# Start from a template

Choose one of the starter designs, preview it with your own name, and know what you are getting.

For: Everyone starting a website

## Choosing a look

Eight starter designs cover the common shapes of a UK small business site: local trades, professional services, creative studios, food and hospitality, charities, portfolios and a single-page launch. They are ordinary websites, complete with an ordinary structure you can rearrange; nothing locks you into a layout.

Each template previews with your business name in it and its real pages, not a screenshot. Look at two or three pages at phone width before deciding; a design that needs no editing to look right on a phone is worth more than one clever desktop arrangement.

Walkthrough: Finding a template that fits (The template gallery)

1. **Browse by category**: Eight starters cover the common shapes of a UK small business site, from trades to charities.
2. **A real design, not a photo**: Each card opens the actual pages, so the preview is the thing you edit.
3. **Preview with your name**: Look at two or three pages at phone width before deciding.
4. **Use this look**: The design is copied into your website. Everything can be changed afterwards.

1. Start a new website and look through the categories rather than the first row.
2. Preview two or three and read a page that matters, usually the home page.
3. Choose Use this look when one feels like the business.

## What a template includes

A template brings pages, sections, placeholder wording, a font pairing, a colour palette and a matching logo idea. The wording is deliberately generic ("Dish one", "£0.00") so nothing invented ever reads as real; it is there to be typed over.

Every part of it obeys the ordinary rules: sections can be moved, deleted or duplicated; the theme can be changed; pages can be added or renamed.

Walkthrough: What arrives with a template (Starting a new website)

1. **The look and its pages**: Pages, sections, a font pairing, a palette and a matching logo idea, all as ordinary editable content.
2. **Placeholder wording**: Deliberately generic: "Dish one", "£0.00". Nothing invented reads as real, and the publish check catches leftovers.
3. **Or a drafting partner**: The AI route starts from words rather than a look, and everything it writes is a draft to review.

Note: Placeholder prices and names exist to be replaced. The publish dialog checks for the obvious ones before the site goes live.

## Changing your mind

Templates are chosen when a website is created and cannot be swapped afterwards; the site has already been built from it. If a different direction is clear quickly, start a new website from the other template and delete the first, or save the work as a template of your own first if parts of it are worth keeping.

For an organisation with several websites, templates can also be shared across client workspaces, which keeps a group's sites consistent without copying files around by hand.

Walkthrough: When the look is wrong (The template gallery)

1. **Your templates, and starters**: Starters and your own saved templates live behind these tabs at site creation.
2. **A quick decision is cheap**: Before much work exists, starting another website costs minutes, not hours.

- [ ] The template suits the business, not only the mood
- [ ] Phone width checked before building
- [ ] Placeholder wording noted for replacement
- [ ] One clear next step: start building

## Are the templates free?

All eight starters are included with every plan, trial included.

## Can I see a template as a real website?

Yes, every template has a preview link from the templates gallery, showing its pages as visitors would get them.

## Related guides

- [Start your first website](/help/getting-started/start-your-first-website)
- [Save and reuse a template](/help/templates/save-and-reuse-a-template)
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