Web Design Software Tools to Make a Great Website in 2023

Sorry to say, but there’s no definitive answer 🙋 to the question of the best web design software.

You see, the phrase “web design software” itself is a bit ambiguous. A quick Google search, for instance, will give you a range of solutions with diverse specializations.

Some suggested web design solutions tout themselves as “site builders.” They come in the form of visual WYSIWYG editors with basic tools for customizing prebuilt website templates – the type of stuff that would suit non-coders.

But don’t confuse 😕 them with all-in-one website platforms—this separate category bundles web design software with web hosting, domain registration, and content management.

Other than that, we have those web design tools that support professional coding, while others are heavy on graphical editing, UI/UX design, digital drawing, etc.

As such, you won’t find a one-size-fits-all solution that can be described as the best web design software. Instead, The ideal approach would be querying the options based on your specific use case.

💡 here’s a roundup to give you the much-needed headstart in that light. We’ve carefully selected the three best web design tools 🎨 for each of the six most common use cases.

Best web design software for beginners and professionals in 2023 🚀

Best web design software for website building

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system built on PHP and MySQL. Don’t be misled by the CMS tag, though – besides running blogs, WordPress is a master in creating, optimizing, and designing websites. It’s the most popular website engine of them all. Currently, 43% of all websites on the web run on WordPress!

The system is free of charge, and you’ll often find it pre-loaded in web hosting packages.

When you install it, the WordPress backend will grant you all the building blocks for setting up any type of website. You get to use an intuitive WYSIWYG website builder to piece together everything from scratch visually. On the other hand, you could customize any of the 30,000 site themes.

Another thing you’ll enjoy here is the huge selection of WordPress plugins, which are handy in adding special functionalities and designs to websites. You should be able to set up a blog, online store, or professional site without touching a single line of code.

That, however, doesn’t mean coders have been left out. If you have the skills, WordPress allows you to tweak your site’s HTML and CSS.

Wix

While WordPress is heavy on coding and visual editing, Wix is more of a dedicated website builder supplemented by a series of design and hosting assets. You can consider it the best web design software for beginners interested in quick and simple site creation.

An intuitive drag-and-drop editor is at the core, which works well with all the 800 plus prebuilt Wix templates. You just need to pick your preferred website template, and the Wix Editor will help you tweak the site’s style, layout, content, outlook, and appearance.

For users who’d otherwise want an even simpler web design method, the platform offers “Wix ADI.” This artificial intelligence system asks basic questions and then proceeds to whip up a personalized site from the answers.

Webflow

Webflow is another all-in-one platform specializing in website creation, managed web hosting, and content management.

Its web design software comes with the whole shebang of visual design functionalities. You can use a WYSIWYG website builder, drag-and-drop editing, a host of prebuilt site elements, and a library of responsive templates.

Webflow writes the underlying HTML/CSS and neatly organizes your code as you build the site. Then when you’re done, it allows you to export all the code to external platforms.

Top web design software for e-commerce

Shopify

Shopify is the go-to platform when you need the whole stack of e-commerce capabilities. This is an all-inclusive e-commerce platform with the tools for creating, optimizing, hosting, managing, and growing online stores.

In essence, Shopify has found a way to simplify all the intricacies associated with e-commerce sites. Its web design software, for instance, allows you to visually customize not just the layout of your store but also the digital selling components that come with it.

You can organize large inventories, edit product pages, add shipping options, and throw in a couple of marketing components.

BigCommerce Essentials

Whereas BigCommerce is mostly renowned for its enterprise commerce capabilities, it has a small-scale version oriented toward small retail businesses.

BigCommerce Essentials is the name, and it has proven to be one of the best web design software for store owners who need to launch and grow seamlessly.

A few basic tweaks on its no-code editor are all you need to launch a fully-fledged store. And while you’re at it, you’ll be able to streamline the checkout process, inventory management, SEO, and sales channels.

Zyro

Zyro isn’t as feature-rich as Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, etc. But, it can get the job done quickly and more efficiently than its counterparts.

This is a simple website builder that offers cheap but neat editing. While many advanced e-commerce platforms have a learning curve, Zyro has eliminated the complexities by limiting itself to the essentials.

Setting up and getting a lightweight business site up and running will take five steps. Just choose a template, use the drag-and-drop editor to customize attributes, and maybe have Zyro’s free AI-driven logo maker help you with branding.

Best web design tools for graphic designers

Colours

Speaking of branding and whatnot, one tool that could help you find the right colours is Coolors.

Think of it as a colour scheme generator. Although it doesn’t design websites per se, Coolors streamlines web design by saving you the hours you’d have otherwise spent resolving the site’s colour scheme.

At its core, it is a colour generator that mixes up various shades, leaving you to choose the best combo.

When you finally find a perfect set of palettes, you just need to copy the Hex Codes from Coolors and apply them directly to your project.

Adobe Illustrator

As a robust and versatile graphics editing software, Adobe Illustrator is one of the best web design tools for professional website touch-ups.

It sells itself as a vector-based graphics software solution. But, make no mistake about it. Under the hood, you’ll find advanced tools for creating and editing not just vector graphics but also artwork, drawings, sketches, layouts, etc.

You should be able to draw stuff, adjust gradients, match up colours, edit layers, and enhance your projects’ outlook with special effects, filters, and brushes.

