I dream in colors

10/28/06 XSitePro – an unbiased review (for real)

Earlier this year, around march, i took a job doing some maintenence for a website. I will not link to the site, but i will tell you this: it was the damn most awful site in the whole internet. Last time i checked, the home page alone was 1.6 Mb of just text and the ocasional image (and that’s because i got tired of waiting and stopped it – i’m sure it’s larger). Don’t get me wrong, the job was pretty cool; good work enviroment, very flexible hours and great people. The pay, on the other hand, was ridiculously low. Think of a low number… ready?…

No, it was lower than that, seriously. Try again.

No, lower than that too.

And than that too.

Ok, we can be at this all day, so i’ll just keep going. So, the site was awful, built on FrontPage (the boss wasn’t stupd though, he once told me “ugly sites sell more. Have you ever googled ‘Ugly Websites’?”). Part of my job was to move this site to a new one, using this program called XSitePro. When i first interviewed for this job, the boss asked me “have you ever used XSitePro?”, in a sort of gloaty voice, like this program was the best thing since sliced bread (i think i also heard some fanfare too…). I didn’t know about it, but he assured it was easy to use. Needless to say, i hated the program every single day i worked there.

Last night i checked the website again out of curiosity. It reminded me of this XSitePro software, so i went and googled it. Here, look for yourself. Nothing but review after review, all with affiliate links at the bottom (pretty similar to the site i was working on to tell the truth – so there really is a market for these kind of things or, wouldn’t surprise me at all, the boss was also behind XSitePro…) . Even one titled Xsitepro – is this the only Honest Review on the Internet? has an affiliate link at the bottom, and it’s posted on several articles sites. I looked at 15 pages of a google search for “XSitePro review” and couldn’t find a review that looked… well… honest.
So, here it goes, an XSitePro unbiased review, for real.

Should you buy XSitePro?

No.

Why? Because if you’re thinking of buying this program, you’re on Windows (it’s not available for any other OS), and if you’re on Windows, you already have FrontPage, wich is pretty much as good at building websites as XSitePro (i.e. not good at all). It may have all those easy publishing tools, but the WYSIWYG interfase is awful. Good luck trying to stylize a link. And the code it writes is terrible. Three words: table based layout.

“But!”, you may say, “XSitePro has all those useful tools like SEO optimizing!” Ha, i laugh at that. It’s pretty much useless. There’s a reason why SEO specialists charge so much.

If you’re serious about your online business, either get a real WYSIWYG program (you can get some even for free) and spend some time learning how to use it, or pay someone who knows what they’re doing to do it for you.

I left that job after a few months, to start SnowyDay. Now i do my web design with the best HTML editor available, the Notepad.

Technorati Tags: XSitePro, notepad, html editor, build websites, ugly websites

10 comments

whats wrong with table based layouts?

…

yea boooooo

Thank you! I’ve had the same problem trying to find ‘honest’ reviews on XSitePro and Site Build It. I really appreciate this one.

Interesting review. I had loads of problems with xsitepro after buying it. Took over a week to get it working, the first web site it produced was a dissapointment. I decided to uninstall it and go back to frontpage

I tried xsitepro too because of all the wonderful reviews. Not bad for a quick page generator, but my sites never managed to rank very well and similar sites I did with Wordpress or Dreamweaver ranked much better. I suspect the search engines don’t like xsitepro because its mostly used for thin affiliate or adsense sites.

As far as tables vs css for layout. CSS is the way forward, but until it gets as easy, predictable and reliable as laying something out with a table, tables will continue to get used. Css seems straight forward, but trying to lay out something to look the same in all browsers is an exercise in banging ones head against the wall.

Hello,

With respect to the article on XSitepro, I am wondering whether the criticism is directed to the generic (initial) version of the software or the latest one XSitepro 2. This is important, as I am thinking of purchasing the latest one. Any unbiased opinions, would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to comment – thank you!

Paige:

Tables are meant for displaying tabular data, not layout. The easiest way to build a wall is just piling bricks on top of each other. That doesn’t mean it’s the best or correct way. You’ll do yourself a favor if you learn how to use the correct tools properly.

Oh, and CSS was the way forward 5 years ago. It’s the norm now.

Giom:

No, I never used the new version (thank god). This was written about the original, in 20006. But from my experience with the original version, I seriously doubt it changed much. I wouldn’t recommend it at all.

you used a version 4 years ago, todays version could be a whole lot better. I do agree though – trying to find an honest review of this program is very hard!
If you want a wysiwyg editor I like wysiwyg web builder 6.5

XsitePro must be good for something – so many people are promoting it? Maybe it is useful for making a quick and simple sales page. I find it is slow, clunky and non intuitive. Simple operations like insert image take ages. Preview mode loads slowly and is non functional so the only way you can really preview is to publish. Linking often fails to produce correct and complete code so be prepared to do some editing.
Try working with this and you will appreciate how user-friendly the old favourites are.

Slow, clunky, buggy, pos software that continually gave me issues. Trying asking for a refund,they give you the runaround.

Seriously, I wonder what reality all these people live in that recommend it. I’ve used the latest version 2.150 and I cannot believe the are asking $200 for it.

There should be more accurate reviews online, rather then ones promoted by affiliates that make $50 form each sale.

Thanks for the honesty..

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10/28/06 XSitePro – an unbiased review (for real)