Showit News & Updates Go to Showit Latest News from the Showit team Showit News & Updates Improvement Update Your Website Is Getting an Upgrade Shared by JT • August 13, 2026 Our team has been busy rebuilding the technology behind your Showit website to give it a stronger foundation for today and whatever comes next. And now it's live for you to use. The updated Publish Engine includes: Smoother page loading and rendering (less content shifting) Improved accessibility and screen reader structure (layers match order in Showit) Better content structure for search engines and AI systems Faster publishing times for larger sites More behind-the-scenes improvements to support the future of Showit Most of these changes happen behind the scenes, so your website can keep looking like you while working better for your visitors. A Stronger Foundation for What’s Next This update also prepares Showit for more of the features you’ve been asking for, including WebP images for faster load times, new form field options, and updated animations. It gives us more room to keep improving the platform while giving you the creative freedom to build a website that can grow alongside your business. How Do You Get the v2 Upgrade? If your site design was created in Showit after July 30, 2026, it’s already using Publish Engine v2. For an existing design, you can opt-in to the update by selecting Use new Publish Engine in the Publish dialog box. We recommend previewing your site with the new publish engine first, especially if you use custom code. You’ll be able to toggle back to v1 if something doesn’t render correctly during the transition period. Our team is continuing to monitor the update and resolve issues as they arise. If something doesn’t look or work as expected, please reach out to our support team via the in-app messenger. Improvement New Add Custom Classes to Any Canvas Shared by JT • July 14, 2026 You can now add your own custom class to any canvas in Showit, giving you a more reliable way to target that canvas with custom CSS, scripts, and other custom code. Instead of relying on the automated classes created by Showit, you can choose a class name that makes sense for your design and use it consistently in your code. More Control Over Your Customizations When you select a canvas, you’ll now find an option to add a custom class within the canvas settings. For example, you could add a class like: featured-services Then target that canvas in your custom code using: .featured-services This gives your custom code a clear, dependable target. It also makes it easier to understand what your code is connected to when you return to your site later. You can use custom classes on canvases alongside the classes already available for individual layers and groups, giving you more flexibility in how you build and organize advanced customizations. Built for More Reliable Custom Code Showit automatically creates classes behind the scenes as your website is published. Those classes are primarily built to help Showit display your design, so they may change as the platform evolves. A custom class gives you a name that you control. That makes it a better option when you need to connect custom CSS, scripts, or other code to a specific part of your design. This update also helps prepare customizations for Publish Engine v2, which our designer community is currently beta testing. We’re hopeful to release it later this summer with improvements to page loading, accessibility, publishing speed, and the HTML structure of Showit websites. How to Add a Class to a Canvas Select the canvas you want to target. Open the canvas settings. Add your class name in the custom class field. Once it’s added, you can reference that class in your custom code. Custom canvas classes are available now in Showit, giving you one more way to create flexible, dependable customizations for your website. Fresh New Designs for Creators, Photographers, and Beauty Brands Shared by JT • June 03, 2026 We’re excited to share three new free Showit templates, now available in the Showit app. The Edit, Marigold, and Sheen were each created with a different kind of creative business in mind, from content creators and personal brands to photographers and beauty professionals. Each design gives you a polished starting point, while still giving you the creative freedom to make it feel like your own. And because they’re free, you can explore them right away. Starting a new site design lets you try one out without affecting your current site build. Meet The Edit The Edit is designed for the creator-led service provider with a strong point of view, a growing audience, and a real offer behind the content. It’s a natural fit for personal stylists, fashion bloggers, wardrobe consultants, lifestyle creators, and other personal brands who want their website to do more than look good. The Edit gives you a home base for your story, your content, your recommendations, your services, and your next offer. That means your audience has a clearer path from casual follower to subscriber, client, member, or loyal reader. The design has a stylish, magazine-inspired feel with strong typography, image-forward sections, and a confident visual rhythm. It’s especially helpful for brands built around taste, curation, education, and trust. You can use The Edit to bring the different parts of your creative business into one polished place, without making your site feel boxed in or overly complicated. Every section is fully customizable, so you can shape it around your services, content, offers, and brand direction as your business grows. Built for creative businesses that keep growing A lot of creative entrepreneurs start with one simple need. A portfolio. A booking page. A blog. A place to explain what they do. But over time, that website often needs to hold more. You may need space for content, services, products, education, recommendations, or a more complete brand