Building and maintaining a website cheaply on OS X

Of course, there’s always iWeb for those in need of a quick, presentable website, but let’s be honest: the way iWeb codes and renders things is less than desirable. In the end, pages load slowly due to excess of images, and poor machine-generated code. If you know HTML, it’s always better to code yourself. This article will focus on apps for people who already know HTML. (If you’d like to join that group, check out W3Schools for great tutorials and explanations.)

• Coda is at the top of this list for two reasons: it is the most expensive, and it is the greatest. Coda combines pretty much everything you will need as a web developer into one window. There is Transmit (FTP) in the sidebar, HTML editor, live collaboration, CSS editing, and a Terminal built in. If only it included a mini-Photoshop, it’s possible you wouldn’t need to leave it during a day of website building. The one downside to Coda is its $99 price tag; not at all unreasonable, but hey, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks.
• Taco HTML Edit is a great HTML editor that sells for just $24.95 per license. Possibly its most useful feature is tag coloring, which, though by no means an exclusive feature, is a fantastic productivity aid. It also features tag auto-complete that you’ll either love or hate. You will either speed through your writing with the Spotlight-like tag suggestions or they will get in your way so often you will turn them off and never want to see them again. Taco HTML Edit also offers tabbed documents, live preview, CSS editing, and a heck of a lot more, which, for $25, is quite a bit. Combined with Cyberduck (see below), it could be all you need for a website’s maintenance.
• Smultron is a free alternative to Taco HTML Edit. While it doesn’t offer as many features, it has the basics: tag coloring, live search ad replace, etc. Give it a try before paying for something else. It just might be enough.
• Cyberduck is a free and open source FTP client. There’s not much to say about it other than that it works as advertised, and I wouldn’t recommend buying an FTP client until you’ve tried Cyberduck. Plus, the rubber duck icon is a great addition to any dock.