netlify(.com) to drag and drop your website online. Start with a free netlify subdomain, and when the result satisfies you, you can buy a domain and connect it [for cheap domains I’d suggest porkbun or ovh(.ie) ]. Hope this is helpful

  2. Mobirise is great, just keep to a version that works.
    NicePage is the best for complete control of what your site looks like. You can drag images and text anywhere in the grid.

  3. Hi Guys and gals… I am new here and just enquiring, that if I will be using my own hosting providers, or that of my clients, so if I export to html, will website exports be fully functional, cause I noted that it says export HTML for ‘static’ website? I certainly hope that does not mean Forms, and animations, etc will not function via HTML export to my own host? Can someone please provide clarity or confirmation?

      1. Gavin to the best of my knowledge, animations, such as those produced by NicePage, work within the web pages it outputs.

  4. Hi,
    If I simply want to play around and design a web idea so that at a later stage I may pay for a program to host it or pay for a developer what would be the best option? I’m very mindful of signing up to a developer site and losing some of the ownership. I simply want to play around and work on a concept at this stage. I figure that downloading an offline program is the best option but which one? I want to ensure that I still have full control of my site until I decide which direction to take it in.
    Thanks,
    Ange

  5. I used to use Frontpage and am now having issues getting the photos to show on my site once uploaded. Want to try a new offline program because of our slow/limited internet. Which would you recommend for a previous frontpage user?

    1. Unless you need tech support then forget about it. I have been a customer for years never needed help until last week. Now once a day I get an email from them, and they have yet to address the problem. I wait 24 hours to have them tell me something like the website isn’t up. Well yes looks like gibberish can’t put that on company website. The problem is it will not publish the theme. (no, the do not render theme button is not selected) No help at all after a week.

  6. D'Lynn Waldron

    I need a replacement for GoLive on the Mac after my G5 desktop stopped working. I took GoLive to Dr. Warnock at Adobe. It is all I have ever used and I have many web sites on-line in GoLive, all of which I totally created and manage. I cannot get another computer to run GoLive. (I am a registered owner in the box, but Adobe apparently no longer reauthorizes legacy software; some years ago, Adobe stopped unlocking the fonts on my totally owned and registered Type on Call disc.)
    Now in my 80s, I no longer have the time or the eyesight to edit code. I need another drag and drop program for some very basic web pages with a background color, wrap around text, pictures, linked to a table of contents, and on the host I use. No templates and nothing else, just the simple pages I create, on my existing site, on my host. Suggestions please.

  7. I’m struggling with finding a solution for my project. I want to build an offline website that I can put on a Thumb Drive or SSD Drive that will house my family’s Ancestry (pictures, text files, etc.) so I can give copies to my relatives. I don’t want to put this online since it will go dormant after I’m dead. I thought of using Frontpage (since I’m good with HTML) and the end-user only has to open the Thumb Drive and click on the index.htm file to make it all work. I’d appreciate your thoughts as to the best way of doing this. I’m open to any software solution that can help me get this idea off the ground. Thank you in advance for your time!

  8. I tried Publii and it was nice. Probably even better than Moblii at some things. Export to web server was also easy.

  9. Can you PLEASE suggest a replacement for my Mac version of Dreamweaver CS5.5 that I have used for years. It will not run on the newer Macs. I am used to working in both the html code screen and the WYSIWYG design screen and would love to continue to have the same options. I want an offline product that will allow me to publish to my online site and I don’t need hosting. I have about 100 pages with photos and charts. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

  10. Nice page has changed HTML export to premium feature, so cant save the offline website for upload on self hosted server.

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