experience. These new templates were designed with that kind of growth in mind. They give you a strong starting point today, with room to keep refining as your business changes. Marigold for photographers Marigold is designed for photographers whose business has grown beyond a beautiful portfolio. With a warm, joy-filled feel and plenty of space for storytelling, Marigold helps you showcase your work, connect with ideal clients, and create a brand presence that feels personal, polished, and easy to trust. It was built with wedding and portrait photographers in mind, giving your images room to lead while supporting the full client journey around them. Portfolio galleries, service sections, testimonials, pricing guidance, and inquiry-focused calls to action help potential clients understand your style and feel more ready to reach out. Marigold also includes room for photographers who are growing into education, resources, or digital products. You can use dedicated education and shop pages to share workshops, presets, posing guides, templates, or other resources without making your site feel crowded. It’s a thoughtful fit for photographers who want to keep booking client work while building a broader brand around what they know. Sheen for beauty brands Sheen is designed to help beauty businesses create a polished, current, and easy-to-trust online presence. Created with nail salons in mind, Sheen can also work beautifully for estheticians, lash artists, makeup artists, and other beauty professionals who want a site that feels modern, fun, light, and colorful. In the beauty industry, your website often helps shape a client’s first impression. Sheen gives you a stylish and professional starting point that still feels approachable and full of personality. You can showcase your services, highlight your work, share your brand story, and build trust with testimonials and clear calls to action. Instead of piecing together a site that feels disconnected, Sheen helps you create one cohesive online home that supports the real goal behind it - helping turn interest into bookings. How to try the new templates The Edit, Marigold, and Sheen are available free now in the Showit app. To try one, start a new site design in your account. This lets you explore and customize the template without affecting your current site build. Explore Free Templates in Showit Need help getting started? Learn how to start a new site design. Salt & Ember, a new restaurant template. Shared by JT • March 31, 2026 If you’re building a website for a restaurant, café, bar, or another food-driven brand, it helps to start with a design that already understands what matters most - atmosphere, appetite, and a clear next step towards your door. That’s why we’re excited to share Salt & Ember, our latest free Showit template. It’s available now and built for restaurant owners who want a polished online presence that feels as inviting as the space itself. Salt & Ember is available free within Showit, and it was created specifically for food and beverage brands with a modern, bold, slightly dark aesthetic. Built to help guests take the next step Salt & Ember was designed to do more than look good. It gives you space to show off your concept, highlight signature dishes, and help potential guests quickly find what they need. Prominent calls to action make it easy to guide visitors toward booking a reservation or viewing the menu, which helps turn interest into actual tables. It also includes flexible gallery sections for food photography, interior shots, and seasonal updates, plus integrated social feeds that help keep your site feeling current and connected to your brand. A strong starting point with room to make it your own One of the best parts of starting with a Showit template is that it gives you momentum without boxing you in. Salt & Ember is built for restaurants, but it can also work well for cafés, caterers, bars, food trucks, and other food and beverage brands. Every section is fully customizable, so you can shape the site around your menu, your mood, and your brand story as your business grows. That flexibility matters for DIY users especially. Our broader DIY audience wants a site that feels like their business, not like a generic template, and they want creative freedom without needing to code. Salt & Ember gives them a strong launch point while still leaving plenty of room to personalize the final result. Now serving Salt & Ember Salt & Ember is available now for free inside Showit. You can preview the design, choose it as your starting point, and customize it to fit the kind of restaurant experience you want to bring online. As a bonus, it also includes access to a free menu template you can edit in Canva, making it even easier to create a polished brand experience from your website to your menu. Take a look at Salt & Ember in the Showit Design Market and start making it your own. Looking for more options? Salt & Ember is a great free starting point, but if you want to explore more styles, we also have a collection of premium Food & Beverage website templates created by trusted Showit Design Partners. You can browse the full collection here Elevate Your Website with Lottie Animations Shared by JT • February 23, 2026 You’ve put a lot of work into your website. You’ve chosen the right template. Adjusted your colors. Refined your copy. Tweaked the layout until it finally feels like you. And still, sometimes it can feel a little flat. It's just missing that extra layer that makes it feel polished and intentional. One of the simplest ways to elevate a website is through subtle motion. Even a small animated detail can help guide the eye, highlight what matters most, and make your site feel more modern. That’s where Lottie comes in. Lottie files are lightweight, vector-based animations. Think simple animated graphics that load quickly, stay crisp at any size, and don’t slow down your site. They give yo…