Starters

Start from a finished site.

Nine sites that install whole, with pages, collections and demo content already in place. Pick the one closest to what you’re building, swap in your words and pictures, and hand it over.

See the starters Start Free Trial

Every starter is free, and on a Mac Total CMS Studio installs any of them without a terminal. The site it builds runs on Total CMS, so it needs a license when it goes live.

Pick by the job

What are you building?

Each one is a whole site: its own design, demo content to replace, and notes on how it’s put together. Every page, collection and template is yours to change, so the restaurant can just as well become a café.

Most of them need Pro. The 45-day trial has every Pro feature, and so does any site on your Mac in Studio.

Designed starters Each is its own Composer package5 starters

  • A market or event series

    Events starter Lantern Row

    An events site for a Friday night street market, with news posts, a season of events with schedules, a contact form and site colors you set in the admin.

    • Events with schedules
    • Upcoming events list
    • News posts
    • Contact form
    • Colors in the admin
    • Site tour page
    Live demo of the Events starter (opens in a new tab)

  • A heating and cooling company

    HVAC starter Foxtail Heating & Air

    A heating and cooling company's site that changes its colors and offers with the season, with service and town pages, a ZIP code check, service requests and emergency alerts. It suits any trade that serves an area.

    • Seasons that change the site
    • Service and town pages
    • ZIP code check
    • Service requests with photos
    • Emergency alerts
    • Reviews by town
    Live demo of the HVAC starter (opens in a new tab)

  • A photographer

    Photographer starter Wren Alder

    A nature and portrait photographer's site, with projects, session packages, print requests, a booking form, private client galleries and a journal.

    • Projects
    • Session packages
    • Print requests
    • Booking form
    • Private client galleries
    • Journal with RSS
    Live demo of the Photographer starter (opens in a new tab)

  • A real estate agent

    Realtor starter Valeria Montoya

    A real estate agent's site in English and Spanish, with home search, neighborhood pages, open houses, video tours and private listings for registered buyers.

    • Home search
    • English and Spanish
    • Neighborhood pages
    • Open houses and video tours
    • Private listings for buyers
    • Just-listed emails
    Live demo of the Realtor starter (opens in a new tab)

  • A restaurant

    Restaurant starter Copper Thistle

    A restaurant site set like a printed bill of fare, with a menu, weekly specials, opening hours, a photo gallery and contact details.

    • Menu
    • Weekly specials
    • Opening hours
    • Photo gallery
    • Contact details
    • Help pages for the owner
    Live demo of the Restaurant starter (opens in a new tab)

Built into Total CMS Pick one in the installer4 starters

Installing

One command, or none.

Either way you get the same site, and the setup wizard creates your admin account on its first visit.

In a terminal

Mac, Windows or Linux

With Composer and PHP 8.2 or later, plus Node.js for a starter that builds its CSS. Then point your web server at mysite/public/ and visit the site. Each starter’s page has its exact command.

# A designed starter, like Restaurant 
composer create-project totalcms/starter-restaurant mysite
cd mysite && npm install && npm run build
# Built in: the installer asks which 
composer create-project totalcms/totalcms mysite
# Or add one to a site you already have 
tcms builder:init blog

Installing, step by step

With Total CMS Studio

Apple Silicon Macs, macOS 14 or later

Studio’s New Site list is this catalog. Pick a starter and a folder, and Studio installs the site, builds its CSS and creates your admin account. It brings its own PHP, Node and Composer.

Studio's New Site dialog, choosing the folder for a new site

Get Studio for Mac Free with a totalcms.co account

Try one on the trial.

45 days with every Pro feature, on your own server, no credit card. Install a starter and see the site your client would edit.

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