How onwrite works

Getting started

onwrite uses passwordless sign-in. To create an account, go to Start writing and enter your email address. We send you a 6-digit code — enter it to confirm your email and you are in. Next time, use Sign in and the same code flow.

Once signed in, you land in the editor, ready to write your first post. Your blog already exists at yourname.onwrite.app — publishing a post makes it live.

Writing & editing

The editor is the home base. Give your post a title, start writing, and use the formatting tools for headings, lists, links, quotes, code, and images. A few things worth knowing:

• Autosave. Drafts save as you write — there is no save button to remember.
• Tags. Add tags to group related posts; they power the tag pages on your public blog.
• Feature image. Set a feature image for the post — you can search free photos from Unsplash without leaving the editor.
• Post settings. Adjust the slug (the URL), excerpt, and other details before publishing.
• Preview. Use Preview to see exactly how the post will look in your theme before it goes live.

Themes

A theme changes the look of your whole public blog without touching your writing. There are 21 handcrafted themes — quiet journals, bold magazines, developer logs, and photo-first designs with a picture wall — and every one of them is included on every plan.

Open the Themes section from your dashboard, browse the previews, and apply the one you like — the change takes effect on your public site right away. Most themes also have their own settings (things like the home layout, whether the author shows on a post, or which sections appear), so you can adjust the details without leaving the theme. You can switch themes whenever you want; your posts stay exactly as they are.

Publishing your blog

Publishing is a status, not a separate export step. When you publish a post, your public site, RSS feed, sitemap, and social preview cards all update with it.

• Your address. Every blog starts at yourname.onwrite.app. You choose the subdomain in your site settings.
• Publish & unpublish. Toggle a post between draft and published at any time. Unpublishing removes it from your public site.
• RSS & SEO. An RSS feed, sitemap, and Open Graph / social cards are generated automatically — no setup required.
• Check the preview before you share. Post settings include a share preview that shows how the link will look on social platforms, alongside the exact meta tags we publish for it.
• Your blog speaks your language. Dates, reading times, and the wording each theme supplies follow the language on your account, so a blog written in Portuguese reads as one end to end.
• Discover lists longer posts. onwrite's Discover feed is where readers browse writing from every blog. To keep it worth reading, it lists posts of roughly 300 words or more whose language we can identify. Nothing shorter is hidden or restricted — it stays live on your blog, RSS feed and sitemap. The check runs each time you publish.

Running more than one blog

One account can hold several blogs — the essays in one, the photo journal in another, a side project in a third. Each is a separate public site with its own address, theme, settings, posts, tags, and archive; nothing is shared between them except your account and its plan.

• How many you get. Writer includes one blog, and Pro up to 3. Accounts with legacy Free access keep one blog.
• Create one. Open the blog switcher at the top of your dashboard and choose New blog. Give it a name and an address and it exists immediately, as a draft, until you publish it.
• Switch between them. The same switcher moves you between blogs. Everything you see afterwards — posts, themes, site settings, images — belongs to the blog you have open.
• If you change plans. Downgrading never deletes a blog. You keep everything you wrote, but you can only keep as many blogs published as your new plan allows, and you cannot create another until you are back under the limit.

Custom domains

On the Writer plan and above you can publish on your own domain (for example, yourname.com) instead of an onwrite subdomain. You must own or control any domain you connect.

The exact records to add are always shown in Settings → Domains once you add your domain. You only need two kinds of records: a TXT record to prove you own the domain, and a record that points visitors to onwrite. Once DNS propagates we handle the certificate and routing so your blog is served securely over HTTPS.

• Add your domain in Settings. Go to Settings → Domains, enter your domain (for example myblog.com), and save. We generate a unique TXT verification value for you.
• Prove ownership, then copy the routing records. Add the unique TXT record first and click Check setup. We then show the exact project-specific A and/or CNAME records Vercel recommends for your hostname.
• Add the records at your registrar. Open your domain's DNS settings — see the provider steps below — and create each record exactly as shown, with no extra spaces.
• Come back and click Verify. Once DNS propagates we confirm ownership, attach the domain, and issue an HTTPS certificate automatically. You can safely close and return later.

If your domain is on Vercel

1. Open vercel.com and go to your domain under the Domains area (or your project's Settings → Domains). Vercel manages the DNS records when your domain's nameservers point to Vercel.
2. Add the TXT record from onwrite: use the exact Name and Value we show in Settings.
3. Return to onwrite and click Check setup. If Vercel needs an additional ownership TXT record, add the exact record onwrite now shows and check again.
4. Add every project-specific A or CNAME record shown in onwrite. For an apex domain, onwrite registers both the apex and www and redirects www to the apex.
5. Save your changes, then return to onwrite and click Check setup again.

If your domain is on GoDaddy

1. Sign in at godaddy.com, open My Products, find your domain, and click DNS (or Manage DNS).
2. Under Records, click Add and create the TXT record. GoDaddy adds your domain automatically, so in Name enter only the prefix we show (for example _onwrite), not the full domain, then paste our Value.
3. Return to onwrite and click Check setup, then add each A or CNAME record using the exact name and value now shown.
4. If GoDaddy says the www record refers to another record, a default www record already exists — a CNAME can't share a name with another record. Delete the existing www entry first, then add this CNAME.
5. For a root domain, use the A value shown by onwrite for @. onwrite separately registers www and redirects it to the root domain.
6. Save. GoDaddy can take up to an hour to propagate; then return to onwrite and click Check setup.

DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to take effect. If verifying fails, check for extra spaces in the value and make sure you didn't include your domain twice in the record name (many registrars append it for you). If you see “the value did not match,” the record in your DNS is from an earlier attempt — re-saving the domain generates a new verification value. Copy the value shown now, update the existing record instead of adding a second one, and wait for the old value's TTL to expire before verifying again.

Plans & limits

Every new account starts with a 14-day trial for writing, themes, and publishing. Subscriber collection and email sending start after you subscribe. Subscribe to keep publishing after the trial ends. Existing accounts that already had Free keep their legacy access.

• Writer. One blog, 1,000 subscribers, 10,000 email sends per month, a custom domain, unlimited posts, more image storage, and a small ‘Made with onwrite’ footer credit.
• Pro. Up to 3 blogs, 5,000 subscribers, 50,000 email sends per month, no onwrite branding, and higher limits.

Manage your plan, payment method, and invoices in Settings → Billing using Manage subscription. For trials, cancellation, and refunds, see the Refunds & Cancellation Policy.

Account & your data

• Export. You can download your full workspace — profile, site settings, posts, and tags — as a JSON file from your settings at any time.
• Profile. Update your display name, bio, and profile image from your settings; these can appear on your public blog.
• Delete your account. You can close your account from your settings. We recommend exporting your data first, since deletion is permanent after a short grace period.

Contact & policies

Still stuck, or have feedback? Email support@onwrite.app and we will help. You can also read our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Acceptable Use Policy.