Website, reimagined
Bring the writing. Leave the 2011 design behind.
Most organizations moving to us have a website they are quietly embarrassed by. Copying it faithfully would just rebuild what you already don't like — so we bring your content across and give you a new site to put it in. Starting with no site at all? Describe what your organization does and Sprout drafts the first one from your logo and your photographs.
We list your pages. You choose.
Paste your web address and we read your menu and sitemap — without downloading anything yet. You get a list of every page we found, with the ones we'd skip already explained: the 2016 photo gallery, the duplicate 'About - OLD', the search page you don't need. Untick anything, tick anything back. Only what survives that list gets copied.
Four short questions, while the copying runs.
What do you want this site to do? What bugs you about the current one? A site you envy? What should a first-time visitor find fastest? None of them are required, every answer saves on its own, and the slow work happens behind them — so the wait is spent on something.
Three new designs, beside the site you have now.
Not mockups: real pages, built from your own words and pictures. The fourth thing on the screen is a photograph of your site as it stands today, so the comparison is with your actual site and not with our idea of it. One of the three is the closest look in our catalog to the colors and type we found on yours, for the people who like what they have.
You approve the design before your content pours into it.
Change the colors, the type, the menu — those changes apply to every page we're about to build, not just the one on screen. When it looks right, you approve it and we build. Everything lands as a draft.
An honest account of your writing.
At the end you get four numbers: kept, merged into another page, left behind, and needs a photo. Every page you chose is in exactly one of them, and you can open any finished page while the rest are still building.
Already sure? The move-in guide for the tool you're on today is on switching.
And then it's yours to change, every week after.
The move is not a service that finishes and hands you a website to look after. The Sprout that built it is the one you talk to afterwards.
Then Sprout takes over
Describe the change. Decide if it goes live.
“Feature the fall fundraiser on the homepage.” “Move the donate button to the top.” Sprout makes it and shows you. Nothing reaches the public until you press publish. There's no builder to learn and no web person to call.
It fills itself in
Elect a new treasurer, and the website already says so.
Your board page draws from your actual roster. Your events page from your actual calendar. Your directory from your actual members — who keep their own details current. One organization, one place to change it.
- Post an event and it's on the site. Take it down and it's gone from the site.
- Add a place once and Sprout finds it on the map, writes it up, and brings back a photograph you're free to use.
Nothing slips out
You see exactly what's about to go live.
Publishing shows you the list first — every page that changed, and anything still unfinished. Until you press the button, the site the public sees is the one you had yesterday.
And all the things you'd expect.
- Live right away at yourname.sorrelsites.com — nothing to set up.
- Bring your own web address whenever you're ready; we handle the padlock.
- Members can send you photos from an event straight off their phones.
- Looks right on a phone, which is where most of your visitors are.
- Join, register and pay without leaving the site.
- Videos as well as photos — one band holds a dozen.
- Everything stays a draft until you publish it.
- A small “built with SorrelSites” line at the bottom, and one click to remove it.
It's the site the next board can edit by describing the change — the same as everything else that outlives a handover.
Your website — common questions
- Do we need someone who knows how to build websites?
- No. You describe the change in ordinary words and Sprout makes it, then you look it over and publish. Nobody on your board needs to know what HTML is.
- Will our site look like every other site built on SorrelSites?
- No. When you move in you choose between designs built from your own writing and pictures — your photographs, your words, and your own arrangement of pages, not a template with your name typed into it. You can change the look later without rebuilding the site.
- What if we like how our site looks now?
- One of the designs you're offered is the closest look in our catalog to the colors and type we found on your site, and it's always one of the choices. Pick it and you keep the look, on pages that work on a phone.
- Will we lose the pages we care about?
- You choose what comes over before anything is copied — we list your pages and pre-tick the ones worth keeping. At the end you get an account of every page: kept, merged, left behind, or needs a photo.
- Does our old site go away?
- No. We only read it. Nothing at your old address is changed or removed, and nothing we build is visible to anyone until you publish it.
- How long does it take?
- Minutes, not weeks. You spend most of that answering four short questions while the copying happens behind them.
- What happens to our current website while we set this up?
- It stays exactly where it is and your members keep using it. Your new site lives at its own free address from the day you confirm your email, so the two run alongside each other for as long as you want — you switch over by pointing your web address here, when your board is ready.
- Can our members send us photos from an event?
- Yes. A member picks photos on their phone and sends them, tagged to the event. Someone on your side looks them over and approves the ones you want, and those join your website's photo library ready to use. The location data phones attach to a photo is removed on the way in.
See your own site rebuilt, before you decide.
Start free for 14 days — no credit card, and your site is live at your own address as soon as you confirm your email.