Wappler vs. Dreamweaver & 4 Other Tools: A Comparison

[George]

Hi All,

We just published a detailed comparison between Wappler and some of the most popular website building tools: Dreamweaver, Pinegrow, Wix, Webflow and WordPress. Yes, they’re different types of tools but still got something in common: you can create a website and they’re popular! That’s why we decided to give efforts in comparing Wappler to prove you that our product is totally different and much better.

Check the comparison by 16 criteria:
https://blog.wappler.io/is-wappler-better-than-the-most-popular-website-building-tools/

Keep in mind, Wapples isn’t comparing to Adobe XD or InVision: in Wappler you make dynamic projects, not mock-ups. In Wappler you are making full functional websites and apps in the same time as mock up! That’s Wappler’s spirit!

[haroldntx]

Can you elaborate on this?
“Project management - Included project file management tools”
I can’t find any details on what this actually means. Currently I use DW CC 2018 and Bootstrap 4 for my new projects. There are a few things that I need to have before I’d consider switching.

1. The ability to have a template file with editable and non-editable regions so that I can make a phone number change, etc. in the template file and have that change percolate throughout the site. And then on the individual site pages, these non editable regions are not accessible so I can’t accidentally change that code, only via the template files. Some of my projects have 200-300 pages and a global search and replace isn’t an acceptable solution.
2. Check for broken links and orphaned files.
3. Changing a file name that is in use automatically updates the HTML for all pages that reference that file. Again, global search and replace isn’t acceptable here either, too many ways for it to not get all links.
   If I need to download the trial version to get the full user guide, that’s fine. Otherwise, is there a link to it somewhere? Thanks. I’ve been using 6-7 of your plugins for years - like the Nivo and Parallax Sliders a lot.

[ben]

Another comparison albeit with fewer tools.

[George]

As Wappler is build around the Chrome webbrowser - it is very lightweight and highly optimized. It used very little memory and each tab in the Wappler editor is well isolated and on its own, so it does not interfere with the other editor tabs.

Much like the different pages that you are opening in Google chrome.

We have also tweaked Wappler very much for performance so it has a quick startup and also editing in design view is mighty fast.

If we compare our extensions running in Dreamweaver and in Wappler - there is a speed up in Wappler of at least 10x

During the development of Wappler we spend much time on getting Wappler so fast - and now you see the results

Last but not least Wappler is also available on Linux natively just as on Mac and Windows

[George]

@haroldntx

1. The ability to have a template file with editable and non-editable regions so that I can make a phone number change, etc. in the template file and have that change percolate throughout the site. And then on the individual site pages, these non editable regions are not accessible so I can’t accidentally change that code, only via the template files. Some of my projects have 200-300 pages and a global search and replace isn’t an acceptable solution.

Actually having static template based html files with editable regions is a bit old technology from 20 years ago when Dreamweaver invented it.
This days we do that just dynamic data bindings. Where you just populate the regions with your data, that is stored in a database or other data files.

2. Check for broken links and orphaned files.

Wappler does not offer this functionality and it is also not that of a problem when you are using dynamic web sites. As your links get automatically generated based on your data.

3. Changing a file name that is in use automatically updates the HTML for all pages that reference that file. Again, global search and replace isn’t acceptable here either, too many ways for it to not get all links.

See the answer above

4. If I need to download the trial version to get the full user guide, that’s fine. Otherwise, is there a link to it somewhere?

No need to. User guide will be available to everybody next week. Also the base version of Wappler is already for FREE. So you can download and try it already. Only when you need more advanced components as for database connectivity you need to get a subscription. See what is inside: https://wappler.io/extensions

5. I’ve been using 6-7 of your plugins for years - like the Nivo and Parallax Sliders a lot.

In Wappler we have to follow up of those components that are also fully compatible with the dynamic front-end framework that we use - App Connect. So for advanced sliders like Nivo you will be using App Connect Slideshow. We have it also as a Dreamweaver extension, so you can check its docs and demos there as well:

App Connect Slideshow

[haroldntx]

Thanks for the information. I’ll look into it to see if it’s suitable for some of my new sites.

[cadditguy]

I have been looking for an alternative and stumbled upon Wappler. I do a lot of programming in PHP and one thing I have noticed is that the PHP in head sections of my pages does not show in the editor. In the body of the document, php tags show as errors. I have set the current code mode to PHP but still PHP doesnt show. Is this a limitation of the FREE version

[George]

Could you post that together with samples in a new topic as a bug. We are exactly improving php code rendering right now and can make sure we streamline it in the next update