EverWebSoftware

Can EverWeb Replace Your iWeb? Complete Review…

If you haven’t yet used EverWeb (formerly EasyWeb), touted as the iWeb Replacement, it may be time to give it a try.

With Apple no longer updating iWeb it is only a matter of time before iWeb completely stops working on future versions of OS X. In addition, you won’t be able to expect any updates. I had the opportunity to beta test EverWeb over the last few months and I wanted to answer the question on everyone’s mind, is it time to replace iWeb with EverWeb?

Pros

User Interface

First and foremost EverWeb brings a very similar user interface that users are used to with iWeb. You’ll feel right at home in EverWeb.

iWeb User Interface

iWeb User Interface

 

EverWeb User Interface

EverWeb User Interface

 

Unlike other web development tools, EverWeb works very similar to iWeb, letting you place images, text and shapes anywhere on your web page. There are no restrictions to how you can design your website. You have the familiar Inspector to make your web pages, Media Library to access all your images, built in shapes and Widgets.

Navigation Menus with Drop Down Menus

EverWeb comes equipped with a much requested feature that iWeb users have needed for years. Drop down menus let you  provide better navigation to your visitors and easier organization of your website. EverWeb’s navigation bars are highly customizable, letting you add mouse over effects, background colors and more.

EverWeb Navigation  Menu

EverWeb Navigation Menu

Mobile Websites

EverWeb makes it extremely easy to create Mobile websites for users on iPhones or other Mobile devices. All the built in templates come with a Mobile version and there is even a video tutorial explaining how to create a mobile version of your site.

 

Mobile Websites in EverWeb

Mobile Websites in EverWeb

 

New Widgets

EverWeb includes many of the familiar widgets you are used to including Google Maps, RSS Feeds, YouTube videos and Image Galleries. It also includes new widgets for Social Media Integration with Facebook, Twitter and Google+, Contact Forms, Image Sliders and even HTML5 Audio and Video.

All of the widgets work great on Mobile sites as well.

One not so obvious but major enhancement in EverWeb over iWeb is the way the HTML Widget works. In iWeb it was embedded as an external page. In EverWeb the HTML Snippet actually embeds the HTML code directly on the website. This allows for much more advanced HTML codes being added to your website.

Some of EverWeb's Built in Widgets

Some of EverWeb's Built in Widgets

Built in Search Engine Optimization

iWeb had virtually no built in search engine optimization features. You had to use external tools such as iWeb SEO Tool to get your iWeb site properly optimized for Google and other search engines so your visitors could actually find your website.

EverWeb includes all of iWeb SEO Tool’s features built in so you can get your website optimized right from within the software.

EverWeb’s code is also much more efficient than iWebs was when it came to search engine optimization. There is no longer a requirement for third party tools to get your site properly optimized.

From within EverWeb you can change your title tags, meta tags and page file names. You can also include custom Head and Footer code.

Actually Talk With The Developers!

Have you ever wished Apple would respond to one of your feature requests for iWeb? Or they would give you some insight on how to use a certain feature?

Customer support is often a much overlooked feature of any software product. With EverWeb you can actually speak directly to the developers on the company’s forums.

It’s great to actually be able to submit feedback and not get left in the dark on when a feature may be added or a bug fixed.

Not only that, we can look forward to more than 1 update every year or two that we got with iWeb!

The Cons

Of course with EverWeb just a baby at version 1, there are some things that still need to be worked on.

Blogging

Although EverWeb has stated that a blog feature is the next big feature to be added, EverWeb currently lacks an easy to use blogging system.

Of course you can just create a separate page for each blog post you want to add and use Disqus for comments, it’s a little tedious.

Image Galleries

EverWeb does include a built in Image Gallery that lets you easily add a block of images to your website. The Image Gallery works great on Mobile Devices and uses a cool Lightbox affect for popup images.

It also includes an Image Slider that most new websites are using on their website.

However, EverWeb’s Image Gallery lacks the ability to include image captions and automatically split up large image galleries onto multiple pages.

Like the blog feature, you can add this yourself but it is a little tedious. It would be great if EverWeb’s Image Gallery were to be improved to include some of iWeb’s features.

