Web design software for Mac
Mobirise is a website builder for Mac that you can use free, with one installer for Apple Silicon Macs and another for Intel ones. You build pages by stacking ready-made blocks, with no code, keep working offline, and publish to your own hosting, GitHub Pages or a free subdomain.
Updated 13 October 2026 · written by the Mobirise team
The Mac app at a glance
- What it is
- A block-based site builder you install on your Mac. It shares its engine with the browser builder at a.mobirise.com: one product, two places to use it.
- Which Mac
- Pick the Apple Silicon build for an M1, M2, M3 or M4 machine and the Intel build for an Intel one. Both need macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.
- With no connection
- You can edit pages, preview them, and use every theme and block already installed. Going online is needed for AI, for putting sites live, for your account and payments, and for downloading updates or themes.
- Where sites go
- Whatever your plan: a folder on your Mac, a GitHub Pages site, or any host you reach by FTP or FTPES. Online, up to 3 sites can live on mobirisesite.com addresses with HTTPS at no charge.
- Cost
- The app costs nothing and ships with a basic theme plus 200+ blocks. KIT, $149 a year, adds the 220+ premium themes and every extension, and takes the Mobirise badge off your sites.
- Not built for
- Opening sites made in other tools, a separate phone-only layout, or native iPhone and iPad apps; on those devices you use the browser version.
Which web design software for Mac fits you
Most Mac owners end up choosing between three kinds of tool: an app written for macOS alone, a desktop app that also exists for Windows and Linux, or a builder that runs in Safari. These are the honest picks for each kind of need.
- Free, with the files on your own disk
- Mobirise: a no-cost app in Apple Silicon and Intel versions, with unlimited offline projects and HTML export.
- Mac-only, paid for once
- Blocs: a universal app for both chip types, sold as a one-off licence, with companion apps for iPad and iPhone.
- Mac-only, on Tailwind CSS
- RapidWeaver Elements: a yearly subscription, PHP code pages, and an AI assistant that runs on your own OpenAI or Anthropic key.
- Designing on an iPad too
- Sitely, the app formerly called Sparkle: the same project opens on Mac and iPad, and you place elements freely on the page.
- Editing the code by hand
- Pinegrow: a web editor for Mac, Windows and Linux that works directly on plain HTML and CSS, including sites you didn't build.
- Seeing an AI-made design first
- 8B AI: its free plan turns one sentence into a complete design; you pay for Pro to publish it.
- A browser builder in Safari
- Wix or Squarespace: nothing to install, the site lives on their hosting, and they behave the same on any Mac.
- Hosted for you, nothing to install
- Webflow, in the browser, with a free plan on a webflow.io address, if working offline doesn't matter to you.
- Former iWeb users
- Apple stopped iWeb years ago. Mobirise suits you if you'd rather stack pre-designed blocks than position every element yourself.
Mac website builders side by side
Seven tools Mac users weigh up, from apps made only for macOS to builders with nothing to install. Rows where a competitor comes out ahead are kept in.
| Mobirise | RapidWeaver Elements | Blocs | 8B AI | Sitely (formerly Sparkle) | Pinegrow | Webflow | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it runs on a Mac | Installed app with macOS, Windows and Linux builds; the same engine also runs online | Native app, Mac only | Native Mac app; separate apps for iPad and iPhone | Browser only, phones included; nothing to install | Native app for Mac and iPad, sharing one project file | Installed app on Mac, Windows or Linux | Browser only: Safari, Chrome, Edge or Firefox |
| Apple Silicon | Yes: a build of its own for Apple Silicon beside the Intel one, about 134 MB each; macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later | Yes, Apple Silicon or Intel; macOS 13 Ventura or newer | Yes, a universal app for both chips; macOS Big Sur or newer | Not applicable, it runs in a browser | Not stated; needs macOS 10.14.4 or later | Yes, one download per chip type | Not applicable, it runs in a browser |
| Price and billing | App free. KIT: $149 yearly, all premium themes and extensions. BASE: $199 yearly, with online sites on a custom domain | Yearly subscription at $99 (Base), $149 (Plus) or $249 (Pro); stop paying and you keep the app but lose updates | One-off: Standard $112.99, Plus $179.99 (shown including tax); Blocs 6 updates included | Pro: $9 monthly, paid annually | $59.99 a year, or a one-time licence: Personal $79.99, Pro $119.99 | Subscription at $99 a year per user list price (half price in a sale on 13 October); one-time licences also sold | Basic site plan: $15 monthly on annual billing |
| Free option | Yes: unlimited sites in the app, a basic theme and 200+ blocks; Mobirise badge on sites | Free trial; publishing needs a paid plan | Free edition for unlimited sites, without export or publishing | Designing is free; no publishing | 14-day Pro trial with “Made with Sitely” branding | Free trial with every feature unlocked | Yes: a site on webflow.io that carries a Webflow badge |
