You already know the work: finding clients, understanding a business, getting the words and photos out of them, and launching a site they're proud of. Ullbek doesn't change any of that. It changes the building and the upkeep. You describe the site, Ullbek builds a real, custom website around it, and it's hosted and served for you. No themes to fight, no plugins to patch.
This page is for the freelancer or studio moving existing clients across. If you're starting from scratch, Start your agency is the better first read, and Ullbek for agencies has the big picture.
What changes for you
No plugins, themes or updates
Nothing to update on a Tuesday night, no security patch to chase, no theme that breaks after an update.
Hosted and served for you
Every site is hosted by Ullbek. Publish, and it's live. No servers, and no pile of hosting accounts to juggle.
Real custom design
Each site is built around the business, not dropped into a template, so you don't hit a page builder's ceiling when the client asks for something different.
Changes in a sentence
"Add the new price list and a photo of the team." You say what should change, and Ullbek makes it.
What stays the same
- Your clients. They're your relationships. They don't need an Ullbek account unless you want them to have one.
- Your prices. You set your build fee and your monthly fee. Ullbek's own costs are on the pricing page, in your currency, and running many sites earns you a hosting discount.
- Your name on the work. If your old sites carry a "Website by" credit in the footer, the new ones can too.
- Their domains. A client's domain keeps its name. You point it at the new site when it's ready.
What Ullbek is not
Straight answers before you move a single client. Ullbek builds websites, not web apps, and that's a deliberate, permanent choice. So it doesn't do:
- Member logins: no customer accounts, member areas or paywalled pages.
- Full online shops: no cart, checkout or stock management.
- Booking engines: no calendar that takes appointments on the site itself.
What it does well is everything around those. A site can link out to the tools the business already uses: a Shopify or Etsy shop behind the "Buy" button, a booking page behind "Book an appointment". And every site can have a working contact form that sends enquiries straight to the business.
Go through your clients before you start. A bakery, a salon, a plumber, a photographer: perfect. A client whose site is really a members' portal or a full shop needs a web app, and Ullbek isn't the tool for that client. Keep them where they are, and move everyone else.
Rebuilding an existing client site
You don't need to copy and paste anything. Give Ullbek the client's current website address and it reads the pages (the text, the links and the images) and can bring the images across. Then it builds a fresh, custom site from them. It's a rebuild, not a copy: you're getting the old content in a new, better site.
- Create the site in your main workspace
Click New site from your dashboard. Your client sites live together in your main workspace; only a client whose billing has to be separate gets a workspace of their own (see Setting up your agency).
- Give Ullbek the old address and a direction
Say what to keep, what to change, and how it should feel. The prompts below are a good start.
- Check every page against the old site
Prices, opening hours, phone numbers, addresses, staff names. Ask for corrections in plain words.
- Send the client a preview link
They see their new site before anything changes for their customers. See Previews, approvals & changes.
- Publish, then move the domain
Only after the client says yes. The next section covers the domain.
The last one is useful for a big old site: you see what's there, decide with the client what's worth keeping, and then ask for the rebuild.
A rebuild faithfully brings across what the old site says, including last year's prices and a phone number nobody answers. Ask the client to read the new site properly at the preview stage. It's often the first time in years anyone has.
Make sure the client is happy for you to reuse their words and photos, and if they have better, newer pictures, ask for those. You can always tell Ullbek to swap images in later.
A small "Website by" line in the footer, linking to your studio's site, is how your work finds you the next client. If the old site already had your credit, keep it on the rebuild; if it didn't, agree it with the client now (it's normal agency practice). It takes one sentence, with your studio's name and site:
This is your own credit. It's separate from the Ullbek badge, which only appears on free ullbek.site addresses.
Moving the domain
A client's own domain needs premium hosting, a monthly plan per site. Once the new site is approved and published:
- Put the site on premium hosting
Premium hosting is per site. The price shows before you pay, in your workspace's currency.
- Connect the client's domain
Enter the domain and Ullbek shows you the DNS records to add at the company where it's registered. The domain itself can stay registered where it is.
- Wait for it to go live
Once the records are in place, the site starts serving on the client's domain, secure certificate included.
- Then cancel the old hosting
Only after you've opened the site on its domain and seen the new version.
If the client doesn't have a domain yet, or wants a better one, you can buy a new .com, .net or .org right inside Ullbek. Bought for a site that's already on premium hosting, it's connected for you, with the DNS and certificate included and no records for anyone to add. The full walk-through is in Publishing & going live, and domains are on ullbek.com/domains.
A premium site can also turn its free ullbek.site address off, so the client's domain is the only address it has.
Many clients run their email on the same domain. When you connect the domain, add or change only the records Ullbek shows you, and leave the others (like the ones for email) as they are.
