HI Ken – Well, buckle up, cause this is gonna be a process to find a replacement for muse for a whole host of reasons. Let me begin by saying I fit your exact profile, I only have my one and only personal website, and I am not a web-designer, and have been using Adobe since GoLive, took a stab at Dreamweaver, then came Muse, and then all my web problems were solved!
The first thing to know about Blocs is that it is a beautifully designed interface that sits on top of a framework called Bootstrap. Bootstrap is a professional grade system for working quickly and efficiently in a responsive environment…it has a lot of pre-made elements that in the hands of a knowledgable person can quickly be used to build a structure of a website and have some interactivity, and CSS styling.
However, it was made for professional web development folks, and is not oriented towards non-professional, and in particular for those who are not competent in coding with CSS or even HTML. To make changes to Bootstrap styling requires knowledge of CSS and coding, and most likely JavaScript/JQuery for interactivity.
Blocs was designed for folks who want to use Bootstrap but do not code. And as you will see by the many accounts on this forum many folks really love it! What you will also see is that many (if not most of these folks) are coders and professionals, and so Blocs supports their buisness needs.
Moving from Muse to Blocs is a significant change. Muse was designed to be free-form process with true drag & drop & tug & pull & styling capabilities. Blocs gives you some of that way of working, but in a significantly different way due to the nature of Boostrap’s grid placement system, and Blocs reliance on ‘Custom Classes’ in order to make styling changes from the out-of-the-box CSS rules. I have found this very tedious and cumbersome because of my years with Muse.
I have searched far and wide for a Muse user experience, and frankly there really isn’t an equivalent. Sparkle is an option that other’s have gravitated towards.
So, frustration may be ahead as you teach your muscle memory how to move the mouse and click and drag in an entirely new way…and train your brain memory to absorb and learn once again!
Most of the options out there are all built upon the Bootstrap framework, too, so what it comes down to is the maturity of each individual app, pricing, online vs. desktop app, what features they have especially ‘widget’ like stuff that you may need to use, in app blogging needs, etc…and your comfort with learning a new interface and way of working – Blocs has yet to introduce Tabs or Accordion widget, though some 3rd party programers have stated they are in the process of creating 3rd party ‘widget’ for Blocs which categorically are called brics which are customizable widgets and other kinds of elements you place within bloc elements.
Hope that’s helpful…