07.03.24

12 Best Web Design Software for expert in 2024

Are you looking for the best web design software? Well, there are so many options out there, which can make it hard to decide. However, in 2024, there are lots of collaborative free platforms with user-friendly interfaces and powerful features available to simplify your web design process. So, we are going to provide you with the latest solutions to choose from.

What are web design programs and web design software?

Web Design Program

• A web design program is like a class where you learn how to make websites. Moreover, it could be a course at school or online
• In this class, you learn different things. For instance, how to use code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), how to make websites look good on different devices (responsive design), and how to make them easy for people to use (UX design).
• The goal of this class is to teach you all the skills you need. Specifically, on how to create websites that look nice, work well, and are easy for people to use.

 

Web Design Software

• Web design software is the tool that web designers use to make websites. Additionally, it's like using special software to build something.
• Here are different kinds of web design software. For instance, some help you design the look of the website (like Adobe Photoshop), some help you write the code (like Visual Studio Code), and some web design software helps you do both (like Adobe Dreamweaver).
• These tools are used by professionals and beginners to actually build websites, using the skills they learned in the web design program.

 

So, a web design program teaches you how to make websites, while web design software is what you use to make them.

 

How much is the average salary of a web designer?

The average pay for a web designer can change depending on where they work, how much experience they have, and the skills they bring. On average, they usually make between $45,000 and $75,000 a year.

Where they work matters. For example, in big cities or places where tech is prominent, they might earn more. However, in smaller towns, it could be less. If they're just starting out, they'll earn less than someone who's been doing it for a while. As they get better and do more projects, they can ask for more money.

Knowing how to use popular design tools and web design software is important. For instance, things like Adobe Creative Suite, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can help them earn more. Different industries pay differently, too. For example, tech companies, online stores, and advertising agencies might pay more for good web designers.

Whether they work for a company or freelance, it also affects their pay. Freelancers can sometimes set higher rates; however, they also have to pay for things like taxes and health insurance.

While the average pay for web designers can give a general idea, it can change based on where they work, their skills, and their experience. Web designers need to keep learning new web design software  and stay updated to make more money.

 

Choosing the Web Design Software

The best choice depends on what you need and what you like. Here are some things to think about when picking the right web design software:

1. Your Skills. If you're new to this, pick a web design software that is easy to use and get into the design process faster. On the other hand, if you're experienced, you can go for more advanced options.

2. Type of Project. WordPress, Canva, and, Framer work for short-term projects. Furthermore, Figma and Sketch are for big and complex websites. Lastly, different web design software is good for different projects.

3. Budget. Some web design software costs much more money; however, some are free. Therefore, think about your budget before deciding.

4. Collaboration. If you're working with others, choose a web design software that makes it easy to collaborate and share the designs with a click.

5. Your Personal Design Preferences. Everybody has their own user experience preferences. Therefore, pick a web design software that lets you create the designs you like and that you enjoy looking at.
 

Top 12 web design software in 2024

Webflow

• Cost: Free to try with limited features. Paid plans start from $12/month for Starter, $24/month for Business, and custom pricing for Enterprise.
• Services: Webflow is a website builder that helps you make websites visually. Additionally, it connects with content management systems (CMS), supports online selling, and provides hosting.
• Best for: It is great for people who like to see what they're doing as they build. Also, it is good for quickly trying out ideas, making websites that are interactive, and creating sites with content management systems without needing to know how to code.
• Advantages: You don't need to know coding. Moreover, you can drag and drop elements easily. Additionally, it has cool animations, comes with hosting, and setting up online stores is simple.

 

Figma

• Cost: Freemium (limited features), professional plan ($12/month), organization plan ($45/month)
• Services: This platform helps teams work together on designing interfaces, illustrations, and prototypes. Furthermore, it allows for real-time editing and keeps track of different versions.
• Figma is the best solution for teams working together, designing user interfaces and experiences, trying out ideas, sharing designs, and remote teams.
• Advantages: You can work together in real time. Moreover, it has tools for making prototypes. Additionally, you can leave comments and give feedback easily, and there's a big community with lots of extra features you can add.

 

Adobe XD

• Cost: Included in Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (starting at $20.99/month)
• Services: A design and prototyping tool
• Best for: Designers who use Adobe Software, make interactive designs, use voice-controlled interfaces, and manage design systems
• Advantages: It works well with other Adobe tools. Additionally, it lets you prototype with voice, has advanced animation, and integrates with design systems.

 

Sketch

• Cost: Subscription ($9/month)
• Services: Design tool for interfaces, illustrations, and icons
• Best for: Experienced designers, detailed mockups, creating icons and graphics, complex projects
• Advantages: Easy to use interface, many plugins available, strong vector editing tools, emphasizes design quality

 

Canva 

• Cost: Free plan with limited features. Paid plans start from $12.99/month for Canva Pro and $34/month for Canva Enterprise.
• Services: A graphic design platform that allows you to create social media graphics, websites, presentations, and other visual content.
• Best for: Non-designers or beginners who need to create simple web graphics or social media content.
• Advantages: Easy to use, drag-and-drop interface, and large library of templates and elements.

