Adobe Muse EOL announcement - Alternatives to Adobe Muse?

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi all,

For those of you that haven't received the email around the Adobe Muse EOL, see the FAQ Product Announcement that tries to answer some the common questions around the announcement including the reasons behind the decision.

Before we proceed with discussing alternatives, the Muse application will continue to open on your computer. You will be able to continue to edit existing or create new websites with the application. Adobe Muse will continue to be supported until May 20, 2019 and will deliver compatibility updates with the Mac and Windows OS or fix any bugs that might crop up when publishing Muse sites to the web. However, it is quite possible that web standards and browsers will continue to change after Adobe stops support for the application.

While there is no 1:1 replacement for Adobe Muse at this stage, the FAQ link above provides some alternatives. Also, Adobe is making our own investment in DIY website creation and welcomes all Muse customers to join our upcoming pre-release program for a new format that will be introduced this year as part of Adobe Spark. Build a beautiful website—in minutes | Adobe Spark

That being said, I would like to open up this discussion for discussing other solutions and migration paths. It would be ideal if we could focus our efforts on the topic at hand.

Thanks,

Preran

Report · Mar 29, 2018

I Just got this email. Please let the desicion makers. They have too understand that going the way of WIX etc is not the ADOBE way, ADOBE supposedly has always made tools for the design community FOR DESIGNERS, those that can create unique looking products for our clients.

Hey Robert,

The do-it-yourself website builders are popping-up everywhere, aren't they?

Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Duba, Simvoly...

And they're talking clients and income away from well-deserving web designers everywhere.

On top of that...

TechCrunch reports that in the last 3 years alone...

Squarespace and other do-it-yourself website builders have raised well over $200 MILLION in VC funding-- giving them as much money to throw into advertising as it takes to TAKE OUT the little guys and gals.

And if that's wasn't enough...

There are thousands of designers and programmers in India who are working for DOLLARS per hour on Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr.

But here's the thing...

Let's step back and zoom out for a second.

A GoDaddy survey recently reported that...

80% of small businesses haven't even registered a domain name.

And over 50% of those businesses say they plan on getting a website this year.

Plus...

An Adobe survey showed that 38% of visitors cite a website's LOOK as the #1 factor in deciding whether or not to make a purchase, so...

The demand and opportunity for top-notch web designers has never been higher!

Yet...

All the $10/mo DIY website builders with massive budgets to spend on ads are making it harder and harder for individual web designers and small agencies to compete and land client consistently.

More and more web designers and agency owners are...

Charging way less than they're worth and working with clients that don't respect their expertise-- just to pay the bills.
Working 60+ hour weeks and staying up until 2am to meet deadlines for difficult clients.
Relying on (fewer and fewer!) referrals and secretly worrying that they'll never get another client or project.
Considering abandoning ship completely!

And do you think the growth of the website builders will stop anytime soon?Probably not.They're like the Terminator chasing after Sarah Connor... Taking out web designers and small agencies one after another. But here's the thing...Despite all of this...Depsite all the tech pundits declaring "the death of web design" as we know it...Some web designers are quietly doing BETTER THAN EVER...

They're trading in $500-$1000 website projects for $5,000 and $10,000 projects.
They're bringing in leads like clockwork, so they can cherry pick the projects that they want to work on and the clients they want to work with.
They're generate massive RECURRING REVENUE by selling $1,000/mo, $2,000/mo and even $10,000/mo retainers to their web design clients.
They're working less and less by automating their businesses and handing-off everything they don't LOVE to someone else by building world-class (often 100% virtual!) teams.

They're not afraid of no website builder!!

Here's why...

Check this out... Wix has about 90 million users, and they offer 500 templates.

When you do the math...

90 million / 500 templates = 180,000 people using the exact same template.

Competing for the attention of increasingly picky customers who can spot a generic "meh" company from a mile away.

This is good news for you and I!

You see...

There's a HUGE opportunity to serve businesses who want to stand out from the crowd.

Business that don't just want to get a website built so they can check it off their to-do list.

Businesses that want to stand out...

Businesses that want to generate leads, sales, appointments, etc.

Businesses that want specific functionality.

In other words...

Businesses that care more about getting the design they want or the results they want or the functionality that they want than the cost.

The do-it-yourself website builders cater to the businesses that want something cheap.

But there's literally an infinite supply of businesses that DO NOT want something cheap.

Getting a piece of this kind of action and landing high-quality clients consistently requires a NEW WEB DESIGN BUSINESS MODEL.

While many are working 60+ hours per week...

Serving bottom of the barrel clients that want to pay Wix-like rates for their expertise...

Just so they can (barely!) pay the bills.

Others are making more income than ever before by serving the huge number of businesses that don't just want a cheap DIY website. They're working with clients they love, working on projects they love, building businesses they love...