| Offline use | Yes, apart from AI and publishing, which need internet | Yes, listed as a feature | Yes, listed as a feature | No | Desktop app; the vendor pitches it for working “off the grid” | Not stated by the vendor | No |
| AI | Online only: 4 designs per prompt; input can be text, a screenshot or a sketch; the free plan includes 3 generations monthly | AI Assistant on every plan, using your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key | Apple Intelligence Writing Tools and Image Playground on Apple Silicon Macs | Free plan: one sentence gives a complete design; Pro adds editing by chat | AI Website Generator drafts the outline and page text; Magic Box builds widgets from a description | AI Assistant, paid with Pinegrow credits or a key of your own | AI site builder produces a whole site from a prompt |
| Code access | Free HTML, CSS and JavaScript export from the app; Bootstrap 5 blocks; Code Editor for block and page code on paid plans | Tailwind CSS output; code pages for HTML, PHP and JavaScript | Bootstrap 5 output; code export with a paid licence | Generates real HTML and CSS; Pro exports the whole site | Standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript; editing is visual-first | Code-first: plain HTML and CSS with Tailwind or Bootstrap, edited visually or as code | Exports code on paid workspace plans only |
| Publishing | A local folder, GitHub Pages, or FTP/FTPES on any plan; free mobirisesite.com subdomain | FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, a local folder, or Realmac's Elements Hosting | To your own hosting, or export, with a paid licence | Hosting with SSL and a custom domain on Pro | Built-in FTP, FTP with TLS or SFTP, or export to disk; no hosting included | SFTP, GitHub, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or its own Pinegrow Online | Webflow hosting; elsewhere only through code export |
Collected on 13 October 2026 from the pricing pages, documentation and release notes of each vendor. All amounts are USD as displayed there: Mobirise and RapidWeaver per year, Blocs one-off with tax, Sitely per year or one-time, Pinegrow per user per year, 8B AI and Webflow per month on yearly billing. Prices can depend on your country and sales come and go, so confirm the figures with each vendor first.
Mac-only apps, cross-platform apps and browser builders
RapidWeaver Elements, Blocs and Sitely are written for Apple systems alone. Mobirise and Pinegrow ship a separate build for each operating system, while Webflow and 8B AI need nothing installed. Whichever Mac website builder you pick, visitors get an ordinary website; the difference shows up in your own working day.
How the app feels
A web design app for Mac that targets macOS alone tends to lean on its habits; Blocs, for example, responds to Force Touch with haptic feedback. Cross-platform apps look alike on every system, which helps if you also sit at a PC.
Changing computers
With a Mac-only app, a move to a Windows laptop means learning a new tool. Mobirise and Pinegrow install on Windows and Linux too.
Paying to publish
Beyond a trial, the Mac-only apps in the table need a paid licence to put a site online: Blocs once, RapidWeaver yearly, Sitely either way. Mobirise publishes to your own host on its free plan.
Chip support
Look for native Apple Silicon support before you buy. Blocs is a universal app, Pinegrow and Mobirise offer one download per chip, RapidWeaver names both chips, and Sitely doesn't say.
Working without Wi-Fi
Desktop apps keep editing on a train or in a hotel room. Browser builders need a connection for each change you make.
iPad and iPhone
Sitely and Blocs have native iPad apps, and Blocs an iPhone one. Mobirise has an Android app but none for iOS; on an iPad you open the browser builder instead.
On a PC instead? See the Windows version of this guide. For a closer look at what keeps working without a connection, read about the offline website builder.
Install Mobirise on a Mac
Setup takes four short steps. The only decision is which of the two builds to download.
Check your chip
Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. A chip named Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4 means the Apple Silicon build; an Intel processor means the Intel build.
Get the matching .dmg
Both disk images, about 134 MB each, are on history.mobirisesite.com together with the release history. Version 6.1.12 is the newest.
Drag it to Applications
Double-click the downloaded file, drag the Mobirise icon into your Applications folder, and launch it from there or from Launchpad.
Start a project
Create a site, choose the free basic theme and add blocks. A site you generated in Mobirise AI can come into the app through Import by Link.
What the Mac app gives you
These are the features a Mac owner uses day to day, as listed in the official version history and help pages.
Editing with no connection
Pages, previews and installed blocks all work on a flight or in a café with patchy Wi-Fi. You reconnect only to publish, use AI or fetch new themes.
Phone, tablet and desktop previews
Flip the editor between three screen widths. Blocks are responsive, so there is no second phone layout to maintain.
