Doesn’t look too bad 
Hi Cecily, if you do decide to launch into RW, the first thing you will need (to get your designer freedom) is the Stacks plugin from Yourhead Software. This is what all the frameworks are based on, and is worth it if you intend to build for clients.
Beyond that, Source (free) will give you a lot of design possibilities (if you decide to go with a framework).
On another note, RW is not a CMS platform. So you would need another plugin for this if your clients want to have a handle on their content. This is perhaps where a difference would begin? in buying the stacks you need to create site functionality (Galleries, Blogs, CMS etc). But as I’m not a SquareSpace user, I don’t know what is included in their package.
Wishing you good luck.
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And it’s only 51 files.
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That’s a lovely looking site - great use of space.
The only thing I have to say, apart from acknowledging your skill with the base product, is that you have gone ahead and come up with your own definition of a what a responsive site in 2020 means. Not a criticism, because I was most unclear. Lets see where an average 2020 client (based on my experiences over last year or so) might take this…up for a bit of role play?
- The site looks lovely but how can I add my own content? How do I log in?
- Show me the blog. How do I update it from my phone?
- Where is my booking calendar and how can people send me money?
- I’d like a nice photo gallery where I can upload pictures every week.
- Can I change the layout?
- On the contact form, I’d like to ask people which services they are interested in and if they say ‘consulting’ I’d like to request some additional information. Oh and can I have all the contacts from the form written into my Google sheets?
Now, without add-ons, most likely starting with Stacks… what can you offer?
I know that you have many years of experience with Rapidweaver and designing sites, Rob 
and my points are not intended to rub anyone up the wrong way. I’m just trying to get some light onto the fact that in 2020, the layout, design and integration tooling that comes with Rapidweaver is simply not good enough. Even to integrate some of the features I’ve listed here in our little role-play could be done; the html page type could be used to get more advanced users there… but no syntax highlighting or code completion? That’s the jabbing a cougar with a sharp stick I mean…
The OPs question went to that place (for me at least) and I didn’t care for the way the OP was treated, perhaps as a consequence of that or by daring to invite a modern day comparison.
I love Rapidweaver as much as anyone here. I just want to see it’s potential realised so that it’ll still be around two years from now and not be a laughing stock.
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All fair points, but many of your feature requests are possible if you’re building your own site with vanilla RW for a one off cost of £80.00.
Add Stacks (and just use the included stacks like columns etc.) for £50.00 and you’ve got an even better platform for building simple websites.
That said, I must have a proper ‘go’ at Squarespace one day.
Rob
Responsive web design, originally defined by Ethan Marcotte in A List Apart, responds to the needs of the users and the devices they’re using. The layout changes based on the size and capabilities of the device. For example, on a phone users would see content shown in a single column view; a tablet might show the same content in two columns.
It is important to understand that responsive web design isn’t a separate technology — it is a term used to describe an approach to web design or a set of best practices, used to create a layout that can respond to the device being used to view the content.
- Mozilla Developer Network
What Is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.
- Smashing Magazine
Responsive web design ( RWD ) is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. Recent work also considers the viewer proximity as part of the viewing context as an extension for RWD.[1] Content, design and performance are necessary across all devices to ensure usability and satisfaction.
- Wikipedia
Now who came up with their own definition?
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Ok… maybe I did, but that’s beside the point. Indulge me a little further…
Lets take the word “responsive” out of it completely. Cancel it out for both of us on each side of the equation, if you will. In fact, I openly regret putting that in there because, you know, responsive pages? Even RW out the box can do that. For that matter ‘Text Edit’ can ALSO do responsive web design out of the box too.
That done… we are now down to “site”. If you will, accept that much of what I bulleted in my response to Rob constitutes the sort of things an average sized client might expect from their web design tool in 2020. At least… that’s been my experience over the last few years. Innovative solutions and integrations are popping up all over the place and customers, more and more realise whats possible out there.
Now… where does that get the vast majority of average sized Rapidweaver users using the out of the box RW offering?
I’m really not trying to twist or pivot here… I’m trying to illustrate that without the Stacks plugin, and possibly a number of other paid for plugins… the average user is going to have a tough time and my personal view is that RMS are not pushing the innovation/value that their clients deserve. Pinegrow is now shipping with GreenSock animations… Divi comes with Woo integration and so much more… I want Rapidweaver to keep up and remain relevant. If it doesn’t, I bet there will be more waves of “trolls” asking about what Rapidweaver can’t do. Upsetting thought huh?
I can’t believe you quoted definitions of responsive web design to me. Sheesh. I need a lie down.
