Introduction

Open Website Builder (OWB) is a visual editor and static publishing toolkit. It is installed into a separate website project rather than hosting that project inside a vendor platform.

The website owns its content, site configuration, backend choice, assets, and generated output. OWB provides the editor, backend contracts, built-in storage adapters, components, and publishing pipeline.

Why an open website builder?

Closed website builders are convenient, but they usually keep the editor, content model, hosting, and publishing pipeline inside one vendor's platform. That can make a future migration depend on incomplete exports, recreated templates, or a continuing subscription.

Open Website Builder keeps those responsibilities under your control:

• You own the content. Pages can be ordinary JSON files, a SQLite database, or records in a backend you implement.
• You own the output. Publishing produces a static site that can be hosted anywhere instead of requiring a proprietary runtime.
• You can inspect and extend the editor. The editor, components, backend adapters, and publish pipeline are source code rather than fixed product boundaries.
• You choose the infrastructure. Move between local files, a database, object storage, and hosting providers without replacing the editing model.
• Your site remains portable. Content and generated assets can be backed up, versioned, tested, and deployed with standard development tools.

This flexibility comes with responsibility: you operate the project, choose a host, apply updates, and protect any custom backend. A hosted closed platform may remain the better choice when a team wants those operational decisions handled by a vendor. OWB is intended for people who value ownership, portability, and the ability to change the system itself.

How it fits together

During development, Vite serves the editor and mounts backend middleware under /__data. The editor reads and writes complete content documents through that API. A publish provider reads the same documents and produces static output.

Choose the storage model that suits the project:

• Filesystem backend: JSON content that is easy to inspect, version, and deploy with Git.
• SQLite backend: transactional local storage in one database file.
• Custom backend: connect services such as PostgreSQL, a CMS, or custom object storage.

Continue with Getting started, then follow one of the backend guides and the editor tour.