You have justified the cost, which is why you consider $50/month insignificant relative to the ROI you apparently get from it. And that’s great. But that does not hold true for me and many others here. Neither do such arguments hold water for lovers of Serif and its “subscription free” apps, which really are quite excellent.
Blocs is also the only that lets you design your site by your own creativity, not by templates, and as you said, it can be had for an excellent price – but a price that does not recur every single month, thankfully!
Is MUSE better than Blocs? To be rather blunt, I personally don’t care if MUSE is so smart it even makes my bed each morning. So long as MUSE is sold exclusively by subscription, it provokes no interest in me. Am I along in thinking so ill of subscriptions? No. Again, ask Serif to found out. I’m not the lone person on this planet or in this forum who thinks this way about the Adobe subscription model.
By the way, not all software companies are as naughty as Adobe when it comes to subscriptions. Microsoft offers Office in the 365 program and as a standalone purchase. One can only have respect for them in doing so. CHOICE is good. Blocs exists now for an excellent one-time price, and word has it (albeit with zero evidence) that a new Freeway rewritten in SWIFT is coming. May it come more SWIFTly!
–James Wages
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Wow, such anger! I merely said it was the answer for me. You do what you want. But your obvious despise of Adobe in my opinion is childish. If you are in business you should expect business expenses. 19.99/mo for Muse or 49.99 for ALL the Adobe CC products is a great deal. If you are in business and can’t find a way to justify that cost then I might recommend you revisit your business plan.
Your opposition to subscriptions is baseless. Look at what has happened to all of us loyal non-subscription Freeway users! We are rudderless, searching for a new way. There is no safety there.
For me the time wasted piddling around trying to find a replacement is far more costly than the monthly fee for Muse. And I am pretty certain Adobe isn’t going the way of softpress any time soon.
Good luck to you. For everyone else, take a good look at Muse 2018. It is a solid program with a short learning curve.
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Anger? I’m almost compelled to invoke the overused acronym, “LOL!”
I harbor no ill will toward you or anyone else here. My goodness! So sensitive! Take a deep and breath. (That’s why my father used to say to me. It really helps.)
Do I harbor ill will toward subscriptions? Why yes! Hands down. Unashamed. Never backing down. But that shouldn’t make you feel uncomfortable, unless you work for Adobe. (Or maybe unless you have pledged your undying love to Mrs. Subscription Model. Please pass my regards to her.)
My opposition to the hated subscription model is nothing exclusive to me. And like I’ve said repeatedly, Serif wouldn’t exist without Adobe having gone to a subscription model, which is all the evidence I need to substantiate everything I’ve said thus far.
And as I said, in my most friendly and cordial way possible, MUSE is a great product when one doesn’t think about the long term cost of using it. You are absolutely correct in terms of features and what it can do. And so if someone has the cash now and the cash for as many years as they intend to keep using MUSE, then by all means they should consider it.
Lastly, this is a FREEWAY-centric forum. We are all discussing this on FREEWAYtalk, hosted and paid for by SoftPress. You and I are not discussing this in the “OFF-TOPIC” section of this forum either. So for that reason I am compelled to continue to give my favorite web editor the most love — FREEWAY. Kudos to SoftPress for pressing on in face of the naysayers!
–James Wages
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In my humble opinion: Softpress has closed suddenly its curtains… with
no alternative left at all for its loyal users. It may come back,
someday… perhaps… with a program that beats its first year of succes.
First see, then believe…
In the mean time we all do our best to find a way to behave our clients
with sites by software that leans on the noncoding atmosphere Freeway
breathed. After becoming responsive the only way to let Freeway gets its
job done was to implement code. One way or another. Nothing wrong with
that, but it left a lot of users standing in freezing air.
Luckely the market has changed, Sparkle is a good alternative en Muse is a
logical step if you are familiar with Adobes products already. Lets face
it… in the earlier days I upgraded almost each year Adobe Illustrator,
Photoshop. Acrobat Pro and later Indesign… to be compatible with other
companies and printers which cost me merely €1000,- p/yr… So I’m happy
with my subscription for 20 products for €400,- less.
