Website X5 2024.1 boosts performance, adds new payment options
Italian developer Incomedia has released Website X5 Evo 2024.1 Evo and Website X5 Pro 2024.1, a major new release of its wizard-driven, user-friendly Windows website building package.
Version 24.1 unveils a new, faster graphics engine and speeds up its FTP transfers. There’s also wider support for payment types via the program’s ecommerce platform, user interface tweaks and new style options.
Website X5’s new graphics engine is responsible for managing images and promises significant improvements to loading (45 percent faster) and saving (50 percent faster) times, while claiming to be 20 percent lighter on system resources.
The FTP engine has also been fine-tuned to deliver noticeable improvements, particularly when handling many small files. Users should find creating and removing directories more responsive too.
The app’s ecommerce platform also gains widened support for payment processors via updates to the integrated PayPal Commerce Platform. These include support for taking payments via Google Pay and Apple Pay. Customers are also given the opportunity to save their payment method for future purchases. Direct credit card payments are now supported in more countries than before.
Users also gain the ability to quickly switch their home page to another page on the site with a single click, with all links updated automatically.
Elsewhere, Website X5’s time-saving Styles feature is extended to add social buttons and defined date/time formats and styles to email templates. Users also gain the ability to customize the text link style on specific pages to improve readability.
The user interface continues to evolve with the addition of several buttons for Text Alignment, Element Placement and Shadow management. Optional Objects management has also been improved to make them readily accessible when starting a new project.
A complete list of new and changed features can be found in the program’s release notes, which also reveals added support for WOFF2 web fonts and improved support for WebP, HEIC and SVG graphic formats.
Both Website X5 Evo 2024.1 and Website X5 Pro 2024.1 are available now as free 15-day, function-limited trials for PCs running Windows 7 SP1 or later. The update is free to registered users -- new licenses cost $99.99 (Evo) and $209.95 (Pro) respectively, which includes hosting, updates and access to priority support (Pro only) for 12 months -- visit the WebSite X5 pricing page for details of what’s in each version.