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Deploy from a template

To start your project quickly and reliably, deploy from a pre-made Netlify template project, which is preconfigured for Netlify and optimized for different use cases. Next, you can make customize your project, then publish your project to the web with a custom domain.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • A Netlify account
  • A Git hosting provider account, we recommend GitHub since our templates are stored there but you can technically use many other Git hosting providers
  • Recommended: A code editor or another way to edit changes in your project’s files

Step 1: Deploy a preview of your template project

Section titled “Step 1: Deploy a preview of your template project”

  1. If you haven’t already, sign up for a Netlify account.

  2. Go to your Netlify team account dashboard and select Add new project, then choose Start from a template.

    Projects page showing add new project menu with the Start from template option

  3. Select a template to use for your project.

  4. Choose a Git provider where you want to clone your project. You will need an account with the Git provider you select.

  5. Give your project a name. This name will appear on your Netlify dashboard and will be in the default Netlify URL for your project at https://YOURPROJECTNAME.netlify.app.

  6. Select Deploy project.

Step 2: Customize your project

Section titled “Step 2: Customize your project”

To customize your project, you can edit your project files directly in a text editor or code editor, such as Windsurf, Cursor, or VSCode.

To clone your project repository to your local computer:

  1. From your Netlify dashboard, go to your project overview dashboard and under your project name URL, select Deploys from GitHub. You’ll be directed to your template repository on GitHub.

    Project overview dashboard with ”Deploys from GitHub” highlighted

  2. In the top right of your project repository on GitHub, select Code, then choose a way to clone your project repository to your local computer and copy the related URL. If you choose HTTPS, you can use the following command with the URL you copied.

    Terminal window
    git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY

    For help using Git clone, check out GitHub’s docs for new Git users or for cloning a repository.

Step 3: Add a custom domain

Section titled “Step 3: Add a custom domain”

By default, your project is available on the web at the default Netlify URL https://YOURPROJECTNAME.netlify.app.

To make your project available on the web at a custom domain, you need to add a custom domain to your project.

You can add a custom domain you already own or buy a new custom domain directly through Netlify.

To add a new custom domain to your project:

  1. In the left sidebar, go to Domain management Production domains.

  2. Next, choose Add a domain, then select Buy a new domain and follow the setup prompts. If you already bought and registered a custom domain you want to add to your project, then choose Add a domain you already own and check out our docs on Bring a domain to Netlify.

Button for adding a domain with two drop down options

  1. Follow the setup prompts.