Graphic and brand designers
A brand designer hands over a client's identity as a site, with every logo and colour.
Web designers and developers
Clients sign the build and pay a monthly care plan. Their site deploys from your repository to their own domain.
A developer working alone uses Magpie in Personal. A studio and its developers can work in one Magpie team.
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This combination of six Magpie areas fits a web designer.
- Proposals
- Proposals quotes each build, with a deposit and an optional care plan.
- Git Repositories
- Git Repositories holds each client's code, cloned and pushed over HTTPS.
- Websites
- Websites hosts each client's static site at their own domain, redeployed on every push.
- Issues
- Issues takes bug reports from a public form and plans the fixes.
- Client Portal
- Client Portal gives each client their files, steps and invoices.
- Invoicing
- Invoicing bills the stages of a build, and the care plan every month.
Clients choose the size of the site, add a care plan and sign online.
Proposals turns your fees into a quote the client signs online. Magpie's website starter offers a five-page brochure site or a larger one with a blog. Hosting and maintenance are an optional monthly line.
The starter asks for a 30% deposit at signing and the balance at launch. When the client accepts, Magpie can make a Time Tracking project. It can start the monthly care invoices too.
Each client's code lives in a repository you clone and push from your own machine.
Git Repositories gives each project a repository, cloned and pushed over HTTPS with an access token. The browser shows the default branch's files, its README and the commit history.
A repository can be private or public. Anyone can read and clone a public one, from its own page.
Every push rebuilds and deploys the client's site at their own domain.
Websites hosts a site built from your files or from a Git repository's branch. Each push rebuilds it, and a failed build keeps the live version. The last 50 versions are kept, and you can roll back to any one.
You connect the client's domain with a few DNS records, and Magpie gets the SSL certificate. A client who wants to edit the copy themselves gets an editor website instead.
Clients report bugs on a form, and each report waits in triage for you.
Issues gives each project its issues, with a prefix, a lead and a target date. A public form takes bug reports, each with a title, a description and an email address.
Each report waits in triage, where you accept it, mark it a duplicate or cancel it. Cycles plan the fixes in one- or two-week sprints. Webhooks send each change to another service.
Each client has a portal for the mockups, their steps and the invoices.
Client Portal gives each client a private page of their own. A plan lists the steps of the build, such as sending the copy and photos. The client ticks theirs and uploads their files.
A shared project shows its status and target date. Their Overview lists their open steps, the invoices to pay and the documents to sign.
Magpie bills each stage of the build, and the care plan every month.
Invoicing turns each payment of the proposal into an invoice. The last one takes the balance. A care plan accepted in the proposal becomes a recurring invoice.
Hours for out-of-scope work go on the next invoice from Time Tracking. Clients pay by card, into your own Stripe account.
Seven more areas cover DNS, designs, walkthroughs, email, logins, icons and hours.
- DNS
- DNS hosts a domain's records, and lists the website, mail and shop connected to it.
- Design Canvas
- Design Canvas holds the site's wireframes and mockups, with a clickable prototype shared by link.
- Screen Recorder
- Screen Recorder records a walkthrough of the new site, shared by link with view counts.
- Mail gives a client's domain its mailboxes and aliases such as hello@.
- Password Vault
- Password Vault keeps your own logins, API keys and recovery codes, encrypted in your browser.
- Favicon Generator
- Favicon Generator makes every website icon from one image, with the HTML to add.
- Time Tracking
- Time Tracking records your hours on each project against its budget.
A build goes from a signed proposal to a live site and a monthly care invoice.
The client's contact page lists the proposal and every invoice.
The proposal
The client chooses the larger site, adds the care plan, signs and pays the deposit.
The project
Magpie makes the Time Tracking project, with its hours budget, and a To-do for each phase.
The code
You push to the client's repository. Each push rebuilds and deploys the site.
The domain
You point the client's domain at the site, and Magpie gets its SSL certificate.
After launch
The client reports a bug on the public form. You accept it and fix it in the next cycle.
Every month
The care plan's invoice is issued on its date, with a Pay online button.
Setting up takes five steps.
