Creating a new website

A new website takes two decisions: what to call it, and whether to start from a theme or from nothing at all. Everything else (pages, styling, a domain) comes later. When you press the button at the end you land straight in the builder with a website that is already online on its own address.

Create website with AI, next to it, is a different route. See Having AI build your website.

Nothing here costs money. Every new website starts on a 30-day trial with everything switched on. You only choose a subscription when you want to keep it, or want your own domain on it. See Your subscription.

Step 1: Website details

Website domain name. At least 4 characters. As you type, the line underneath shows what your website's address will be: yourname.free.clickwhale.com. Spaces become hyphens, accents are stripped and anything that isn't a letter, digit, hyphen or underscore is dropped, so Bakkerij De Vries becomes bakkerij-de-vries.

Check availability tells you straight away whether that address is still free. It's optional (creating the website checks the same thing), but it saves you filling in the rest and being sent back.

Nothing is being registered here, despite what the screen says. The field is labelled Website domain name and a successful check reads "The domain is available and can be registered", but no domain is bought at this point. What you're claiming is your free ClickWhale address. Your own domain is a separate step later, on a paid subscription. See Connecting a domain.

Choose the main language of the website. This is the language your content is written in, and it becomes the website's default language. Eight are offered:

You can add more languages to the website afterwards, but this one is the default and is not easily changed later. See Multiple languages.

Step 2: Select theme

Empty project gives you a site with no templates and no pages: Start fresh and create your own templates. Choose this if you want to design everything yourself, or if you're following Getting started and want to build along.

Any other tile is a theme: a complete website (templates, pages, styling and placeholder content) copied into your new site, which you then edit like anything else. Each tile shows a preview image, how many pages the theme has, and a few tags. Some themes also have a View details link that opens a longer description in a new tab.

The theme is copied, not linked. Once your website is created it is entirely yours, and a later update to the theme doesn't reach you.

What happens when you press Create website and start editing

There's no confirmation screen. ClickWhale creates the website, sets up its database, installs the theme if you chose one, makes you its Owner, and sends you straight into the builder.

At that moment you have:

• A website in your My websites list, carrying a blue Trial badge.
• A free address it is already reachable on. See Your free address.
• A 30-day trial that started today. Not from your first publish, not from your first visitor: from the day the website was created.

Nothing is visible to the public until you publish. See Publishing.

Reading the dashboard

My websites groups your sites into three sections, in this order:

Each section with something in it gets a Filter box, which narrows the list as you type.

A badge in front of the name tells you the state at a glance: Trial, Expired, Offline, or a red V1. There is no badge on a website whose subscription is simply running.

A red V1 badge means an older website. It opens in the previous ClickWhale builder, not the one the rest of these articles describe. On its account page it still lists and pays its invoices, but domains, email and deleting it aren't offered there.

Clicking the name opens the website's own page: subscription, invoices, domains, email and access. Clicking Edit on the right goes straight to the builder.

Deleting a website

On the website's own page, Delete website at the top. You have to be the Owner, and you have to confirm with your own account password. It removes the website's pages, content and database, and it cannot be undone.

Common issues