Remixer overview

Overview

Remixer is DreamHost's AI web app builder. You describe what you want in plain English, and Remixer designs and builds a working web app — pages, a built-in database, forms, and payments included, with no code to write and no software to install or update. Every app is backed by Remixer's cloud features, so your site can sign in users, store files, keep secrets, and run server-side actions at runtime. This article explains what Remixer is, what it builds, what it costs, how to get started, how to edit your app, what its cloud features do, and how to get the best results from your prompts.

What is Remixer?

Remixer turns a plain-English prompt into a working web app. Because every Remixer project comes with its own cloud database, your app can store and display real data, not just fixed pages. That makes Remixer a strong fit for:

• Data-driven sites — directories, catalogs, listings, event schedules, and resource libraries that pull from a table
• Interactive tools — booking and signup forms, request intake, and other pages that capture and store what visitors submit
• Membership and gated sites — customer portals, private downloads, and member-only content backed by built-in user accounts
• Online stores — take payments through Stripe and ship through Shippo
• Business sites, landing pages, and portfolios — load fast and look professional, with dynamic content wherever you want it

Remixer builds and hosts the whole app for you from a prompt. If you'd rather assemble a site from plugins and themes, or you're running a large blog or content archive with multiple authors, WordPress is the better fit — and you can run Remixer apps and WordPress sites on different domains in the same DreamHost account.

What Remixer costs

Remixer is available as a free trial and on the paid Build plan. AI actions — generating your app and making edits through chat — draw on credits from your plan's allowance. Publishing does not use credits. Direct edits you make yourself in Editor mode are free, except for the AI-assisted tools noted in the editing section below.

See Understanding Remixer credits for how credits are counted and what to do if you run out.

Before you begin

You can start building a Remixer website for free, with no domain and no hosting plan required. Sign up, describe what you want, and Remixer generates a working app you can preview and refine right away. This is the best way to try Remixer and see what it builds before you commit to a plan.

Publishing to your own custom domain

To publish your app to a live custom domain, you need a paid Remixer plan, which includes built-in hosting. Adding Remixer to a custom website is a later step, not a first-step prerequisite — you build first, then publish when you're ready.

Two ways to edit your app

Remixer gives you two editing modes, and you can switch between them at any time.

Target a specific element

In either mode, click the arrow icon (the element selector), then click any part of the page. In Preview mode, this tells the AI exactly which section your request is about. In Editor mode, it opens that section for direct editing.

Add images and files to the chat

You can hand Remixer a file in two ways:

• Click the Attach file button and choose a file from your computer.
• Paste from your clipboard. Copy any image or take a screenshot, then paste it straight into the chat.

Then tell Remixer what to do with it: "use this as the hero image," "match this color palette," or "add this menu as a page."

What are Remixer's cloud features?

Remixer's cloud features give your generated site a real backend, all managed from the Remixer editor and usable by your live app at runtime. Each app can sign in users, store files, keep a structured database, hold encrypted secrets, run server-side actions, send and receive email, and keep an activity log. You can set these up directly or ask the AI to build and configure them for you through chat.

What does the built-in database do?

Every Remixer app includes its own database for structured content — product listings, event schedules, member directories, and similar collections. This is what lets a Remixer app go beyond fixed pages: data is organized into tables with fields and records, and your app displays it dynamically in lists, galleries, and other sections. Records support structured fields including text, numbers, true/false values, arrays, objects, images, and metadata.

You can create a table two ways:

• Ask the AI. Describe what you're building (e.g., "a table of my pottery classes with dates and prices"), and Remixer creates the structure for you.
• Build it manually. Open your project, select the Open Data icon in the left sidebar, click Create Table, and add your fields.

Your published and preview sites can create, list, search, update, and delete records at runtime, and Remixer handles validation and permission failures gracefully.

How the AI works with your data

The AI builds and edits your tables and their structure from your prompts. To view or edit the records inside a table, use the database sidebar, or add a form or admin view to your app so you and your visitors can manage data directly. The AI works with table structure rather than the records themselves, so it won't read or reference your stored data when generating your app.

A few things to know as you plan your project:

• Built for structured fields. Store images as URLs, and Remixer displays them in your app.
• One database per app, unlimited tables. Create as many tables as your app needs within that single database.
• Structure and content through chat. The chat prompt creates and updates your tables and their content. Advanced queries and filtering aren't available through the chat prompt.

What can built-in user accounts do?

Remixer includes built-in user management for sites that need accounts or gated experiences. Visitors can sign up and sign in on your live site, and you manage them from the Users dashboard.

