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It’s the truth that sometimes we have to and want to produce web sites on a budget. It’s also true that sometimes we may just want to put up and create some sites for fun, so we don’t want to spend a ton of money on them.

Well fortunately, that’s where the web comes in. There are so many great technological advances that allow us to create and put up websites, not just on a budget but for free. From web design to development, there are all-free services that allow us to create PROFESSIONAL web sites, not just template-based sites reminiscent of the late 90s.

Today, we’ve picked 8 of the best sites to help you make your site—that’s right—everything is web-based and FREE.

The design

For many of us who are designers, we may start out with the design of the web site. It helps us visualize what we want where and gives us an idea how everything is going to be set up and work. Now many times designers will use programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks to create a layout. Below are three photo editing apps that I think are worth a try.

Phoenix by Aviary

What the developers say:

“From basic image retouching to complex effects, Phoenix delivers the key features of a desktop image editor with the simplicity and accessibility of a web-based application.”

What everyone is saying:

The way that Phoenix is presented to us is as a tool that is great for image manipulations and adjustments and similar. The great thing about Phoenix is it has many of the features that are found familiar in Photoshop, but are much simpler. Everything that is necessary is there and is a bit more intuitive than more complex software like Photoshop or even Gimp.

An added plus: Phoenix is created by Aviary, which has a plethora of other web based applications, such as a vector design application and video effects application. You are able to save your files on Aviary (as long as you’re a registered user) and you can easily open projects between applications. This is great for any designer or illustrator who wants to take their vector creation and make a website layout out of it. You are also able to import and work with PSD files.

The drawbacks of this application are there aren’t a ton of filters. This doesn’t matter much if you are just making basic changes to photos (crop, transform, etc.), but if you are here to create a more complex layout or design, you may want to try a different application. Also, Aviary saves your work by default under a Creative Commons license, so unless you make changes there, you are going to be sharing your work all over. It can also publish your work for all to see through the Aviary network, if you choose to. Seguir leyendo “8 tools to make your website for free” →