Main Review

While the gap between professional websites and those of the photo-sharing ilk remains, there will always be a handful of solutions in between. Mr. Site is just one of these, with this second incarnation of the software targeted at the individual and small businesses.

As before, its slant is with its all-inclusive ‘takeaway’ package, though what it contains has now been expanded and adapted for the desired market. The free domain name remains, with available web space seeing an increase to 600MB and support now for 50 email addresses, against the standard version’s 150MB web space and 20 email addresses. A Paypal Cart facility is also available, while letterheads, business cards and compliment slips can also be ordered through the software.

A choice of pre-determined layouts form the basis of a site’s design, though this can be personalised with a choice of colours, fonts and imagery. Further customisation comes in the form of everything from blogs and forums to various widgets, while HTML support allows fine-tuning beyond the WYSIWYG editor.

The software is generally easy to use and results can be had in no time at all, and being browser-based it offers the huge advantage of site maintenance from wherever you happen to be. In fact, its only main failing is one previously levelled at its standard edition – the awkward menu system, where the quite obvious isn’t necessarily in its quite obvious place, thus making small changes more difficult than they should be.

Verdict

After the year’s subscription is up, there’s a charge equalling £7.99 per month (payable in one lump sum), meaning that you’re effectively buying it again. Of course, hosting your site costs money, but this is quite steep considering that many other packages offering better value exist (such as the Standard version, which costs a lot less and charges just under £3 a month). This is a shame as the software itself is good; it’s just for the money it could have been great.

Reviewer: WDC Team