AI is the fastest way to a website that fits your business, but it isn't the only way in. Some people already know the look they want. Some want to see a finished design before they describe anything. Some just want to explore.
For them, C Building has templates.
Ways to start a website
When you choose Create website in your project list, one box opens and asks What website shall we build today? What you type there becomes the new website's first message to the AI:
- Build with AI (recommended). Describe your business; the AI proposes a website plan and builds the first version.
- Move my website. Paste your current website's address into the same box (the Move my website example fills it in for you; on the cbuilding.ai home page, choose Move my website and press Move it here). The AI moves the site here, WordPress sites included: pages, articles and images come along, and your addresses stay the same. You confirm that the site is yours or that you have permission to move it. It uses points like any other AI work and usually takes a few minutes; see turn your existing website into one you can edit. A WordPress site needs no files uploaded, but it has to be publicly reachable with its WordPress REST API turned on (it is on by default on most sites), and moved posts arrive as drafts until you publish them; see bring your WordPress site to C Building.
- Start from a template. Before you type anything, choose Start from a template under the box and pick a ready-made design from the template gallery.
Or choose Create a blank website, also under the empty box, and build it up from nothing.
Why start from a template
- See it before you commit. A template is a finished design you can look at before you choose it.
- No AI build needed. Starting from a template uses no AI, so it saves the points an AI build would use; while you edit, only the editing environment's running time uses points (about 24 points an hour). That is handy on the Free plan or when you are trying several ideas. See how points work.
- A known starting point. If you like a template's layout, you start from exactly that, then make it yours.
Making a template yours
A template is a starting point, not a finished website. The work is replacing its sample content with your own, and that uses the same editor as every C Building site:
- Click and change. Click the sample headline and type yours. Click a photo and replace it with one of your own. Change colours and spacing in the style panel.
- Ask the AI for bigger changes. "Rewrite all the text for a small bakery in Tainan", "add a page for our workshops", "make the colours softer". AI uses points by usage, at most 50 points a turn.
- Check every fact. Templates come with placeholder text, and it is easy to miss a sample price or opening time. Read every page before you publish.
Template or AI: which to choose?
- Choose AI if you would rather describe your business and get pages written for it, with your services, your tone and your pages already in place.
- Choose a template if you already know the look you want, want to save the points an AI build would use, or enjoy filling in a design yourself.
Either way, you end up with the same kind of website, which you keep editing by chat or by click.
Wrapping up
There's more than one good way to start a website. Pick the one that suits you today, and change your mind later: every C Building site, however it started, can be reshaped with the AI or by hand. You can try it free, with no credit card and no time limit.