Each of us has to find out which software suits him or her best. And to
help our fellow Freeway users I think this Freewaytalk is a place were tips
are more then welcome untill Softpress launches its flagship.
My personal choices?
Want freedom of design without code? Webydo, Sparkle, Muse (and Freeway)
Want to work with stacks/blocks without code?: Blocs, Coffeecup RSD,
Elementor, Live Composer etc
Want to work with templates: Wordpress, ots of choice, free or paid.
Want a CMS: lots of choices nowadays… but find the right one.
Knowledge of coding: congrats, the webworld is no secret for you.
Have a nice day folks.
Andries
2017-12-06 3:50 GMT+01:00 steve farber email@hidden:
Well said Andries! Nobody here is right or wrong, we all have different budgets, needs and abilities. The good thing is there’s plenty of choice these days, so hopefully we will all be happy!
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Got half way down this thread and got bored of hearing about Muse, Coffeecup, Blocs etc.
Please, please, please the guys at Freeway keep us up to date. Throw us a crumb every couple of weeks and stop all this talk of alternatives on your forum.
Freeway was first to think about designers (specifically Quark Xpress users) back in the day and you deserve our loyalty.
Get the new Freeway out there and take over the world.
Please don’t do it on a subscription basis. A one off payment and charge for Actions that add versatility.
Kev
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Well Kevin,
Good luck to you while you sit around and wait for something that may never happen. The rest of us have to actually DO something. Sorry we’ve bored you. But most people tend to benefit by reading about other people’s experience with the alternatives. smh.
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Kudos to you, Kevin McElligott, for not only keeping the faith, but also for having respect for this forum in light of the fact it is clearly offered to us by the courtesy of Softpress.
Even though I am open minded enough to evaluate other options, I continue to use Freeway Pro 7 under Mac OS 10.13.2 High Sierra on a 5K iMac. It’s still amazingly useful, despite the lack of updates for so long. And should any of us really be surprised at that, in light of the fact that many people still use Adobe CS6 so they don’t have to buy into the hated Adobe subscription model?
To each his own, but we never the less need to offer some level of respect for Freeway and its creator in light of the fact this is a Freeway-centric forum.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.
James Wages
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That’s all fine and good, but I for one feel a bit SCREWED by Softpress by their abandoning the product and all of us who built businesses using it. It has been a very difficult transition period, rebuilding websites in new software (for free) because I can’t keep up with modern website design using Freeway. So as noble as it may seem to you to “keep the faith”, I have had enough of it. Goodbye.
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SoftPress resurrected from the dead. That’s not how one defines “abandon.” Now if we all want to complain about the fact the all new Freeway 8, rewritten in Apple SWIFT, hasn’t come out yet, that’s fine. But it cannot be said that SoftPress has abandoned any of us insofar as they are a resurrected company again. They also maintain this forum so we can complain about them too. Pretty nice of them, if you ask me.
With that said, I do cast stones of criticism their way when it is warranted. I simply do not endlessly body slam them. And SoftPress knows my criticism comes from a heart of love, not a stone thrown by a cold heart who seeks their hurt and destruction. Until the company decides to throw in the towel again, I shall not lose hope. And yet, all the while I keep my eye on Blocs and even help out during beta testing. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
–James Wages
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Since you asked a question and then answered it for me, I supposed I should not even offer you the courtesy of a reply, so I won’t. But for the other good people here who are more cordial and cool-headed, I shall…
Mr. Hughes commented on the state of a minor bug in Freeway Pro 7 when running Freeway under High Sierra. He mentioned this is a bug that occurred in the past under an older released of MacOS and is in fact a MacOS bug. He then mentioned a work-around, until such time that Apple decides to fix its bug.
So why did Mr. Hughes NOT comment on future, unreleased versions of Freeway? Well, I suppose for the same reason Apple doesn’t do the same. It’s a matter of policy.
At this point, we can all be skeptics and naysayers and stone throwers if we really want to, but we can also keep an optimistic outlook on life too. The choice is ours to make. That doesn’t mean I won’t question and prod SoftPress, because I’ve always done that since I first became a Freeway 2.0 user back in 1999. But that doesn’t mean I will mercilessly beat on them. There’s a line I’ve set for myself which I do not cross. The line for each of us is different. Follow your own course as you see fit.
