Creating a Site
Setting up a site in Vivreal takes just a few steps. You'll choose how you want to host it, pick a template, configure your domain, and you're live.
Prerequisites
Before creating a site, you should have:
- Admin or Owner role in your group
- If using ecommerce, a Stripe integration configured
Create Your Site
Open the Sites page
Navigate to the Sites section from the dashboard. You'll see any existing sites listed here along with their deployment status.
Click + New Site
Tap the + New Site button. The site creation dialog opens.
Choose your setup mode
Vivreal offers three ways to get started:
- Hosted by Vivreal (recommended) — Vivreal hosts the site and auto-creates the collections for you. You'll review and edit the content to match your business.
- I'm hosting my own site — Vivreal creates the collections for you, but you deploy and host the website yourself using the Client API.
- I already have collections — Create a site and link it to collections you've already built.
Select a template
Choose from the available templates. Each is optimized for a specific type of site:
- Ecommerce Store (
ecommerce) — storefront with product pages, cart, and Stripe checkout. Requires a configured Stripe integration. - Showcase (
showcase) — flexible presentation-focused starting point for portfolios, blogs, informational sites, and landing pages.
If the template requires integrations (for example, Stripe for Ecommerce Store), Vivreal checks that they're configured before continuing.
More templates coming
Two templates are live today. Additional templates are in development and will be added to the picker as they become available.
Name your site
Enter a name for your site. This is used in the portal and helps identify it in your site list.
Choose a domain
You have two options:
- Vivreal subdomain — pick a subdomain like
shop.vivreal.app(free, checked for availability) - Custom domain — search for and register a domain (billed at cost)
Both are optional — you can skip this step and get a default URL to start with.
Create the site
Tap Create Site to kick things off. If you chose "Hosted by Vivreal", the deployment process begins automatically.
What Happens Next
What happens after you click Create Site depends on the setup mode you picked. See Setup Modes for the full decision table.
Hosted by Vivreal (~3–5 minutes to live)
Vivreal runs a deploy pipeline in the background. You can keep using the portal while it runs — the Sites page updates the status automatically.
| Stage | Approximate time | What's happening |
|---|---|---|
| Seeding | ~5 sec | Collection schemas and page configs are written to your group's database |
| Branch + Amplify | ~30 sec | A dedicated site build is created on Vivreal's hosting infrastructure |
| Build + deploy | ~2 min | Your Next.js site compiles and deploys to *.amplifyapp.com |
| Domain attach (optional) | ~1–5 min | If you picked a custom domain, DNS validation runs in the background |
When it's done, you get a live URL on the Sites page. If you connected a custom domain, it may take a few additional minutes to propagate globally.
Self-hosted (~5 seconds)
Vivreal seeds your collection schemas and issues an API key + site ID. There's no deploy pipeline — you're ready to start building immediately.
Head to Self-Hosting: Headless CMS Quickstart for a minimal Client API fetch example and recommended patterns for your frontend.
Link existing collections (~5 seconds)
Vivreal creates a site record that references the collections you selected. No seeding, no deploy — the site is ready to be pointed at.
If you're building a new frontend for this site, the self-hosting guide applies. If you're just spinning up a second site against existing content to use alongside a hosted site, you're done.
Deployment Status
Each Vivreal-hosted site shows one of these statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Deploying | Your site is being set up and built. |
| Live | Deployment succeeded — your site is accessible at its URL. |
| Failed | Something went wrong. Check the error details and retry. |
Deployments typically take 3-5 minutes. The status updates automatically — no need to refresh.
After Setup
Once your site is ready, you can:
- Visit it by tapping the URL on the Sites page
- Connect a custom domain — see Custom Domains
- Update content — changes to your collections appear on the site automatically
- Adjust settings — modify branding or trigger a redeployment from Site Settings
Each group can create a limited number of sites based on your tier. Check your limits in Group Settings if you're unsure.
Troubleshooting
If a Vivreal-hosted deployment fails:
- Check the error message on the Sites page for details
- Verify integrations — ecommerce templates require a valid Stripe connection
- Retry the deployment from the site's settings
Next Steps
Learn about the available templates in detail with Choosing a Template, or jump to Custom Domains to connect your own domain name.