A lot of people are fans of the new XSite Pro 2.0.
Even Splork from www.lostballinhighweeds.com sings its praises (and he doesn't praise a lot of stuff at all, usually the opposite).
But I have to disagree with Splork on this one as I've found XSitePro 2.0 to be a big let down. Still I'll give it a 7/10 because while as an upgrade from 1.0 it isn't much better, but it's still a good product, just didn't live up to its hype and isn't a great improvement over XSP 1.0.
XSite Pro is certainly a handy piece of software, don't get me wrong. It is great for newbies (and even advanced people) who are trying to set up and design websites that make money (in particular article sites). But there are obvious problems with the software and for the last year we've been told that XSP 2.0 was going to be the answer to all of those.
One of the biggest, most annoying things about XSP is that the code it spits out is not great from an SEO perspective. It is heavily focussed on a table layout which is what is easiest for XSP to implement, if you wanted to get the same look using css and divs you are still going to have to know html a bit, which is frustrating as I thought that would have been done for you in this new edition of XSP (which is supposed to be focussed on internet marketers - ie people who care about loading speeds, optimization and so forth).
Seemed like the obvious next step, but no, still the same crap that needs a coder to go in and fix up. They should at least have given us the option. Yes I'm being hyper critical here of a good piece of software, but this has been a long time in the making, it is expensive, and it isn't really much better than the original edition from last year (why pay more? why the hooplah over 2.0?)
XSP 2 also has trouble importing XSP 1 websites and takes a lot of fiddling which is another frustration of mine, although I hear they are almost finished fixing that.
Also, it’s really annoying how xsite pro makes it so difficult to remove a left hand menu (lets say you want to keep it on some pages, but not on others (e.g. ppc landing pages)). If you remove it, it removes itself from every page, which isn’t what is wanted. Yet if you decide to ignore page layout completely (the solution that XSitePro recommends), you lose all your settings, not just your menu, but your fonts, backdrop headergraphc, the works.
I admit XSP 1 and 2 are good products, don’t get me wrong there, as they are very good for newbies to use and make it fast and easy to set up article sites. I still say that I lean on the recommending XSitePro side as it is the easiest web design software to use and is particularly good for article sites. But I see no real great advances in xsitepro 2 that are actually going to greatly increase your $$$, so if you already have XSitePro 1.0, I wouldn't rush out and upgrade if I were you.
If you don't have XSP at all, and you are looking to build high quality affiliate websites, then yes it is fantastic for that. Just note my pet peeves above so you are aware.
Gary • 16 years ago
Its so much different to X1. And, as you say,
I didn't find much difference in what it is
capable of doing, so I'm sticking with using
X2 for now.
Brad • 16 years ago
Joe Stewart • 16 years ago
Another thing I noticed is that when I imported my sites from V1 all of my navigation links were squished together with no space between them. It was just one big line of words and letters that I had to go through and modify before I could publish again. I haven't even gone through all of my sites yet. I'm almost afraid to.
Honestly, I love XsitePro version 1. I've built all of my sites with it and it was really a life saver when it came out in 2005, but if I had to do it all over again I think I'd go a different direction.
Just my two cents.
Joe
Idalino • 16 years ago
I agree with you, man... I upgraded to V2 basically because of the new templates. Everything else still pretty much the same, some a little better and some even worse.
You are right, tables for everything, really sucks :^(.
I agree that it is very easy to use and very fast to start a site and publish it, but then you are stuck in many ways.
The sites V2 creates (with included templates) are very heavy, even for my broadband connection.
In my opinion, NetObjects is years ahead, a little longer of a learning curve but I think it is worth it...
Nothing in XsitePro V2 justifies the $297... for me was only $97.
To ask $297 you need to be at a higher and more current level.
This site was created with XsitePro V2: www.iusedtorunoutofjuice.com
Jan • 16 years ago
thx,
Jan
Dan • 16 years ago
Marc Lindsay • 16 years ago
Rather unusual review from you there. You must have been waiting on the css upgrades as such and had hopes on it being in this version.
It looks as though perhaps they have gone for hype rather than function in an attempt to re-invigorate their software.
It seems to me that css would have been an obvious option to move over too. It certainly makes changing site layouts soooo much easier.
Marc Lindsay
Mitch Powell • 16 years ago
You would think, by now, sophisticated software designers would have adopted the CSS implementation.
Kathaleen Dunford • 15 years ago
Mark Ling • 15 years ago
I am not dishing the software, it isn't bad, I'm just saying for people who want to upgrade from version 1.0 to 2.0, there isn't really a lot of difference. We teach it inside affiloblueprint as a lot of people already use it, but we also teach wordpress as an alternative, and I prefer that method. You can even use frontpage or dreamweaver if you prefer, it is up to you.
Marcus Noel • 15 years ago
I've been playing around with a local install of WordPress and I also have Kompozer. So, after I get my content together, I will be using one of those two for building my initial site.
Is anyone familiar with Worpress-MU ( as in Multi-User )? I'm envisioning using it installed locally to simultaneously prototype multiple sites. But, I'm having trouble installing it on the same server as my single-user instance of WordPress. Anyone have any ideas?
happyaff • 15 years ago
Shama Kern • 14 years ago