How to manage client websites

If you build websites for other people, the first thing to decide is how you'll organize them in Repaint. The setup comes down to one question: do you keep control of the site, or does the client own and run it once it's done? Your answer points you to one of two approaches.

Both are built on workspaces. A workspace holds your websites along with the people who can edit them, and your plan and usage apply to the whole workspace. Choosing the right approach up front saves you from having to rearrange things later.

If you manage the site for them

This is the most common setup. You build and maintain the site on the client's behalf, and they never need to log in to Repaint. In that case, keep it simple: build all of your client sites in your own workspace.

One workspace can hold as many sites as you want, and one Premium subscription covers all of them. You make a new site, build it, and publish it. To show a client their site, just send them its published address. There's nothing else to set up.

Everything in the workspace shares one weekly editing allowance, so if you're doing a lot of work across many sites, the main reason you'd pay more is for extra usage. See how usage and credits work.

If the client will own and run the site

If you're handing the site off for the client to manage themselves, set it up this way from the start. Give each client their own workspace, build their site there, and make them the owner when you hand it over.

There's a reason to do this from the beginning rather than build in your own workspace and move the site later: there's no self-serve way to move a site between workspaces. So if you know a client will run their own site, start it in a workspace that's meant to be theirs.

1. Create a new workspace for the client. You can build, edit, and publish on a free plan, so there's no cost to start one.
2. Build the site in that workspace as usual.
3. Invite the client to the workspace. See how to invite people.
4. Make them the owner during handoff, which hands over control of the workspace and its billing.
5. Have them upgrade to Premium on their own workspace if they want Premium benefits, so the subscription is theirs, not yours.

Each workspace is billed on its own and has its own editing allowance, so a client who wants Premium benefits like a custom domain, expanded editing, or no Repaint badge needs their own subscription. Since the workspace is theirs, that bill is theirs too.

Use a separate workspace whenever a client needs to edit their own site. Adding someone to a workspace gives them access to every site in it, so you don't want to add a client to a workspace that holds your other clients' work. A workspace per client keeps each one walled off, while still letting both you and the client edit the site together.

Moving a site you've already built

If you built a site custodially and later decide the client should run it themselves, we can move it to a new workspace for you. This isn't self-serve yet, so contact support to arrange it. We can only transfer a site between two Premium workspaces, so both the source and destination workspaces need to be on Premium.