Build apps · Your App Cloud
How to build a website for your next idea
Work out whether your idea needs one page or several, give each page one visitor question, and publish from Studio on an Exepad address. Connect your own domain on Pro.
Built around a purpose
From a one-line idea to pages a stranger understands.
For anyone with an idea, a service or a community project and no site yet, who can't tell whether it needs one page or five. If you already know you want a single page, a landing page or a personal site, the narrower guides below go further.
For illustration: a free fix-it clinic that meets on the second Saturday of each month in a community hall in Sacramento, California. Volunteers repair lamps, bikes, clothing and small appliances. You have a paragraph about the idea and a list of what the fixers accept and decline. You also have the hall's address, parking notes, six photos from a trial session and an email address for questions.
A four-page site on an Exepad address: a home page that says what the clinic is and when it meets, a list of what fixers accept and decline, a page for volunteers and a contact page. Each page answers one question and ends with one next step.
This site fits a one-page site: a section for each visitor question, photos and an email address people write to. Several pages at their own addresses, a form that saves volunteer offers or an email to you when one arrives would make it an app, and a custom domain needs Pro. Free puts one one-page site live, with no expiry. Several pages, saved data, sign-in or email need Go or Pro to go live. See pricing
Name the visitor and the one next step
Write down who arrives and what they should do before leaving. The clinic has two visitors: someone holding a broken lamp, who should turn up on the right Saturday, and a handy neighbor, who should offer to fix. Two visitors with different next steps is the usual sign that one page won't be enough.
Give each page one question to answer
List the questions in the visitor's own words, then group them. Home answers what this is, when and where. What we fix answers whether a toaster or a bike with a bent wheel qualifies. Volunteer answers how much time it takes and what to bring. Contact holds the email address. A question with no page is a gap, and a page with no question can go.
Write the words and choose the photos yourself
Draft each page in plain sentences before you open Studio, including the dull facts: the date, which door of the hall to use, parking, and what the clinic won't repair. Pick photos you took or have permission to use, and write one line saying what each one shows.
Describe the site in Studio and read every page
Paste the page list and your text into Studio, and say how the site should read, such as friendly and plain. Go through each page in the preview as a first-time visitor would. Then narrow the window to phone width and confirm the date and address appear before the first photo.
Try the address on a few neighbors first
Publish, then send the Exepad address to three or four people who haven't heard the idea. Ask them what the clinic is and when it meets. Fix the pages behind any wrong answer and publish again. Print the address on flyers last, and on Pro connect your own domain before you do.
Scope the first version
What a first version includes.
A home page with a one-line offer
A sentence a stranger could repeat, such as free repairs for small household items on the second Saturday of each month. Below it sit the next date, the hall and a link to each other page.
Pages built around questions
Two to four pages, each answering one question. What we fix, for example, answers what can I bring. Material that fits no question waits for a later version.
The limits in plain view
What the clinic declines, such as gas appliances or phones with swollen batteries, listed where people see it before they carry something across town.
A contact route that matches your plan
As a one-page site, the email address in the contact section and the footer. As an app with data, a short form that saves each volunteer's name, skills and the Saturdays they can do.
A title and a summary for each page
Its own browser-tab title and one-sentence description, so a bookmark or a search listing shows whether it points to What we fix or to Volunteer.
A footer people actually check
The next date, the hall's address, the email address and the day the site was last updated.
Test it in the preview
Before you share it.
- Click every link on every page, including the header and footer. Links to a page you renamed while editing, such as Services turned into What we fix, are the usual breakage.
- Send a test through the contact route from an account that isn't yours: write to the listed address or, if the site has a form, submit it and confirm that the saved entry and the email you receive both carry the name and skills.
- Read each page's title in the browser tab. Every page should name itself; four tabs that all show only the clinic's name mean the titles need work.
- Make the window as narrow as a small phone. The date and address should still sit above the first photo, and no text or button should run off the edge.
- Check that each photo has a description a screen reader can announce, such as a volunteer rewiring a table lamp, not a file name.
- Show the home page to someone for five seconds, then hide it and ask what the clinic offers and when the next one is. If they can't say, rewrite the first line before you touch the design.
Together in your app cloud
The pieces behind the possibility.
Choose the models and services that support the experience you want to create.
File storage
A home for your documents and media
Database
Keep data and context for apps and agents
Email
Keep conversations moving
Security
Secure every connection
Shape the details
Make it work for your world.
- Facts that change tend to live in several places. The next date sits on the home page, in the footer and on a flyer. Keep a note of where each one appears and change them together.
- Anything on a public page can be read and copied by anyone. List a separate email address for the clinic, not your personal one. Ask volunteers for a phone number only after you have met them.
- Photos from a trial session show faces and sometimes homes or license plates. Ask the people pictured before you publish, and crop out anything you would not want linked to the clinic.
- Launch with the pages you can fill today. A home page and a contact page are enough to start; add the volunteer page when you need volunteers, not because the menu looks short.
A little more context
Good questions.
Which kind of site does my idea need?
Count the visitors and their next steps. One visitor with one action fits a single page. An offer with an end date fits a landing page. When the work is the proof, build a portfolio; when you are the subject, a personal site. Several audiences, like the clinic's visitors and volunteers, need several pages. The guides below cover three of these shapes, and the Explore websites link below lists the rest.
Can I publish it on Free?
Yes, as one page: the site shows information in sections, and people reach you at an email address or phone number you list. Free puts one one-page site live on an Exepad address. Several pages, saving what people send through a form, emailing you when someone writes or sign-in for volunteers make it an app, which needs a paid plan to go live.
Do I need my own domain?
Not to start. The site publishes on an Exepad address you can share once it is live. Custom domains are a Pro feature. Connect a domain you own when the idea's name is settled, and print it on flyers only after it works.
Can a website grow into an app?
Yes, one piece at a time. The clinic could add a form where people describe the broken item before they come, then a list the fixers use to claim repairs. Each of those keeps records, so decide who sees them through the access you describe for each collection. Add one when a real need shows up, not at launch.
Explore Pricing for plans, included capabilities, and usage details.
Start from what you have
Bring the file you already use.
Keep exploring.
Your ideas, up and running
Your next idea has a home.
Build an app. Run an agent. Make it yours.
Start building