Any disadvantage in building a website with XSitePro today?

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31
Guys, I have a quick question.

I need to build a simple website and in the past I have used XSitePro software for this propose. It has been great for me since I don't know HTML. However, XSitePro was created in 2007 and I would imagine it is quite outdated. They even recently discontinioued selling it all together.

I just purchased a new software, Serif WebPlus, which looks great but I don't have time to experiment with it right now due to very busy work schedule at this time of the year. With XSitePro I can get it done relatively fast.

So, my question is.... is there any disadvantage in building a simple, static website at the end of 2014 using XSitePro software? And if yes.... would you care to briefly explain why?

Thank you.
Andre
#website design #building #disadvantage #today #website #xsitepro
  • I really don't know any thing about both these software's but you can use any free web designing service.... there are many, like weebly, wix, webs
  • wordpress, period. Just sit down and watch video on how to create website with WP from youtube and you will be ready to make a professional site with many free templates to choose from.
  • Ditto what Blackhatguy said.

    Switch to Wordpress.

    It's constantly updated, and there's a ton of information online for virtually anything you want to do with Wordpress.

    Plenty of paid and free plugins & themes.

    There's a reason that so much of the internet is Wordpress based nowadays...
  • Andre

    First up there is nothing wrong with Xsitepro websites and it's a great bit of kit so long as you can use a FTP to upload to your domain you will be fine, with Serif WebPlus there is a quick learning curve and really don’t waste your time watching YT videos on WP not worth it as you could have the static site up by the time you watched the first video.

    RW
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    • I think with anything, the question is, what doesn't it do. I don't use it but my concern would be, does it make mobile ready websites... i.e. responsive? If not then I would consider something else. As long as you don't make it too difficult you could have a wordpress site up in less than a day...

      If it can create those mobile ready sites, make it easy for you to add in your lead magnets, no need to change. If it hasn't kept up with the times, then yes, time to switch to something new.

      To be honest, if I started again today... Drupal would be what I use...
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  • When you say "disadvantage", what do you mean exactly? There's no problem with building a simple html site. I've used XSP since it came out years ago and still use it today for some sites. No, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles and the latest and greatest this that and the other, but for a quick and easy site it still works well.

    Kay is right about no site builder being able to keep up today. Even if XSP had survived and had a V3, by the time it would have been released it would have needed updates. Things change on what seems like a daily basis at times.
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    • Thank you for asking this question, Andre - I've been wondering the same.I recently got an "going out of business" offer to pick up XSitePro and all major trainings and other material published by his company for $100 off, or $122. I actually placed an order, even though I already owned XSitePro - I did it because I wanted to own all the training modules, and it came with other stuff.

      What I like about this thread is that it is on topic and people are actually answering the question, rather than raging about how Paul Smithson let them down. It appears that a lot of people just don't have a lot of understanding that potential terminal illness can make it really difficult to follow through on business and other commitments. From my experience, XSitePRo is a real quality product, and I just don't think that the person who put that together is the kind of flake that some people say that he is. How about some compassion, for crying out loud?

      I created my first site with SitebuildIt! from Ken Evoy and that site is still going. I purchased XSitePro because I wanted to be able to create something quickly and test viability of a niche before paying $300 to create the same site in Sitebuildit! Let's face it, sometime we don't have the cash to do exactly what we want to do. I created a couple of sites in XSitePro a couple of years back, but I never did more than a couple of pages on each before I got sidetracked. So I never got to see what the program could do. I purchased one of their trainings which I had access to for one year, and it was very good, I learned a lot.

      This summer I created a WP for my girlfriend in WordPress and it turned out very nice, at least she was very happy with it, and she's picky! Well, I have to just admit that for me WordPress was not the smooth learning experience that a lot of people say it is. I finally bought an inexpensive theme that I was able to customize to make a static web site, and that helped a lot. However, I think that even if I were to use the same theme to make another couple of sites, I'd be looking at a significant time investment.

      I understand that some people say that WP is the way to go and that rather than learning to use a platform that potentially will be "outdated" soon, one might as well put the time in to learn the platform that's now pretty much industry standard. This is probably good advice.

      However, please consider that there are many people like myself who just feel that that having to tinker around with learning WP in order to get a site going will distract them to the point that the site never gets done. I've had some great ideas for sites over the years, but got distracted....life just happens sometimes. Now I'm less focused on having the most "viable" platform than on just getting the damn project done. If I know I have a great niche with many good, low competition keywords...then I doubt that an XSitePro site would rank poorly with the search engines. Maybe it would ranked lower than a WP site and look a bit like a site from the nineties, but I bet it would get traffic. To me, this is why XSitePro is still a viable option, the ability to get a project up and running quickly and without to much fuzz.