 

WordPress 

• Cost: Free and open-source software. However, you will need to pay for web hosting and a domain name.
• Services: A content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage websites.
• Best for: Anyone who wants to create a website, but especially those who are not familiar with coding.
• Advantages: Free to use, easy to learn and use, and a wide range of plugins and themes are available.

 

Wix 

• Cost: It has a free plan, but it has fewer features. If you pay, plans start at $18/month and $49/month for VIP.
• Services: A website builder that allows you to create websites with a drag-and-drop interface.
• Best for: It's good for beginners who want to create a website quickly.
• Advantages: You can use it easily, and Wix has many templates and features to pick from.

 

Zeplin

• Cost: Freemium (limited features), Professional plan ($19/month), Studio plan ($49/month).
• Services: Design handoff tool for developers and designers.
• Best for: Connecting design and development, accurate specs for handoff, code snippet generation, and collaboration.
• Advantages: Simplified handoff and precise code generation. Additionally, it creates style guides and developer-friendly features.

 

InVision

• Cost: Freemium (limited features), Professional plan ($8/month), Enterprise plan (custom pricing).
• Services: A tool for prototyping and collaborating on designs.
• Best for: Prioritizing user experience, prototyping and testing, collaborative design, iterative processes.
• Advantages: Seamless integration of user testing, advanced animation options, managing design systems, and lastly, emphasis on user feedback.

Gutenberg Editor

• Cost: Free (part of WordPress core)
• Services: Block-based website editor for WordPress, allowing visual editing and custom layouts.
• Best for: Existing WordPress users, building simple to medium-complexity websites, content management with visual editing.
• Advantages: Free to use, intuitive block-based interface, good for content-heavy websites. Additionally, it has easy integration with WordPress plugins and themes.

 

Gatsby

• Cost:  Free open-source program.
• Services: Static site generator for building fast and SEO-friendly websites using React and GraphQL.
• Best for:  SEO optimization, building large-scale web applications, and, developer oriented projects.
• Advantages: Blazing-fast performance, excellent SEO, developer-friendly tools, scalability for large projects.

 

Vue.js

• Cost: Free (open-source)
• Services: JavaScript framework for building interactive web applications with a focus on simplicity and performance.
• Best for: Building dynamic web applications, single page applications (SPAs), interactive elements, and, complex user interfaces.
• Advantages: Approachable syntax, large and active community, strong performance. Additionally, it is well suited for building complex interactions.

 

Tailwind CSS

• Cost: Free (open-source)
• Services: Utility-first CSS framework for rapidly styling web components with pre-built classes.
• Best for: Rapidly prototyping UIs, building simple websites, styling components without writing custom CSS.
• Advantages: Fast development speed, easy to learn, responsive by default, extensive utility classes. Lastly, it has a large community and resources.

Please be aware that the prices and features mentioned may change, depending on the company's plans and your preferences. It's important to check each web design software official price page for the latest details.

Some web design software are good at specific things

• For quickly trying out ideas: Webflow, Figma
• For working together: Figma, InVision, and Framer
• To make sure users like the modern design: InVision, Zeplin, Framer, and Figma
• For managing content: Webflow, WordPress (Gutenberg Editor)
• For making your project run fast: Gatsby, Tailwind CSS

 

Some extra tips

1. Try Before You Buy. Many web design software offers free trials or free versions. Therefore, experiment with them to see which one you like.

2. Learn from Others. Join online groups to learn from people who've used this web design software. Additionally, they can give you good advice.

3. Stay Updated. The design world is always changing. Therefore, keep up with the latest trends and updates in the field of web design software.
 

Remember, there's no rush. Take your time to find the web design software that works best for you and your project.

 

Be well informed.

To know trends, to get in touch with colleagues, to know the best practices, it is crucial to participate in international web design events. 

 

5 International web development events in 2024

XtremePython (April 16th, 2024): This online conference focuses on Python development and welcomes participants from all over the world.  More about the Event: xtremepython. dev/2023/ 

JSConf Budapest (April 11-12, 2024): This conference in Hungary focuses on JavaScript development, with talks, workshops, and networking opportunities for developers of all levels. Moreover, it covers various JavaScript-related topics, including front-end development, back-end development, testing, and more. More about the Event: ti.to/jsconf-bp/jsconf-budapest-2024  

Web Summit Lisbon (May 8-10, 2024): Held annually in Portugal, Web Summit is one of the world's largest tech conferences, attracting over 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries. Additionally, it features a wide range of talks, workshops, and networking opportunities for professionals in various tech fields, including web development.More about the Event: Web Summit Lisbon  

Frontend Developer Conference (May 16th-17th, 2024): 

This online conference focuses on front-end development and is accessible worldwide. Furthermore, more information and registration details can be found on their website. More about the Event: www.frontendconf.ru

React Europe (October 23-26, 2024): This conference in Paris is dedicated to the popular React JavaScript library, featuring talks, workshops, and networking opportunities for React developers. Additionally, it covers various React-related topics, including front-end development, best practices, and new features.More about the Event: dev.events/EU/react 

Check an event’s website for the latest information on online participation options and registration details. These are just a few examples; many other international web development events are available throughout the year.
 