Welcome back to the RW Community @Skeskali. Your clients seem very similar to my clients. I made a change a couple of years ago and it was the best change for my business. We sell (almost exclusively now) Fully Managed Websites. We build them in RW and host them with Chillidog Hosting (part of the RW Community @barchard).
I charge a monthly fee that includes, design, development, updates, maintenance, hosting, integrations with 3rd parties, online menus (for restaurants), etc… Damn near anything you can think of so a small, local business doesn’t have to think about their website. Every couple of years, we redesign the site to keep it up to visual standards so our clients’ sites don’t look stale.
It was a lot of work to get this to a good place, as I would sell a site for $3500 and then I went to selling sites for approx $200/month. Fast forward a couple of years, and now I don’t even want to sell a site outright. Plus, I started hiring people last year and built a roadmap for hiring (add xxx RW sites = 1 hire).
As far as design, RW is limitless. You can create anything you can imagine and the RW Community offers advice, opinions, stacks, example files, writes code to help you, damn near anything you can think of that a small web design company needs 
.
Because of the reliability of my hosting company, stability of the RW stacks, and the ever evolving RW platform, I have built my business around RW and feel pretty secure about the time it takes for updates, maintenance, etc… Secure enough that I can offer a fair, monthly cost to small, local businesses that provide a solid customer base for a small web dev company.
Good luck with your decision.
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That was like a business plan all wrapped up in one post! Well done building a sustainable business model.
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Hmmm, why would I do that?
disingenuous
Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating., Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf. Usage Problem Unaware or uninformed; naive.
-Wordnik
Who is Unaware or uninformed?
That’s what I was replying too.
Is RW better with Stacks? Of course, I always tell new users that should be their first addon to purchase. I also recommend they go slow at buying addons, as all of us know you can spend a lot of money on stacks, themes, and frameworks quite quickly. And many of them will never get used.
But Rob(@robbeattie) just showed us that “Yes, Rapidweaver can produce a responsive site without add-ons”, in just 35 minutes, and it doesn’t look bad at all. I see a lot of local business sites all the time that look much worse.
Many of the hundreds of millions of active websites are simple sites like Rob did. If a small business is just wanting a basic online “brochure” with simple contacts then out of the box will fill there needs.
I’d love to see what you can do with “Text Edit” in 35 minutes.
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Rapidweaver and it’s addons can be compared to many other software products… it isn’t about what the software can do, rather what do you need it to do. RW can accomplish virtually everything. It is important to keep those two ideas in mind. Only worry about what you need RW to do today while knowing it will probably have an addon to do whatever you want to do tomorrow. Only buy what you need!
I don’t care for subscription software… unfortunately in one form or another that is what all software is. RW has changed little when you consider how long it has been around. Addons are another story entirely.
I want to host my own site… so SS wouldn’t work for me. If SS is good way for you to handle your current project then use it. Do what you think is best…
I wish you the best with your needs.
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Let’s get back to the original question. If there is nothing constructive left then leave it alone. The near personal attacks are not necessary.
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Yes, of course. I’m sorry if I became overly inflammatory; It seems I have views on the RW Core product, and its shortcomings which I’m incapable of communicating without it becoming destructive. No harm intended and I hope the OP achieves their goals however it comes out.
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Hi @Skeskali
Thanks for the post. You’re not the first and will definitely not be the last to ask similar questions. It’s good to ask and I think the responses have been great on both sides - I even learned a little bit today - good job to all !
And Cecily, if you have specific questions, please post and I’m sure someone here will give you great advise and get you up and running.
Good luck with your business.
Bill
Stack-Its
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Hello @anugyan, visited your site and noticed that you have the language change button (EN/DE). Did you usede a specific stack for that or you build 2 « separate » sites one in EN & one in DE and you set up the proper links for each page? Thanks for your reply.
Rgds,
Boris
Hi @Balmidor, I used the RWML stacks for a while, but ended up so confused when it came to editing content as there were so many stacks on the page, that in the end I decided to build 2 sites and link them in the navigation as you can see.
Thanks @Flash. I sat down one day and started doing the math. If I had a Fully Managed Website customer base and built it to 40 customers at $200/month. The gross revenue would be $96k, with a smaller overhead to maintain. I would be rebuilding a site every 3 weeks. 30 customers would generate $72k, rebuilding a site once per month. Easily manageable and days would be spent performing updates, and design/developing 1 site at a time.
In order to generate the same revenue with a traditional model, I would have to sell and build 27 sites or 20 sites (respectively) per year at $3,500 each. With much higher overhead expenses.
The new model works better (imho) for someone that wants to build a freelance business or grow with employees. I’m kind of a hybrid of the two with new, local customers I sell a FMW, and larger, more regional customers, I sell a site outright and keep a maintenance contract to maintain/update their site.
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