Adobe Muse Review 2023: End of service?

Last Updated on   May 19 2023,
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Summary

Adobe Muse is a discontinued website builder software offered by Adobe Systems. It allows designers to create responsive websites without having to write code, using a visual interface to build custom designs. Check below for best Adobe Muse Alternatives.

Overall
83%
83%
  • Ease of Use - 80%
    80%
  • Features & Flexibility - 83%
    83%
  • SEO & Mobility - 87%
    87%
  • Help & Support - 80%
    80%
  • Pricing - 83%
    83%

Pros

  • Easy to learn
  • Visual customisation is easy thanks to integration with Adobe’s other
  • Creative Suite programs
  • Can interface with a number of third-party widgets to enhance site functionality and interactivity

Cons

  • Active technical support is no longer available
  • Muse pages tend to be static in nature
  • You need to download third-party plug-ins to enhance functionality

Introduction to our Adobe Muse Review

This Adobe Muse review takes a second look at today's website builders' forebear, including a discussion of Adobe Muse price and Adobe Muse alternatives.


Overview: Taking a Second Look at the Precursor to Today’s Site Builders

There are several website builders currently available for download online. Therefore, it may seem strange to delve into Adobe Muse Software – a program officially discontinued in March 2020. Technical support was also discontinued in June of the same year. But Adobe Muse software is more than just a footnote or a finished chapter in web development history. Numerous people still use it across the globe. So, what made developers decide to shut it down?


Ease of Use:

Adobe Muse software was developed as a quick and easy way to build websites as part of Adobe's Creative Cloud suite. It was considered the midpoint between Adobe Spark for single-page website design and the expert-level (and more popular) Dreamweaver. As a result, Adobe Muse is a site builder that was among the (if not the) first to give users the option of making flexible pages and thematic pages to differentiate one area of a website from another.

For this Adobe Muse review, a drag-and-drop creative interface was one of Muse’s key selling points. It helped those who did not have a background in back-office coding create dynamic and functional webpages that really stood out.

If you're already familiar with this software and want to understand how much it costs, you can skip to the Adobe Muse price review below.


Features and Flexibility:

Themes and Templates:

For this Adobe Muse review, in both its original and CC releases, Adobe Muse offered users several starter themes and page templates to kick-start the page creation process. You could also create custom themes and your own proprietary templates (usually saved with the *.muse suffix.) Unfortunately, themes could not be applied to existing content (which is to say you needed to create an entirely new page or file if you wanted to transfer the content to a new template), nor could you import content created on another platform onto a Muse template. It was a cumbersome challenge that numerous developers found taxing, which eventually led Muse users to start looking for more dynamic (and code-free) Adobe Muse alternatives.

Customisation Tools:

Images for Adobe Muse software could be manipulated in other Adobe programs such as Lightbox, Photoshop CC, which was great for preparing images for mock-up and finalising them for publishing.

3rd Party Integrations:

Towards the end of its developmental run, sites built with Adobe Muse could feature widgets for featuring social media feeds from different platforms, eCommerce functionality through third-party plugins (See our separate section on eCommerce below.), and even analytics.

Hosting:

For the Adobe muse price, while you could easily post your Muse pages online through your third-party web host of choice, users previously had the option of hosting their sites via Business Catalyst (BC,) Adobe’s own hosting service.

Unfortunately, the company announced the impending end of development for BC on March 26 of this year and will stop hosting sites on the platform by September 26, 2021.


SEO and Mobility:

For this Adobe Muse review, the platform was no slouch for helping users make their websites more SEO-friendly. Still, it also involved a tedious process as, unlike today’s more tech-savvy page builders, Muse wasn’t really intuitive. One had to manually put in the metadata through the Page Properties dialogue box in the program's Plan section. Adding titles or alternative text for one’s images involved doing the same through the Image Properties dialogue box. Other Adobe Muse alternatives have a more robust SEO capability.

When it came to mobility, it became one of the first page builders to have versions for Android and iOS and a web-only edition. There's a Adobe Muse downloadable version for desktop installation, Adobe Muse CC download, and Adobe Muse download Mac version. If you want to do Adobe Muse WordPress conversion, there's a simple guide to help you.


eCommerce Tools:

In this Adobe Muse review, while it did have templates that one could use for creating an online store, the best way to get more bang for your bucks when it came to using Adobe Muse for eCommerce was to download the Ecwid plugin. This would give a Muse-built website multi-language and multi-currency support, real-time shipping integration, and customer interaction facilities. The current version of the plugin is still available for those adding eCommerce capabilities to Muse-built sites.


