okay - I know that title kinda says "ouch" - but, I could not think of any other way to word it so it would grab your attention. I'm not trying to be a jerk or to bash Xara. I have owned every version since 2.0 and use it ALL THE TIME to do my graphics and such. I even did a few websites with it and have a client right now who has a website in Xara.

= PLEASE SET ASIDE YOUR PITCHFORK AND LET ME EXPLAIN = I would really like some honest feedback so I will hone my Xara skills again...

So, I have 2-3 websites where the client knows about Xara and specifically asked me to do it with Xara so it will be "responsive" and work on mobile devices. This is true, but so will Wordpress.

Anyway - I have been spending a lot of time with Wordpress recently and fallen in love with the fact that the "content" is separate from the "design" - this allows me to dump all the content in the site WHILE I'm thinking about the look. Then, I can start playing with themes and layouts. If the client (or I) hate it - BAM - I just swap in another template.

I decided to redo my own website in Xara Pro X11 just to remind myself of the strengths of Xara. Yes, I can do pixel perfect design. Yes, if I had the idea in my head I could probably drag it out on the screen pretty darn fast. My "writer's block" is that in the back of my head I know I could spend hours messing with this and then not like the template - then what? I guess I could copy/paste all the content over to another design easy enough...

I have a pretty good toolbox of Wordpress add-ons now (Beaver Builder, Layers Pro, Micro-themer, etc). It's hard to let go of those.

Let's just take a simple example.

I want to have a page that shows the four types of hosting that I do and what the prices / features are... in Wordpress there is a widget I just drag on the page and fill it with the specs. DONE.
In Xara - I haven't seen that... so, I guess I can graphically design one...

So, the question is - for those of you who regularly build websites with Xara -

Why is it your chosen tool?
Are your clients happy with the results?
What happens a year later when they want a new look?
Why did you NOT use Wordpress (or Wix, Weebly, etc etc etc)?

Like I said - I'm looking for some honest feedback so I can get myself in a positive mindset to do these sites because my first gut reaction is to try and convince the clients why they should NOT use Xara and do it in Wordpress instead.