Which feature(s) was the one that solidified your decision to move to Blocs?
For me, the no-coding aspect of the program was very important, especially after seeing all the things that could be achieved on Blocs 2.
But the one thing I couldn’t find anywhere else, other than in the defunct Muse, is to be able to save locally and upload to any server, unlike the other web builders out there that tie you up to their own server. Good luck convincing your clients to migrate their stuff
For me, it was OctoberCMS that headed me towards Blocs. Being able to export an OctoberCMS theme was great. I initially had bought Blocs 2. But didn’t use it, then upgraded to 3, and then started to use it as one of my main dev apps.
Some other products I was using at the time were way more flexible, but Blocs won hands down for dev time. I have been using it as my main tool for the last couple of years.
Loved playing with iWeb when I was in High School but Apple wouldn’t keep it around. Before I took my Applied Networking course in college, I was stuck using online website builders for some of my CS projects. When I learned a bit of HTML and CSS, I checked out Freeway Pro and Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was expensive and Freeway’s UI annoyed me so I started trying out both Blocs and Rapidweaver.
Rapidweaver just felt clunky at that time so I chose Blocs. Never looked back since.
Have been using Freeway for quite some time back in the days. Tried Rapidweaver and Blocs2 roughly at the same time and to be honest I didn’t like both . Shortly after I tried the website builder from my hosting provider. Well, that was entering into .
I decided to give Blocs2 a second try, the rest is history.
It sounds like a similar path for everyone.
I went from Freeway to Muse, and was very happy with Muse until Adobe pulled any more updates and support.
I looked around, tried Everweb, Sparkle and Blocs. After a bit of a hunt online to see what support there was, I came across this forum and lurked for a while, saw it was active and updating quite a lot compared to the others, and decided on Blocs.
I can’t remember exactly which of the other two it was, but their videos actually put me off using it.
I really enjoy using Blocs, only wish I could get a few more starter sites to play with it more!
The decision was easy, because Blocs is the easiest way to build beautiful websites quickly.
Back then I came from Espresso2, then went to Coda2 and then I tested some of these new (at the time) “no code apps”: Pingendo, Pinegrow and Blocs, I liked Blocs best from the start (it was the only program that wasn’t a bit complicated and really easy to use), and I’ve stuck with it and haven’t regretted it to this day. I am currently using Blocs4 and Nova (the successor to Coda2).
Adobe Go-Live to Dreamweaver. Once Adobe made it unaffordable for the little guy I started looking at different programs. Tried a few and settled with Blocs. Those of you that have been around from the beginning can appreciate just how far (Norm) Blocs has come. It has matured nicely.
I tried Freeway back in the days, then used RW for a few years. Tried Blocs 3 in the early days, found it too complicated and frustrating compared to RW;) So I kept using Rapidweaver. But I disliked the costs for more and more stacks to be able to add functionality. Even when using a framework like Foundry or Foundation. So I gave Blocs 3 another try and I like the way I can change the look of the layout directly on the page, adding margins and padding just by dragging etc., love the use of classes (once you get at least a bit familiar with css properties). It just feels more natural to me.
And since I’m getting more and more into code, it’s just so great how - more or less - easy you can customise the look and feel of the website you’re creating.
I went from Dreamweaver to iWeb to WP (for a short while) then to Rapidweaver and then started to find Foundation clunky and took ever to create a work flow and then it was stack after stack to get things to how i wanted it. Projects would be expensive.
I then spoke to @Flashman in a rapidweaver forum and he mentioned Blocs several times and I tried it, but could not get my head around classes…(still struggle today !! ) and then I invested in Blocs and did not touch it for a while as was so fluent in Rapidweaver and then I spent 5hrs on creating a perfect page for a website in Rapidweaver then one evening I re-created it in Blocs and took me around 30mins !!! and was blown away by the speed it took.
Its matured massively - I still keep my eye on RW to see what they are up to…and WP I look at as interested to see what happens there…and as i do a lot of small quick websites for live events, Blocs is perfect - and great community here.
PageMill. SiteMill. GoLive, a natural progression. Then I looked at Dreamweaver, but thought it had such a steep learning curve it wouldn’t be worth it. Then, of course, it had a steep buying curve.
Tried iWeb, Rapidweaver and Freeway. Didn’t really like any of them, too limited and quirky, especially Freeway.
Then I got into CMS. Concrete5, to be precise. I’ve dabbled with WP and it is like Windows 3.1 or 95 - clunky, difficult to learn and difficult to edit.
I started using Blocs. Once the basics had been grasped, I realised how good it is. Also realised that most of the CMS stuff that my customers want is do-able by Volt. I look at the resources needed for a ‘proper’ CMS and shudder. Masses and masses of folders, files, a database or two.
I was always „only“ the Designer. I tried to work with Dreamveaver, but this never worked out for me. So for some time I designed the graphics in Illustrator and hired coders to make the pages work in Wordpress.
When Adobe Muse came out, this was like jackpot to me… especially when responsiveness finally arrived
Well… you all know the story of Muse… so I searched for alternatives, and after the trial I became a big fan of blocs!
I loooved, that it‘s only for Mac
no subscription
@Eldar s Course made it easy to learn how blocs works
HTML Export and free choice of server
This forum/community was even then amazing already!!
blocs becomes better and better almost weekly
So since the first moment I started using blocs, I never ever thought about using an other app to create my websites.
Thanks everyone for your insightful comments. Very interesting and reassuring knowing that your own experience has been somehow similar to what other fellow creatives have gone through. Great minds think alike
Great app, great developer, great community. I wish everything in the world would be just like this.
. Shortly after I tried the website builder from my hosting provider. Well, that was entering into 
.
) and then I invested in Blocs and did not touch it for a while as was so fluent in Rapidweaver and then I spent 5hrs on creating a perfect page for a website in Rapidweaver then one evening I re-created it in Blocs and took me around 30mins !!! and was blown away by the speed it took.
