Besides Dreamweaver, what are some professional web design softwares out there? Looking to update one for a small business, and while I like the look and feel of Dreamweaver from a few videos I have watched (never actually used it), I don't like Adobe's subscription model. It would be a one-time build with an occasional update.

Or would you recommend using Dreamweaver for the initial build, then cancel the subscription after complete and do subsequent minor updates through the editor within the hosting company? And if a major redesign was needed later on, sign back up for the subscription again and cancel as before?

I prefer emacs but my Web Development friends use notepad++ or bbedit on mac.
High school kids use Dreamweaver

Are you looking for something to write code in or something with a GUI that lets you drag/drop and writes the code for you?

"Professional web design software" is kind of misleading, as a true professional developer will usually be writing the code directly. Sublime Text and Atom are two good opensource editors that are built for web development in mind and can be extended using tons of different plugins.

If you are looking more for a GUI system, you are honestly probably better served with something like Squarespace or other website builder, or even implementing a premium Wordpress theme.

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Are you looking for something to write code in or something with a GUI that lets you drag/drop and writes the code for you?

"Professional web design software" is kind of misleading, as a true professional developer will usually be writing the code directly. Sublime Text and Atom are two good opensource editors that are built for web development in mind and can be extended using tons of different plugins.

If you are looking more for a GUI system, you are honestly probably better served with something like Squarespace or other website builder, or even implementing a premium Wordpress theme.

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Looking for a GUI. Obviously I guess I don't know much about what is considered professional software if Dreamweaver is not professional. But high school level is probably where I am at. I can decipher some code when viewing the source and looking at what it translates to on the published page, but I can't come close to writing it from scratch.

I have done some stuff with Drupal within Hostmonster and I think Wordpress one time, or maybe those were used in conjunction with each other. It's been a couple years so I don't remember. But Wordpress just felt more like a blogging tool. Squarespace and Wordpress don't show me enough without signing up for a premium account to give me an idea of what is really possible. Maybe I'm just missing something that shows me what I am looking for.

If you can work through the text then ConText is a good free editor that is easy to use. You can try a 30 day free trial with DreamWeaver to see if you like it. I used it in the past, and sometimes it would add extra code that was not needed. What type of site is it? Are you just looking to update current files or create new ones? This may help in what type of program that you use.

Pros write code and use frameworks to build sites, there's really not any "pro" software other than your text editor of choice and Photoshop, Illustrator, or Sketch. I use Coda for writing code/editing and Photoshop along with Sketch for certain tasks.

You might check out Muse from Adobe, it's their more recent drag-n-drop web tool. It's not really a pro tool, more something used by designers who can't write code, but it might be more what you're looking for.

I looked at Muse and it's the Photoshop Elements version of Dreamweaver I guess. It might be simpler to use, but when comparing the tutorials for Muse and Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver looks like it would be worth the extra $5/month. But based on most suggestions here and due to it being subscription based, I think we'll look at just doing it with Wordpress and see how that goes.

Wordpress is definitely built for blogging, but because of its popularity and the community it has created it has grown into a fairly good option for just about any kind of simple website. The benefits of Wordpress come from all of the available plugins that let you easily add specific features and functionality to the site.

The reason I mentioned implementing a premium Wordpress theme is because these themes will come with pre-built admin tools and plugins that extend Wordpress and allow you to edit just about every part of the theme without having to touch code. You can find a theme for just about any type of website on sites like http://www.mojo-themes.com/ or https://themeforest.net/, and all of them will have demos that let you see the full range of features.

I think Squarespace is what you need. You can also do a search for Squarespace alternatives to see what else is out there -- some things are cheaper, others more expensive. But I'd go with something along those lines.