Image Editing/Effects

iWeb included a great feature to make small adjustments to your images right from within the application. Unfortunately you cannot do this within EverWeb. You would have to use an application like Preview and then bring your image into EverWeb.

Pricing & Availability

EverWeb comes in two versions. A standalone version that lets you publish to your existing web hosting service and a one-click publishing version that includes web hosting.

 

Most iWeb users will be more than happy with the $99/year one click publishing solution. It gives 2GB of file space which is usually more than enough for most iWeb sites. You get your own custom email addresses and al updates are free.

The standalone version costs $99.95 USD and comes with free updates and support for a year.

Final Say

There are a lot of nice little features in EverWeb that I didn’t have time to go over in this post. I will do some more tips and tricks in future posts.

In the mean time I think it is definitely worth a try. If you do need a blog just yet you should hold off on the change but otherwise I would say EverWeb is the closest thing you will find to iWeb and in many cases it is MUCH better.

Download The Free EverWeb Trial Now

I for one am very happy that a company came to the rescue of iWeb users with an app that they are familiar and comfortable with while adding new, modern features.

 

 

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27 Comments

  1. Is it possible to import existing iWeb sites or pages into EverWeb for editing?

  2. Hi there,

    For a very long time now I am a frequent user of iWeb in which I ‘did’ about 25 websites, including the 14 websites I ‘do’ these days.

    Your article on EverWeb caught my attention. Yet two questions puzzles me:

    1. You write: ‘A standalone version that lets you publish to your existing web hosting service and a one-click publishing version that includes web hosting.’ Is that meant to be a price for just 1 website? Or can I ‘do’ all my websites with this standalone version?

    2. You also write: ‘The standalone version costs $80 USD and comes with free updates and support for a year.’ Is $80 a yearly fee?

    Greetz,
    Arend

    1. 1. You can build as many websites as you like with EverWeb. There is no limit

      2. The cost for future upgrades is $50 but is not mandatory. You don’t need to upgrade if you don’t want too.

  3. Hi

    Can everweb be used on a PC as well as mac?

    1. It currently only runs on OS X.

  4. Hi,

    I’m a iWeb user as well. I’m looking at everweb and finding it rater good however i’m not sure if it’s better then other stuff out there.

    There are weebly, Jimdo and a lot others. I know these aren’t drag and drop however They are still quite simple to use.

    Also in terms of Seo …. Is there any thing there that I should be aware of?

    So should I just go ahead with Everweb or should I take one of the other possibilities?

    Thanks

    Lars Kruse

    1. Hi Lars,

      In comparison to the other products you mentioned EverWeb is an actual native application you download to your computer so the user experience is MUCH better!

      You aren’t locked into a single hosting company and the similarities to iWeb make using it to much easier.

  5. EverWeb couldn’t embed, via the HTML snippet widget, an audio file (mp3) to it’s site. When I put the code onto the page my audio started playing, as desired. But it wouldn’t work when I tried to preview it in Safari. Is this because I haven’t published the site (trial version)?

    Thanks

    Steve

    weet335@comcast.net

    1. Hi Steve,

      Most likely you didn’t use the correct code. You would have to post your code here.

      However why don’t you use the built in Audio widget?

      I think you would get more help on the EverWeb forum pages: http://billing.ragesw.com/forum.php

      The users there would be able to better help you with this issue.

  6. Is there the ability to direct upload through FTP (like in iweb seo) of must you go through something else?
    Thanks, Rick

    1. It looks like at this point your need to use an FTP Client to publish your site once it is published to a folder. Some good FTP clients include CyberDuck and Transmit.

      1. Can it still be done through iWeb SEO as with iWeb?

      2. You don’t need iWeb SEO Tool with EverWeb as all iWeb SEO Tool features are built into EverWeb.

  7. I have down loaded the trial app and one question I have is on the image files it appears as though I have to load my images into the main pre made images and does not let me add a complete file of my own images so I can organize them by categories? I am building a photography website and I want to save/access my pics by file/category for faster and future changes to each of my photo pages.
    Any suggestions of how I can do this?

    It appears the directory to browse my files is greyed out and won’t let me down load my file folders. Is it because it is the trial page ? Will it let me when I purchase the package.

