Any experienced advice on Site builder programs?

[Bruce Hedge]

Using Snow Leopard and happy with that for now. Would appreciate experienced opinions regarding recommended site builder for: off-line building of several sites, looking for something that gives user better control as versus working solely within templates or being tied to a specific web host. Know zero abut "Iweb", Dreamw' C6, etc.. Any experience and advice would be truly appreciated..want to get started down the right road. Thanks