A RapidWeaver alternative — on Mac and Windows

If you used RapidWeaver Classic, you already know the job: pick a theme, put your words and photos in, publish real HTML to a host you choose. PolarisFlux is that idea, rebuilt as a desktop app for Mac and Windows. Click a sentence. Type a new one. Publish. No code. No blank-page panic.

Buy once. Keep the files. The site is yours.

Stop renting your website.

PolarisFlux is a visual website builder you install. You pick a finished look — the navigation, the character, the world. You build pages by dropping Sectors: text, images, galleries, video, buttons, and more. You publish standalone HTML, or upload with built-in FTP/SFTP.

No monthly site tax. No locked dashboard. Beautiful websites. Built by you. Owned by you.

Remember when desktop website apps felt like that?

For years, theme-based builders lived on your Mac: you chose a look, dropped in content, published files you actually owned. People loved that. Then a lot of that world drifted into monthly plans, browser tabs, and “cancel and it disappears.” RapidWeaver never came to Windows. A lot of the tools that followed stayed Mac-only too.

PolarisFlux brings that idea back — and brings it to both platforms. A real app on your machine. Finished themes with character. Publish to your host. A permanent license. No subscription for the software.

You click. You change it. That is the whole idea.

Open a restaurant, a newsroom, a shop, a portfolio — already designed. Click the headline. Type yours. Drop in a photo. Flip to the phone preview. The hard design work is in the theme. You are making it yours on screen.

What went wrong with “easy” websites

Monthly, forever. A simple site becomes a bill that never stops.

Looks like everyone else. Same grids, same fonts, same “Get started” buttons.

You don’t own the files. If the platform owns the export, they own your leverage.

Mac-only walls. Too many classic theme builders locked Windows users out. RapidWeaver never shipped Windows. PolarisFlux does.

What PolarisFlux is

PolarisFlux is a theme-based RapidWeaver alternative you install on your computer. Same job RapidWeaver Classic taught you. Design locally. Publish HTML you own. Mac and Windows. Pay once.

No monthly site tax. No locked dashboard. Beautiful websites. Built by you. Owned by you.

How a site gets made

1. Pick a look. Not a blank page — a finished world. Then make it yours.

2. Add your content. Words, photos, video. Change colors and type with Theme Styles. Preview desktop, tablet, and phone before you publish.

3. Publish. Folder export or FTP to any host. The files leave with you.

One app. A whole studio of sites.

Themes are not skins. Each one is a finished look for a different kind of business. Same app. Different worlds. Every license includes Blank Canvas as a clean start; Team and Fleet add picks from the catalog. New official themes keep landing on a regular basis — and later, looks from independent theme makers too.

From playground bright to Halloween dark — and everything between.

The catalog is a range, not a single house style. At one end, DC Kids Orbit: bright, friendly, the kind of site a daycare or preschool can be proud of. At the other, DC Stranger: cinematic and eerie — the mood that makes a seasonal or Halloween page feel intentional. Between them sit restaurants, newsrooms, portfolios, corporate sites, comic-book energy, and more — each a finished world, not a skin. Same app. You pick the look that matches the job.

Who this is for

RapidWeaver users. Same job you already know. Mac and Windows. Own the HTML. Pay once.

First-timers. You have never designed a site. You can still publish one that looks intentional.

Owners who are done renting. You already built the site in your head. You want the files on your disk and the bill to stop.

People who get paid for websites. Freelancers and small studios who want a fast desktop tool for client work — install it, deliver HTML, put the site on the client’s host. A permanent license. Not another hosted account to babysit.

The unfair advantage inside the box

PolarisFlux ships with TextStyleFlux built in — warp a headline, put video inside letters, apply it back to the page. Hosted builders do not do this. It is a companion for signature moments on your site, not a second product you have to learn first.

Make themes. Share themes.

Most people will simply use the catalog — and that catalog grows. That is the point.

Designers who want to go further can build their own themes and package them for others to install. A theme developer kit is coming — documentation and tooling so independent looks can ship as installable theme packages, not locked into one vendor’s cloud.

Use the studio. Or grow it. Your call.

Who I am

I’m Dave Cantu. I am an artist — someone who has spent a lifetime making things people look at, live with, and use.

Along the way I worked as a web designer. That is how I found the classic Mac desktop theme builders: pick a look, drop in content, publish real files. I loved that idea. But that app hit the wall fast — its built-in looks were not enough for the sites I wanted to make. So I started designing and selling third-party themes for that world. Later I went deeper into murals, children’s books, shirts, and architectural signs — craft where “good enough” does not survive daylight.

PolarisFlux is the desktop theme builder I wished existed — so I created it: themes with character, click-to-edit pages, files you keep, Mac and Windows. Page entry motion, a beautiful masonry photo gallery, image and video overlays, video masks, and much more. More official themes keep coming. Independent theme makers will be able to add their own looks too. TextStyleFlux comes along inside for type that can move. The idea, the interface, and every official theme under my name are mine.

I continue to make improvements to PolarisFlux every day. The app is notarized by Apple and code-signed for Windows. You can install it today.

polarisflux.app

Where this came from

I got tired of building websites I did not own. Pay every month. Cancel the plan, and the site is gone. I also watched the easy desktop theme builders people used to love drift into subscriptions and browser tabs — and stay Mac-only while half the world works on Windows.

I had already lived on both sides of that world: making sites, and making themes when the built-in looks were not enough. So I stopped waiting for someone else to fix it. I built PolarisFlux on my own machine — the desktop theme builder I wished existed. Pick a look. Put your content in. Publish to your host. Buy once. Mac and Windows.

PolarisFlux is real software on Mac and Windows today — builds you can install, themes you can open and make yours. You are buying a license.

What you get

Licenses are permanent — not subscriptions. Tiers are about how many themes you own, not seats. Every paid license includes PolarisFlux, DC Blank Canvas, and TextStyleFlux bundled inside. Mac and Windows.

These prices are on this page only. On polarisflux.app the same licenses are higher.

Solo $39 (website $49) — the app, Blank Canvas, bundled TextStyleFlux. Team $79 (website $89) — pick any 5 themes. Fleet $109 (website $129) — all current Fleet themes. Studio Bundle $129 (website $149) — Fleet plus TextStyleFlux Pro.

How buying works

Pick a license. You pay now. You receive a download code, then receive your key and the Mac and Windows installers. Theme updates stay free for the looks you own. The app does not become a subscription.

Why I care

I still think a website should be files on a disk. A first-timer should be able to publish something beautiful. A freelancer should be able to deliver a client site without feeding another monthly platform. A RapidWeaver person should not have to rent a browser tab to keep working the way they already know.

I will not put my name on something I am not proud of. That is why PolarisFlux exists — and why I am still in it every day making it better.