Many client sites? The hosting discount
If you're bringing a whole client list across, most of those sites will sit on premium hosting on their own domains. We'd rather an established studio didn't pay full price for every one of them.
Once you have more than ten sites on premium hosting, email us at support@ullbek.com and we'll take 25% off premium hosting from your 11th site onwards. It's on request, so do send that email. Domains and credit top-ups stay at the normal price.
Keeping your clients together in your main workspace (next section) also keeps their hosting together, which makes the count simple. Ullbek's normal prices are on the pricing page, in your currency, and Who pays for what shows how to build them into your monthly fee.
Setting up your agency
Run everything from one account, with one main workspace. A workspace holds sites, people and billing; you get one when you sign up, and for most studios it's the only one they need. The usual shape:
- All your clients in your main workspace. Like Maya's Studio, which holds Rosie & Bean, Hartley Plumbing and Maya's own portfolio. Your existing client list moves in as sites there. You pay Ullbek from it and bill your clients yourself, exactly as you do today.
- Your team as members of the main workspace. Everyone sees and builds every client site in one place.
- A client's own workspace only when their billing must differ. If a client wants to pay Ullbek directly with their own way to pay, pay in their own country's currency, or control the billing themselves, create a workspace for them with New workspace… in the workspace switcher, name it after the client, and invite them as an admin; they add their way to pay and you keep building. That's how Golden Hour Salon got its own: Anna wanted to pay for her own site.
Showing a client their site needs a preview link, and letting them edit it needs a guest invite on that one site. Neither needs a new workspace; see Previews, approvals & changes.
To add your team, open Workspace settings…, go to Members, enter an email, pick a role and click Send invite. A workspace has up to 10 seats, and seats are free.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Member | Open, build, publish and unpublish every site in the workspace; share drafts; create sites; add credits. |
| Admin | Everything a member can, plus hosting plans, ways to pay, domains, deleting sites, inviting people and handing sites over. |
| Owner | Everything, plus renaming the workspace and Transfer ownership…. |
Don't open a separate Ullbek account for each client. Free starter credit is given once per person and stays where you first built, and a new workspace starts with no credit. Extra accounts only make sharing and hand-overs harder. One account with one main workspace keeps every client in one place.
When a separate workspace makes sense, and how to set one up, is in Organise clients with workspaces.
Working at scale with Claude or ChatGPT
If you already work in Claude or ChatGPT all day, you can build there too. Connect Ullbek to Claude, ChatGPT or any app that supports MCP connectors at https://api.ullbek.com/mcp, and from that conversation you can build sites, get preview links, publish, read form submissions, set where form messages go, and walk a client's custom domain through its DNS setup. Some agencies already build their client sites this way, many at a time.
- Connect once
Follow Ullbek in Claude or Ullbek in ChatGPT.
- Name the client and get to work
Your main workspace is your default, so Claude or ChatGPT builds there, alongside all your other client sites. Ask for the site by name: build, preview, publish.
- Move on to the next client
Same workspace, same conversation if you like. There's nothing to switch.
Claude and ChatGPT always work in the workspace marked default in your switcher, which is usually your main workspace. You only need to change it for the exception: to work on a client with their own workspace, click Make default next to it, do the work, then make your main workspace the default again. Switching workspaces in the portal only changes that browser tab, not the default.
Migration checklist
One row per step, for each site you move. Copy it into your project notes and tick as you go.
| Step | Done when |
|---|---|
| 1. Content captured | You know every page on the old site and what the client wants to keep, drop or update. |
| 2. Rebuilt | The new site is built in your main workspace (or the client's own, if their billing is separate), and you've checked every page's prices, hours and contact details. |
| 3. Studio credit in the footer | Every page carries your small "Website by" line, linking to your studio's site, as agreed with the client. |
| 4. Approved | The client has seen it through the preview link and said "yes, publish" in writing. |
| 5. Form recipient set | Form messages go to the client's email, confirmed with the 6-digit code sent to that address, and a test message arrived. See Contact forms. |
| 6. Domain connected | The site is published on premium hosting and opens on the client's own domain, secure. |
| 7. Old host cancelled | Only after step 6, once the new site is live on the domain. |
Start with one client you know well, ideally one whose old site is a worry. It's the best way to learn the routine, and the easiest "before and after" you'll ever show the next client.
Related
Organise clients with workspaces
Your main workspace, your team's roles, and when a client needs their own.
Previews, approvals & changes
Preview links, the approval loop, and client editors.
Who pays for what
Building, hosting and domains, in your currency or your client's.
Agency FAQ
The badge, client ownership, limits, and what Ullbek doesn't do.
Try it on your next client
Sign up free, give Ullbek a client's current website, and see the rebuild before you decide.