: How to make a website without knowing much about CSS? We're trying to build a website, but we don't have much HTML + CSS + JS experience. As far as the complexity goes, we can imagine

@Jamie184

If you do not know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript much, then I suggest using a theme/template. There are plenty of good themes out there for free. However, there are some themes that are not as good as they look. It is helpful to know enough about HTML and CSS to understand when you are looking at a good code or not. Look for responsive HTML 5 compliant themes and try a few out. This is the true advantage of using themes especially free ones. Many designers will create some free theme/templates to entice you to purchase a custom solution. I have paid for custom work before. A good designer that has offerings for a reasonable price is a great thing to have in your arsenal.

You can always pay someone too. However, it is always better to know the technology enough before you hire someone. Or else how can you gauge good work or not? When hiring someone, you would have to put all of your trust into one person and believe me, there are plenty of bad practitioners out there along with the good and the exceptional. You can use the theme sites out there to hire someone who's work you like. If they offer free themes, then test a few first and examine the code before deciding. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of their ability to perform well.

I would suggest knowing more about HTML, CSS, and possibly JavaScript first if possible. The reason is this. Anyone can poorly code a pretty site that seems to work well. But the code is just horrible. Looks pretty, but locks you into almost redesigning the site just to make a few fairly simple changes later. I have been through this several times before. Knowing some thing about what good code looks like can really save you time right from the start.

Bootstrap is not a development tool. It is a library and nothing you really want to take on as a beginner. You will still have to know HTML and especially CSS to know how to over-ride the default values to get what you imagine. I am going through this with another library and sometimes your HTML code does not do what you would expect because of these defaults and you have to create CSS just to get back to default behaviors. Not a big deal really for the other advantages, however, it is more CSS work sometimes and may frustrate someone who is just starting out.

I do not know Foundation. I assume you are referring to foundation.zurb.com/. I cannot tell you how this stacks up to other offerings. Upon initial inspection, it looks as though it is much like the others in that there is no GUI per se' and that you will be dealing with HTML and CSS fairly heavily from time to time if you want to do something a bit different. It is also possible that you will be satisfied with what you get right out of the box too and not want to make too many changes. They use stars to refer to ease and technical expertise required. But that does not tell me how much someone would need to know exactly. But it does look like it could be a good tool to try if you want to "roll your own" It is worth a shot if you want to take the time to design your site.

You can also hire a designer that uses or will use the tool you like. That way, it is possible to easily make changes in the future. I imagine that could be your best option depending upon how much time you have.

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