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

[Red Point]

Not to forget Photomaki, Fuse Roll and Shrimpweaver with Cucumber Bridge and Miso Effects.

Btw, I had to explain to my brother that CC doesn't stand for Credit Card, its Creative Cloud. Funny coincidence that you do need a credit card to get creative in the clouds (;

[sebrame]

Yesterday was my scheduled day to trial Thrive Architect, a Wordpress page builder plugin.

Trials are done. Architect wins hands down.

I'm on my 2nd day with it. 'Muscle memory' has kicked in and I'm flying. Everything that I hated about WordPress is pretty much hidden, and I still get to use the best thing about WordPress - the thousands of available plugins.

'Muse replacement'? Not by a long shot, but it's the best I've found.

[Red Point]

I agree, Wordpress is not the optimal alternative to Muse, but it has become an incredibly vast ecosystem in the past years with so many plugins available, you can now probably create an infinite amount of projects. I have just begun to explore it and I am amazed how far it has come. Its open source, which means no corporation controlling it. The five founding father of software freedom have foretold the moment we are experiencing now. 

Open Source will be very important in the years to come, as corporation submit to the temptation of driving their customers more and more into dependencies. A mistake which I believe will cost them dearly. I think the future is much brighter for open source than any one of us imagined. I am currently looking into Wordpress and searching for an internal themes editor. I will look into Thrive Architect.

[Guest]

Checkout that video...Word Press in an hour.

[sebrame]

HMAM  wrote

Checkout that video...Word Press in an hour.

I was trying Elementor before I trialed Architect. Somewhat similar platforms, but for me, Architect is MUCH more intuitive. I'd check them both out. Elementor has a free version, while Thrive Architect does not. However, Thrive offers a 30 day money back guarantee, else I probably would have stayed with Elementor.

Both product have lots of video tutorials available, and great support. Unfortunately, they are both based on the other side of the world from me, so I have to deal with that time lag, but otherwise they've both been very prompt and efficient. They are young, so they are hungry, which is a great asset.

[Red Point]

I just checked out thrive architect and the whole principle behind it looks pretty cool. It also integrates with many existing services. If speed is of essence, TA could be the solution you searched for. Over 150 template pages to get you started quickly Easily customize your own template. Integrate with thousand of existing Word Press templates.

Pricing scheme seems fair. If you get 15 licenses for 150 USD you can install the plugin on 15 WordPress sites for as little as 15 USD per site. No monthly fee. Your site is not keep hostage if you deactivate the plugin.

Looks promising.

If anyone has in-depth experience with Thrive Architect, please share!!

[Red Point]

What I might do is keep working with Muse on existing pages, migrate some clients sites to Word Press with Muse widgets i have mentioned in my previous posts and work with Thrive Architect for new sites. I think that will be a soft migration policy that I can live with. In combination with Adobe extending the life-cycle of Muse and BC, It looks like we will be in better shape after all....

[deaweb]

Preran.....I really do not understand Adobe's decisions! I believe that in recent years, Adobe Muse has truly been an innovation because it helped the less expert graphic designers to create sites that are also responsive without writing the code. On many sites I decided to use Muse because of its flexibility avoiding systems based on css as many constraints, but with Adobe Muse I can do what I want! Now I just hope that Adobe finds a solution for all those customers who like me have spent time and created sites made in Muse, at least a viable alternative that can open the sources of Muse .... what a disappointment !!

[sebrame]

deaweb  wrote

I really do not understand Adobe's decisions!

It's because there is a grand misunderstanding of the Number 1 purpose of a company - make money. If a product isn't making the prescribed stream of revenue, it is more cost efficient to scrap it. That's it. Until people can get it out of their minds that a company's main purpose is to provide it's customers with a product, there will always be this level of anguish.

The web design world is moving toward hosted platforms, mainly because of the huge revenue streams available. It's a way to apply the 'subscription model' that Adobe are so fond of to the web design arena, so trust me, Adobe will have a hosted platform soon. Just where do you think all of the Muse engineers went?

