Adobe Muse EOL announcement - Alternatives to Adobe Muse?

[Preran]

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

[mcatania81]

Just one question about your answer concerning the Muse code for the website creation: will the code of Muse also be updated to changing web standards until March 26, 2020? Or only for the OS?

Thanks

[Preran]

The guidance we have is that any changes to the web environment that lead to your websites or software becoming dysfunctional or unusable will be fixed in Adobe Muse through the support period. Because creating a new build can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, it is my guess that a significant number of users will have to be affected before changes to the Muse code are made.

[Illostraight]

Preran, If we haven't updated, would you advise to keep the last 'unbuggy' version?

[Preran]

That decision, is completely yours. I am not sure what you mean by "unbuggy". From what I hear, there have been some issues reported with the latest update but they do have workaround solutions.

Having said that, moving forward, any bug and OS fixes will most likely be restricted to the latest update. In my opinion, if your requirements are fulfilled by your current version, you can continue using it and update when you have a compelling reason to do so.

Thanks,

Preran

[buglegirl101]

But it won't be supported by Business Catalist, will it?  Because some of the interactive features will not work in html or in html5.  This is almost as distressing as the disappearance of Adobe Digital Publishing --which made it impossible for my free app to be upgraded and hosted anywhere.  Sorry.  Just disappointed in a brand and programs I love... I'm rooting for you, but I'm not sure if you're rooting for me--as one of the small fry customers;)). Thanks for listening, Preran.

[Ussnorway]

buglegirl101  wrote

But it won't be supported by Business Catalist, will it? 

no because BC is end of life and also going in the Adobe bin along with all the other web options

[Netify]

Spark is a social-media fluff-bucket of nothingness.  Oh, and could generate single-page websites.

Time to graduate, I suppose.  Wordpress, Dreamweaver, other...

[malanag]

Are you going mad in Adobe? After Muse's last upgrade I will cancel my CC subscription, you don't deserve my money.

[Lisa Buttmonkey]

This is a very disillusioning disgusting decision on Adobe's part. I agree with @HunterScotty regarding the idea of releasing the source code. As a not-for-profit, we invested what little we had to build a website (still working on it). The Adobe name meant something. Considering the number of business that rely on Muse, we considered this a relatively safe decision.

Muse is a great product with many possibilities.  Adobe sold a lot of people to depend on it. It's too bad they consider our trust expendable.

Frankly, I'm embarrassed that I have recommended Muse to so many and in the future, I will not be suggesting Adobe products. A good thing is consumers have a good memory for whom to invest our time and money in.

[sstuart48]

Preran, you can now see you are talking to middleweights here that take this software very seriously and value it immensely. We need you to go and get one of the head honchos and provide us, Adobe's loyal brand ambassadors with some much needed clarity before we dump Adobe. We have businesses to run and wages to pay...

[Preran]

I am not taking any of the posts here lightly, and my posts here are based on discussions that I have had with the team. All the solutions that we could think of have already made their way into the FAQ page, the solutions from Adobe at least. If there are better solutions from elsewhere, I would like people to suggest them here.

[hunterscotty]

The solutions on the FAQ are *NOT* solutions!

They are pathetic attempt to pad customers off; none of the suggestions do anything near Muse.

Preran, you and your colleagues are giving the proverbial middle-finger to customers and developers that have been with Muse, many since the beginning.

Be honest. Tell us to go to another company. Tell us Adobe are not to be trusted with developing and maintaining platforms, so don't waist time, energy and money investing in Adobe products.

[Abambo]

You are free to suggest any solution you think is appropriate.

[hunterscotty]

My suggestion is Adobe reverses their decision.

[Abambo]

Sorry, but I suppose that will not happen.

[hunterscotty]

Why will it not happen? Does Adobe hold its' customers in such disdain?

Affinity is chapping at the  photo-editing and vector graphic market. They have DTP solution later this year too. Is Adobe too big to fail? To they not need to listen to their customers?

[shawnstarr]

Will amost certainly be dropping my adibe sub now and moving to affinity/sketch/indesign. Muse was actually the only app keeping me on board. Well...after effects too but i hardly ever use that. My guess is that they are cutting all their fat...not many people use muse compared to the ones who code themselves. With the price raises and cut support...adobe must know that the competition is about to overtake their throne.

[Mark Palmos]

A very good, relatively inexpensive option is WYSIWYG web builder.... I used it before Muse and have just bought the upgrade to v12.

They have loads of updates every year.

WYSIWYG Web Builder

[joslyn]

WYSIWYG looks very interesting. Thanks. I am collecting the names of other web builders, and if Adobe doesn't come out with information soon on why they are dumping Muse, and what they are doing to replace it, Then I don't see the point of subscribing at the full level, and will drop back to the much cheaper Photoshop subscription level. If I can't get everything I want at Adobe, and have to pay extra elsewhere, then why pay the freight at Adobe? And if they are into shafting, without even an explanation, a whole class of customers, then why keep owning the stock?

[jonalyntess]

and you need something that is called Windows... what the heck!

[Cy233]

I'm sorry you have to be the whipping post, Preran. It's not your fault. I'm sure you weren't the one who made the decision

[pedigree1]

He works for Adobe.. right now he's all we've got... so it IS his fault.

[toddavia]

Not sure if this is an exact replacement but Muse Themes has a new offering called Without Code:

https://www.wocode.com/musethemes-member-discount/

[any14poker]

As noted in our post above, without code (which we were initially excited about) won't be a good option for our clients.  Without Code requires (for now) that you host the site on their (Amazon) servers and has no options for email accounts other than third party--costly for clients like ours.  There is no good migration option so all sites must be recreated from scratch.  I do like that the SSL is automatically included--this does offset some of the cost. So far the reports are that it still has quite a few issues, but we do expect it to improve as we know that the musethemes company is very good at what they do

For those who are thinking they can't do "coding" so they don't want to go with dreamweaver, I suggest they go throuugh the steps we gave in our above post and see how it works for them..  I am about to migrate two or three more sites today and hope for the same positve results.  It is true that once you do the migration (not import--see above), that you have better results changing text, pictures, adding elements in split view in the code itself, but you are not "coding"--you just replace for the most part.  I tested the ability to add containers in the sites by simply copying and pasting existing code, and it worked like a charm. 

Our plan at present is to continue to use Muse for (very quick) site production for our low cost customers who need a low cost site quickly, then migrate the site into Dreamweaver for long term maintenance. 

Hope this helps others, and we would still LOVE to hear if others are trying to use this method with or without success?

[JustiBru]

Adobe should just create an export to Dreamweaver from Muse and be done with it. All this heavy lifting by the consumer is a crime.