Skip to main content
B
bill_teale
Known Participant
August 12, 2025
Question

Will Adobe fully update Dreamweaver, commit to developing it, sell it, or let it die a slow death?

  • August 12, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 1100 views

I've been using Dreamweaver since it was a Macromedia product and, despite Adobe's best efforts, it is still the most fully featured and useable tool ina web designer/developer's toolbox. 

So why is Adobe behind with updating the software? All we get is minimal updates for security patches only, and no real innovation from Adobe since CS6 around a decade ago!

Adobe likes to ignore the web design/developer comunity, a fact that is shown that Adobe Max hasn't mentioned the software at all for five years.

Let's face it, you are milking the product whilst trying to kill it. And now your latest update (May 2025) causes so much frustration with sudden crashes for no reason makes me think you are trying even harder to force people away.

So time to step up Adobe.  Are you killing it,  saving it, or going to commit to developing the top tool in web design/development (an area that is growing four times more over than Graphic Design according th the BoLS)?

Time for answers... 


      3 replies

      Nayan_Kankariya
      Nayan_Kankariya
      Inspiring
      August 13, 2025

      Hi @bill_teale,

       

      Thanks for writing to us and conveying your kind thoughts. Please be assured that we are continuing to update Dreamweaver and are not keeping it in maintenance mode. Yes, there is no mention about Dw in Adobe Max in the last 4-5 years, but we continue to hear user feedback over this community forum and customer support. 

       

      On the crash issue on your machine, we have a dependency of Rosetta on Mac ARM and hence, without the Rosetta environment, we are seeing stability issues with Dw product on Mac ARM machines. We are actively investigating the issue and will provide an update. As a workaround, please try installing Rosetta on Mac ARM machine, which is a one-time setup.

       

      Please invoke Terminal and run the following command to install Rosetta: 

      softwareupdate --install-rosetta

       

      Please confirm if the behavior gets resolved after installing the Rosetta environment provided by Apple on your machine, and revert in case the issue persists. Please feel free to write back to us on this thread.

       

      We sincerely apologize for the issue you are facing and appreciate your kind support.

       

      Have a pleasant day!

       

      Thanks,

      Nayan

      Adobe Dreamweaver Team

        B
        bill_tealeAuthor
        Known Participant
        August 13, 2025

        Hi Nayan, that is good to hear. I am on a Windows 11 machine so unfortunately I cannot give feedback on the Rosetta installation.

        I am an instructor at a community college teaching ten different courses within the IT Web Technologies program. We use Adobe products throughout our school, and (with the exception of teaching Python and Flutter) I am teching the next generation that Dreamweaver is the best product to use, because I believe that nothing comes close to it as the most flexible and useful IDE for html, php, sql, css, and js development and more. 

        I was beginning to think I was leading my students up the wrong path if Dreamweaver is only hobbling along while the needs of their chosen industry keeps evolving at breakneck speed.  This support community is a great way to express concern, and feel heard, and I truly appreciate that, altough it really is time for action after five years.

         

        Dreamweaver, despite being mothballed for several years, still remains by far the best IDE for web design and development, and for a lot of years Dreamweaver was the market leader.  Here is the kicker though... despite the lack of upgrades in this decade Dreamweaver is still the market leader.

         

        As an admin for the school's licensing agreement with Adobe, I get a lot of emails about the way Adobe is leading the way in education, but all of those emails talk about Canva, XD, Photoshop etc.  I know that this is moslty because they are targeting non-IT educators, but it would be nice if the DW marketing team (if there is one) saw a future for the product and expressed it publicy.

         

        In monetary terms, there is a massive market out there for Dreamweaver in education, and beyond into the workplace. Dreamweaver just has to polish up, stand up, and retake the throne it never really left, but was kind of curtained off.

         

        One last thing, I can in one way understand the reasoning for Adobe to turn to different markets back in 2019-2020. At that time it was more difficult for a designer/developer to become a "full-stack" developer/designer, and rather than having a grasp of all aspects of the industry the trend was to specialize in one area. It may have been the case that Adobe decieded that there would be spcific IDEs developed for certain areas within the web technologies industry that would be strong competitors, and the outlay to keep competing may have not given the ROI they wanted.  Whether that is what actually happened I do not know, and althrough I disagree I can at least understand the thinking if that was the case. But in 2025 this is no longer the case, with the rapid (and ongoing) development of AI a web designer/developer with a basic knowledge can be as "full-stack" as we were back in the early 2000s, and Dreamweaver meets the needs of that rising market of people - I know, I'm teaching them!  In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is the Graphic Design elements of the Creative Cloud package that are now under threat of being squeezed, and adding a robust Dreamweaver to the portfolio makes very good business sense.

         

         

        Nayan_Kankariya
        Nayan_Kankariya
        Inspiring
        August 13, 2025

        Hi @bill_teale,

         

        Thanks for the kind response. On Windows, can you please confirm if the stability issue is consistently observed with any specific workflow. We would love to have a remote connect session for troubleshooting on your machine and investigating the issue. We are actively investigating internally the stability issue occurring in Dw 21.5 and will release an update to fix the behavior on Windows soon. 

         

        Yes, we agree with your kind thought on the market aspect for Dw where Dw can bring in good business with the strong value addition into the Creative Cloud package, which we are having currently, but yes, a little marketing and AI additions will do wonders for the product. We appreciate for sharing your kind thoughts.

         

        We are hearing all our users and will continue to do the best for all our loyal Dw users.

         

        Have a pleasant day!

         

        Regards,

        Nayan

        Adobe Dreamweaver Team

        BenPleysier
        Community Expert
        BenPleysierCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 12, 2025

        I moved to Wappler about eight years ago and haven’t needed another tool since. It’s actively developed, embraces modern web standards, and gives me full control over both front-end and back-end workflows—without relying on patchwork extensions or waiting for updates that never come.

         

        Dreamweaver had its place, but Wappler’s integrated approach and rapid evolution make it a far better fit for today’s development needs.

         

        That said, I just saw this update from Adobe:

         

        “We discussed the future of DW and we are continuing to actively support DW in future and will consider taking up new feature sets as we have discussions with DW ACP folks.”

         

        If Adobe is serious about revitalizing Dreamweaver, I’d love to see meaningful action—not just vague promises. The web dev space is moving fast, and tools need to keep pace.

         

        Wappler is the DMXzone-made Dreamweaver replacement and includes the best of their powerful extensions, as well as much more!
        B
        bill_tealeAuthor
        Known Participant
        August 13, 2025

        Thanks Ben! I remember the early days of Wappler, back to even when they just sold snippets to use in Dreanweaver 🙂

        that is a very interesting update, do you remember the source of it? I'd love to hear more. 

        BenPleysier
        Community Expert
        BenPleysierCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 13, 2025

        Apologies for the confusion, this was not a publicly announced update, it was conveyed to me via a PM from @Nayan_Kankariya 

        Wappler is the DMXzone-made Dreamweaver replacement and includes the best of their powerful extensions, as well as much more!
        Nancy OShea
        Community Expert
        Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 12, 2025

        Dreamweaver was moved to minimal maintenance status in late 2021. Apart from essential security & compatibility updates, no new features are planned. 

         

        I use DW alongside other coding tools that are in active development. 

        That's all I can tell you. 

         

         

         

        Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
        B
        bill_tealeAuthor
        Known Participant
        August 13, 2025

        Thank you for the reply Nancy, I appreciate it. Would you mind sharing what other tools you use that are in active development and how they complement for DW's shortcomings? 

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices