Frequently Asked Questions

SimplePath is an AI website builder. You describe your business or idea in plain English, and the AI designs, builds, and publishes a complete website for you. No coding or technical skills are required. You can keep refining it by chatting: "make the header green", "add a menu page", and so on.

No. You build your entire site by describing what you want. If you do know code, there's an Advanced Editor where you can edit the files directly, but it's completely optional.

Yes. SimplePath is based in Cumming, Georgia, and we meet small business owners in person across Forsyth County and metro Atlanta to get their first site built sitting next to them. We also work by screen share and phone anywhere in the US, and that is an option whether you are nearby or not, so pick whichever is easier for you. We will design a free concept of your site by hand before you pay anything, so you can see it and click around it before deciding. Ask for one on our free website design page, or call (404) 702-8473.

Yes. That is exactly what SimplePath.ai does: describe your business or idea in plain English and it designs the layout, writes the copy, builds the pages, and publishes a complete, mobile-friendly website with HTTPS already set up. There is no template to pick and no code to write. Most people have a finished site in minutes, then keep refining it by chatting: "make the header green", "add a menu page", "use warmer photos". Every change appears in a preview first, so nothing goes live until you publish.

Yes. With SimplePath.ai everything is built by describing what you want in ordinary language, so you never have to write or read code. It handles the pages, the logic, the database, and the sign-in behind the scenes. Two habits get you a much better result: be specific about what each screen should do and who is allowed to see it, and build in small steps, checking the preview as you go instead of asking for everything at once. If you do happen to know code, an Advanced Editor lets you edit the files directly, but it is completely optional.

Yes, and beginners are exactly who SimplePath.ai is designed for. No technical background is needed: you describe what the app should do in plain English, it builds it, and you refine by chatting. The one thing worth understanding up front is the difference between a website and an app that remembers information. If people need to sign in and data needs to be saved, such as a member area, a booking system, or a customer list, choose the Grow plan, which includes managed sign-in and a database that is configured for you.

Vibe coding means building software by describing what you want in ordinary language and letting AI write the actual code, instead of writing it yourself. You stay focused on the outcome, for example "customers should be able to book a table and get a confirmation email", and the AI works out the implementation. That is exactly how SimplePath.ai works: you chat, it builds, you look at the preview and say what to change. The practical tip is to treat it like briefing a contractor: describe the result you want, review what comes back, and refine in small steps.

Yes for a great deal of what most businesses actually need. With SimplePath.ai a marketing site, contact and booking forms, an online store, a members area, even a working internal tool are all things you can describe and get built without hiring anyone. The nuance worth knowing: it is strongest with well-understood building blocks. If you need something highly specialized, tightly regulated, or wired deeply into unusual legacy systems, an experienced developer is still worth having. Even then you can build most of it here first, and because you own what gets built, a developer can take it from there.

That email is expected when your site uses SEO tracking on your own custom domain. To read your Google Search data (rankings, clicks, impressions) and show it on your SEO dashboard, we add SimplePath's system account as a verified owner of your domain in Google Search Console. If you already had Search Console set up, Google notifies you of the new owner, which appears as an address ending in "iam.gserviceaccount.com". That is us, it is how the SEO feature works, and you keep full control: you can remove it any time under your Search Console users and permissions.

The short version: Wix does the most, Squarespace looks the best, and Lovable goes furthest if you are building software rather than a website. SimplePath is built around the part the others treat as a settings page, which is actually getting your business found. Search visibility is not a checklist here, it is a product that runs every day: a daily SEO check with a score, real keyword positions from Google, a weekly Google Business Profile audit, and a blog the AI writes and publishes for you. We are also clear about where the others win. If you need a point of sale, carrier calculated shipping rules, or email campaigns to a customer list, Wix has those and we do not. Our compare page puts all four side by side, including a straight answer on when to pick someone else.

You do. The content you provide and the site generated for you belong to you. SimplePath just needs the technical rights to host and publish it for you.

You can sign up with an email and password or with Google. If you use email and password, we send a link to verify your address before your account is ready and your welcome credit is added (Google already verifies your email). This keeps accounts genuine and the platform safe.

Yes. SEO and AI search growth is built into every plan. One click submits your site to Google, and a dashboard tracks where you rank for the keywords you choose, using real data from Google. A free daily check reads your site and gives you plain-English, prioritized tips, each with a button that makes the change for you. It also tracks your local presence and Google Business Profile, and gets your pages ready for AI assistants like ChatGPT. Nobody can honestly promise the top spot, but SimplePath makes sure nothing technical is holding you back and tells you in plain words what to improve next.

Once a day, at no cost, you can run an SEO check from your SEO dashboard. It reads your site alongside your real Google Search data and returns a short list of specific, prioritized tips: a page missing a description, a keyword your site never actually mentions, a page sitting just off the first page that a better title would lift. Every tip is checked against your actual pages before you see it, so you are never told to fix something that is already right. Each one is graded by how much it is likely to help and comes with a Take action button that opens the builder with the change already written out. A readiness score tracks your progress across six parts, including how your site works on a phone and how ready it is for AI assistants. Extra same-day checks are available for a small fee, but the once-a-day check is always free.

Yes. Add up to 25 searches you want to be found for, and the dashboard shows your real position in Google for each one, how often you were shown, and how many people clicked, straight from Google. It suggests keywords by reading your site, starting with the ones a business your size can realistically win. A second view lists every search Google actually shows you for, even ones you never picked, and one click adds any of them to your list. Sites on a domain registered through SimplePath connect automatically; if you brought your own domain, you connect it by adding one DNS record we give you.

Increasingly, yes, and SimplePath sets this up for you. Every published site includes a plain-text map of its pages written for AI assistants to read, your pages are pushed to the search index that powers answers in tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot on every publish, and question-and-answer pages are marked up so an assistant can lift the answer cleanly. Your daily SEO check also scores your AI search readiness: assistants quote rather than rank, so it looks for plain statements of who you are and where you work, real question-and-answer content, and contact details an assistant can pass along. As more people ask an assistant instead of searching, being in that one answer matters as much as ranking on the first page.

Yes. Every plan includes a preview environment. Save your changes in the builder and you get a preview link (yoursite-preview.simplepath.name) where you can try everything, including your site's admin area, without affecting your live site. When you're happy, publish to make it live. If you publish something by mistake, you can restore a previous version from the site's Setup page. Publishing clears the preview, since the changes are on your real site by then; the next time you save in the builder, a fresh preview appears at the same link. A preview you never publish is removed after 7 days of inactivity (we'll remind you 2 days before).

Yes, and it is included with every hosting plan. Open your site's Setup page and use the QR codes step. Codes that point at a page use your own web address, count their scans, and can be pointed somewhere new at any time, so a code already printed on a menu or flyer keeps working when your pages change. You can download each one as a high-resolution image or as a print-ready vector file. Codes that start an email, dial a phone number, send a text, or join a Wi-Fi network have those details built into the image, so they cannot be changed later and their scans are not counted.

Yes. The Grow plan gives your site managed member sign-in and a database with nothing for you to configure. Visitors can register, log in, and save data, all isolated to your site. The free hosting period includes Grow-level features, so you can try it out before choosing a plan.

Yes. Add co-authors to any site you own. They can edit and publish, but can't delete the site or manage other co-authors. As the owner, charges for the site (including a co-author's building) come from your credits.

Always. The editor shows a live preview (desktop and mobile) of every change before you publish, and you can edit words, pictures, colors and layout directly in the preview. Switch from Editor to Interactive at the top of the preview to click around your site the way a visitor would. Nothing goes live until you hit publish.

Yes, and not only brochure websites. SimplePath.ai builds working applications too: customer portals with secure sign-in, booking and scheduling tools, dashboards with live charts, admin areas where you manage your own records, and stores that take real payments. The nuance: anything that saves information or has people log in needs the Grow plan, which includes managed sign-in and a database set up for you. Describe the screens you want and the rules for who sees what, then refine from the preview until it does the job.

Yes, in several ways, and nothing is locked down. The builder opens in Editor mode, with a column of tools beside your page: click any words, link or picture to change it, recolor one thing, make something move, drag sections into a new order, or set your brand colors, fonts and logo for the whole site at once. Those edits are free and instant. You can also keep chatting with the AI ("move the contact form above the map", "make this section shorter"), or leave a note on the exact spot you want changed and send your notes together. For full control, the Advanced Editor lets you edit the underlying files yourself. Every change shows in a preview first, the Undo button takes back your last edit, nothing goes live until you publish, and you can restore an earlier version from the site Setup page if you change your mind.

Yes. In the builder's Editor mode, press Brand in the tool column. Colors changes your brand colors everywhere they are used. Fonts offers ready-made pairings of a heading font and a body font; tap one to see it on your page before you keep it, or choose each font yourself. Logo lets you use one of your pictures as the logo and make the little browser-tab icon from a picture. Style sets the text size and the shape of your buttons (square, rounded or pill). Each change reaches every page at once, costs nothing, and the Undo button takes the whole change back in one step. To change the color of just one thing, use the Recolor tool instead.

Yes, without asking the AI. Choose Move in the builder's tool column. Every section shows a handle you can grab and drag to a new spot, or use the up and down arrows if dragging is fiddly. Photos and cards inside a row can be moved the same way. Each one also has Copy, to duplicate it, and Delete, which asks once more before it removes anything. To add something new, use Add a section here between two sections: pick what kind (about us, reviews, prices, a map, opening hours and more), add a sentence if you like, and the AI builds it in your site's own style. Moving, copying and deleting are free; adding a section uses a little credit, like any request to the AI.

Yes. Choose Animate in the builder's tool column and click a picture. You can give it a slow zoom, a gentle drift, a fade in, scroll depth (the picture moves a little slower than the page), a tilt that follows the mouse or the phone, a light sweep, or a 3D look where near things move more than far things. On a photo of separate items, such as stones on a table, one item can lift out and turn in the light, or the items can hop. Headings, buttons and whole sections can fade up, slide in, pop in, float, pulse, or type themselves out one letter at a time. Every effect is gentle and respects visitors who turn off motion on their device. New sites usually start with a slow zoom on the main photo at the top of the home page; click it with Animate and choose No movement to keep it still. You can also just ask the AI, for example "make the photos fade in as people scroll".

Yes. In Editor mode, click any words on your page, then the sparkle button on the small bar that appears. Help me write can make the text shorter, friendlier or more professional, fix spelling and grammar, or translate it into one of more than 20 languages. It rewrites the words you selected, or the whole block if you selected nothing, and puts the result in place for you to read. Nothing is saved until you press Save, so you can still change it or cancel. It is free, within a generous daily allowance per site.

Yes. In Editor mode, click a picture on your page. You can replace it, choose the part that must always stay in view when the picture is cropped (on a phone, for example), remove the background, or use a quick fix. Make it pop brightens the colors and adds a little movement that suits the photo; the others are richer color, brighter, warmer, cooler, and black and white. Describe it for me writes the hidden description that helps blind visitors and search engines, which you can edit before saving. Every fix makes a new copy, so your original is never changed, and Undo puts the old picture back. These tools are free within a daily allowance per site; new pictures count toward your site's storage like an upload.

Yes, and a CRM is a natural fit, because underneath it is a secure list of people plus the history attached to them. Describe what you want to track in SimplePath.ai, for example contacts, companies, deals, notes, and follow-up dates, along with who should be able to see each part, and it builds the screens to add, search, edit, and report on those records. Use the Grow plan, since a CRM needs sign-in and a database. Build it in stages: get contacts working first, then notes, then pipeline stages and reporting. You get something usable quickly and each change stays easy to review.

Yes, in the sense that matters for a small or mid-sized business: one connected system where your day to day operations live. Describe the pieces you actually use in SimplePath.ai, for example inventory, purchase orders, customers, invoicing, and staff permissions, and it builds them as a single application with sign-in on the Grow plan. The honest nuance: this is not a drop-in replacement for a large enterprise suite like SAP or NetSuite, with decades of niche modules and compliance certifications behind them. What it does very well is give you exactly the modules your business runs on, without that cost and complexity. Build one module at a time and connect them as you go.

Yes, and if what you sell is on your site you may not need to build one. The online store on the Grow plan keeps track of stock for you: tick "Keep track of how many I have" on a product, enter how many you have, and the number goes down as things sell, with an email when it drops below a level you set and a sold-out mark at zero. If you need more than that, for example locations, suppliers, purchase orders, reorder points, or cost versus sale price, describe it in SimplePath.ai and it builds screens to add stock, adjust counts, search, and see what is running low, using the same Grow plan sign-in and database. Good things to ask for once the basics work: a search that works with a barcode scanner and a simple report of total stock value.

Yes, that comes with the Grow plan. You tell it the subjects you want to be known for and how often to publish, and it writes each post for you. You get an email when one is ready, you read it, and it goes on your site when you press the button. If you would rather not be involved, you can have posts published automatically instead. It is worth having because every post is another page that can turn up when someone searches for something you actually do.

Not unless you tell it to. Out of the box every post waits for you: you get an email, you read it, and nothing goes on your site until you press the button. You can edit any part of it first, or say what to change and have it written again. There is a setting to let posts publish on their own if you prefer, and even then you can edit or take down anything at any time.

You have a fair amount of say in it. You pick the tone, how long posts should be, and any rules you want followed, like always mentioning the areas you cover or never talking about prices. You can also paste in something you have written yourself, an email to a customer works well, and it will match how you write. It only uses what is already on your site for the facts, and it is told not to invent prices, statistics, awards, or customer names, so it cannot put a claim in your mouth that you would not make yourself. You still read each post before it goes up, so nothing that does not sound like you has to be published.

Subjects you choose. You add the themes you want to be known for in your own words, and each one gets written about repeatedly from a different angle, so nothing repeats itself. If you are not sure where to start, it will read your site and suggest subjects your customers are likely to be searching for, and you can accept, change, or ignore them. If your site already has a blog page, it keeps that page and its design rather than replacing it.

Your own photos always come first: add some to a subject and posts take it in turns to use them. When a subject has none, the Standard blog (included with Grow) picks a stock photo that fits the post. The Advanced blog upgrade makes a new picture for each post instead, always about that post's topic and following instructions you write once, such as a style you like, something that always appears, or your logo in the corner. You can upload your logo or other pictures for it to include. Every picture gets a description for screen readers and search engines, and you can swap any picture before or after a post goes up.

Getting started is free: new customers receive a welcome credit, and building with the AI uses a prepaid credit balance you top up as needed. Every site gets a free hosting period at first publish (currently 30 days). After that, choose a hosting plan: Launch is currently $9.99/month or $99.99/year (everything a business website needs), and Grow is currently $19.99/month or $199.99/year (adds member sign-in accounts and a database for your site). Every plan includes fast hosting with HTTPS, visitor analytics, submission to Google Search, a daily AI SEO check with keyword tracking, contact and booking forms, custom domain support, and a preview environment, so there are no surprise add-on fees. Registering a custom domain is a separate cost, priced when you buy one. Current prices are always shown in the app before you pay.

Credits are a prepaid dollar balance on your account. Building and editing with the AI uses credits based on the computing consumed. Anything else goes to your card unless you say otherwise: at checkout you can tick to put your credit towards that payment, and your card covers the rest. Recurring charges like hosting and domain renewals always go to your card, unless you switch on "Use my account credit for recurring charges" in Account → Payment settings.

No. SEO and AI search growth is included with every hosting plan at no additional charge: Google submission, keyword rank tracking, the free daily SEO check, local presence tracking, and AI-assistant readiness are all part of your plan. The only optional paid extra is running additional SEO checks on the same day, and even then the once-a-day check is always free.

From the site's Setup page or your Account → Services list; every active subscription has a Cancel button. The service stays active until the end of the period you've paid for, and you won't be billed again. Every renewal that does bill sends you an itemized receipt showing how it was paid.

Payments are processed by Stripe, a leading payment provider, so SimplePath never sees or stores your full card number. Saved cards live with Stripe and are used only for the charges you've authorized.

No. You can build, preview, and publish without adding a card, and publishing starts your site's free hosting period automatically. A card only comes into it when you buy something: choosing a hosting plan, registering a domain, or topping up credits. Cards are held securely by Stripe (we never see your full card number).

No. It is part of the Grow plan at no extra cost, and it writes up to one post a day per site. It starts once your Grow plan does, so it is not part of the free trial. Every post gets a stock photo unless you add your own. There is an optional Advanced blog upgrade, $4.99 a month per site, that makes a picture for every post from your own instructions instead, and writes in more detail. You never need it: the blog works fully without it.

Every site publishes to a free simplepath.name web address, with a free hosting period that starts at your first publish. Before it ends, pick a monthly or yearly hosting plan. Your card is saved at checkout, but billing only starts when the free period ends. If hosting lapses, your site stays up for a short grace period, then goes offline until you choose a plan. Nothing is lost.

Yes. SimplePath.ai includes the hosting, and there is nothing for you to set up. When you publish, your site goes live on fast global hosting with HTTPS already configured, at a free web address we provide. Every plan includes the hosting itself plus visitor analytics, submission to Google Search, and contact forms. You can connect your own domain whenever you like: buy one through SimplePath.ai and it is registered and connected automatically, or point a domain you already own using a couple of DNS records. Every new site gets a free hosting period at first publish, and before it ends you pick a plan to keep it online.

Yes, two ways. On your site's Setup page, press Add your domain. Choose Get a new domain to search for one: we register it in your name and connect it for you, HTTPS included, with nothing technical to do. Or choose Use a domain I already own, from GoDaddy, Namecheap, Wix, Cloudflare or anywhere else: we show you one list of the exact changes to make where you manage it, including any old records to remove, and we keep checking until it works.

Yes. Every plan can add up to 10 extra domains, such as an old business name, that forward visitors to your site. On the Setup page under your domain, either get a new one (we register and set it up for you) or add one you already own, and choose which page it goes to: the home page, or one page like your products page. Extra domains forward to your main address rather than showing a second copy of your site, which keeps your Google ranking in one place.

Yes, on the Grow plan (the free trial includes it too). On your site's Setup page, open "Sell on your site" and click Connect with Stripe. Stripe securely processes the card payments and the money goes straight to your own Stripe account; SimplePath never touches your sales and takes no fee. Then open Store to add your products, with photos, options like size and color, stock counts and promo codes, and ask the builder to put your shop on a page. The shop reads your product list live, so a price you change under Store shows on your site straight away, and the basket, checkout and thank-you screen are built in for you.

Stripe is a trusted payment company that handles credit card payments for millions of businesses. When you turn on selling, you connect your own Stripe account (you can create one in a few minutes during the flow). Your customers pay on a secure Stripe checkout page, so card details never touch your website or ours. The money lands in your Stripe account, and Stripe sends it to your bank on a regular schedule. You manage refunds and see every payment in your own Stripe dashboard. Stripe charges its standard processing fee per sale; SimplePath adds nothing on top.

Under Store, open Products and click Add product. A name and a price is enough to start selling; you can also add up to five photos, a category, a sale price, options like size or color with their own prices, and tick a box to keep track of stock. To add many at once, click "Import a spreadsheet" on the same tab: one row per product with a name, price and description, and they all come in together. If a supplier gives you a product feed, you can import from that too, and the sizes and colors come with it. Changes show on your shop straight away, with nothing to republish. If your shop is not on a page yet, ask the builder to "add my shop to the site".

Yes. Tick "Keep track of how many I have" on a product, enter how many you have, and the number goes down as things sell. At zero it shows as sold out and cannot be bought, so you never take an order you cannot fill. Set a level you want warning at and we email you once when it drops below, not every time something sells. Tracking is per product, so anything made to order, or that you simply do not count, can be left alone and stays available. If you sell in sizes or colors you can count each combination separately.

Yes to both. Mark a product as a download and upload the file: after someone pays, their order confirmation email carries a private link to it, and that link keeps working so they can download it again later. The file is never put on your public website. Mark it as a service and it simply skips everything about delivery, which is right for a consultation, a class, or a fitting. Physical products, downloads and services can all sit in the same shop.

Yes. Under Store, open Promo codes and make a code. It can take off a percentage or a fixed amount, start and finish on dates you choose, be limited to a number of uses, and only apply over a certain order size. Shoppers type it at checkout and the discount comes off before they pay. You can switch a code off at any time without deleting it, and you can see how many times each one has been used.

The money goes straight to your own Stripe account, the buyer gets an order confirmation from your shop, and the order appears under Store. Your stock goes down automatically. You mark it sent when you post it, which emails the buyer with the tracking number if you have one, and you can print a packing slip for the box. If you need to refund somebody, you can do it from the order without going anywhere else. We message you about every sale, and you can turn that off if it becomes noise.

Of course, though not as a one-click feature yet. Out of the box, the store is for selling set-price products, downloads and services, but the sky is the limit on what you can build. The AI can absolutely build an invoice application that accepts payments: just describe the design you want in the editor and keep refining until you get exactly what you're looking for. Because payments run through your own connected Stripe account, the money still goes straight to you.

An API is a way for your website to use another online service. For example, an API can fetch the local weather, send an email or text, show a map, look up shipping rates, or power an AI chatbot. Many services need a secret key to prove the request is really from you. SimplePath gives those keys a safe home: on your site's Setup page, open "API keys & secrets" and add the key there. It's locked in a secure vault, never shown again, never placed in your site's code, and never seen by the AI. Then just tell the AI what to build with it and it wires everything up. This is a Grow plan feature.

Lots: almost anything with an API can plug in. Common examples are live weather, email or text-message notifications, Google Maps and store locators, currency and shipping-rate lookups, an AI chat assistant, and booking or calendar tools. You store the service's key in your site's secure vault (Setup, then "API keys & secrets"), then describe what you want in the editor and the AI builds it. Two popular ones have their own built-in flows: taking card payments (Stripe, on the "Sell on your site" step) and visitor sign-in with a database (part of the Grow plan).

It's taken offline immediately and archived for about 30 days, during which it can be restored. After that it's permanently deleted.

Yes, with a hosting plan. Open the site's Setup page and find the Files section: it lists everything stored for that site, including the pictures and documents you uploaded and the pages the AI built. Once your site is on a plan you can download files one at a time, and once you have paid for your first month of hosting a "Download all" button saves the whole lot as a single zip file. Downloading is not part of the free trial, so while you are still trying SimplePath out you can see your files listed but not save them to your computer.

To keep everyone safe, sites may be screened when you publish or share a public preview, for things like phishing, scams, impersonation, and malware. The vast majority of sites are cleared right away and you won't notice anything. If a site looks risky, we may hold it for a quick review and email you, and genuine sites are cleared quickly. Building a real business, personal, or organization site is exactly what SimplePath is for.

Use the Help & Feedback widget in the bottom-right corner of the app to ask a question, report a bug, or request a feature. We read all of it.

Click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any product-news or offers email, or flip the switch under Account, then Account information, then Email preferences. Either one takes effect right away and no sign-in is needed for the emailed link. You'll still get email about your account: billing, renewals, security, and replies to anything you sent us. Those are part of running your account, so they can't be switched off. Product news also keeps arriving in your in-app inbox under Account, then Messages, so nothing is lost, it just stays inside the app.

SimplePath is operated by SimplePath LLC, a Georgia limited liability company. It is independently owned and run, which is part of why a real person answers your questions rather than a ticket queue. SimplePath LLC is the company named in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the one responsible for your account and your data. The fastest ways to reach us are the Help & Feedback widget in the app and the contact form.