Guides

Publish for the first time

1. Open your site in the studio and choose Publish at the top right.
2. Check the address. Your site gets a free address when you first publish.
3. If your site saves information, like bookings or orders, pick a site type (see below).
4. Choose Publish. Mousepad runs a security check, builds your site, and puts it online. It takes a minute or two, and you can close the window and keep working.

If the security check finds a serious problem, fix it from the Security check tab with Fix with AI, or confirm you understand each risk to publish anyway.

Pick a site type

Sites that save information get a type when you first publish, and every limit belongs to that one site. A site that doesn't save anything is published as Basic and never falls asleep.

• Basic: falls asleep when nobody is visiting and wakes on the next visit. Free includes 2, Plus 3, and Pro 10.
• Standard: always on, with more room for data, files, and visitors. Plus includes 1 and Pro 5. Extra Standard sites are $15/month each.
• Enterprise: always on, with twice a Standard site's memory. Pro only, $75/month per site.

You can change a site's type later in the Publish dialog. Moving down needs the site's data to fit the smaller type. Nothing is ever deleted to make it fit.

Publish changes, or go back

Changes stay in the studio until you publish again. Choose Publish, then Publish update. The Deployments list shows every publish, and Activate puts an earlier one back online.

Unpublish takes a site offline and frees its slot. Your project and its data stay.

Use your own domain (Plus and Pro)

1. If you don't have a domain yet, buy one from any seller, like GoDaddy, Squarespace, or Namecheap.
2. In the Publish dialog, or in Settings → Domains, choose Connect a domain and type it in. Most sites use the www version, like www.yourbusiness.com.
3. Mousepad shows two records to add where you bought the domain, with steps for your provider. Copy each one exactly as shown.
4. Mousepad checks for the records on its own, then secures your domain with HTTPS. That usually takes 5 to 30 minutes, and you can close the window while it works.
5. Optional: forward the address without www to your www address, so both work. Mousepad shows how.

Using Cloudflare? Set the records to DNS only (the grey cloud), or your domain can't connect.

Describe how you take bookings

Tell Mousepad what people can book, how long each one takes, what it costs, who does it, and your opening hours. Plain words are fine.

For example: “Online booking for appointments: customers pick a service and a free time from our real hours, get a confirmation, and we see the day's bookings in a staff view.”

What Mousepad builds

• A booking page that only offers free times inside your opening hours.
• A confirmation for the customer once they book.
• A staff area behind sign-in where you see the day's bookings.
• Your hours kept in one place, so they match everywhere on your site.

Bookings are saved in your app's Cloud, which also lets people sign in. If Mousepad asks “Let your app save information?”, say yes.

Try it before you publish

1. Book a time in the preview, the way a customer would.
2. Use Sign in as… in the preview to switch to a sample staff or owner account, and check the booking arrived.
3. Ask for changes in the chat, like longer appointments or a break at lunch.

Sample accounts work on your published site too, so remove them in Cloud → Users once you don't need them.

Add more when you're ready

• A deposit when someone books, paid through Stripe (see Take payments with Stripe).
• Class or event sign-ups.

How payments work

Mousepad uses Stripe Checkout. Customers pay on Stripe's secure checkout page, so card details never touch your site, and the money goes to your own Stripe account.

Your app marks an order or booking as paid only after Stripe confirms the payment.

Set it up

1. Make a Stripe account if you don't have one.
2. Ask in the chat, for example “Let customers pay for their order online.”
3. If Mousepad asks “Let your app save information?”, say yes. Payments need your app's Cloud to keep orders.
4. When the card “Add your Stripe secret key” appears, paste the key from your Stripe account and choose Save. Mousepad may also ask for a Stripe webhook secret, which lets your app confirm each payment.

Your keys are kept in your app's Cloud. Only your app can use them; the AI never sees them. Until you add them, your app shows that payments aren't connected yet.

Test before you go live

Stripe gives every account test keys. Add those first and pay with Stripe's test cards to try the whole flow without real money. When it works, replace them with your live keys in Cloud → Secrets.

Some customers still like to pay in person. Ask for “pay at pickup” or “pay in person” as a choice next to paying online.

Pick a site type for your shop

A site that takes payments saves orders, so you choose its type when you first publish. Basic falls asleep when nobody is visiting and wakes on the next visit. Standard, on Plus and Pro, is always on.

Built in from the first draft

Every site Mousepad builds is written to be found. There's nothing to set up.

• A page title and description with your business name, your city, and what you do.
• Your business details in the format search engines and AI assistants read (schema.org local business data): name, address, phone, opening hours, and links.
• Pages made for phones first, since most local customers find you on one.

Give Mousepad your real name, address, hours, and prices. Until you do, it uses realistic placeholders and tells you which ones to replace.

What Mousepad's AI SEO does

• Researches the keywords and local searches your customers use.
• Shapes your pages to show up in search results and in AI answers.
• Fixes technical problems, like sitemaps, broken links, and missing page details.
• Makes your pages load faster.
• Keeps watching your site's search health over time.

Keep improving with Growth (Pro)

1. In your site's studio, choose Growth at the top right.
2. Fill in your brief: your business, your audience, why customers choose you, your voice, and your next goal.
3. Pick a focus: Site care, Discoverability, Conversion, or Marketing. Mousepad reviews your site and writes up what to improve.
4. Choose Create site draft to turn a review into changes. Check the draft in Preview, then publish when you're happy.

Growth never publishes on its own. Reviews can run daily or weekly, and each run uses credits. Traffic and ranking numbers aren't connected yet, so reviews never claim measured results.

Make a team workspace

Your personal workspace is just for you. To build with others, make a workspace for your business.

1. Open Workspaces and choose New workspace.
2. Give it your business or team name, answer the short questions, and choose Create workspace.

Check your plan has room

• Free: just you.
• Plus: up to 3 people, you included.
• Pro: up to 10 people, you included.

Invitations that haven't been accepted yet count too. Each workspace has its own plan, which you can upgrade from its Plans and billing page.

Send an invite

1. On the workspace page, go to Members.
2. Type their email under Invite by email, pick a role, and choose Send invite.
3. They join with the same email address the invitation went to.

Pick the right role

• Viewer: sees previews, read-only.
• Editor: builds and edits apps.
• Publisher: everything an editor does, plus publishing and choosing a site's type.
• Owner: everything, plus inviting people, changing roles, and the workspace's plan and billing.

Everyone in a workspace builds with the same credits. A workspace always needs at least one owner.

What uses credits

Building and changing your site uses credits, and so do Growth reviews. People visiting your published site never use any.

• A first build of a whole site: about 8 to 12 credits.
• A change, like a new page or a new price: about 1 to 5.
• So 250 credits is about 20 new sites or more than 100 changes.

Credits that come with your plan

• Free: 20 credits when you start each month, then 10 more on each day you build, up to 50 a month. Unused free credits end with the month.
• Plus: 250 credits on each billing date.
• Pro: 1,250 credits on each billing date.

Yearly plans still get their credits every month. Plan credits don't roll over, and they're used before any credits you buy.

Buy more credits

On Plus and Pro, workspace owners can buy extra credits from Plans and billing, in packs of 100, 250, or 500.

• On Plus: $10, $25, or $50.
• On Pro: $8, $20, or $40.

Bought credits last 12 months, even if you change plans. Free accounts can't buy credits; they upgrade instead.

If you run out

Your published sites keep working. To keep building, buy more credits or upgrade. On Free, you get more the next day you build, until you reach 50 for the month. The credits button at the top of the studio shows what's left.

Credits belong to the workspace, so everyone in it shares them.