And working LESS hours!

Report · Mar 29, 2018

From what I heard, and please correct me if I'm wrong, google doesn't give priority to themed websites. Originality and content are key.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

@Juchis2009 Thanks for sharing that email !

It illustrates very nicely how people who call themselves professional (web) designers should move to making a project of a website, collaborating with a marketing team, front-end and back-end developers, working together on a proper solution, and make money on it !

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Some designers are sole practitioners. We do not have client budgets to do that nor do clients want the cost of that. I am still mildly optimistic Adobe will do the right thing and reinstate Muse

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Not sure of your point here, not everyone is part of a marketing team with access to front-end and back-end developers

Report · Mar 29, 2018

The reason we used Muse and not a developer is because We Can't Afford to Use a Developer! Decisions at Adobe being made in Ivory towers. Get real. Srsly. I am sitting alone creating websites for small clients, clients who just want to get out there, not Nabisco, or IBM. More or less I am either trading or getting very little, but they depend on me. Depend, it's a valuable word holding much integrity. Integrity, another valuable word. Sorry, but we are all hurt and angry.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Peter Villevoye: are you associated with Adobe or are you independent?

Report · Mar 29, 2018

@GARRogers:

Full disclosure: I'm an independent trainer and consultant in many Adobe applications (and other brands), for which I have a lot of ACE & ACI statuses. I'm also an ACP (Adobe Community Professional) which means that Adobe trusts me to offer true and valuable information on their products and publicly announced strategies to Adobe users. I'm not paid or otherwise financially compensated by them in any way for my attributions, unless you want to regard a complimentary T-shirt as something that might influence my opinions...

I've been working with Adobe tools for over 30 years, in all kinds of creative industries. And just like Adobe, my interests and daily business have seriously changed almost every 5 to 7 years. From print, to interactive, to animation and video, to web, to app, to cloud, you name it. Although I'm not going to follow and support them into that "Marketing Cloud" thing – they're on their own, now !

Report · Mar 29, 2018

GARRogers, you can apply to get the ACP status once you earned enough points in the various forums. It does not mean Adobe pays you, it just means you are commenting a lot, earn points, and apply for the status as a trusted member.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

#NotAMUSEd

Report · Mar 29, 2018

use your #NotAMUSEd on twitter and all other social media platforms, to make it clear to the public out there in the real world of customers how adobe is behaving. The kids should know about this. All the kids that I have told that it is a good idea to work with Adobe CC with PhotoshopCC and Lightroom. They should know that Adobe is not a reliable partner for creatives. They should be informed to look for alternatives to Adobe products.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

I just spoke on Live Chat with Adobe and they said there is a bit of hope that Adobe may revert their decision

"We are going to announce something really very good." + "There are some new updates we are going to announce soon for our Muse customers"

Adobe Muse: Ideas: New (310 ideas) – Adobe Muse CC: Feature Ideas

https://www.change.org/p/adobe-systems-adobe-do-not-discontinue-muse

Report · Mar 29, 2018

I hope this is true... Please show us screenshots......

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Well sometimes it's not just about how good a tool or service is. There is a most definite delicate balance between usefulness and trust. The relationship a company has with their base is arguably more vital than the tool(s) or service(s) they provide. The age old ancient Chinese proverb warns: "Don't bite the hand(s) that feeds you".

I get (not really) your whole evangelical "I love Adobe no matter what" position (akin the the current "administration's" core base) which always ends with "You don't like it? Then find another solution and get lost". Well that's all well and good but what you fail to acknowledge is that the decision to discontinue Muse (and BC) isn't like saying "I'm going to drop photoshop and move to DxO or Affinity" very simply because you're talking about 100% proprietary files.

While you can open and edit a PS file on just about any modern app you can not open Muse files (widgets included) with anything but Muse (at least it hasn't been mentioned here by any users or by Adobe). So now you have hundreds or thousands of users who are completely stuck. SOL

For a high number of Muse users the possibilities of losing work, clients or even having to "fold up shop" is very real because they put their trust in an well established and trusted company amongst the creative community. A company, mind you, who's cartoonishly creepy and highly laughable "evangelists" extolled the power codeless web design until we bled out of our ears. "You never need to code or learn it..." spew tantamount to the modern day Jim Jones & David Karesh corporate America style. I'm sure glad I was fortunate enough not to drink Adobes "Kool Aid" but certainly mourn for those who did.

Now your talking thousands of unpaid hours redeveloping sites made with Muse and moving them to other servers. The cost isn't just financial either. I can't even imagine the stress and emotional and physical problems this will create for some. It's not like the sites can be put into Dreamweaver and with a simple push of a button and a bit of tweaking turned into something they can reupload. If that were the case then this thread wouldn't be 17 pages long and the petition wouldn't have 2500 signatures.