Add your business details
You add your studio's name, address and logo for invoices. Help: Send and configure invoices.
Connect Stripe
You connect your Stripe account, so clients can pay by card. Help: Connect Stripe to receive money.
Set your prices
You set your packages and care plan in the website starter. Then you save it as your own. Help: Proposal starters, saved sections and the price list.
Make a token
You make an HTTPS access token to clone and push. Help: Clone and push with a token or SSH key.
Publish a bug report form
You add a public form to your client's project and enable it. Help: Triage and public issue forms.
Plans
A developer working alone fits Pro, for your own work in Personal. It hosts up to 20 websites, and has no limit on proposals or invoices. Site files count toward your storage, 20 GB with Pro.
A studio fits the Team plan, one price for up to 25 members and 20 websites. Mail at a domain needs Pro or the Team plan. The free plan hosts 1 website.
Magpie adds no fee to invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each. Prices are on the Pricing page.
Other people who build for clients and the web have pages of their own.
Independent software developers and indie hackers
An independent developer sells their own software, with licence keys and supporters.
Small agencies (design, marketing, development; 3 to 15 people)
An agency runs several clients at once, with retainers, boards and a team in chat.
Bloggers and people with a personal website
A blogger writes their own site and newsletter, with email at their own domain.
Questions web designers and developers ask
Can I host a client's site from a Git repository?
Yes. A files website can take its files from a repository's branch, and each push rebuilds it. A repository with a content folder is built from Markdown, with a feed and a sitemap. A failed build keeps the live site and logs the error.
What kind of sites can it host?
Static sites: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and their assets, up to 5,000 files and 200 MB each. You upload what a build tool produces. A site is served on its own address, and its scripts cannot read the Magpie account.
Can I put a client's site on their custom domain?
Yes. You add a verification record and an address record at the client's DNS host. Magpie gets the SSL certificate. If Magpie hosts the domain's DNS, it can add the records for you. Email at that domain keeps working.
Can I roll back a bad release?
Yes. Every change to a files website is a version, with who made it and when. The latest 50 are kept. Restore makes an earlier version live again, and any version downloads as a ZIP.
Can I host the client's DNS too?
Yes. DNS hosts the domain's A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, CAA and SRV records. You import the current records, then change the nameservers. Connected services lists the website, mail and shop on the domain, and whether each is live.
Can I clone and push with Git?
Yes. You make a token with read or write access. It is the password over HTTPS. A token can be saved to your Password Vault. A public repository can be read and cloned by anyone.
Can a client report bugs without emailing me?
Yes. A public bug form takes a title, a description and an email address. Each report waits in triage. You accept it into the project, mark it a duplicate or cancel it.
Can Issues send webhooks when something changes?
Yes. A webhook sends issue, comment and project events to an HTTPS address. Each one is signed. Issues also imports from CSV or GitHub, and exports CSV or JSON.
Can I bill a monthly care plan?
Yes. A monthly line in the proposal starts a recurring invoice when the client accepts. The proposal can ask the client to save a card. Each invoice is then charged to it. You can change the lines, pause or end the plan.
Can I take a deposit and bill the balance at launch?
Yes. The website starter asks for a 30% deposit at signing and the balance at launch. The deposit's invoice is issued when the client signs. You bill the last payment when you choose, and it takes whatever is left.
Can I record a walkthrough of the site for the client?
Yes. Screen Recorder records your screen and camera. A share page plays it for anyone with the link, and can offer a download. Analytics show views and how far people watched.
Can I set up email at a client's domain?
Yes, on Pro or the Team plan. You connect the domain to Mail, with records or nameservers, and add mailboxes of 5 GB each. Aliases such as hello@ deliver to one or several mailboxes.
Can I keep my clients' hosting and registrar logins safe?
Your Password Vault keeps logins, API keys and recovery codes, encrypted in your browser. It is your own vault, and it can import from Chrome, Bitwarden or 1Password. Two-factor codes can be kept beside each login.
What does Magpie take from my clients' payments?
Magpie adds no fee to deposits or invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment. The rest goes to your own Stripe account.
Quote your next site.
Create a Magpie account and add your studio's details.