      The biggest issue with XSitePro in my opinion is that it might not be mobile responsive. This IS somewhat of a major drawback as about half of all SE traffic is mobile (I might not be entirely correct about that number). From what I've been able to find out from Google, there are still a lot of people around that use XSitePro and there are hacks for making sites created in the program mobile responsive. One might argue that this would take time to learn and that therefore a person is better off to learn WP, and that is something I'll have to find out.

      Oh, and this is my first post in the Warrior Forum. There were a lot of people that I wanted to thank for their posts in this thread, but my "thank you!" button hasn't appeared yet!
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  • I updated Flash and a few other things yesterday and half of XSP stopped working - esp image manipulation.
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    • I've built over 200 sites with XSitePro since it first came out - as well as many single pages for various projects.

      I never used a ready made template - just built the sites using outsourced graphics and creating my own site designs which was quite simple with xsp. The load time was one thing I've appreciated. I don't think some people realize how slowly some of their blogs load. I'm sure it's plugins but some of them are ridiculously slow.
  • Hi Opiel,

    I used XsitePro when I first got started in internet marketing about 6 years ago. Some of those sites are still ranking on page 1 of Google for my keywords and I still get some sales from them to this day!

    I use Wordpress now due to the fact that it's widely supported today with lots of template choices, plugins that allow more features for your site and it's free!

    From your perspective here are the pros and cons of using XsitePro today:

    Pros

    - Easy to put sites up as no new learning required.
    - If you just want a simple site, it does the job.
    - It's light so loads fast on server - Good for rankings and user experience.

    Cons

    -The templates and designs do look a little dated now, so depending on who you are targeting it may affect your image/brand/conversions.
    - There's no more support and updates so it will be eventually become obsolete if new technologies become commonplace.
    - More and more people use mobiles and tablets and XsitePro doesn't render specifically for them.

    Here's my personal opinion having used both platforms:

    XsitePro was good at the time and served it's purpose, but ultimately I'm creating websites for my users and visitors. What my users want to experience when they visit is that the site is up to date, has the appearance of being relevant, and reads well on any device they use.

    So overall, I think the time invested in learning WP is worth it. Most of the time, WP is quite simple to use for non techies anyway.

    Good luck!
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  • The XSP site-creation s/w does not seem to be compatible with the latest Flash, Java or DirectX updates.
    Right-clicking on an image to adjust its dimensions or/and attributes has stopped working for me
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    • Hi All

      We went from SiteBuilder to XSP which was a great move for us - much simpler for us non-techies.

      We then moved from XSP to WP!!!

      The biggest mistake we made was moving away from XSP to WP a few years ago.

      At least XSP had simple and constant features and processes.

      WP has Squillions of plugins that either work or don't and if they do work they annoy the daylights out of another plugin so that nothing works.

      Then if all of the plugins are one happy family the theme then decides to reject them...arrgggg!!!

      But now we are stuck in the WP Vortex and don't look like going back to XSP seeing that Paul has effectively left the building.

      When its all cut and dried XSP will still allow you to build an Authority site and that's what the Big G is focusing on right now.


      Regards


      Bronwyn and Keith
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  • My contribution would be to say that XsitePro looks and is outdated.

    In it's day it was a powerhouse (I know I made thousands of dollars using this package).

    However it does look and feel a bit 2007 now which in my view sends out the wrong message to potential customers.

    I have to say it is much easier to use than WP ... again this is my humble view. But with a little perseverance WP does get easier.

    Bernard
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    • I still like and use xSite Pro. I own Dreamweaver but prefer xSite Pro for building simple sites.

      Unfortunately it appears the license server has been shut down. So if you upgrade to a new computer you can not move xSite Pro to the new computer. I just discovered this. Fortunately I have it on an older computer but I want it on my new faster computer.

      It also appears that he is still selling xSite Pro. I don't see how this is possible with the license server shut down but am not going to invest money to find out.

      He has not responded to my inquires about the license server. I wish he would either pay the fees to have it operational again or release a patch so we can use the software without the license. I have a lot of sites that I don't want to migrate to other system.

      And yes, I've used Wordpress. I currently have around 100 Wordpress sites. But Wordpress is becoming too bloated for me. I prefer simple sites.
  • Banned
    Don't waste your time, just try to study today updated system, so you will not have to further update it later.
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    Any disadvantage in building a website with XSitePro today?

    Guys, I have a quick question. I need to build a simple website and in the past I have used XSitePro software for this propose. It has been great for me since I don't know HTML. However, XSitePro was created in 2007 and I would imagine it is quite outdated. They even recently discontinioued selling it all together.