[Red Point]

@Deaweb: I am starting to come to the realization that Muse lacks one very important feature and that is connectivity to existing services. In Wordpress, you can install a plugin for almost every function and connect it to almost any webbased service like Mailchimp aso. You can also create eCommerce solutions very easily, something that Muse could not or not to the extend Wordpress can. There are a few companies coding widgets for Muse, there are literally thousand of companies coding for Wordpress. Its exploding right now.

A website in the 21st century cannot just be static or even dynamic. It has to be alive, a living organism that interacts with marketing tools, adtools, social tools, webservices aso. You need to have a world of developers to keep up with all the changes, and that is essentially what Wordpress is. It is WorldPress.

I understand that this was a fight Muse could not win in the long run. Its sad, but its a reality. Best thing you can do is focus on a good migration policy for yourself and your business. Adobe is committed to making that possible, as they have just extended the life-cycle of Muse. A gradual transition will also help you mitigate the costs.

[deaweb]

sorry Red Point what are those Wordpress plugs that allow you to recreate the site made in Adobe Muse?

[Red Point]

@Deaweb: The Muse widget to transform your Muse page to Wordpress is called MusexPress. MusexPress - Adobe Muse and WordPress - Adobe Muse CMS

[deaweb]

Red ... I made some sites with Worpress what you say is right, unfortunately the open source in the Internet world seems to be the future ... my only regret is that on some simple sites the Adobe Muse solution was ideal, you can not always create a mini-site quickly and easily with Wordpress, you have to deal with many situations (maybe template with bug , difficulty doing what you want) especially for people like me who are not a programmer but a graphic designer.... but what we can do?... we will see :-)...and good luck!

[deaweb]

Peter I do not know what Adobe's strategies definitely have their reasons, I can only say that I'm sorry for this choice because it has come in handy several times, although we know that solutions like wordpress are valid alternatives and cheap for those who minimum skills and demands minimum results that those who have good skills and require good results. In my case, not being a programmer but an Adobe Muse chart in many cases was the best solution because it allowed me to create sites in a short time and with skills as a graphic designer and not as a programmer. I've always been his esteemed fun!

[Peter Villevoye]

I'm also saddened by the decision. Understanding and explaining Adobe's rationale behind it all (historically and contemporarily) doesn't necessarily mean I agree with it. I think large companies like Adobe and Apple should have some playful and powerful or shiny but useless stuff on their repertoire. Just for the sake of showing off, having fun, offering some relief here and there. Muse was such a product, a too-good-to-be-true gadget, the odd ball out, and probably an enormous budget gobbler... So what ? "Well, no more" said the accountant decisively. The playground is on the other end of the premises now. It's all about Adobe XD, Character Animator, Adobe 99U...

[HawkeEye]

Someone has brought up a really good point here and it gets down to the bottom line for Adobe.  So long as you use any of the CC products and keep your subscription, then killing off Muse is uncomfortable but not a killer from their side because it doesn't disturb the revenue stream.  You can only get their attention if a large number of users find solutions outside of Adobe for their suite products and drop your subscription.  This is a math/accounting exercise on their side, but gut retching on the user side.  If I can find complete replacements for their products then I will scrap my subscription and I would encourage others to do likewise.

This is a confidence issue not a software issue.  How can they be trusted to maintain other pieces of their suite that one might invest many dollars in from your side.

[Lonnie_Kunkel]

I know it sucks we are losing Muse in two years, but I've been talking to several people from the Muse team and they have been very helpful. @Preran especially has been helpful. They are trying to help us out on an individual basis, so don't be afraid to reach out and ask what they can help you with. They will even be calm while you get all the anger off your chest. It's been a rough two weeks, but now that the dust has settled a little bit, I'm not as angry at Adobe as much as I was.

