Would you use an open source landing page builder?
Hey my name is Malthe,
I'm thinking of building an open source landing page builder. It will be completely free of course.
I then thought of offering some hosting plans further down the line, but I want to make the website builder free.
Personally I don't like the various builders for wordpress, since you have to rely on wordpress, php and you can't simply export to static html, css & js. And that's where I want my builder to be different.
In the beginning the pages built will be purely static, and you will always have the option to get the code (html, css & js) yourself.
Now I'm wondering if you would find a tool like this useful? If so I would love to ask you a few questions (-:
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What makes it better than other non-WordPress landing page builders or free HTML template libraries?
It seems like your primary description for it is that it would be "open source," but that seems more like an implementation detail that you care about as the creator, and not particularly relevant to me as someone considering using the software. My concerns are related to things like…
My guess is that other potential customers will also care more about how the tool helps them with their goals, rather than how you built the tool. So if you want to advertise it as open source, I think you need to explain how that helps customers.
Thanks for the input, and good points!
I guess the main difference from other landing page builders is that it will be free, with no "hidden" costs whatsoever. And you don't have to be a HTML guru to make it suit your needs, just simple drag & drop (or something equivalent).
How do you make money if it's free?
Thought that I wouls offer other solutions related to websites, like hosting, form inputs etc.
I do believe that making it open source would make it more unique then the other website builders already out there (:
You have to think who uses website builders. It's mostly non-tech people who try to set something up the no code way.
The overlap of people who care about open source and people who are the target audience for your website builder is tiny.
The niche of people who care about that maybe seems significant to you because you are active in places where people who think are but in general not many people care about that.
For most site builders this is the secret sauce, focusing on open sourcing that instead of the product is a distraction and the people who care about open source so much that they want to run it themselves would just build the site with a static site generator and not a website builder.
I see yes. And I think you are very right.
So instead of advocating that it is open source, I should perhaps focus more on the fact that it is actually free. Everybody, technical or not, understands free.
yes, but then so many website builders have a free plan that includes the hosting, and you just pay for extras, freemium model style. I think one way to make it work that is truly new would be to say 'Donate what you think it's worth, but get all the features regardless'
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You surely aren't serious - do you believe that the millions of open source libraries, programs and other open content on the internet is all driven by the motivation to make money? There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a buck, but there are also tons of other reasons to publish something under an open license:
I wrote dozens of programs before I ever made a dime. Much experience. Zero regrets.
🙂
Absolutely agree.
Open sourcing a project will bring you other opportunities.
And you might also gain a bigger following online, which will benefit you further down the road.
Hey Malthe,
Thanks for the commitment to, and advocacy of FOSS.
I'm a big believer in the principle of, "If you build it they will come".
I'm certainly interested yet I didn't see mention of a GitHub repo, account, or some other git repo sever.
Personally, I usually make one of my Gitea servers the origin and mirror at GitHub or SourceHut, but I'll certainly look forward to checking out your project if you post a repo where we can find it and maybe even issue PRs for you ;)
Kindest regards,
Bradley
⛵
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Hello Bradley,
Currently I don't have a lot to show off, besides a few components that aren't finished yet.
I will be more than happy to send you a link to the repo, once I have something to actually show (-;
And all help will be very much appreciated!
again I've had a bit of a read of the other people that have posted here and I totally agree with it unless you are a HTML Guru then having a open source you know HTML CSS page will be very difficult you'll probably want to just try to use something like elementor or some other visual composer that we just make a job a lot easier because what you're trying to do is get up to speed really fast but you can also you something like a page builder from card or some other visual thing that you just pay a monthly fee for because time is money. I think most developers would probably just use straight HTML CSS and I don't know if open source page builder would really turn these guys on
You might be right. Perhaps this tool will be suited more towards entrepreneurs, who aren't necessarily tech geeks. I assume they would love a fast and free way to build their landing page.
Yes I would love to. Ideally it should be platform agnostic (may be just a JS library) and should create static HTMLs at the end. It should be developer friendly with extensible APIs but user friendly enough that is can be used by non technical users once it is installed. Bonus if it doesn't depend on a specific css framework but be portable with any css framework if needed.
Great input!
I was thinking of making it web based. Think the likes of drag and dropping components.
Perhaps the non technical users don't like installing it on their computers, if all they want is a simple landing page. What do you think?
