iWeb is long gone, Sparkle is the best replacement
With the release of iLife 2011, iWeb was discontinued and users were looking for a replacement. June 2012 saw the demise of MobileMe, the preferred iWeb site destination. Things were starting to look grim. macOS Catalina will no longer launch 32 bit apps, including iWeb. This is the end of the line for iWeb.
In April 2014 we released Sparkle 1.0, years later we’re still pushing harder than ever on new features and improvements across the board.
As much as we all wish it was still possible to download iWeb, it’s not. But if iWeb was still alive… Sparkle is pretty much what it would look like! A great iWeb upgrade but more importantly a true iWeb replacement: Sparkle is an amazing app that helps you build modern sites with full control over layout, and an easy migration path to boot. Images and galleries, videos and maps, and much, much more, built right in. Sparkle is a tool for non-coders, every feature is understandable and in plain english.
You should definitely try the free version right now. And if you have a friend in pain with an old website, do mention Sparkle.
Freeform layout
Sparkle lets you move elements on the canvas exactly where you want them. Control their settings visually, with a snappy canvas and real time browser preview.
Just like in iWeb, you can move things around exactly like you want them with no restriction. This might sound like hyperbole, but the freedom and control, and immediacy of results is hilarity-inducing. Building websites is fun again.
Import
Website builders based on templates or modular components or blocks can’t do this, which is why most people don’t think this feature is even possible. Sparkle is unique in its ability to reproduce the layout of an existing site, importing text and images in the process. It’s amazing to see it work, almost like magic, and hand you over a fully editable page. Read the documentation on how to import your old website into Sparkle.
Modernize
From galleries to background video, from animations to popup menus, from crystal clear web fonts to gorgeous high resolution images, your new Sparkle website will be beautiful and high performance, and ready for Macs, PCs and mobile devices with “retina”/high density screens.
Responsive
iWeb never supported mobile layouts, Sparkle had responsive support from day one. We call this feature “devices”, an understandable and straightforward technique to produce gorgeous websites that adapt to visitor devices.
This feature alone is worth an upgrade of your old website.
Free designs
If you’re looking into a redesign, Sparkle has a few sample designs you can either get inspiration from, or use right away. Check them out!
Publish
Unlike iWeb, Sparkle doesn’t have a preferred web host, but it does have an exceedingly smart publishing setup that only needs a couple parameters to figure everything out automatically (with most web hosts).
We hope you will pick Sparkle to upgrade your old site, it’s going to be fun!
