I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about £100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

However, they've recently changed to a subsciption model. I *think* my paid
for version will keep working for now, but it's out of support. So it, or one of the plugins, /may/ stop working at some point, or I might miss an update to say a security feature.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The RW forums are (apparently) sanitised, and there's a fair bit of noise on other forums.

Reading between the lines, I can adopt a subscription model which won't
expire, but will stop updating after the subscription period (£100/year) if I ask RW nicely. But I can see that opportunity being withdrawn soon. Or subscribe - £100pa. Or plod on. Or move to some other software - which won't be easy as I've set up a few sites now.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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On 29/08/2022 06:30, RJH wrote:

I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about £100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

However, they've recently changed to a subsciption model. I *think* my paid for version will keep working for now, but it's out of support. So it, or one of the plugins, /may/ stop working at some point, or I might miss an update to
say a security feature.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The RW forums are (apparently) sanitised, and there's a fair bit of noise on other forums.

Reading between the lines, I can adopt a subscription model which won't expire, but will stop updating after the subscription period (£100/year) if I
ask RW nicely. But I can see that opportunity being withdrawn soon. Or subscribe - £100pa. Or plod on. Or move to some other software - which won't be easy as I've set up a few sites now.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

Well, whichever way you look at it, it's a bummer. I stopped using GoLive for the same reason.
The upgrade, according to the email I got. is £40 (39.99) billed annually. That's enough to deter me let alone any future increase.
I had thought that things were moving away from these licensing deals but it does seem that they have come back to haunt us. Even BMW now want you to pay a subscription to allow you to use the gadgets you already paid for when you bought the car - following on from Tesla I suspect.
But, coming back on topic, I looked around when I first got the email and
there are very few straight purchase apps these days.

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On 29/08/2022 06:30, RJH wrote:

I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about £100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

However, they've recently changed to a subsciption model. I *think* my paid for version will keep working for now, but it's out of support. So it, or one of the plugins, /may/ stop working at some point, or I might miss an update to
say a security feature.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The RW forums are (apparently) sanitised, and there's a fair bit of noise on other forums.

Reading between the lines, I can adopt a subscription model which won't expire, but will stop updating after the subscription period (£100/year) if I
ask RW nicely. But I can see that opportunity being withdrawn soon. Or subscribe - £100pa. Or plod on. Or move to some other software - which won't be easy as I've set up a few sites now.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

This is a timely post! The last bit of software I need to migrate from
my old steam powered MBP to my M1 is an old version of Rapidweaver and
Stacks.

It looks like upgrading to the new RW would be £40 (annual subscription)
and a $60 purchase for Stacks.

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

--
Chris

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On 29 Aug 2022 at 06:30:02 BST, "RJH" <patchmoney@gmx.com> wrote:

I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about £100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

I used to develop websites for a living, mostly using DreamWeaver and BBEdit. The writing was on the wall when Adobe got their hands on Macromedia and started screwing everything up.
Great shame, Fireworks was the best image editor I ever used for web graphics. Once Adobe moved to subscription I moved over to wordpress.org.
I looked at Rapidweaver some years ago as a possible option for smaller sites but I didn't like the resulting code or the fact it was practically useless until you bought essential extras, so I didn't bother with it. It's basically the same as the dozens of drag and drop online website builders like Wix and Squarespace, so take your pick. I don't know if any of them allow self hosting though. That's the squeeze.

--
This is not the signature you are looking for.
You can go about your business
Move along

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On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm following this thread with interest.

MST

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On 29/08/2022 07:03, Chris Ridd wrote:

On 29/08/2022 06:30, RJH wrote:

I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about >> £100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

However, they've recently changed to a subsciption model. I *think* my paid >> for version will keep working for now, but it's out of support. So it, or one
of the plugins, /may/ stop working at some point, or I might miss an update to
say a security feature.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The RW forums are (apparently) sanitised, and >> there's a fair bit of noise on other forums.

Reading between the lines, I can adopt a subscription model which won't
expire, but will stop updating after the subscription period (£100/year) if I
ask RW nicely. But I can see that opportunity being withdrawn soon. Or
subscribe - £100pa. Or plod on. Or move to some other software - which won't
be easy as I've set up a few sites now.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

This is a timely post! The last bit of software I need to migrate from my old steam powered MBP to my M1 is an old version of Rapidweaver and Stacks.

It looks like upgrading to the new RW would be £40 (annual subscription) and a
$60 purchase for Stacks.

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again from scratch.

When I switched to Rapidweaver IIRC there was some kind of import facility. Whether that's possible with other apps...

It is a distinct pain in the nether regions though.

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On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm following this thread with interest.

I found RW 5 (!) quite limited and a bit finicky with page titles or
something like that (it was a long time ago.) The need for Stacks to
anything non-trivial sticks in the throat somewhat - and I bet RW and
the Stacks authors have some sort of arrangement where RW never gets a
feature that Stacks provides :-(

How's Sparkle? It looked very desktop-publisher-y with grids and
whatnot. The range of themes/templates didn't look very extensive.

--
Chris

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On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm following this thread with interest.

MST

It's another subscription though.

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On 29/08/2022 11:58, David Kennedy wrote:

On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but >>> also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm
following this thread with interest.

MST

It's another subscription though.

Not so, their web site will sell you a £115 version.

They seem to also have a variety of fully paid versions via the app
store: £29 Sparkle Basic (limited to 10 pages on one site), £48 Sparkle
One (unlimited pages on one site) and £115 Sparkle Pro (unlimited pages
on unlimited sites)

--
Chris

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On 29/08/2022 14:01, Chris Ridd wrote:

On 29/08/2022 11:58, David Kennedy wrote:

On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but >>>> also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again >>>> from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm
following this thread with interest.

MST

It's another subscription though.

Not so, their web site will sell you a £115 version.

They seem to also have a variety of fully paid versions via the app store: £29
Sparkle Basic (limited to 10 pages on one site), £48 Sparkle One (unlimited pages on one site) and £115 Sparkle Pro (unlimited pages on unlimited sites)

Must have misread it. Just got a little disillusioned with all these companies wanting to tie you up* for the rest of your life...

* hoping that when you stop using it you'll forget about the DD

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David Kennedy <davidkennedygm@gmail.com> wrote:

Must have misread it. Just got a little disillusioned with all these companies
wanting to tie you up* for the rest of your life...

* hoping that when you stop using it you'll forget about the DD

I'm not familiar with these tools but I wonder if, for the annual money they're asking for, you could pay for a hosted CMS. Being hosted, somebody else upgrades Wordpress or whatever so it's always up to date, and you get the web server (and maybe domain etc) as part of the package. The delta between
basic hosting and adding a CMS addon often isn't very much (on the backend typically it's just a database and a few packages to install) - maybe it can
be added to an existing hosting package.

I'm sure there are use cases where a local website generator has its appeal, but paying an annual fee makes it significantly less attractive than just
doing it on the server.

Theo

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On 29 Aug 2022 at 14:01:35 BST, Chris Ridd wrote:

On 29/08/2022 11:58, David Kennedy wrote:

On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but >>>> also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again >>>> from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm
following this thread with interest.

MST

It's another subscription though.

Not so, their web site will sell you a £115 version.

They seem to also have a variety of fully paid versions via the app
store: £29 Sparkle Basic (limited to 10 pages on one site), £48 Sparkle
One (unlimited pages on one site) and £115 Sparkle Pro (unlimited pages
on unlimited sites)

Looks interesting - thanks. I'll give the free version a whirl.
--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

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On 29 Aug 2022 at 08:58:25 BST, "Martin S Taylor" <correspondence@mRaErMtOiVnEsTtHaIySlor.com> wrote:

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1@dont-email.me>):

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm following this thread with interest.

MST

<https://www.coffeecup.com/>
Mature, been around for years, does not tie you in to any ongoing fees.
Creates proper code, has it's own code editor built in unlike many of the others mentioned here, and use your own hosting.
Easy to use for total beginners and experienced developers.
For what you get, it's cheap.
--
This is not the signature you are looking for.
You can go about your business
Move along

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On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tei1m0$10jnc$1@dont-email.me>):

How's Sparkle? It looked very desktop-publisher-y with grids and
whatnot. The range of themes/templates didn't look very extensive.

You're right, but I've never liked pre-ordained themes and templates. I'm
much happier making my own.

More of a pain is that there are some things you have to do in its specified way.

For example, I'd like to use the triple-line symbol (which people are
starting to call a 'hamburger') which you can click on to show the menu bar.
In Sparkle, I don't think you can do this. Instead, the menu bar appears when you mouse-over the hamburger, without clicking. This is strictly against the Apple Interface Guidelines (1986 edition), and I hate it. To see how awkward
it is, compare the Sparkle home page https://sparkleapp.com (which does it correctly) with the documentation page https://sparkleapp.com/docs/ (which doesn't).

The upside is that it makes it easy to design your site using basic Apple knowledge. As they say in the blurb, if you can use Keynote, you can use Sparkle.

One huge feature is that it's very easy to preview your site. I can modify my site using the Sparkle app, and as I do so I see how it will appear, right in front of me, on my physical iPhone, in real time.

Also, for the right host, it's very easy to upload the site.

Lastly, they have a good reputation for user support, and the one little
query I had was answered pretty much instantly, on a Sunday morning.

So in summary, I like it despite its flaws, and I think I'm going to stump up the cost for a subscription for one year. The cut-down versions are too limited, and (IMO) it's worth going for the full Monty. I'm no fan of subscriptions, but in this case I'm prepared to give it a try-out for a year.

MST

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