James Wages
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Yes, I saw all of his posts from the past year (you can look them up). I am not a “naysayer” or a “stone thrower”. I am a normal Freeway user that was screwed like all the rest. I paid my money for a product that was abandoned. And then “ressurected”? No, not quite. The company made a claim that they were coming back, but nothing has happened yet. We haven’t even been given the courtesy of updates or status reports. We don’t even know if the new “Freeway” you’re dreaming of is actually being worked on. To compare the silence to Apple is just ridiculous. SO…because I do have a very optimistic look on life and prefer not to stagnate in my business, I have moved on to another product (the post about which started this little banter) and am quite pleased with it. IF Freeway ever does come back I would be interested in looking at it, but I am certainly not going to sit around waiting. I don’t think it is unreasonable to lose a bit of patience when we’re not even given a periodic hint about it.
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Well nevertheless is seems to be to me very logic that customers/users that were first surprised with a Softpress closing shop, then, months later a message pops up Freeway will rise again in a new, more modern or up-to-date form … followed by a year (now) of complete silence.
From a marketing point of view alone this is not really helping. This exactly is what makes realistic people look for alternatives. Remember, Freeway was years behind in development when the last version was released. Yes, it works for some … but at the time it already had trouble keeping up with web development of ‘today’. Now, after 1.5 years, the gap only has grown to enormous proportions.
Will a new Freeway be released? Yeah., probably. I certainly hope so. When? Who knows, could take years. Will it catch up with today’s Responsive Site Designer et al? Wouldn’t that be great, but … probably not. Don’t forget that even if (!) Freeway 8 will be released and fulfill all our dreams … it still will have to turn out to be profitable. Big time. If not, this just will turn out to be a last spasm before Softpress finally vanishes.
Meanwhile we ‘the users’ have to keep up with today’s web development, and Freeway 7.1.4. -good as it is- just does’t make the cut. That’s just being realistic.
– Richard
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I agree with Steve and Richard. If there was a contest in quick losing
loyal Freeway users Softpress would win a price. This company was too small
to keep in pace with other website builders, that’s sad and I feel really
sorry for them… but that’s how the market works.
If the fallen Softpress was more open in what their plans and progres would
be, I certainly would support or contribute them within a sort of
crowdfunding. But all that remains is silence… not a gllmp at all. So we
have no choice then look for alternatives. because our clients won’t wait.
And there is choice, also for non coders.
So if Softpress doesn’t want to lose all their users loyalty they better
come up with some news. And let it be better news than a pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow.
I have to redesign a couple of FW7-websites, I’ve been waiting for almost a
year now… if I renew them in Blocs or Muse I’m not gonna change them
again after a long while when FW8 sees daylight.
Happy new year to all of you
2017-12-29 0:43 GMT+01:00 Richard van Heukelum email@hidden:
Well nevertheless is seems to be to me very logic that customers/users
that were first surprised with a Softpress closing shop, then, months later
a message pops up Freeway will rise again in a new, more modern or
up-to-date form … followed by a year (now) of complete silence.
From a marketing point of view alone this is not really helping. This
exactly is what makes realistic people look for alternatives. Remember,
Freeway was years behind in development when the last version was released.
Yes, it works for some … but at the time it already had trouble keeping
up with web development of ‘today’. Now, after 1.5 years, the gap only has
grown to enormous proportions.
Will a new Freeway be released? Yeah., probably. I certainly hope so.
When? Who knows, could take years. Will it catch up with today’s Responsive
Site Designer et al? Wouldn’t that be great, but … probably not. Don’t
forget that even if (!) Freeway 8 will be released and fulfill all our
dreams … it still will have to turn out to be profitable. Big time. If
not, this just will turn out to be a last spasm before Softpress finally
vanishes.
Meanwhile we ‘the users’ have to keep up with today’s web development, and
Freeway 7.1.4. -good as it is- just does’t make the cut. That’s just being
realistic.