Yes web based is fine but it should ideally be a Javascript library that I can install on localhost on my computer and then just run it. Should not depend on any specific backend language like php, node etc. Drag and drop definitely. I don't care so much about predefined templates but that can be a feature too using existing modular components.
What's the problem with https://grapesjs.com/ for your use case?
Thanks for your comment.
I think that grapeJS is perhaps a little too confusing. Especially if you are building a simple landing page, and just want to focus on your product.
Do you have another view on it?
I think it is fine lots of end users enjoy it.
If you really want to help create free templates that are MIT.
The world needs more templates that are fast and coded well.
What is your main skillset development-wise @Maltmax ? 🙂
I have done much web development through the years. Started with backend, but doing good in frontend as well. (That being said I prefer backend development)
So yeah, mainly web dev stuff(:
Hello Malthe. I am Eli. Thank you for sharing your idea. An open-source and free web developer kit sounds lovely.
Below are the issues I am experiencing as a web designer you could consider integrating.
I use Wordpress and Elementor to build websites for customers. I believe WYSIWYG builders create unnecessary code that slows down the website load time.
The alternative is WebFlow, which seems great because you can export your HTML if you pay for their service. Switching from Wordpress would take more time and money than its worth unless there was an export or transfer tool.
Please tell me what questions you have?
Hello Eli!
Thanks for describing those issues. I will definitely take them into consideration.
Two questions I have are:
And a follow up question about your work as a web designer :
Do you rely on Wordpress for some complicated backend stuff, or maybe something simpler like handling form inputs? Because as I see it, I could easily implement a php script to handle forms. But if you need Wordpress for the CMS aspect, I can definitely understand why it's necessary to turn the exported HTML into a wordpress theme.
Thanks for spending your time helping me out. I appreciate it alot!
You're welcome.
Not at all. I use Elementor to design the page and connect all the necessary plug-ins. I never touch a line of code or PHP unless I am inserting an HTML snippet or a tracking code.
Of course. Let me know how else I can help.
Thanks for the answer!
So just be clear. The ability to integrate with Wordpress, isn't hugely important? At least as long as the new website builder provides some of the same features as Elementor?
I understand your concern that switching would be a hassle.
Having a CMS is essential. The advantage of Wordpress is the plethora of plug-ins available.
If your product is open source, will it be more comfortable for others to contribute plug-ins?
I will plan on making it easy to do plugins (:
I built https://versoly.com/, it isn't opensource but the code is clean (we use bootstrap) and you can export on paid plans.
Would love to know what you think and get your feedback.
Also as a web designer do you just create the projects and hand them off to clients?
I really like the idea behind versoly but I want open source option that I can customized/extend as a developer because we custom build sites/platforms for our own clients . Most open source page builders are either tied to a specific platform (WordPress etc) or are too cumbersome and tied to specific backend languages which I don't like.
It is fully customisable. We have a code editor where you can hop in. If we were to get more agency we could support something like jinja2 so you could have for loops and if statements.
Also you can easily export clean html code.
The added benefit of being closed is you don't have to handle any of the stuff you do with Wordpress such as security and plugins.
Did you end up integrating jinja2 ?
If I stop paying for the pro version, I lose some functionality on the sites I built. I also cannot export code from the existing pages I've created.
I will take a look at Versoly and get back to you.
I create the websites, and they hire me to update them as needed.
What Elementor plan are you on?
Thanks :)
Cool, so you don't hand it off?
I use the Expert plan.
I create an account for the client to edit content and give them a brief walkthrough, but most of the time, they do not make changes.
Thanks.
While I don't really care if the thing is open source, I do care if it allows me to export into html. As of right now, I haven't found any good tool that allows me to do that while also doing version management, ie allowing me to change and export again later.
Hi!
Our small team is working on a landing page Builder for games. It is called Ptah. You can view the source code here: https://github.com/ProtocolONE/ptah-editor
and try the demo: https://ptah.pro/
So far, this is the MVP. At the end of June, we will launch a full-fledged product. This will be a free Builder with the ability to publish and export. It will be more convenient and intuitive interface, a lot of ready-made templates. You can leave an e-mail in the form on the main page to be the first to know about the launch.
Looks cool! Thanks for sharing
Hi,
Yes I would definitely use a tool like that if it had cPanel integration (cPanel Plugin that would allow you to customize and deploy your landing page). At the moment the only available option for that -that I know of- is paid and it sucks.
The code will be exported directly to html, css & js. So you can easily put them on your website through your own cPanel. Does that make sense?
Yes. I'm open to learning about and using any new open source solution.