In this article I’d like to present a comprehensive collection of the best free website design tools there are out there. The goal here is to be a one-stop shop for all of your web design needs – whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, there will probably be at least a couple of tools here that will be useful for you (if not all).
Free Web Design Software: Features to Look For
What critical features does website design software need to offer? When you’re considering tools, look for the following capabilities and features.
Visual Editor
Web design primarily focuses on the visual aspect of websites as opposed to the content management side. As such, good web design software should include a visual editor that allows you to design visually — no need to touch actual code unless you want to.
Compatibility with Current Systems
Whether you’re using CMS Hub or WordPress, your chosen web design software should be compatible with your current website builder or content management system (CMS). For instance, after using Sketch, you should be able to export the prototype’s CSS code and import it into your chosen CMS.
Templates
A piece of great web design software will offer you a point to work off of. Because this type of software is meant to be beginner-friendly, you shouldn’t have to start from scratch. That’s where templates come in. The software should offer various templates for you to create a site that looks and feels the way you envision it.
Fonts and Graphics
You shouldn’t feel short-changed when trying to use a free web design tool. Instead, you should have access to the fonts and graphics you need to create a stunning prototype or wireframe. It’s important that a web design tool offers you plenty of options for fonts and graphics.
Some web design tools will also include hosting services, SSL certificates, content management tools, and domain names. Others will only offer tools for wireframing and visual design. Others still are only designed for writing code. Whether you’re looking for an all-in-one solution or a standalone design tool, we’ve got you covered with this list of top web design software.
We have compiled a list of some of the best tools and resources for web development which are essential to increasing creativity and productivity and will also aid learning.
1 Free Logo Design
Logaster is an excellent resource for acquiring a free logo for use on your website and business cards within minutes.
2 Free Website Builder
Build your own free website with Websitebuilder.com. There are thousands of templates to choose from in order to create a stunning website in minutes.
3 Colour Palette Generator
Looking for inspiration for the colour scheme of your new website? With Coolors.co you get a fresh idea and a new colour palette every time you hit the spacebar.
4 Animations
AniCollection is a library of CSS animations which allows you to improve your website and easily integrate the animations into your code with HTML, CSS or JavaScript code formats for free.
5 Free Icons
Flaticon is the largest search engine of free vector icons in the world, with over 295,500 free icons for both personal and commercial use, all created by graphic designers.
6 Free Web Prototyping and Collaboration Tools
Mockplus iDoc enables designers and developers to upload, prototype, comment, test, share and handoff web designs online collaboratively and effortlessly with automatic specs, assets, code snippets, etc.
Another professional and rapid prototyping tool, Mockplus, from the same company is a perfect tool for designers to bring design ideas into interactive prototypes with ease.
7 Weebly
Weebly enables you to create a free website or blog with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. This is a great idea for showcasing family photos and holiday snaps.
8 Wix
There are no coding skills necessary to create a free website with Wix, an online website builder. With over 500 templates to choose from, you will be spoilt for choice when creating your own website.
9 Bootstrap
Bootstrap is an open-source, front-end framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web. It comes with dozens of custom HTML and CSS components and templates for buttons, forms and typography.
10 Crello
Crello is a graphic design software with 50,000+ free templates for both newbies and experienced designers. Its numerous features and user-friendly online editor help create professionally-looking and stylish visuals for social media, web, and print even with no design skills at all.
11 Royalty Free Images
By providing over 25,000 free stock photos, Pexels empowers millions of designers around the world to easily create beautiful products and websites, even to be used commercially.
12 Free Infographic Creator
Infographics play a key role in the increasingly visual world of marketing. Create stunning infographics with Canva, a web based infographic maker which is free to use.
13 Free Vector Graphics Software
Speed up your design work with Vectr, the powerful graphics software which can be used to simplify the task of creating vector graphics.
14 Free Textures
There are hundreds of free textures available at TextureKing, including textures from metal, stone, concrete, wood, liquid, fabric and glass, that can be used to enhance the design of your website.
15 Free Photo Editing
Free to use and no need to sign up, with piZap you don’t need to be a Photoshop expert to have fun editing your digital photos.
Anyway, you may also download and use Photoshop free to try all its photo editing and retouching features.
16 Google Web Designer
Build interactive, animated HTML5 creative websites with Google Web Designer, a free, professional-grade HTML5 authoring tool. No coding required.
17 Free Presentation Maker
Make professional presentations online with Visme, an incredibly simple free tool with thousands of templates and graphics to choose from.
These web design tools are sure to transform the way you work and speed up production time. Happy web site building!
Conclusion
Free tools are always are an attractive option for business owners. When the tools are free, the only thing you have to pay for is your time! Most of them are completely free with no limitations, while others can be upgraded for a small fee.