How to migrate your legacy website to the new builder (Part 1)

The new Website Builder gives you a modern, drag-and-drop editor with more flexibility, customization options, and tools to create a high-performing site — all within beehiiv.

If you’re currently using the legacy Website Builder and ready to upgrade, this guide will help you transition smoothly. You’ll learn how to migrate your site while keeping the subscriber experience consistent, so your audience experiences little to no disruption.

This article is Part 1 of a two-part series. In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Who this article is for.
• A quick comparison between the new and legacy Website Builders.
• What to know before migrating.
• A video walkthrough of the migration process.
• Step-by-step written instructions.

For deeper migration examples and extra resources, refer to: Migrating your legacy website in beehiiv (Part 2): Adding custom pages and featuring posts.

This guide is for beehiiv users who: 

• Created their account before July 15, 2025, and
• Have not yet migrated their website to the new Website Builder. 

Not sure which version you’re on? See: How to tell which Website Builder version you’re using on beehiiv.

From the left panel dashboard, click on Website. From there, you’ll see one or two options: 

• Builder (the new builder, available to all)
• Builder (Legacy) (available only to accounts created before July 15, 2025)

If you still have access to the legacy builder, you can continue editing there but we recommend switching to the new builder for greater flexibility and expanded features.

To ensure a smooth migration, please be aware of the following:

1. Save or copy your global colors: Navigate to Legacy Website Builder > Styles tab > Global Colors to note the existing color palette of your legacy site. This makes it easy to match your current branding in the new builder. 
   
   

   
   Pro Tip:

   Keep your legacy site handy so you can easily refer back to it by opening it in a separate browser window while you work in the new builder. Until you publish your new website, you’ll still have access to the legacy builder, and your legacy site will remain live for subscribers.

2. Save or copy your typography and fonts: Go to Legacy Website Builder > Styles > Typography to capture your font settings for reuse.
   
   
   
3. Custom pages must be recreated manually: Any custom pages from your legacy site will need to be rebuilt in the new builder. You’ll want to be able to refer to them in a separate tab to easily copy and paste from. 
    
4. Update navigation if needed: If your legacy site included custom pages in the navigation bar, you’ll need to re-add them to your navbar in the new builder.
    
5. Understand the new layout: After selecting a template during onboarding, your chosen design will appear on the canvas, surrounded by the tools you’ll use to customize your site. Refer to this article to learn how the new Website Builder works. 

This Part 1 article covers the content in this video up to 5:23, please refer to the Part 2 article for more information past this timestamp. 

1. From the left panel dashboard, click on Website > Builder. 
    
2. You’ll be guided through the website builder onboarding flow to select a template. To most closely match the legacy website experience, choose The Atlas Collective template, found under the Advanced tab.
   
   
   
   
    
3. Once you’ve chosen your template, click the Next button at the top-right to continue. 
   
   
   
   
    
4. On the Color palette step, you can reuse your legacy colors by pasting hex codes into the color modal.
   
   
   
   
   Or, if you want to switch things up, you can select from one of the Sample color palette presets.
   
   
   
   
    
5. After completing the color selection, click on the Next button.  
   
   
   
   
    
6. On the Typography step, you’ll select the fonts for your site. To keep consistency, you can reuse your legacy fonts (by referring back to them). 
   
   Click on a font to edit it, then search or scroll to make your selection.
   
   
   
   
    
7. Once you’ve made your typography choices, click on the Next button. 
   
   
   
   
    

8. On the Pages step, choose the pages to include on your new site. All pages are selected by default, but you can deselect if needed.

   Tech Note:

   The homepage is required for the website to work and cannot be disabled.

   

9. When you’re done selecting pages, click on the Start building button to continue. 
   
   

   
   Reminder:

   Custom pages created in the legacy builder will not appear here and must be recreated manually.

10. You’ll now enter the onboarding tutorial for the new editor. 
    
    
    
    
    We recommend completing it to get oriented, but you can skip by clicking Skip onboarding at the top of your screen. Otherwise, simply click on the Next button for each step to continue with the onboarding. 
    
    
    

11. When you have completed the tutorial, click on the Finish onboarding button.
    
    

    
    Important Reminder:

    Be sure to click Finish onboarding at the end of the tutorial. If you click Publish Site instead, your site will go live with only default pages and no further customization.
    
    Your legacy site will remain published until you explicitly publish your new site. Any work in the new builder stays in draft mode until you choose to publish.

Once onboarding is complete and you begin working in the new Website Builder, you’ll notice some differences from the legacy experience. We cover these in detail in our How to use the Website Builder and Customizing your site in the Website Builder guides, but here are a few quick tips to help get you acquainted with the new builder: 

• Accessing pages: Click the Pages icon in the left-hand toolbar to open and manage your site pages.
• Default pages: The legacy builder only included a Home, Signup, and Upgrade page. The new builder provides site themes with Archive, Recommendations, and Authors pages — all available and customizable by default.
• Dynamic Pages: Unlike in the legacy builder, the new builder gives you the ability to update the styling of your dynamic pages. For example, changing the design of the Surveys page applies to all surveys, and updating the Posts page applies to all web posts.
• Previewing pages: Click Preview in the bottom toolbar to see how your pages will look before publishing.

To move your custom pages from the legacy builder into the new Website Builder, you’ll need to recreate them.

1. From the legacy Website Builder, use the dropdown menu at the top to navigate to the custom page you wish to migrate. 
   
   
   
   
    
2. Click on the 3 dots menu for the page, then select Edit. 
   
   
   
   
    

3. You’ll be presented with the content from that page. Copy the content, then return back to the new Website Builder. 
   
   

   
   Pro Tip:

   Open multiple browser windows/tabs to easily refer back to your legacy website pages. Until you publish your new website, you’ll still have access to the legacy builder, and your legacy site will remain live for subscribers.

4. From the new Website Builder, click the Pages icon in the left-hand toolbar. Under Custom Pages, select New Page + to create a new page. 
   
   
   
   
    
5. The Custom pages template library will appear. Click on Start from scratch, then click on the Set title and URL button in the bottom right.
   
   
   
   
    
6. Enter the Title and URL in the applicable text fields. If you’d like, copy these directly from your legacy site. When done, click on the Create page button. 
   
   
   
7. Now that you’ve created the page, you can refer back to your legacy page to copy and paste the content from your old custom page into the new page. Copy or record the URL for your new custom page to be used in Part 2.