Preview and production
Every Briks site is in one of two stages. A preview is the working copy you check and share, and production is the version you launch to the public. This page explains what changes between the two and how to decide when to move.
The two stages
When a new site's first build finishes, Briks publishes it straight away as a preview at its own address, <name>.briks.live (see Your site's address). A preview is a real, working website. Anyone with the address can open it, use its menu and send its forms. Two things are held back: search engines are asked to leave it out of their results, and messages sent through its forms are kept in the studio without being emailed to anyone.
Production is the launched site. Search engines may list it, and every form message is emailed to you as well as kept. A site reaches production only when someone presses Publish in the studio and the launch check finds nothing that needs fixing. Publish to production walks through that step.
Preview and production side by side
| Preview | Production | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | <name>.briks.live, and your own domain too if you have connected one | Your own domain once it shows Live, otherwise <name>.briks.live |
| Search engines | Asked to stay away: the site's robots file and every page say not to list it | Allowed to list it and pointed to its sitemap, unless you switch that off |
| Form messages | Kept in the studio under Settings, Forms, never emailed | Kept in the studio and emailed to you |
| Analytics | Counted, when analytics is on | Counted, when analytics is on |
| Made with Briks gallery | Not shown, even if you chose to list the site | Shown, if you chose to list the site |
| Who it is for | You, your team and anyone you send the link to | Everyone |
| How a site gets there | The first publish of every new site | Publish, then the launch check |
Form emails go to the person who created the project. If that person has left the workspace, they go to its first Owner instead. You can read every message, from either stage, in the project's Forms section (see Forms).
Analytics is on unless you turned it off, and it counts visits in both stages. While a site is a preview, the numbers include everyone you shared the link with, so treat them as a rehearsal rather than real traffic (see Analytics).
What stays the same
Moving between the stages does not redesign or rebuild anything by AI. Briks publishes the same version of your site again with different settings: open to search engines and emailing forms, or closed to search engines and keeping forms in the studio. Your pages, words, pictures, version history and connected domains carry over untouched.
How to tell which stage a site is in
Open the project
Where: Projects
Click Projects in the sidebar, then your project. Its studio opens, with the conversation on one side and the site beside it.
Look at the top bar
Where: Studio top bar
At the right end of the bar you see either a grey Preview tag with a Publish button, or an In production button with a green dot. Nothing shows there until the site's first build has been published.
Or check the Domain section
Where: Settings, Domain
Under Settings, Domain, the Site address row shows the address with a Preview or In production tag, and when the site was last published.
When to stay in preview
- The words still include anything you have not checked: prices, opening hours, names, numbers. If Briks drafted your brief and filled gaps with details of its own, it lists them for you when you publish.
- You are testing the forms. Test messages land under Settings, Forms without emailing anyone, so you can send as many as you like.
- A client, partner or colleague still has to approve the site. Send them the preview address (see Sharing a preview).
- You plan to use your own domain and it is not connected yet. Connecting it first means the address search engines learn from day one is yours (see Connect your domain).
When to move to production
Move when the site says what you want it to say, its forms reach the right inbox, and your domain shows Live or you are happy to launch on the briks.live address. Production is open on every plan, including Free. Only a domain of your own needs a paid plan, starting with Starter (see Credits and plans).
Crumb & Co, a bakery in York, had its site built in an afternoon. For a week it stayed a preview at
crumb.briks.livewhile the owner checked prices with her suppliers and sent a dozen test orders through the enquiry form. The test messages sat under Forms and nobody's inbox filled up. Meanwhile she connectedcrumbandco.com, and once it showed Live she pressed Publish.
The launch check passed, the site went to production on crumbandco.com, and the next enquiry arrived in her inbox as well as in the studio.
Going back to preview
You can take a production site back to preview at any time. Press In production in the top bar, then Back to preview. Form messages stop being emailed at once, and the site is published again asking search engines to leave it out. Pages a search engine has already listed can take a while to drop out of its results, because that part is up to the search engine.
Owners, Admins and Editors can move a site in either direction. Viewers can see which stage it is in but cannot change it (see Members and roles).
Does moving to production cost credits?
No. The launch check and the publish that follows run no AI, so they hold and charge nothing. Fixes you ask for in the studio are changes, and those are charged like any other change.
Do changes I make after launch go to a preview first?
No. Once a site is in production, every change you ask for publishes straight to the production site. If one goes wrong, undo it from Versions.
Can a project have a preview and a production copy at the same time?
No. A project has one live site, and it is either a preview or in production.
Does connecting a domain move my site to production?
No. A domain can show a preview. The site moves to production only when you press Publish and the launch check passes.