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

[W_J_T]

danielf  wrote

Thanks in advance if you have any thoughts on these!

Hi @danielf, can you private message me a URL to a .zip of the Muse export of your site that you opened in Pinegrow, or the project from Pinegrow that you were working with ? Also if you desire you can contact their support directly concerning compatibility issues, or questions you may have, since you are now a customer.

[HawkeEye]

I just had a conversation with my hosting provider and they came up with a name I had not heard.  Their suggestion was WebFlow

not one I have ever used but a quick look at their site looks promising

[SammiMars]

Hey there.  I know this thread is super long and has a crazy amount of subjects within but we have spoken of WEBFLOW many times already on this forum as a great alternative although the learning curve will be steep.  Some people have already begun sites with them since the announcement.

It does look super promising (for us designers NEVER wishing to learn to code) which is why many of us are moving to that platform - including the MUSEGRID team who will support us in our journey.

Muse To Webflow Course

Hope this helps.

[HawkeEye]

I spent a little time in Webflow last night and I think it could work, but it looks like a clumsy version of Muse to me right now.  I will look at the course video and hopefully that will help my level of understanding.  I was not impressed with Wordpress because it looks like you need to layer another piece of software on top of it to get Muse like functionality.  Either of them could exit the business and you are once again high and dry.

Even if it equal to or greater than Muse it does not address the cost of transition.  Fortunately I only make web sites non-commercially.  I have no idea how this will be dealt with by people truly developing for downstream customers who have paid for the development.  This could bankrupt a small shop.

By the way, I got an email this morning informing me that my CC was renewing at the new higher rate.  Bad timing!

[Abambo]

Wordpress is an open community driven software. There is little chance they will go out of business. As for any layer above, that is a different story.

HawkeEye  wrote

By the way, I got an email this morning informing me that my CC was renewing at the new higher rate.  Bad timing!

Yes, bad timing.

[Illostraight]

Anyone know anything about Everweb for macs? I wonder how it compares to Sparkleapp. I don't recall anyone mentioning it.

[work_at_it]

IMHO Wordpress is on a slow inevitable decline and would not recommend any Muse user to go in that direction.

Every year it was on the market, Muse was gaining more sites from Wordpress than it was losing, according to BuiltWith stats. Muse is part of a growing trend towards code-free development, and with BC it had the integrated hosting that is necessary to keep things simple (even if BC wasn't as simply integrated as some would have liked and may be part of the reason for the duo's demise).

Wordpress is only code-free if you stay inside your template playground.... and once your template goes offside with web standards or security; it is not SaaS, which requires more maintenance.

Wordpress isn't going anywhere soon, but it represents the past when it comes to website development.

[HawkeEye]

The info on Wordpress is really helpful and thanks.

I have been playing around with Webflow this morning and apparently it only works with Chrome or Safari for development.  There is also some loss of functionality if you publish off site.  Not recognizing Edge, IE, or Firefox seems a little strange and makes we wonder about their browser compatibility with developed software.  I wonder if Google has an investment in the company?

The journey continues

[johnamwill]

I work at Webflow, and can assure you that we're in no way funded or backed by Google. Sites built in Webflow work just fine in Edge, IE, and Firefox (as long as you avoid the myriad things IE doesn't support), you just can't use Webflow in those browsers. 

[W_J_T]

johnamwill  wrote

I work at Webflow, and can assure you that we're in no way funded or backed by Google.

Are you guys self-funding now through user subscriptions or still funded by Y Combinator, etc., or combinations of various ?

[johnamwill]

Y Combinator and a couple others, listed here: About: our mission, principles, and open jobs | Webflow

[HawkeEye]

Wordpress was apparently designed to facilitate building blogs or other script type apps.  There is an add on that will give it a WYSIWYG feel, but if that company falters then you are once again left with no answer.   This is a mess!

[Peter Villevoye]

By the way, I got an email this morning informing me that my CC was renewing at the new higher rate.  Bad timing!

Not bad timing at all – it's obviously the consequence of having another year of Muse support...

[44_MLB]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Peter+Villevoye  wrote

By the way, I got an email this morning informing me that my CC was renewing at the new higher rate.  Bad timing!

Not bad timing at all – it's obviously the consequence of having another year of Muse support...

Also now I have to transfer to a new solution, Adobe wants me to pay the 50% of the remaining months subscription on my annual agreement. When I signed up I was very happy to sign up for a year, I would have even sign up for 10 years I was so committed to Muse! But now they are bleeding every last penny out of us to add insult to injury. They should be refunding the remainder to those who have paid for the annual subscription and now need to leave Muse!

