If you wish to develop your site in Web Hosting, you need to choose an HTML building tool for designing your site and creating all of its pages. In general, you have three choices:
The following series of tables compares these three options.
This HTML building tool is appropriate for you if…| Yahoo! SiteBuilder | Dreamweaver & Extension | Other HTML Editor |
| . . .your store will have around 100 products* and you don't have much experience with HTML or don't plan to customize your site design much beyond the template you use. | . . .you have a lot of experience with Dreamweaver and HTML. Also, you plan to customize your site design extensively or create it from scratch. | . . .you have a lot of experience with the tool and HTML. You don't mind making many edits to HTML code. Also, you plan to customize your site design extensively or create it from scratch. |
*Note: Fewer than 100 products is a recommendation, not a limitation of Yahoo! SiteBuilder. You can use SiteBuilder to develop a store with an unlimited number of products but such large stores are easier to maintain and customize using the Store Editor. Learn more.
Advantages of this HTML building tool:
| Yahoo! SiteBuilder | Dreamweaver & Extension | Other HTML Editing Tool |
| It's free and downloadable from Yahoo! Small Business (Yahoo! Web Hosting). You can import all your product data from Catalog Manager and rapidly create product and section pages. SiteBuilder also includes a large template library with new free templates available on an ongoing basis, simplifying the process of choosing a design. | Dreamweaver is a very comprehensive and popular HTML building tool with a wide user base. The free Merchant Solutions extension for Dreamweaver (Dreamweaver Extension) allows you to import all your product data from Catalog Manager so that you can rapidly create product and section pages. | If you already have a great deal of proficiency with another HTML Building Tool such as Microsoft® FrontPage®, you don't have to give it up. You can build your site using the tool you're already comfortable with instead of spending time and money buying and learning another tool. |
Disdvantages of this HTML Editing tool:
| Yahoo! SiteBuilder | Dreamweaver & Extension | Other HTML Editing Tool |
| Yahoo! SiteBuilder is not always efficient for sites of more than 100 products*. Also, SiteBuilder doesn't allow you to edit the actual HTML code, which can be frustrating to an advanced web developer. | You have to buy Dreamweaver®, and using it requires a significant level of expertise. Also, Dreamweaver doesn't include free ecommerce design templates, so you must buy them or develop them from scratch. | You have to buy most other major HTML editing tools such as Microsoft® FrontPage® or Adobe® GoLive®, and using them requires a significant level of expertise. Also, because other HTML building tools don't have a way to retrieve product data from Catalog Manager, the only way to create product and section pages is to paste in Store Tags and Modules that you copy from Store Tag Hub, which can significantly slow the development process. Finally, other HTML building tools may not include any free design templates. |
To get started: