What reviewers and other members of the media are saying about Karelia and Sandvox:
Sandvox 2 web development for Mac OS X review
Appletell's Erica Marceau reviewed Sandvox in December 2011, describing how "Sandvox 2 from Karelia Software steps in to save the day." Her conclusion: "I think most people will find Sandvox 2 just perfect for their needs."
Sandvox 2 Website-Creation Software Review
MacLife Magazine, in their December 2011 issue, raved about Sandvox, giving it 4½ squares — "Excellent":
Sandvox 2 is an excellent visual website-design tool for individuals and businesses that need to create attractive sites without having to learn the HTML/CSS/JavaScript that goes into it. Its superior user experience and feature set makes Sandvox a worthy alternative to Apple's soon-to-be-obsolete iWeb.
Sandvox Web Editor: A Good iWeb Alternative [Review]
Giles Turnbull at Cult of Mac wrote a lenghthy review of Sandvox in November 2011, and awarded the application 4½ stars!
Some choice quotes:
…I suggest you take a look at Sandvox as one possible [iWeb/MobileMe] replacement.
Sandvox, made by Karelia, is a delightful little web editor for ordinary people.
Sandvox keeps things simple.
There’s a lot to discover if you keep tweaking.
…if you’re building a site to support your business, or as a long-term archive for family documents or photos, it represents pretty good value.
Read the full article, Sandvox Web Editor: A Good iWeb Alternative [Review].
Macworld UK: Sandvox 2.1.6 Review
Macworld UK gives rates Sandvox ★★★★ in their August, 2011 review:
Beginning designers, or those who want to quickly create template-based sites packed with features, should give Sandvox 2.1.4 a look.
Read the full review at Macworld UK.
IT Enquirer: Review: Sandvox 2
IT Enquirer, based in Europe, wrote in their June, 2011 review:
When Karelia started developing a new version of Sandvox they faced the obstacle of keeping the application simple enough for novices to get started quickly, yet delivering more powerful features and HTML 5 compatibility. They succeeded in making the application even less complicated to use than it already was, while delivering more power so that Sandvox can be used as a prototyping application too.
The article concludes:
Sandvox 2 costs 53.00 Euros, a ridiculously low price for what this program can do for you.
MacTech, August 2011
MacTech offers an overview of Sandvox 2 as a replacement for iWeb:
The folks at Karelia are keen to offer a more modern and fairly compatible web builder to folks like me that are ready to graduate to more robust web sites.
Mac360, August 2011
Mac360 has a nice overview of Sandvox as a replacement to Apple's iWeb:
Just point and click and re-arrange elements on a page, page after page after page. When you site is complete, simply upload it to a web server or host, and you’ve joined the world of 100 million web sites.
Sandvox for Mac: CNET Editors' Review
CNET reviewed Sandvox again in June 2009, giving it 4 stars: "Excellent".
"Overall, Sandvox is an excellent option for anyone who wants to quickly create basic but still useful and attractive Web sites."
Read the entire CNET review of Sandvox.
Software Editorial: Sandvox 1.5 Software Review (October 2008)
The Software Editorial site takes a look at Sandvox and likes what it sees, giving it a five-star award:
"I sincerely recommend that if you want a website that is attractive to the eye, and provides you with the most sought after features, but you have limited time to spend creating a website, then Karelia Sandvox is the Mac application to use. I think that in time it is going to grow into an even more sought after tool...... to me it is already."
Read the complete review at the Software Editorial site that gives Sandvox a 5 out of 5 star rating.
cnet: Sandvox: Create Web sites easily (September 2008)
Jason Parker of cnet takes a closer look at Sandvox 1.5 and likes what he finds:
There comes a time in a lot of bloggers' lives, however, when the limitations of blogging sites make them believe it's time to move on. Maybe the site's specific templates aren't up to snuff, or the process of updating your blog is too complicated, or you feel like your site looks like everyone else's. Whatever the reason may be, I came across an app recently which offers tons of flexibility and enough original templates and options to make your site both unique and easy to update.
If you're looking to take a step beyond the online Web creation tools or if you're a beginner wanting to do things your own way, check out the Sandvox trial. . . you'll find this app is a great step up from online offerings, giving you more flexibility while leaving out time-consuming processes so you can get to writing immediately.
Read the complete review on cnet's download.com feature.
macnn (November 9, 2007)
MacNN gives Sandvox 4 out of 5 stars in their review written by Rick Curran and Ilene Hoffman:
"This is a well-designed web page creation program. It is easy enough for the kids to use and is WYSIWYG, so you see what your page looks like before uploading it to your server. There are plenty of features to create an interesting site."
Read the full review on macnn.com.
TidBITS: "2006 Software Gift Ideas" (December 7, 2006)
Trying to find a gift for a friend or family member eager to share their thoughts with the world? TidBITS suggests that Sandvox is the gift to give in their annual roundup:
"Start a Web Site or Blog — If you know someone who'd like to design a simple Web site, give them the gift of getting started on the right foot. If you'll be providing tech support, the best option is probably the software you are most familiar with, but if you aren't sure which way to go, Allen Watson recommends the $50 Sandvox from Karelia. He enthused, 'If you know anyone who wants to set up a blog, family photo album, or simple-to-moderate Web site, but who does not know HTML or CSS, I recommend Sandvox. Sandvox is template-based, with nice templates, and it produces standards-compliant HTML and CSS. The standard version is all they will need; the Pro version benefits only those who know how to craft bits of HTML or JavaScript for insertion into the site. I put together a site for our church in a few days that looks great and serves all the church's needs.'"
Macs Are Great: "Sandvox Revisited: 5 Stars"
The Macs Are Great blog featured a review of Sandvox in June, and we're pleased to note that they've become even happier with the product as we've worked to fix bugs and fine-tune many of its features.
"A while back we bought a copy of Sandvox, a WYSIWYG web editor for OS X. It’s just absolutely fantastic as a layout tool, the designs included with it really pop, as George Carlin might say, and it lets me crank out a website that will work perfectly on any website anywhere in absolute minimum time. I really like Sandvox."
"... Sandvox is an absolute pleasure to use. I highly recommend it to those wanting to make a small to medium sized website of their own."
"... [T]he visual appeal of Sandvox output is great. I also like the attitude of the people at Karelia software. When I had a few crashes a couple of versions back they were fantastic at providing support. Sandvox makes designing a web site fun..."
Designing a web site should be fun, and we're gratified that so many of our customers have responded so well to Sandvox's features and user interface.
Surfbits: "Web Development Made Easy with Sandvox" (Sept 1, 2006)
Jeff Powell discusses Sandvox's many features and why it's an excellent choice for simple, elegant, and intuitive website creation:
"Sandvox is a web development tool aimed a people who want to create really attractive, standards compliant website, regardless of their technical abilities. This is a product that you could give to your mother, while at the same time, use it for your own web based projects."
"In a nutshell - despite being new to the scene, the team behind Sandvox really knows their audience and the needs of those people when it comes to the type of content they want to put online. I was pleasantly surprised to see that although the product is aimed at somewhat non-technical users, Sandvox offers enough features and ease of use that even seasoned web vets might find themselves using the application on a more frequent basis."
Read Jeff's complete review of Sandvox's features on Surfbits.
MacGeneration: "Sandvox 1.0.3" (July 24, 2006)
Support for Sandvox from Vincent Absous (en français):
"Si vous voulez ne vous occuper de rien, si vous possédez un compte .Mac, alors continuez d’utiliser iWeb. Le logiciel d'Apple. Si en revanche, vous ne possédez pas d’espace sur les serveurs d'Apple, si vous voulez avoir tout de même un droit de regard sur ce que fait le logiciel (ne serait-ce que pour choisir le nom d’un fichier!), alors optez pour Sandvox"
The full review comparing Sandvox and iWeb is available online at the MacGeneration site.
Vous et Votre Mac: "Un éditeur Web aux concepts inédits" (Summer 2006)
A review (en français) of the French version of Sandvox version 1.0.1, which concludes:
"Sandvox est un bon logiciel qui confirme avec éclat que le Mac est bien la plateforme sur laquelle on peut créer facilement de belles choses!"
Download the .pdf of the complete review.
Visit Vous et Votre Mac on the web.
thinkmac.net: Sandvox Review (July 10, 2006)
"Let's face it, not all of us have time to learn HTML and CSS to produce the kind of beautiful web pages Sandvox allows us to make. Even for those that know HTML, they may find Sandvox more convenient than hand coding. . . .
"With Sandvox, you don't need to have any background in web development to make gorgeous web pages. If you can navigate the web and you know how to type into text boxes, you can create almost anything you can conjure up from your head. This is really where Sandvox pulls ahead of iWeb and really distinguishes itself."
For the complete review, visit the thinkmac.com site.
MDJ: Mac Daily Journal Product Showcase (June 2006)
In the June 16, 2006 edition of MDJ, the product showcase featured Sandvox:
"If you like the idea of iWeb but find it lacking, you owe it to yourself to check out Sandvox."
(Paid subscription — article not available online.)
Macs Are Great!: "Sandvox — A WYSIWYG Web Editor" (June 7, 2006)
The Macs Are Great blog, written by someone who's switched from a PC to a Mac, has this to say about Sandvox:
"I’ve been using Dreamweaver for many years, and although you can do a huge number of things with web content using Dreamweaver and you do have absolute control of your code, it is also an annoyingly bug-ridden program. Once in a while I like to take a break from Dreamweaver and use a web editor that is more fun and less hassle. . . .
"The code produced by Sandvox relies very heavily on CSS, making it consistent with best practices in the industry. You can use drag and drop to quickly add graphics and other bits to your page. I was surprised and pleased to see that it will also parse RSS feeds and it lets you easily and quickly add an RSS feed. I was also pleased to find that Sandvox supports secure FTP (SFTP) for uploading your creation to a site without sending passwords in clear text the way that FTP does.
"The closest competitor to Sandvox is certainly RapidWeaver, a well established WYSIWYG HTML editor. I like Sandvox better because I don’t like the user interface of RapidWeaver at all."
MacDevCenter: "Mac OSX Website Builder Face-Off" (March 8, 2006)
Back when Sandvox was in pre-release, Giles Turnbull looked at three applications (Sandvox, iWeb, and RapidWeaver) that claim to make website building a simpler task. His verdict?
"If I had to build a fresh new website today, and I had to choose between these apps, I'd probably go for iWeb, despite its long list of annoyances. If Sandvox had already reached final release, that probably would have taken the top spot instead."
The full text of Giles' critique is available on the O'Reilly MacDevCenter site.