I built a few sites but I code using Notepad++. I start with a free template if I can. I recently tried BlueGriffon which is free. I use a mix of html, php and css with mysql if a database is needed (password and session management for example) I also have an apache server with php and mysql running as needed on my desktop pc. It allows you to see what the page is like without making any changes when you put it up on a server. I hear Dreamweaver is great but I can't afford it. The biggest hassle is putting in all the code for the different browsers. Firefox, IE, Chrome, Opera etc all seem to need different codes to get the same result. Dreamweaver I think adds those autiomatically.