 

Framer

In this article, I would like to focus separately on a web design software called Framer. Notably, Framer has become one of the greatest tools for web development nowadays, or even maybe the best we’ve ever had. Why is it so? We believe it is a game-changing app that every web designer should consider and the reason, at first, it is a web-based program web design software. Similar to Figma, it works from your browser. You just have to register and you are good to go. Second, it allows you to create a website in a few hours from templates and publish it straight away without knowing the coding.  

Let’s have a look at the best features of Framer.

 

The Main Features of Framer

AI Tool

Framer has an AI-powered tool for automatic simple website creation. However, who doesn’t have an AI feature nowadays? Some services take it seriously, but most of them are just following a trend. What Framer has is something in the middle.

You may use it or you may not. However, you could play with web page creation with AI on Framer for a while, of course, but we’d recommend you stick to manual development.

The AI tool may look good, but you probably have to customise it a lot, anyway, so you might spend the same time on development. Try out templates — there is a huge library of them in Framer. Templates are a good alternative for AI. There are many free variants among them.
 

CMS of its own

In Framer, you can generate pages based on CMS entries and easily update the content in the future without dealing with the design layout. Furthermore, you can get a nice-looking CMS with a simple interface that any school kid can deal with and add, edit, or delete the content.

 

Importing layouts From Figma

Let’s say you have some layout designs created in Figma and now want to switch to Framer. Does the copy and paste function work for that? The answer is “Yes”. Just open your Figma file, select the portion of elements you want to transfer, then go to the Plugin panel and click on “Framer Copy and Paste”, open the destination file in Framer and paste. There might be some minor issues when exporting, therefore it is recommended to watch a 10 minutes tutorial on the Framer Academy called “Import from Figma”.  

Impressive Fonts Library

Framer has a broad selection of its built-in web fonts. Additionally, you can pick up any of the Google Fonts here as well.
 

Language Localization

Framer has its own localization panel where you can set the languages your website has to support, and it will simply adapt the content based on a user’s location. Moreover, not just text, but images and other content can be pre-adapted to a specific area.

A “Publish” button

What makes it stand out? Just one button, to put it simply. One button that’s called “Publish”. At any time you can publish your site and see it on the Internet live. It’s like drawing up a website in Figma or Sketch and having the ability to publish it and update it at any time. It appears like some sort of magic.

So whatever you create here has its code behind it simultaneously written. If your website isn’t super complicated, you don’t have to hire a layout code designer at all. At some point, you might need to dig into coding aspects, but anyway Framer saves you around 80% on development.

SEO included

How come? Well, Framer specialists claim that Framer-based websites are SEO friendly by default which means that your web app doesn’t need an SEO specialist and again you save a lot of time and costs. The search engine optimization has become a very important part of web development. If no one sees your website, then what is it for? If search engines like Google and Yahoo are able to track your website and show it to people on their first search result pages it means a lot.

Accessibility, well-structured content, good loading speed — all these things are considered by search engines and directly affect your presence on the search results pages. For improving accessibility Framer gives you tools like Semantic Tags, Image ALT text (easy to set for each image), Tab order, ARIA label, or Reduced Motion option. Framer pre-renders every website when you deploy it (this feature is also called server-side rendering). The pre-rendered HTML ensures that the Google bot can analyze your website easier and faster.

Linking feature

In Framer you can turn any element into a clickable link. The more links you have on the website the easier for a user to find the one they currently need. When you create a link, Framer auto-fills it with existing pages, so you won’t have any broken link. The system automatically keeps you away from it.

Pages structure set up

Organizing pages in Framer is easy. You can create, rename and move around different pages of your website. Each page has its path, which you can easily change. You may change your website’s structure, such as reorganizing content or redesigning your site avoiding 404 pages with the Redirect feature. Simply create redirects to the actual page from any old ones.

Reverting feature

In Framer, any accidentally wrongly made publish can always be reverted. First of all, you can have a staging domain so you can test your changes before deploying and easily roll back when they appear to be wrong.

Cookie Banner included

The Cookie Banner allows you to run the full cookie consent system through Google Tag Manager. Additionally, you can customize this banner, from text to visual elements, to ensure that it fits your website.

Sharing your project

As in Figma, you can share your layout with any of your colleagues providing access to the whole project. It is up to you which permissions to give to the invited person. They can make design changes, content changes, or even deploying ability. Additionally, it helps prevent accidental changes on your website.

 

Conclusion

Taking into account all these amazing features, we recommend you don’t hesitate and check out Framer and other web design software yourself. As the saying goes, “It is better to see once than hear a hundred times.”