If you’re building a website for a restaurant, café, bar, or another food-driven brand, it helps to start with a design that already understands what matters most - atmosphere, appetite, and a clear next step towards your door.

That’s why we’re excited to share Salt & Ember, our latest free Showit template. It’s available now and built for restaurant owners who want a polished online presence that feels as inviting as the space itself. Salt & Ember is available free within Showit, and it was created specifically for food and beverage brands with a modern, bold, slightly dark aesthetic.

Built to help guests take the next step

Salt & Ember was designed to do more than look good. It gives you space to show off your concept, highlight signature dishes, and help potential guests quickly find what they need. Prominent calls to action make it easy to guide visitors toward booking a reservation or viewing the menu, which helps turn interest into actual tables.

It also includes flexible gallery sections for food photography, interior shots, and seasonal updates, plus integrated social feeds that help keep your site feeling current and connected to your brand.

A strong starting point with room to make it your own

One of the best parts of starting with a Showit template is that it gives you momentum without boxing you in. Salt & Ember is built for restaurants, but it can also work well for cafés, caterers, bars, food trucks, and other food and beverage brands. Every section is fully customizable, so you can shape the site around your menu, your mood, and your brand story as your business grows.

That flexibility matters for DIY users especially. Our broader DIY audience wants a site that feels like their business, not like a generic template, and they want creative freedom without needing to code. Salt & Ember gives them a strong launch point while still leaving plenty of room to personalize the final result.

Now serving Salt & Ember

Salt & Ember is available now for free inside Showit. You can preview the design, choose it as your starting point, and customize it to fit the kind of restaurant experience you want to bring online.

As a bonus, it also includes access to a free menu template you can edit in Canva, making it even easier to create a polished brand experience from your website to your menu.

Take a look at Salt & Ember in the Showit Design Market and start making it your own.

Looking for more options?

Salt & Ember is a great free starting point, but if you want to explore more styles, we also have a collection of premium Food & Beverage website templates created by trusted Showit Design Partners.

You can browse the full collection here

You’ve put a lot of work into your website.

You’ve chosen the right template. Adjusted your colors. Refined your copy. Tweaked the layout until it finally feels like you.

And still, sometimes it can feel a little flat.

It's just missing that extra layer that makes it feel polished and intentional.

One of the simplest ways to elevate a website is through subtle motion. Even a small animated detail can help guide the eye, highlight what matters most, and make your site feel more modern.

That’s where Lottie comes in.

Lottie files are lightweight, vector-based animations. Think simple animated graphics that load quickly, stay crisp at any size, and don’t slow down your site. They give you movement without adding complexity.

And now you can take advantage of Lottie directly in Showit!

Here's one example of how animated icons bring a section to life.

What’s New

You can now add Lottie animation files directly inside Showit.

• A Lottie Player element is available in the Add Elements menu
• Upload and use both .lottie and .json files
• Adjust playback settings like speed, direction, and looping
• Animations stay crisp at any size and load quickly

Make What Matters Stand Out

Used thoughtfully, Lottie animations can help you:

• Draw attention to a booking button or call to action
• Add subtle movement to your hero section
• Highlight an announcement or new offer
• Add personality to icons or illustrations

Movement naturally guides attention. It helps visitors notice what you most want them to see.

And when your message is clear, your website feels more confident.

How to Get Started

1. Find a Lottie file from one of the many online libraries and download it in .lottie or .json format. Many platforms let you customize colors before exporting.
2. In Showit, drag and drop the file directly onto your canvas, or add the Lottie Player from the Add Elements menu and upload your file there.
3. Adjust playback settings like direction, loop, and speed to fit your design.

You don’t need to redesign your site to elevate it. Sometimes a small, intentional detail makes all the difference.

Learn more about using Lottie files...

Adjusting brand colors can feel like a big leap, especially when you’re working from a template or refining an existing design. You want to be sure those changes actually work everywhere, not just on one page.

That’s exactly what this update is designed to help with.

What’s new

We’ve added a dedicated Brand Colors section inside Design Settings. You can now preview your brand color changes across all pages of your site before saving them.

This gives you a clear, full-site view of how your colors are being used so there are no surprises once you apply the update.

Experiment with more confidence

Brand colors touch more than buttons or headlines. They shape the overall feel of your site. With full-page previews, you can:

• See how color changes affect every page
• Test different color combinations without committing right away
• Fine-tune templates so they feel more like your brand, faster

It’s a simpler way to experiment, explore, and make confident design decisions.

How to get started

Open Design Settings and head to the new Brand Colors section. Adjust your colors, preview them across your site, then save when it feels right.

Learn more about Brand Colors...

Adding depth to your designs just got easier. The new Blur effect is especially helpful when working with layered elements, letting you soften backgrounds and create clear visual separation without leaving the Showit editor.

What’s new

You can now apply a Blur effect to individual elements using the new Customize menu inside element settings.
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Blur works especially well with layered designs. Use it to push background elements back or create hover effects where blurred layers sharpen on interaction.

How to get started

Select any element in your design, open its settings, and head to the Customize menu to apply the Blur effect. For hover interactions, adjust the blur value on hover to zero.

Learn more

You can find step by step guidance and examples in our Styling and Effects for Elements documentation.

If you’ve ever wished you could move, resize, or animate a set of elements all at once, this update is for you.

Element grouping is now available in Showit, giving you a simpler way to work with elements that belong together. You can group items to apply click actions, animations and more in one place, then jump back in to fine-tune individual details whenever you need.