    Please let me know what can be done.

    Thanks,

    MC

    1. I’m sorry but I have no idea what you are asking here. If you have questions about EverWeb you can try the EverWeb forums: http://billing.ragesw.com/forum.php

  8. I’ve been working with everweb since it was ezweb…
    I’m a longtime user of iWeb, and was able to do just about everything I wanted to with it…

    One of the best things about everweb, is that it is being developed by some guys who care if it sells, so development is going to continue… Unlike iWeb, where Apple has so many things going on that some get put on the back burner and sometimes get cut ie: iWeb.

    And there are people developing addon widgets for EW! Sweet!

    There are things that EW doesn’t do that IW used to. But most are just niceties, you can totally build a nice site with EW as is ver 1.1… And you can petition the guys to include the things that you miss from IW, if you really need them anymore!

    As far as the people asking about a easy straight up import or transfer of your IW site to EW the answer is no, not really. There’s going to be some work involved!
    Really just a bunch of copying and pasting and PLENTY of massaging!

    But hey after you’re done you’ll be using an app. that won’t be cancelled! (fingers crossed) : )

    1. It was disappointing to see that EverWeb is locked into specific locations i.e. X pix left, X pix top. I’m currently working on a site I built in iWeb that has two pages that change due to sale of item(s) almost daily. It would be so nice if new data and images could be plugged in regardless of size of text box and the image, as in WordPress. I’m gonna be forced to learn another application. EverWeb could be so much more. And why is the iPhone, iPad build limited to an 800 px width. From what I read responsive built sites are the thing. EverWeb should have been responsive.

      Or am I missing something?

      1. Not sure what you mean by text and images being “locked”…
        As far as learning a new program, if you know iWeb you pretty much
        already know Everweb…

        S

      2. By “locked” I mean set to a specific location by pixel to the left and from the top. The way I understand it, responsive built sites don’t do that and they are compatible with phones and tablets. Word Press is similar in that it doesn’t tie a text box or image to a fixed position. With iWeb and EverWeb when you want to add something to the middle of a page or anywhere other than the end, you have to move everything below it down to accommodate the new text box or image.

      3. In EW you can group/lock the elements together, if you want to…
        I would assume that if you add something to your wordpress page it moves things also to accommodate the update…

        S

      4. The group/lock feature wouldn’t help. Make this application responsive and you’ll have every Mac user/website designer at your doorstep. By learning a new program, I meant something that will produce a responsive site. Forcing the width for iPhone and iPad to a max of 800 px is a pain, when you have a navigation bar that is wider than that and reducing the size of each section or the font size would be prohibitive.

      5. That is not how EverWeb, or iWeb works. You aren’t forced to use any width for your Mobile phone.

        Making a website responsive, even if it were built into iWeb or EverWeb would be difficult. You would have to continually test your page at all different sizes.

        I am not saying it isn’t a good feature, but the ability to create separate mobile sites is actually a better solution in many cases. It is easier to manage, has less code so it loads faster and provides more flexibility in your design.

      6. Apparently I need to study EverWeb more. Unfortunately my trial period has expired.

      7. There is no trial period, you can test it for as long as you want without purchasing. Purchasing a license just means you can publish your site.

  9. Hi, I have been using iWeb for the past 3 years for two different business and it has been fantastic, especially once Paypal buttons were able to be loaded on. I have been asking and asking at my Apple classes when they are going to bring out a similar website building app and been told never! so now urgently need to build with another as updates on OSX need to be done imminently otherwise my other apps will be affected. As lots of customers now purchase via their mobile phones, when I build the EverWeb site will it show just as well on desk/laptops/mobile the same? I’m about to download the trial today and would love to hear from someone/anyone if this is the case? Absolutely love the freedom of iWeb and want to continue this in EverWeb – I have tried WordPress but it is much more complicated to learn and am very disappointed, especially as it is free, and for any small business less cost is a must.

    1. Websites created in EverWeb will work just as well on your mobile device as they soon their desktop site.

      With EverWeb, you even have the option to create a dedicated Mobile website. This provides better usability for your visitors when they visit your site on their mobile browser.

      It isn’t required, but a fantastic option to have.

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