[Abambo]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/44+MLB  wrote

They should be refunding the remainder to those who have paid for the annual subscription and now need to leave Muse!

There is absolutely no need to leave Muse now! You can continue to work and use the product well beyond the end of support! I would, however now start to look for a replacement and do new projects with the replacement software.

BC customers are quite in a bad shape, as they need to find absolutely a replacement soon and plan the transition.

[Jon Fritz]

Abambo  wrote

BC customers are quite in a bad shape, as they need to find absolutely a replacement soon and plan the transition.

Adobe has responded to angry customers...

Muse support has been extended through March 26, 2020.
BC support has been extended through March 26, 2021.

While a replacement for BC must be found, there is definitely some time to do it (just shy of 3 years).

[danielf]

btw, my website is: www.danielfactor.com if you had any recommendations on how to re-create what you see there in either Pinegrow or Blocs or both together!

[BenPleysier]

Have a look at this Wappler Intro from the The Dreamweaver Guru Joseph Lowery - YouTube

[JohnSerembe]

"Wappler Pro" will allow you to work on only 5 websites at once? Did I read that right?

[W_J_T]

JohnSerembe  wrote

"Wappler Pro" will allow you to work on only 5 websites at once? Did I read that right?

Where did you see that, on crowd their funding site? I found the below on there.

3. What's inside Wappler Enthusiast? Up to 5 projects?

- Yes, Wappler Enthusiast is targeted to freelancers and it includes the functionalities of Wappler Pro license but limited to 5 projects total. The unlimited usage of Wappler Pro is included in Early Adopter perk.

So the Wappler Enthusiast is €179 EUR €199 (currently 10% Off) and you get 5 projects. The Early Adopter is €349 EUR €399 (currently 12% Off) and above, allows for unlimited projects.

But the main "important" thing to understand with that app is that with either version as part of the crowdfunding, or when its finally released as the Basic and Pro versions with extensions. You will need to continue paying (they say it will be a reduced amount for renewals) each year to use the extensions in those versions. So if you choose to not renew, then the program will revert back to the free version features with none of those extensions.

So please keep that in mind, regarding pricing and long term cost.

Understandably, it’s hard to comprehend as the information and details are scatted and not very forthcoming in clear sight in a singular location. So instead you have to scour and hunt around yourself on the main site, crowdfunding page, blog, social sites, etc., to gain a clear picture of how it will all be.

But that is what I have seen stated across those various sources from their own people.

[Guest]

This is why Word Press continues to grow...Pinegrow makes a good partner (at least for now)

all these apps need lots of great engineers (not one guy in their apt.) goid funding, excellent customer service with quick response (same day) for professionals, it was pretty sad to go for weeks without solutions to a Muse bug...most replies came from ACP’s and those were not always the most friendly.

having to host on a dedicated platform, be-online only, pay for all kinds of things and still have poor results....not good. The other big issue is many of the Musers came from print graphics and knew little or nothing about UI, SEO, Schema, code bloat, page load and how it effects SEO let alone users leaving, it was ignored or put down the priority list at Adobe. Now the results are in.

[W_J_T]

HMAM  wrote

This is why Word Press continues to grow... Pinegrow makes a good partner

Yeah Wordpress offers a lot of opportunities and has a large eco system to build things and implement wide ranging features. There are many Visual tools and plugins which can be used with Wordpress. But likewise not every site requires all that it offers, and for some it can be overkill for their site needs. So it's misused like anything else but certainly a viable option for many.

Pinegrow recently released version 4.6 ( of course the WP version is needed ) which allows for designing and making themes even easier …

Creating WordPress Themes Without PHP Coding - using smart actions

https://medium.com/@mattront/creating-wordpress-themes-without-php-coding-aeeb4f6278f2

They have some other nice articles on posted on Medium as well.

[ArrakisFremen]

This sucks... I am so angry! Your board and upper management are obviously out of touch with what we designers and artists need... This is the best app I've found for the creative person creating websites.  I use PS, IND, and AI everyday extensively and now I am seriously considering looking for alternatives.  Why end Muse?  If you want to follow on Wix's coat tails, thats your decision but why punish those creative people who have taken the time to learn and use Muse and easily create cool websites... Tell your board of directors to listen to the customers and not make decisions based on some middle management uninformed suit.  So so so disappointed in Adobe...

[Peter Zett]

How long will inbrowserediting work – also on sites that are not hosted on BC?

[Peter Villevoye]

If hosted on BC, it will continue to work until March 26th 2020, when BC shuts down.

If hosted on your own provider, for as long as Muse can keep the pages and server side scripts/queries up to date (March 2019) PLUS the time those scripts will remain compatible on your provider's host. So your mileage may vary after March 2019...