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Publishing puts your website online at its own web address, so anyone can visit it. Visitors see only what you publish. You can keep working in Build, and your changes wait until you publish an update. You don’t need a paid plan to publish.
The Publish panel before a website’s first publish: Not live yet, a card explaining publishing, the suggested web address, Domains and Security, and the Publish button.
1

Open your website

On the Build board, press Edit under the website you want to put online.
2

Press Publish

Press Publish at the top right. The Publish panel opens.
3

Check your web address

Foundable suggests an address. To choose another, press it, type a new name and press Save. See Your web address.
4

Publish

Press Publish at the bottom of the panel. You can close the panel and keep chatting while it works.
5

Share it

When you see “Your website is live”, press Copy link or Visit site, or share it from the panel.

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Ask Ted to publish

You can also ask Ted in the chat, like “Publish my website”. The Publish your first site step on Home asks him for you. While he works, you’ll see “Ted is publishing your website…”. If he can’t publish, he says why, like “This version has build errors. Fix them, then ask again.” Ted publishes only when you ask. While Run is on, he never publishes by himself. See Decisions and website changes.

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What the Publish button says

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The Publish panel

The panel’s top line says where your website stands, like “Not live yet” or “Live”. Under your address, it has these rows:
  • Domains: press Add to use a domain of your own, like yourbusiness.com. It says “Setting up” while a domain gets ready, and shows Upgrade if your plan doesn’t include your own domain. See Use your own domain.
  • Security: every publish runs a quick security scan. The scan never stops you from publishing. The row says “Not scanned”, “Scanning”, “No issues” or how many issues it found. Press it to see them in Security.
  • Visitors, once you’re live: your visits this week. Press it to see more on Home.

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Your web address

Your website’s address looks like yourname.foundable.app. Before your first publish, Foundable suggests one from your foundable’s name, and adds a number if that name is taken. To choose your own, press the address, type a new name and press Save. A name can have 3 to 63 lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. It can’t start or end with a hyphen or have two hyphens in a row. If a name breaks the rule, the panel says “Use 3 to 63 lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens.” If you see “That address is taken or reserved. Try another name.”, choose a different name. Once you’re live, press Copy URL next to the address to copy it.

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Change your address later

Press the pencil (Edit URL) next to your address, type a new name and press Save. You can do this as often as you like. Your website moves to the new address, and the old one stops working. The old address stays yours, so no one else can take it.
Links to your old address stop working when you change it. Update any links you’ve shared, like on social media or printed cards.

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Update your live website

After you publish, keep working as usual. When you have changes visitors can’t see yet, the button says Update and the panel says “You’ve made changes to your website”. Press Update, then Publish changes. You’ll see “Your website was updated”.

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One live website at a time

Each foundable has one live website. If another of your websites is live, the panel’s button says Replace live site and names the website it replaces. Publishing takes that one offline. The addresses of your other websites then lead visitors to the live one.

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After you publish

The panel shows “Your website is live”, with ways to share it: Share on X, Share on LinkedIn, Share on Reddit and Share on Discord (which copies your address to paste there). If your device has a share menu, More ways to share opens it. Copy link copies your address, and Visit site opens your website. The panel also shows how your website looks in search results. Press Edit beside it to ask Ted to change your title, description and icon. On the board, your website’s card now says “Live” and has Visit site.

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The Made with Foundable badge

Every page of your live website shows a small “Made with Foundable” badge at the bottom right, linking to foundable.com. To hide it, open ⋮ (Published site actions) in the panel and turn on Hide Foundable badge. Hiding the badge needs a paid plan. If your plan ends, the badge comes back the next time you publish.

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Visitor analytics

Foundable counts visits to your published website on every plan. You’ll see them on Home and in the panel’s Visitors row. Only your published website is counted, never your preview. To stop counting, open ⋮ (Published site actions) and turn off Visitor analytics.

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Take your website offline

Open ⋮ (Published site actions) in the Publish panel and choose Unpublish. Build asks first: “Your published site will go offline and the URL won’t work anymore. You can republish anytime.” Press Unpublish to confirm. Your website stays in Build, and you can publish it again whenever you like.

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If publishing doesn’t work

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Who can publish

The owner, admins and members can publish, update and unpublish. A teammate with view-only access can’t. Publishing works on every plan. A paid plan adds your own domain and lets you hide the badge.

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FAQ

Usually about a minute. You don’t have to wait: close the panel and keep chatting, and publishing carries on.
No. Ted publishes only when you ask him. While Run is on, he never publishes by himself. A change he makes to your live website waits until you press Approve or Deny.
No. Visitors see your website as it was when you last published. Your changes go live when you press Update, then Publish changes.
Unpublish takes your live website offline, and the website stays in Build. Delete (in ⋮ Website actions) removes the website from Build, and its live site goes offline too.
Yes. Every publish runs a quick security scan for things like leaked keys. It never blocks your publish. Check the Security row and fix what it finds in Security.

Use your own domain

Give your website an address like yourbusiness.com.

Version history

Look at earlier versions and go back.

Security and secrets

See what the security scan found.

Preview and change

Check every page before you publish.