RapidWeaver

Recently I've started taking a look at my workflow and the effort involved in maintaining websites, and given my personal circumstances, ie not having a guaranteed source of power/Internet, I've started playing with developing websites in plain HTML.

The great advantage of sites coded in plain HTML is that they are easy to backup and work on when you don't have instant Internet access. I've mentioned it before, but backing up a CMS such as Wordpress, Serendipity, or Joomla is painful.

Recently I discovered RapidWeaver, a platform for the Mac that makes it easy to put together a website, including a blog, using supplied templates, or you can download them.

Updating a site is just as easy as using a CMS, although if multiple pages have changed then these have to be uploaded which tends to mean your host account ftp usage is much higher than operating a CMS.

The flip side is that I don't need a database, don't need to worry about backups for a database and assets, and if I choose to change host it is a simple matter of entering the new ftp details and clicking the upload button.

I guess a system like this isn't for everyone, definitely people with reliable Internet access are better off using a CMS such as Serendipity since they generally offer more plugins, but for me, I think I'm sold on RapidWeaver.

Over the next few days I'll try to write up a more detailed review of why I like RapidWeaver.