EverWeb can publish your whole website to a folder on your Mac or PC instead of to the internet. You get the same files a web host would get, to open in your browser, keep as a dated copy, or put on a company's own server. Set Publish To to Folder in File > Edit Publishing Settings, choose an empty folder and type your website's address in Website URL.
The folder isn't a backup of your project file (the editable copy of your website, saved on your computer): EverWeb can't open it. See How Can I Backup my EverWeb Project File?
Before you start
- You need EverWeb Standalone or EverWeb + Hosting. The free trial can't publish, to a folder either.
- Sign in to EverWeb: on a Mac at EverWeb > Settings > Account, on Windows at Edit > Options > Account.
- Make a new, empty folder for this website only.
Publish to a folder
- Open your website and go to File > Edit Publishing Settings. You can also click your website's name at the top of the page list.
- Under Publishing, set Publish To to Folder.
- Under Folder Location, click Choose... and pick your empty folder.
- In Website URL, type the full address where the files will be online, such as https://www.yourdomain.com.
- Choose File > Publish Entire Site.
- When you see "Your website has been successfully published to a directory.", click Visit Site Now to open the website in your browser.
After that, click Publish in the toolbar to update the folder with your changes.
What happens to files already in the folder
- Publish (in the toolbar, or File > Publish Site Changes) writes only the pages and files that changed. Pages you've deleted or renamed in EverWeb stay in the folder.
- Publish Entire Site moves the whole folder to the Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows) and writes a fresh copy. Use it to clear out old pages.
Important: keep nothing else in this folder. Anything you add to it also goes to the Trash with Publish Entire Site (you can put it back from there).
In EverWeb 4.6 and later, if the old copy can't be moved to the Trash, you see "EverWeb couldn't remove the copy of your website from the last publish." If you continue, old files may stay, so delete them yourself.
Why EverWeb asks for a Website URL
Your pages work without it, but EverWeb writes your full address into a few places that need one:
- the link and picture shown when someone shares your page (see Choose the picture and text shown when someone shares your page on Facebook, iMessage or LinkedIn)
- a hidden tag on your home page that tells Google its main address
- your sitemap and robots.txt, if you have SEO PowerUp
- your blog's feed and links
EverWeb won't publish with the box empty. If the files will never go online, any address works. Otherwise type the real address, including any folder, such as https://www.yourdomain.com/new. Changed it? Choose File > Publish Entire Site again.
Open the website from the folder
Double-click index.html in the folder, or click Visit Site Now after publishing. Some features need a web server:
| Feature | From the folder on your computer | After you upload it to a web host |
|---|---|---|
| Pages, pictures, links, menus and galleries | Yes | Yes |
| Contact forms, Membership Sites, the Stripe Payment widget (they use PHP) | No | Yes, if the host runs PHP. We recommend PHP 8.2 or later |
| Simple Password, 301 redirects, your 404 page, Remove File Extensions From URLs | No | No. These need Publish To set to EverWeb |
Videos, maps, social media feeds and Google Fonts load from the internet, so they need a connection, and some may not show until the website is on a web server.
Upload the folder to a web host
- The quicker way: set Publish To to FTP Server and EverWeb publishes straight to your host, sending only what changed. See How do I publish my EverWeb website to another web host with FTP, FTPS or SFTP?
- By hand: with your host's file manager or an FTP app, upload everything inside the folder, not the folder itself, into your website's main folder (often public_html). Include the .htaccess file if there is one: a Mac hides names that start with a dot, so press Command-Shift-full stop (.) in Finder to show them. Uploading doesn't delete old files on your host.
- EverWeb + Hosting has no FTP login, so you can't upload a folder there. Set Publish To to EverWeb instead.
Related articles
- Can I host my EverWeb website anywhere, edit it without EverWeb, or move it to WordPress?
- How do I publish my EverWeb website to another web host with FTP, FTPS or SFTP?
- What's the difference between Publish and Publish Entire Site?
- Try out changes before they go live: publish a test copy of your website
- How Can I Backup my EverWeb Project File?