As has been said many times, Adobe should have thought this through and had a viable solution to migrate/convert proprietary files into a workable format. But they didn't did they. They just said FU, go figure it out yourself. How in your, a corporations, or any persons playbook is that ethical or justifiable?

There absolutely has to be accountability on Adobe's part and I hope enough people will dump their subscription(s) and say "sure Adobe, I will figure it out and oh by the way FU too!" to make that accountability happen hopefully sooner than later!

Report · Mar 29, 2018

@rogersphoto.com

It is not that easy to dump ones CC subscription!

I probably will have to do maintenance for several Muse sites for years, so I will not be able to quit anytime soon, even if I wanted!

That is the beauty of the subscription model!

Report · Mar 29, 2018

I'd rather spend a few weeks burning the candle both ends, rebuilding (and improving) client's sites just to ditch the Adobe subscription.

I have 30 Muse websites, thankfully most just 5-10 pages. I know doing this is dead time/money, but once it's done you can tell your clients why you did it, what the benefits of the rebuild is, and it might win you a few gold stars.

I'm 'selling' this to myself as a great way to learn a new platform and also improve what I've done. Like me, I suspect most designers and artists soon fall out of love with their older work.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

@ Dear Rogersphoto, you've been threatening to end your subscription since November 2013 in another forum thread, when Adobe introduced the Creative Cloud. That [locked] discussion has been going on since then until a few weeks ago, probably holding a record with 751 posts !! And the final one was yours, happily taking note of another alternative tool to switch to.

Nice meeting you again, over here !

To the point: your argument is a valid. The Muse source file is indeed a proprietary one, and can't be opened by different software. The exported website is difficult – not to say – impossible to import into another framework or to elegantly dissect by a developer. The HTML code is like the Muse team always said: "not fit for human consumption".

However, with 1 year to go, and probably some more years after that, designers and their clients should be very well able to find a solution based on what's already available now or might be available later on. Maybe the project is small enough to be reproduced in a do-it-yourself tool or online service. If the project is larger, it will require an investment of the designer/developer to learn how to build such projects anew, and it will cost money from the client. So the sad but inevitable demise of Muse offers a proper opportunity to talk with clients about the right timing and possible benefits of the need to overhaul and rebuild the website.

If no-one wants to spend any more time or any more money on it, then it's probably best just to let it be.

It's that simple. Don't sugarcoat it to the client, don't fool yourself.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

I know that none of my clients are going to pay for my time if migration is required to continue working on their sites, I think it's really important for this discussion to stay grounded and real.

Consider this analogy:

My 8 year old Ford car will no longer be supported by Ford, it will continue to work after 2019 but if it breaks then you're on your own, alternatively, you can learn to fly a plane or helicopter but that will take time and money to learn but that's what all the cool kids are doing so get with it and learn to fly, or you can try and import your Ford components into another car, like a WebFlow car.

Muse is an incredible design tool, it has a place.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Ah my Dear Peter you have the memory of an elephant and seemingly haven't changed a bit. You ought to have a bit of fun here.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

Well Rogers, the announcement of Adobe CC was a good thing, and fun to help getting clear. The demise of Muse isn't fun though. I'm also very disappointed about it, but know that there's no turning back of the decision. So I can only help users to understand Adobe's rationale behind it, and find solutions or new directions...

Report · Mar 29, 2018

No offense, but the only good suggestions are from Muse expats. How can an Adobe cheerleader offer or know anything else other than adobe products? Most here are done with adobe and the article on Yahoo business indicated that apps like photoshop are no longer the money makers as marketing is. That's the truth of the matter. So we will all gravitate elsewhere helping each other along the way.

Report · Mar 29, 2018

will adobe keep in browser editing for adobe muse users

Report · Mar 29, 2018

will adobe keep in browser editing for adobe muse users

In Browser Editing is based on PHP processes on the hosting server.

For as long as the hosting server's PHP version is compatible with the one Muse is writing into the queries, everything will be okay. Ideally, when PHP on the server updates, the queries need to update as well. But most of the versions and queries are backwards compatible. However, over a longer time, the process might break. So when the final version of Muse "2019" has written the concurrent queries, IBE will still work for a long while.

Note from Moderator: See Peter's clarification and Preran's reply in posts 720 and 721

Report · Mar 29, 2018

So to clarify (and how do you know this?) , Adobe will keep the "inbrowserediting.adobe.com" site up and functional forever? Not going away in a year?

Report · Mar 29, 2018

In Browser editing will continue to work if you are on a third party hosting provider. If you are on Business Catalyst, it will continue to work as well, but do ensure that you migrate your sites to a third-party provider by May 20, 2019.