Support and Resources:

Unfortunately, official Adobe Muse software technical support ended in June 2020. But those looking for information or resources such as tutorials can still access the support archives. Likewise, several online developer communities offer Adobe Muse tutorials and walkthroughs on media platforms like YouTube, shared information forums, as well as downloadable templates and widgets designed by third-party developers.


Adobe Muse Price Plans:

Surprisingly, Adobe Muse price range was considerably more reasonable than most of the current generation of page and site builders. A subscription for a single user app could set you back by $24.99 a month, while those on a corporate plan needed to pay $29.99 a month per license.

Adobe Muse for Free trial/refund policy/money-back guarantee:

You could try Adobe Muse for free for the standard 30-day period, then either uninstall it from your system or opt for a paid plan.


Conclusion and Recommendation to our Adobe Muse Review:

What is it best for?

Those who want to quickly create multiple page websites without having to know.

What is it not best for?

People who want to create more responsive websites and those who want to add eCommerce functionality to their sites.

Adobe Muse Alternatives:

Here's a list of the best Adobe Muse alternatives to create a website;

Rank Key Features Price (Basic Paid Plan) My View
1. Squarespace Beautiful Professional design templates, blogging tools, powerful marketing tools, great eCommerce features for small to medium-sized stores Starts at $12/month Check Pricing Perfect for creatives and small businesses needing a visually stunning site Try For Free
2. Webflow Visual CSS design, CMS features, eCommerce capabilities Starts at $12/month Check Pricing Best for designers and developers wanting deep customization Try For Free
3. Weebly Easy-to-use, eCommerce capabilities, range of templates Starts at $6/month Check Pricing Good for small businesses and e-commerce Try For Free
4. Shopify Comprehensive eCommerce tools, large app store, SEO features Starts at $29/month Check Pricing Best for creating an online store Try For Free
5. Wix Drag-and-drop builder, wide range of templates, App Market Starts at $14/month Check Pricing Great all-around website builder with flexibility and features Try For Free
6. Wordpress.com Blogging tools, large theme selection, good for large sites Starts at $4/month Check Pricing Best for blogging and larger sites Try For Free
7. Carrd Simple, one-page sites, ideal for personal profiles and resumes Starts at $19/year Check Pricing Best for simple, one-page sites Try For Free
8. Jimdo AI-powered builder, eCommerce tools, SEO features Starts at $9/month Check Pricing Ideal for beginners with its easy-to-use interface Try For Free
9. 1&1 IONOS Wide range of templates, marketing and eCommerce tools Starts at $5/month Check Pricing Good all-rounder with a focus on business websites Try For Free
10. GoDaddy GoCentral ADI, email marketing, eCommerce tools Starts at $9.99/month Check Pricing Easy-to-use, but limited in terms of design customization Try For Free
  • Adobe Muse vs Dreamweaver: Other Adobe products like Dreamweaver are still a great and more elaborate Adobe Muse replacement.
  • Adobe Muse software vs Without Code:  Muse fans should give Without Code a shot as Adobe Muse alternative. It's a site builder that doesn’t require you to know how to code and has an easy to use drag-and-drop UI as well as numerous themes, templates, and widgets to make site building so much easier.

Adobe Muse Review Final Word:

In conclusion, Adobe Muse software helped push today’s code-free site and page builders forward, enabling site and business owners without a programming background to create brilliant websites without much effort. However, given how today’s creators are spoiled for choice when it comes to builders (and now there are even purpose-specific ones like funnel builders for eCommerce), Adobe Muse has gracefully bowed out of the competition.


FAQ:

Is Adobe Muse download free still available?

Yes, but only if you have and active Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Muse can be downloaded from the Older Apps section under the settings of your Creative Cloud dashboard.

What technical resources can I look at given that official support ended last year?

There is still a wealth of community-driven technical resources online that are related to Adobe Muse. For example, Muse Themes offers FAQs and tutorials regarding the platform, and visual walkthroughs are available on YouTube.


That's all for now:

Thank you for reading our Adobe Muse review! Don’t forget to keep an eye out for our ever-growing blog of review and comparison articles of best website builder programs, eCommerce platforms, SEO software, screen capture tools, webinar and conferencing software, education platforms, , and more!

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