Beautiful is not the same as open
Canva Websites is genuinely good-looking, and quicker to design than anything we make. What it cannot do is answer the questions a business actually gets asked.
A real Clay site — built from a Google listing
You already make your posts in Canva, so building the website there is the obvious next move — the brand kit is loaded, the fonts are right, and the page is done in an afternoon. Then somebody opens it on a Sunday to find out whether you are open, and it says the same thing it said on Friday.
Clay starts from the listing you already keep current. The hours come across as Google's own per-day lines and the page works out the answer on the day somebody is reading it: “Open until 17:00”, “Opens tomorrow at 09:00”, or a red light and “Closed”. Your photographs, your reviews and your map come with them.
What you get
Hours that know the day
Open until 17:00. Closing in 20 min. Opens tomorrow at 09:00 — and a light that turns red the moment you shut.
A menu made of text
Courses, dishes and prices as real text with a filter strip, marked up so a search engine reads what a picture would hide.
Bookings that keep count
Appointments, tables or things hired by the day — a hire shop enters three scooters and the day fills when all three are out.
Clay vs a Canva website
The first two rows go to Canva, and the first one is not close.
The design tools are better there
This one is not close. The editor, the type, the brand kit, and the fact that your flyer, your story and your website come out of the same folder — none of that is something we do, or plan to. If the site is a poster with a link on it, make it in Canva.
The difference is what happens after. A Clay site is not a design with words in it — it is a set of features, and each knows something: the hours know the day, the booking knows how many scooters are out. You pick a theme, an accent, light or dark. Moving an element three pixels is not on offer.
What you get
- Opening hours that answer on the day, not on the day you typed them
- A menu and prices as text a search engine can read
- Bookings that count what is left, on the paid plan
- Free and live on your own name.clay.site, with a small badge
Questions
How long does it really take?
Most people are live in two to three minutes — search your business, pick a style, publish. There is nothing to install and no signup needed to see your site first, because it is built from your Google listing rather than from a blank page.
Is it free?
Yes. You get a live site on your own name.clay.site address with a small badge in the footer, and nothing expires. The paid plan is your own domain, the badge removed and the pro features.
Do I need any tech skills?
None. If you can type your business name, you can build a Clay site: the live page is the editor, so you tap the thing you want to change. There is no code anywhere, and nothing to install or keep updated — see the WordPress comparison for what that saves.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes — buy it wherever you like and point it at Clay on a paid plan; the certificate is issued for you. Until then the free name.clay.site address is a real one you can print, and it keeps working afterwards.
Can I keep designing in Canva?
Yes, and you should — the posts, the flyers, the board on the wall. Export a photograph and put it straight on the Clay page. There is no Canva importer and nothing comes across on its own; what usually matters is already on your listing anyway.
Is booking included on the free plan?
No. A free site draws the booking page, but the server refuses the booking itself until the site is on Pro. Everything else here — the hours, the menu, the reviews, the map — works on the free site: how booking works.
Will a menu built in Clay show up in a search?
The groups, dishes and prices are real text with schema.org markup, so a search engine can read a menu a picture would have hidden. There is no search box on the menu for visitors — there is a filter strip by course, which is what people actually use: more on menus.
Real sites, made with Clay
Open one. It is the live site in a frame, not a screenshot — so what you see is what it looks like right now.
Beautiful is not the same as open
Search your business and see your site in seconds — free, no signup.