[HawkeEye]

I think you are right about the Muse Team.  We need to remember that they receive and not make policy.  This decision came from much higher in the organization and they have to take the anger of the customers.

[Guest]

I believe all this is hurting and has hurt! the Adobe brand. The Graphic arts community is a close knit group. Word spreads fast when someone gets mistreated ...

The graphics community has taken notice not just if this mistep by Adobe but of past and continuing behavior....a overall of management and a serious attitude adjustment is in order. It seems like it was a bit better when it was based here. Dell learned the hard way and never recovered. Moving support overseas ignored the cries for help from their base. Muse really was full of great potential. After attending a seminar recently the speaker noted that she would not trust Adobe.

[W_J_T]

HMAM  wrote

I believe all this is hurting and has hurt! the Adobe brand. The Graphic arts community is a close knit group. Word spreads fast when someone gets mistreated. The graphics community has taken notice not just if this misstep by Adobe but of past and continuing behavior.

Nah.

Here is a graphic that shows what happens when the creative community gets mad at Adobe. This latest instance is just a tiny blip on the radar for Adobe historically.

[44_MLB]

Is there any Adobe or third party software were I can still work with the websites I have spent 100s or 1000s of hours building in Muse, without having to start from scratch?

[Kim at Creative Edge]

Hi,  really very disappointed in ADOBE's decision to discontinue supporting the MUSE application, I have always been a fan of ADOBE products and have spent time and money investing in both learning this application and also building sites for my customers, this news if very worrying, the SPARK application is not fitting the niche for designers wanting to step away from code so not using Dreamweaver  but not be restricted by template sites like WIX and your new SPARK application.  Sorry this leaves us in a very, very embarrassing position re our clients websites going forward, I would ask you to think about that, all the websites will have to be recreated in a different software!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  really!!!!  and you expect us to be happy with that??????

[Johnimac18]

This is really an incredible decision; the attraction of the CS product monopoly is that they are integrated and flow from one to another with ease. In this online world, this product 'workflow', for those of us creatives who will never have a natural capacity to code, will have nowhere to flow to. I am also old enough to remember the 'EOL' of the Muse predecessor - Golive, which was my first experience of being dumped by a product and still annoys me. Some numbercruncher  has a lot of grief to answer for.

[Abambo]

GoLive wasn't by far equivalent to Muse. At that time, Adobe had 2 products doing practically equivalent work: GoLive and Dreamweaver. At the time of the merger, it was clear for me, that one of them would die.

There is also Fireworks that got killed, because the double use. Not all of the functionality got taken over however.

Pagemaker got killed when Indesign came to maturity etc.

This is called evolution. Focus on the future, not the past.

There are people in a very bad shape, because they were dependant on the Catalyst platform. Extending the lifetime of Catalyst for an additional year will help them to ease the pain.

I didn't use catalyst. I use Muse only, and that also for non-strategic web sites. It's no big deal for me. Someone having hundreds of sites and 3 dozen or more customers will sweat.

[ymc88]

Hi,

Just to say that I'm Adobe user 12 hours a day since 1992 !

I've started on the first Macintosch and the beta of Photoshop and Illustrator.

After a few years came InDesign and you've killed Quark X press from my HD with this wonderful and easy soft.

Then with Dreamweaver, Golive... and so on. Only pleasures updates after updates.

With my skills in your programs I became teacher in this domains also, so I helped a lot of designers, photographers, etc..

in understanding and working with Adobes Softwares.

And I did the same with Muse, using it a lot, teaching many customers to work with it...

And now ! Where is the legendary continuum of Adobe gone ?

I can understand that we have all to evolute together with the net technologies but why will you stop a great WYSIWYG software without any prepared other software to replace them ?

Today I was looking on Spark and Portfolio sites, I'm still waiting front of a black windows with a preloader turning and turning...

I have several sites in working progress and some muse teaching lessons planned, so what a good Adobe image you will get when I'll say to my customers "Hey Adobe will stop Muse, you can forget it !"

Seriously...