Blocks you configure
Drop a block onto the page, type over its text and swap its images. Its parameters then set the gaps around it, its background, the elements it shows and its column count.
Bootstrap 5 underneath
Every theme is built on Bootstrap's grid and classes. The paid plans include the Code Editor, for rewriting the markup and styles of single blocks or whole pages.
Publishing from the desktop
Send sites by FTP or FTPES to the host you already pay for, push them to GitHub Pages, or write them to a folder. There's no cap on how many you publish.
AI when you're online
Write a short brief in whatever language you use, or hand it a sketch or a screenshot to work from. Each of the four designs is generated for your project, which is how you create a unique website on a Mac without a blank page. Regenerate gives more variants without using up attempts.
Lighter images
Pictures are converted to WebP automatically, a format that usually produces smaller files than JPEG or PNG.
Type and structure
Pick the heading tag a title should use, justify text, and try the extra fonts in the Style Editor. Clone Block copies a finished section in one step.
Keyboard access
Recent versions add a visible focus outline, so people who move around with the Tab key can see which element is selected.
The browser builder runs the same engine, which means a draft started there can continue in the app. Read how the AI website generator builds those drafts.
Who Mobirise suits on a Mac, and who should pick another app
A good fit
- Mac owners who want free software and their site files on their own disk
- MacBook users who edit away from reliable Wi-Fi
- Freelancers who hand over client sites through FTP or GitHub Pages
- People who move between a Mac and a Windows or Linux computer
- Beginners who would rather combine designed blocks than lay out every page from scratch
Look elsewhere if
- You want software made for macOS alone, with Mac-specific touches; Blocs and RapidWeaver Elements are built that way
- You do most of your design work on an iPad; Sitely and Blocs have iPad apps, and Mobirise runs there only in the browser
- You need to edit an HTML site you already have; Mobirise works only with projects made in Mobirise, while Pinegrow can open other sites
- You want to drop elements anywhere on the page or keep a separate phone layout; every Mobirise block resizes itself for the screen
- You expect a custom domain on the builder's own hosting for free; the free plan uses a branded subdomain
Mac web design FAQ
Is there free web design software for Mac?
Yes. Mobirise is free whether the site is personal or commercial: the app includes a basic theme and 200+ blocks, lets you make as many sites as you want, and publishes them to hosting you choose. Blocs offers a free edition too, though it can't export or publish, while RapidWeaver Elements, Sitely and Pinegrow give you a trial instead.
Does Mobirise run on Apple Silicon?
Yes. One build targets Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3 and M4) and a second one targets Intel Macs; either needs macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later. About This Mac in the Apple menu tells you which chip you have.
What replaced iWeb?
Nothing official: Apple stopped iWeb years ago without a direct successor. Former users now pick between Mac-only apps such as Sitely, Blocs and RapidWeaver Elements, cross-platform ones such as Mobirise, and builders that run in a browser. If you liked dropping finished parts onto a page, a block-based builder feels closest.
Can I use it offline on a MacBook?
Yes. Once the app is installed, editing, previewing and every installed theme and block work with Wi-Fi switched off. You need to reconnect for AI, for publishing, for logging in, and to fetch updates or new themes.
Is coding knowledge required?
No. Pages are built from ready-made blocks whose text, images and settings you change visually. If you are comfortable with markup and stylesheets, paid plans add the Code Editor for working on the code of blocks and pages directly.
Can I publish to my own host?
Yes, whichever plan you're on, free included. Upload by FTP or FTPES to your server, publish them as a GitHub Pages site, or export them into a folder and upload them yourself. There is no limit on sites published this way.
Is Mobirise a native Mac app?
It installs as a desktop app, built once for Apple Silicon and once for Intel, but it isn't exclusive to the Mac: the same engine runs on Windows, Linux and in the browser. If software written only for macOS matters to you, look at RapidWeaver Elements, Blocs or Sitely.
What is the best website builder for Mac?
The answer changes with your workflow. For a free app whose files you keep, Mobirise; for a Mac-only app bought once, Blocs; for designing on an iPad as well, Sitely; for hand-editing code, Pinegrow; for a hosted builder in Safari, Webflow. The comparison table on this page lists prices and limits for each.
Is there an iPad or iPhone version?
There is no iOS app, although Mobirise does have one for Android. On an iPad or iPhone you open the browser builder at a.mobirise.com, where you can generate a site with AI and edit it. Sitely and Blocs are the tools in this comparison with native iPad apps.
What happens to my sites if I stop paying?
Your published sites stay online, and the builder simply drops back to the free version. First orders are also covered by a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Put Mobirise on your Mac
Download the build for your chip and start a site with no connection, or open the builder in Safari first and move to the app later. Both run one engine.