Incomedia's Website X5 is a simple application that's intended to get first time or amateur Web designers up and running. It's probably not fair to have expected a diverse and in-depth Web creation application that was free and worked in five easy steps, but we did, and were a little disappointed. However, Website X5 is a great beginner's tool and will help you design a site in five steps as stated.

As we've said, the Website X5 application claims, and delivers, the ability to create a Web site in five easy steps, albeit a very simple site. Stage one has you choose a style template, an underlying layout that will form the basis of your sites aesthetic. In the Smart version we tested there are only 11 of these you can choose from, with additional templates available for purchase. In Website X5 Smart you can't edit these at all, though it seems you can in the full editions. Once the template is chosen you can go about designing your header by adding text and logos in the form of images and flash animations.

The next step lets you set-up your sub-pages and give them names. That's about all that can be done, unlike the full version, which lets you hide pages or password protect them among other things. Then it's time to design those pages. Website X5 uses frames to build a page. You simply set a table or grid up and allocate text, images, flash animations, video or audio to each square of the grid and off you go. Once each square in the grid has a purpose you need to add in the content, but that's about it.

Step four allows you to tweak a few additional aesthetic features, such as the text font, size and colour, the menu colour and border thickness, as well as the scroll bar colour, but it's quite limited. Step five is just the export feature, allowing you to export your site to the HDD or directly upload to FTP, so this is your last chance to spruce up the site (though it's possible to go back after the export and update stuff). The differences between our Smart version and the full versions seem to be vast and you'll find that there's little individuality you can give your site using this version. It is easy, though.

What Website X5 Smart can't do is acceptable thanks to its attractive price tag – it's free. The software can be downloaded and installed from Incomedia's Web site for nothing, making it an easy and cost free way to get a feel for the program. Compact and Evolution versions are also available to purchase. If you're looking to get a simple site running and don't care to fuss over it, then you may be very comfortable with this software.