Adobe Illustrator supports the cross-media design, allowing you to tailor layouts to design customizations proportionally. Hence, you’ll easily align your workflows with different devices, screen sizes, and platforms.

Canva

Canva is the simple and easy-to-use equivalent of Adobe Illustrator. While the latter is one of the best web design software for seasoned graphics designers, the former is ideal for beginners.

You turn to this when you need an automated design tool for editing vectors, images, illustrations, posters, presentations, banners, and social media publications.

Instead of starting from scratch, you get to build your project from Canvas templates. It has a rich library of prebuilt graphics mockups – ideal for infographics, business cards, logos, prints, web page illustrations, etc.

Once you select, you can customize the visual attributes using the Canvas drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor.

Top web design software for product design

Sketch

If you plan to feature products on your website, you might want to bring in the likes of Sketch for that extra oomph.

Sketch is a vector graphics editor that runs on macOS. It doesn’t operate like Adobe Illustrator, though. It, instead, specializes in prototyping, product design, and animating.

The workflows here are particularly ideal for collaborators in large agencies and organizations.

As you bring your designs to life using Sketch’s intuitive UI, you can test the prototypes on your PC and maybe share the link with your colleagues for their input. Also, it’s possible to have multiple collaborators working on the same project in real-time.

Smartmockups

Smartmockups is a web-based product mockup generator that turns your images into professional-quality showcases.

This means you don’t have to go through the trouble of creating an actual product to showcase a branded prototype. Smartmockups do it all digitally by superimposing your uploaded brand images directly to its large selection of prebuilt product illustrations.

You can prepare high-quality mockups for branded demo sites, apps, social media pages, t-shirts, mugs, books, etc. Smartmockups has quite a library of product mockup templates to choose from. Plus, you can easily customize the appearance of your design on all the mockups.

Invision

Invision should be a top choice for senior executives seeking the best web design software for their teams.

Don’t get us wrong, though. Invision is not a dedicated web design tool. Rather, it comes as an online whiteboard that supports various productivity tools. This is where teams come to centralize their design workflows and collaborate in real time across different projects.

You can, for example, turn to Invision Studio when designing and presenting prototypes. Then Invision Freehand would be ideal for brainstorming design ideas on your team’s digital whiteboard.

Best web design solutions for developers

Adobe Dreamweaver

As graphic designers develop their projects with Adobe Illustrator, web developers would be much better off with Adobe Dreamweaver.

This multifaceted tool allows developers to do deep coding without removing their visual editing capabilities. That means you’ll be getting the best of both web design approaches – the versatility of coding plus the intuitiveness of a WYSIWYG editor.

Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the best web design software for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript projects. You should be able to custom-build websites that respond accordingly to different types of displays.

10015 Tools

10015 Tools is a one-stop shop for all kinds of web design software you might need in your projects. Think of any random web design task; you’ll find a relevant tool here.

They range from simple colour and text software to advanced coding tools and CSS solutions.

The text tools include a Text to Handwriting Converter, Letter Counter, Case Converter, and Bionic Reading Converter. For image editing, you get an SVG Blog Generator, Image Color Extractor, Image Cropper, Photo Censor, etc.

You’ll also find some of the best web design tools for CSS and JavaScript minifying, password generation, Open Graph Meta generation, colour mixing, data encryption, HTML encoding, and more.

Bootstrap

You’d benefit significantly from the popular Bootstrap frontend development framework when designing and coding your site’s user interface. It’s free, open-source, and supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

One of the most notable things you’ll enjoy here is expedited development – thanks to Bootstrap’s extensive library of customizable templates, mobile-optimized design architecture, and the pre-defined grid system.

With that, you don’t have to bother setting up all the basic commands and functions from scratch. Enter your custom site code into a prebuilt grid, and Bootstrap will generate a fully responsive website.

Top web design tools for UI/UX designers

Adobe XD

Adobe XD is another solution that continues to feature prominently among the best web design software. It even supports vector-based design, just like Illustrator. The only thing is the vectors here are meant for user experience design.

Specifically, Adobe XD develops UI/UX systems for websites, web apps, and mobile apps. Once installed on your macOS or Windows PC, the platform unleashes an array of assets for building and prototyping responsive interfaces. At the same time, it facilitates real-time collaboration.

Figma

Figma is the opposite of Adobe XD in terms of platform architecture. The bulk of its UI/UX design operations are cloud-based – and, as a result, you can count on it to drive collaboration even better than Adobe XD.

The user interface design process itself follows vector networks instead of vector paths. You can build the components without touching a single line of code while capitalizing on customizable assets from Figma’s rich library.

All the projects here are autosaved to the cloud, allowing you to roll back to previous versions freely.

Tint and Shade Generator

One of the most confusing bits of UI/UX design is matching up and differentiating between varying shades of the same colour. The Tint and Shade Generator tries to solve the problem by clarifying the colour gradients.

You just need to enter the Hex Code of your base colour, and the system will generate multiple variants. You’ll see darker and lighter shades of the colour, organized sequentially at an incremental rate of 10%.

Then, since its corresponding Hex Code accompanies each of these variants, you’ll have an easy time exporting them to your UI/UX design project.

Maximizing the best web design software 🎯

For instance, we’d recommend enhancing your creations with any customizable high-quality illustrations 🖼️ in our Illu—station catalogue. Not every day you stumble upon such an awesome compilation of 500+ free assets, 🤩 all of which can be edited collectively to reflect your seed colour.