• Sign-in methods. Support standard email and password sign-in, Google sign-in, or both. Turn public signup, email authentication, and Google authentication on or off independently.
• User visibility. The user list shows provider icons, sign-in counts, last activity, and disabled users. Users pending email confirmation are marked Unconfirmed.
• Conflict handling. Remixer handles provider conflicts, such as a Google-only user attempting to sign in with email and password.

What does Storage do?

Storage gives each project dedicated file buckets that both the editor and your live site can use.

• Public or private buckets. Create buckets and set default access for signed-in users to none, read, write, or read and write. Grant specific users access to private buckets.
• File operations. Upload, list, read, and delete files. Generate public read URLs, and private signed URLs for reading or uploading.
• Controls and limits. Configure maximum file sizes, quotas, and allowed file types. Track bucket usage, object counts, quota errors, and access-denied events.

What are Secrets and runtime actions?

Secrets and actions let your site call external APIs or run server-side workflows without exposing sensitive data in the browser.

• Encrypted secrets. Store write-only secrets and reference them securely in actions using {{SECRET_NAME}}. Remixer substitutes secret values strictly on the server and never sends them to the browser.
• In-use protection. A secret tied to an action shows an In use state, and Remixer prevents deleting a secret that an active action still depends on.
• Runtime actions. Run actions directly from your live site to call external services or perform server-side work.

How do email and forms work?

Remixer supports both receiving form submissions from visitors and sending transactional email from a verified project sender.

• Form submissions. Configure an inbox recipient for all form submissions, and visitors submit forms directly from your live site.
• Sending email. Configure a sender address on your custom project domain and verify it with DKIM and MAIL FROM DNS records. When your domain is managed by DreamHost, Remixer adds these records automatically and shows external DNS records only when you need to add them manually. Once verified, you can use the sender address as your inbox recipient.

What do the project activity logs show?

Project Activity is a centralized, 30-day audit trail of everything happening in your app's cloud environment — database, storage, user sign-ins, email, secrets, actions, deployments, and system updates.

• Filters. Filter by All Activity, Needs Attention, Visitor Activity, and System Activity, and narrow visitor events to your live site or preview site.
• Severity. Events are labeled Info, Warning, or Error, and surface access-denied, validation, quota, timeout, and failed runtime events.
• Debugging detail. Each event includes a unique reference ID, and you can copy the reference ID or the full event details for troubleshooting.

Sell products with Stripe and Shippo

Remixer connects to two services so you can run a store inside your app without any code:

• Stripe handles payments — checkout, transactions, and payment processing. Remixer places the buy buttons and checkout links in your app; you manage products and payouts in Stripe.
• Shippo handles shipping — real-time rates from multiple carriers, label printing, and delivery tracking.

To connect either one, open your Remixer dashboard and click the Open Integrations icon in the left sidebar.

Getting better results from your prompts

Remixer does its best work when you're specific. Strong prompts usually say what you want, what to avoid, and how you'll judge the result:

• "Make the homepage feel like a high-end bakery — warm colors, large photos. No stock-photo look."
• "Add a booking form that saves each request to a table with name, date, and party size."
• "Add a three-tier pricing section, with the middle tier highlighted."

You can start simple and refine through conversation, or write one detailed prompt up front with your goals, inspiration, and constraints. Both work: iterating is usually faster for design taste, and a detailed one-shot prompt is usually faster for structure.

FAQs

Is Remixer just a static website builder?

No. Remixer builds web apps backed by cloud features — a built-in database, user accounts, file storage, forms, email, and payments — so your site can store and display real data and support signed-in users, not only fixed pages. You can add dynamic content like directories, listings, and intake forms without writing code.

Do I need a domain or hosting plan to get started?

No. You can start building a Remixer website for free with no domain and no hosting plan. A paid plan, which includes built-in hosting, is needed only when you're ready to publish to your own custom domain.

Do edits cost credits?

AI generation and AI chat edits use credits. Publishing does not use credits. Most Editor-mode edits are free — manual typing and formatting, and swapping an existing image, cost nothing — but a few AI-assisted Editor tools do use credits: the generate-text suggestion tool for text or images, and generating a new image.

Does publishing cost anything?

Publishing to a live custom domain requires a paid Remixer plan, but publishing itself does not consume AI credits.

Can I use my own domain?

Yes. On a paid plan, Remixer publishes to a domain on your DreamHost account, including domains you register or transfer in.

See also

DreamHost links

• Create a Site with Remixer
• Understanding Remixer credits
• Remixer Visual Editor overview

Third-party links

• Accept payments online without writing code
• Use a prebuilt Stripe-hosted payment page
• Stripe Web Elements