Starting a freelance web design side business and need a proper HTML editor. Macromedia Dreamweaver is $300 and Microsoft FrontPage is $170. Both are WYSIWYG but I've heard FrontPage generates messy code.

Which one do professionals actually use? Is the price difference for Dreamweaver worth it?

Dreamweaver without hesitation. FrontPage inserts all kinds of proprietary Microsoft tags that don't render properly in non-IE browsers. The code it generates is genuinely awful.

FrontPage is fine for simple sites but the second you need clean, standards-compliant HTML, Dreamweaver is the only option. It's worth the extra $130.

If you can learn to hand-code, do that instead. HomeSite or even Notepad++ with FTP. DW is a crutch that generates bloated code. Learn the craft.