Choosing the Right Framework

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Sales & Support Manager
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A modern, responsive website starts with a flexible framework. A responsive framework is what allows a website to grow and shrink based on the viewer’s screen size. There are many options available for designers so we took the most popular options and made them easy for everyone to use. Which one to pick? Picking a framework is like choosing a wine. One isn’t necessarily better than the other. They’re all awesome. It all just depends on your personal preference. Our website design apps currently include:

Responsive Site Designer (RSD)
Foundation Framer (FF)
Bootstrap Builder (BB)

All three of these apps have an almost identical front-end workflow. However, they use different backend frameworks to construct the web page markup.

RSD uses our own in-house framework with our signature drag-n-drop workflow. This code-free drag-n-drop interface has also been magically combined with FF and BB. But on the backend, FF is specifically targeted for people who want to make sites using the Foundation 6 Framework. While BB incorporates the popular Bootstrap 3 and 4 alpha frameworks.

People really dig Foundation Framer and Bootstrap Builder because they offer a set standard of CSS classes and attributes that streamline the design process. These two apps also offer unique abilities like a unit switcher, symbols for global content updates, and built-in interactive components for navigation, slideshows, toggles, and much more.

Another big difference is the mobile-first workflow with FF and BB. This means you will start your projects for smaller screens first and work your way towards the largest screen size. Designing with this technique really helps you examine your content and focus on what is most important. RSD not only lets you build mobile-first, but also lets you choose to build design desktop-down which some people find easier to work with.

The three of these responsive apps are all code-free, with the code generated for you automatically on the back end. If you plan to do any manually tweaking to the code like to configure the site with a backend system, you can export the code and open it with any code editor.

At the end of the day, each one is pretty awesome and makes outstanding websites. You really can’t go wrong with either one. Learn more about how our responsive apps compare at Which app is right for you

Want more nitty-gritty details comparing Bootstrap to Foundation? Here are some helpful articles:

Bootstrap vs Foundation – Top 2 CSS Frameworks
Should You Use Bootstrap or Foundation?
Learn the essentials with these tips on Site Designer. You'll be making epic, code-free responsive sites like a boss.

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