Peter Villevoye wrote:
I just ran into this energizing discussion
Most of the answers and advices here are right, albeit a bit polarized into Camp DW or Camp MU.
There're however some aspects untouched or misleading.
It's true that a Muse website can't grow into a more sizable website, built with a CMS and all. (Adobe Business Catalyst offers some integration, but for most Muse users it's not very common to take that road.) And the website's HTML/CSS/JS indeed can't be simply opened in or added to by other web tools. There's no seamless way to build onto what's already there.
But that warning is valid for probably all web projects, whether or not they've been produced with Muse. Most popular or home-grown frameworks being used for larger websites are also a lock-in. Apart from the 'raw' database, most scripts, queries, templates, often need to be rebuilt just as well when a client decides (maybe for other reasons than growth) to move to a different platform.
Since a typical Muse website won't be very large, rebuilding it completely in a CMS compliant framework shouldn't take too long either. I'm sure professionals like Nancy and Max8jake will gladly construct it from scratch, with just a relatively small share of time spent on recreating what was already available.
Most developers are not happy with someone else's code, and claim theirs smells like daisies. So when a couple of different professional web developers or agencies have been working on a website subsequently, the code gets messy anyway. At some point the client will be advised to do a complete overhaul.
Another important aspect is the fact that designing and building a website with Muse can be a one-man performance. Designing and building a larger website, with a CMS, some back-ends and front-ends, implementing all wishes and features, often requires (very rightfully) a team of specialists. Which is of course making the undertaking less dependent from a single individual (a good thing), but also creating extra workflow challenges like briefing, communication, co-working, etc. (an additional difficulty).
BTW: Muse is catching up with Responsive Web Design, making it possible again for a larger number of web designers to create a proper solution for their client's needs.
Nonsense, all the regular contributors to this forum can do a complex website with a CMS in little to no time. That is because they've either been coding for so long that they have developed their own customized CMS or have moved on to professional open source CMS like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal. As for a website slapped together with Mu not being expandable, I have never known a client who did not return with new upgrade ideas for their site.
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