March 26th, 2018 - the day Adobe decided to end new feature development for Adobe Muse CC.

Despite the fact that Adobe will continue to offer tech support to their Creative Cloud customers until early 2020, the news of their new feature development cessation has their existing customers looking for an easy-to-use alternative.

Even Adobe has recognized on their site that new trends in website creation have caused them to modify their strategy:

  • Designers that are actively engaged in creating complex websites and applications are investing in UX design and prototyping skills while partnering with development teams to bring their designs to life.

  • For simpler websites, we’ve seen the emergence of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website creators that use customizable templates to quickly create responsive websites that can be easily modified by the designer or a client.

For simple websites: Meet PageCloud

If you’re a designer and you’re looking for an easy-to-use alternative to Adobe Muse for your simple website needs, you might want to try PageCloud.

Since launching in 2015 at TechCrunch Disrupt, thousands of designers and DIYers from around the world have started using PageCloud to quickly create custom websites.

PageCloud presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2015

PageCloud brings several never-before-seen features into the crowded web design space: game-changing drag and drop capabilities, pixel-perfect WYSIWYG editing, the ability to manipulate and save the source code in the DOM, just to name a few…

Unlike most website builders, PageCloud allows designers to customize everything. There are no rigid grids or templates to fight with. The Mobile Layout Builder gives you an exact replica of what you’ll see on smaller devices without having to create multiple time-consuming break points.

Other inclusions, such as expert support, Automatic Image Optimization, and 100s of app integrations, make PageCloud a great option for designers looking for an easy-to-use alternative to Adobe Muse.

You can even lift layers directly from Adobe Photoshop and drop them onto your PageCloud pages!

Interested? Try PageCloud for free.

If you like what you see, you can leverage your design skills by becoming a PageCloud Pro - the best way to grow your business by building sites with PageCloud.

For complex websites: Meet Webflow

If you’re looking for a great Adobe Muse alternative for larger, more complex sites, take a look at Webflow.

Although Webflow is more difficult to learn than PageCloud, they have a comprehensive knowledge base and learning center called Webflow University to help you out.

Like Muse, Webflow produces responsive designs and gives you all the control you’d have with code without having to write it.

Both PageCloud and Webflow have templates (or themes) to get you started, but by no means do you have to use them. And as always, everything is completely customizable.

Webflow includes a powerful, visual CMS that you can set up and customize for any content type. This CMS will allow you to completely replace Adobe’s Business Catalyst before it disappears alongside Muse.

Final thoughts

Despite the fact that designers from around the world are up in arms about Adobe shutting down Muse, there are definitely some great alternatives available, depending upon your website needs.

For smaller sites that don’t require advanced functionally, PageCloud offers an experience like no other: build fast, customize anything, and maintain full access to the source code.

If you don’t know how to code, Webflow gives you unlimited options for customizing a site that includes advanced features for those complex site builds.