jimdo squarespace weebly wix & c. - the end of web programming as we know it?

[dlen]

Hi there,

the title says it mostly. I admit I am a bit afraid of the webwork market drying out, because everybody just goes to jsww&c. and sets up his/her site in an hour. And those tools become more sophisticated by the week. 

Opinions and informations??

[cstevensjr]

Website builders have their place and serve a purpose. They can be a quick fix and allow more people to have a presence on the web. I believe there is no need to fear them or worry that products like ProcessWire will be replaced by them.

We could spend all day debating the merits of these products or just continue as we do making ProcessWire a better platform.

I've been doing this since 1977 and have seen many things come and go. I honestly believe the webwork market will still continue to function long after these products have matured and 10 other new web building technologies have come along. This market changes everyday in ways that no one can adequately predict. I believe that change is always good, improving what needs to be improved and getting rid of what no longer works.

Have a blessed Friday

[adrian]

I can see those tools putting the Mom and Pop Wordpress "developers" out of business, but as far as I know they have a very long way to go before they can build a complex interactive data driven website.

[LostKobrakai]

I've exactly the point to make as adrian. The whole frontend design part might get easier, but only for the simple content (some images, some text). Anythings remotely related to a larger set of data will probably not be handled by those sites anytime soon.

[gurkendoktor]

Some of the people who are using this are not in a position to afford "proper" webdevs, which is fair. They have a different business and "a website" is just one of their marketing channels. So what these builders are competing with is Facebook, Instagram etc. (even wordpress.com) – and once these people have a proper and thriving business and their budget and needs increase – we will be gladly helping them. Right? 

Or to put it differently: what smartphone cameras are capable of these days is amazing. The cost of DSLR is ridiculously low. Still, people hire photographers. 

Who sees their business model threatened by these generators should probably rethink it.

[dlen]

Actually, people also hire jimdo specialists to take away even this light and - relatively - easy kind of work from them. And i can understand this - they just want to focus on their business and outsource any distraction, or they are still afraid of computers (yes, these people exist).

jsww&c have one advantage - they act in a self controlled environment. Pay a little more per month, but no fighting with low RAM, register_globals - settings and the like.