◈Basics

A content management system for websites: build pages from blocks, design, translate and publish them — without a single line of code.

The structure is the same everywhere: a site is a whole website with its own address. It contains pages, each page consists of blocks, and nothing is published until you say so.

Enlarge

A site is a complete website with its own address. Most people need exactly one.

Several are worthwhile when genuinely separate web presences are needed — a second association, a dedicated campaign site, a subsidiary.

The most important practical point: pages, media, forms and donations always belong to one site. If an area looks unexpectedly empty, first check whether the right site is selected at the top. That is the most common mix-up of all.

Using the wizard under “New website”. It asks a few questions one after another — name, industry, contact details, design — and builds a finished website from them. On the right, a preview shows how the site takes shape as you go.

Your details end up everywhere they belong: the address and phone number produce not only the contact area but also the legal notice (Impressum). Whatever you leave out stays blank — nothing is invented.

Nothing is final. Texts, images, colours and pages can all be changed afterwards.

Three things, in this order:

1. Replace the texts with your own. They land on the home page — start there.
2. Check the “Legal” area. The legal notice and privacy notice are generated from your master data; incomplete details remain visibly blank.
3. Only then publish.

Point 2 is the one people skip and regret later: in Germany, a website without a complete legal notice can be subject to a formal warning (Abmahnung).

Because everything you change in the admin area is initially only a draft. Only “Publish” makes it live for visitors; the button is at the top of the dashboard.

This is the most important rule in Aurora Hive Sites and the most common cause of the question “why is nothing changing?”. There is a good reason for it: this way you can work in peace without every half-finished line appearing on the web.

Beforehand, use the Preview to check what the page looks like to visitors.

At a glance, whether your website is running and what has happened since yesterday: visitors, new form responses, incoming donations.

The tiles are shortcuts: one click takes you straight to the responses, donations or pages behind them. You do not need to set anything up; the figures collect themselves.

If everything here is empty, you do not have a website yet — then the way forward is via “New website”.

First check the site selection at the top. Everything in Aurora Hive Sites belongs to a site; if the wrong one is selected, the pages, media and forms of the other one are invisible.

Two other common cases:

• Translations stay empty as long as the site has only one language.
• The roadmap is empty if nobody has requested anything yet — or if the filter is set to a status with no entries.

In Aurora Hive Sites, empty almost never means broken.

Yes — by address or as an export file from WIX, WordPress, Squarespace, Joomla or TYPO3. Joomla and TYPO3 are marked as beta.

Two points that determine the process:

• Choose the target website first. The top right shows where the import goes. If no website has been created, the page stays empty.
• With the file cards, the import starts as soon as you select the file — there is no second confirm button.

Everything imported arrives as a draft: nothing goes live without you publishing it.

A collection of ready-made templates — complete websites with sample content as a starting point. Look at them, choose one, take it over, fill it with your own texts.

Take care when taking one over: after “Use this template”, the browser asks which website the template should go into. Taking it over cannot be undone — if in doubt, take it over into a new website rather than one that already has content.

It collects feature requests that visitors vote on. You moderate the list and assign the status.

Two peculiarities:

• The status takes effect immediately — the selection on the entry saves directly, without a confirmation prompt and without undo.
• The status names are short English terms: proposed, planned, building (in progress), done, declined.

The framework is created in the wizard in a few minutes. The work comes afterwards — with the texts and images.

Realistically, for a small business: one morning for a usable site with your own texts, if you have the content in your head. Anyone who first has to think about what really sets the business apart needs longer, and that is time well invested, not lost.

Dare to just get started: texts, images, colours and pages can all be changed afterwards.

Yes. Each signs in with their own account; anyone who only needs to change texts can manage with Aurora Hive Live on the published page and does not need an admin account.

Agree on who publishes. Since everything is a draft until then, someone might otherwise push out a half-finished state that someone else is still working on.

The preview is tied to your account — a draft cannot simply be sent around as a link.

Two routes that work: you show it together on screen, or you create a separate page for the review that is published but not linked in the menu. The second route is the practical one when several people need to look at it at different times.

Ongoing operation depends on the subscription — websites, pages and storage have limits, which the bars in the subscription area show.

Beyond that, anything that triggers something externally costs money: AI translation suggestions and, depending on the setup, payment services for donations.

Building, designing and publishing themselves cost nothing extra.

The content belongs to you: texts can be copied, the media library downloaded, and your domain provider holds the domain anyway.

What does not move with it is the structure of blocks — that exists only in Aurora Hive Sites. A move therefore means reassembling the pages in the target system.

Practical advice: if you are considering a move, first back up media and texts and deal with the technology afterwards.