Update: 2025 18.0.0.263

[Karlis]

Today we are slowly releasing WeBuilder, Rapid PHP, HTMLPad and Rapid CSS 2025. We will continue work on updating 2025 and fixing any issues for the years to come.

More announcements, updates and notifications will come in the next few weeks. We want the initial release be silent in order to spread the traffic evenly. This is why version checking might not reveal that there is a new version yet.

What's new?

Generally:
https://www.webuilderapp.com/whatsnew2025.php

Experimental, but game-changing AI
In-house we are using AI all the time, every day. We believe, it is a major breakthrough in the programming industry. So the new version has integration with AI chat, but there are some notes:
* Technology is new, it will contain bugs
* AI is not perfect, it may produce wrong answers sometimes
* We rely on ChatGPT currently. Version 3.5 works well and is very fast. Version 4.0 works well, but sometimes is rather slow, becauseo of OpenAI API slowness
* AI is a paid service, but we are including some free service credit out of our own pocket
* When you buy a license, you will get a lot of free credits included (for hundreds of requests) with your license key
* For trial version, the only way to get free credits is to create a free Blumentals Software account (it will be optional with normal paid version), and it includes limited amount
More about AI: https://www.webuilderapp.com/ai.php

Windows 10 or later recommended

Turns out, some of the new technologies, namely, Chromium (latest Chrome integration that runs also some other features) are not compatible with older Windows, so the setup file will work only on Windows 10, 11 or later.

But there is a solution for users of older Windows versions:
https://www.webuilderapp.com/support-answer.php?tid=126

Buying and Upgrading

According to our upgrade policy, customers who bought the old version 6 months prior this release today are eligible for a free upgrade. Also everybody with a valid 3-year subscription is eligible for a free upgrade. For more info, click here.

Other existing customers may upgrade for a special price (and the first 300 customers to use coupon code BEFIRST can get a 10% discount on top of the upgrade price).

This is also good time to cross-upgrade between editions e.g. HTMLPad 2022 -> WeBuilder 2025 and between licenses e.g. Personal -> Commercial.

We have kept our licensing based on one-time fees for perpetual, non-expiring license. We are one of the last companies to offer this as almost everybody else is offering only subscription-based licenses. That is why we do appreciate your each and every one purchase and upgrade very much as the financial results greatly determine the future of the product. So thank you very very much for being our customers. You are the best!

Moving from old versions to 2025

All of the settings from 2022 should be ported automatically, including interface layouts. When you uninstall your old version, make sure you choose to keep your settings during uninstall. One thing to note is that settings will not transfer from portable to normal and from normal to portable version.

To transfer settings between two portable / USB installs, please copy the settings folder from the old version over the settings folder of the new version. This is not well-tested method but generally should work.

Have questions?

Please first go through our support pages and if the question is not answered there, please contact our support team, you should get an answer within 1-2 business days or sooner. (while you are always welcome at our support mailbox, 90% of the questions are already answered and you might find your answer within seconds)