I think you’re going to love being able to group elements that are meant to stay together. And if you’re someone who loves staying organized, this might just become a new design superpower.

What’s new

With element grouping, you can now:

• Group multiple elements together on your canvas
• Apply actions, animations, and settings to an entire group
• Move and resize grouped elements as a single unit
• Double click into a group to fine-tune individual elements when needed

Tip: Elements inside a group can still have their own hover actions. When the group is hovered, those individual hover effects will trigger, letting you layer interactions without extra setup.

How to get started

To create a group:

• Select multiple elements on your page
• Click the Group Elements button in the properties panel on the right

You can also use keyboard shortcuts:

• CMD + G (Mac) or CTRL + G (PC) to group elements
• CMD + Shift + G (Mac) or CTRL + Shift + G (PC) to ungroup elements

Double click into a group at any time to edit individual elements.

Learn all of the details here.

Just a quick heads up — we made designing a little smoother.

You can now drag and drop images straight from your desktop onto the Showit design stage. No extra steps, no stopping to upload first. Just grab an image and keep going.

It’s a small change, but one that helps when you’re in the middle of designing and don’t want to break your rhythm.

Hope it makes your next design session a little easier 💛

Getting your images to look just right just got easier.

You can now crop single images directly inside Showit, without leaving your design or editing files elsewhere. This gives you more control over how your images appear in every frame while keeping your workflow simple.

What’s new

When a single image is selected in your design, you’ll see a Crop Image option in the toolbar above the image. From there, you can adjust how the image sits inside its frame until it looks exactly how you want.

Along with cropping, a few helpful tools are now available in the same toolbar.

• Crop Image to resize and reposition your image inside the frame
• Swap Image to quickly replace an image without rebuilding your layout
• Reset to revert back to the original image placement

Get the look you want faster

When you’re building your own site, small visual adjustments can make a big difference. Being able to crop images directly in Showit means fewer extra steps, less back-and-forth with image files, and more confidence that your site looks polished and intentional.

It’s one more way to keep moving forward and stay focused on your design instead of your tools.

How to use image cropping

1. Select a single image in your design
2. Click Crop Image in the toolbar above the image
3. Adjust the image inside the frame until it looks right
4. Use Swap Image or Reset if you need to make changes

To see step-by-step instructions and full details, visit the help doc.

You can now register your domain right inside Showit

Getting your website online just got simpler.

If you’re setting up a new site and do not yet have a domain connected to your Showit account, you can now purchase and register a domain during your website setup. This new option is available through our partnership with IONOS, and your first year of domain registration is free.

That means one less step to figure out and more momentum toward launching your site.

What’s new

During the website setup process, eligible users can now:

• Search for and purchase a custom domain directly during your launch setup in Showit
• Register that domain through our partner IONOS
• Get the first year of domain registration free

This option is available to users who do not already have a domain associated with their Showit account.

How to get started

If you have not yet connected a domain, you’ll now see a Get a Domain button on your account home screen. Click that button to search for and purchase a domain, then complete registration through IONOS to connect it to your site.

Learn more

You can find step-by-step instructions and full details here

It’s official: Buttons have landed in Showit.

Ok, there were pseudo buttons before, but these are BETTER buttons. Bettons, if you will. (Please note, Showit does advocate gambling.)

We’ve heard your requests loud and clear over the years, and this is one we’re so excited to deliver. Whether you're customizing your live site or building a new one, Buttons are about to become your new best friend.

Let’s check out the details (don’t miss my last bullet point)…

Primary & Secondary Button Styles

You can now define your go-to button styles in Design Settings, based on your brand colors, fonts, and vibe. These styles keep your designs consistent across the site and make it super simple for clients to stay on brand—without messing anything up.

Hover States

Built-in hover options mean your buttons can now respond on cue—no more hacking together workarounds to get that subtle movement or color shift.

Style Overrides

Want to break the rules? You still can. Override styles on any button to make it feel unique where it counts.

↓↓↓↓DON’T MISS THIS ONE↓↓↓↓

"Convert to Button" for Easy Upgrades

Updating your existing designs is a breeze. Just select a shape + text combo with a link, and you’ll see the "Convert to Button" option pop up. One click = a fully functional button, just like magic.

You'll also find this option on our new action toolbar that appears when multi-selecting objects.

We have so many great buttons that Cordoury the Bear is green with envy. Not to worry, though, no inanimate objects are coming to life around the Showit office. I put up cameras and tied bells on everything to make sure nothing becomes sentient and stalks the hallways at night. Some might call it paranoia, but I call it being proactive. I am not about to get Toy Story-d. Also I am not entirely clear on the rules governing the Toy Story universe. I know they hide when humans are around, but in that scene with Sid they are shown to be able to expose their secret if so desired. Buzz Lightyear further proves some are defective and do not know they are toys and therefore would have no reason to remain hidden.

My personal theory is there is a taskforce designated to hunt down rogue toys who refuse to follow the program, and those Child’s Play movies with Chucky might be part of the same universe. Though I guess the doll in Child’s Play is possessed by the soul of a murderer and not an animate toy. The task force probably rounds up all the broken toys that terrorize their owners and ships them off to some sort of toy prison, which would also be a great movie. Someone get Spielberg on the phone. It could be like Jurassic Park, but with toys, maybe some of them from Jurassic Park. I just need to figure out how the Indian in the Cupboard factors into all of this. Why are there so many movies about living toys?

Buttons are live now in Showit
Go give ’em a click. 💥

We’re excited to share something many of you have been waiting for. You can now use Showit in Safari through our new public beta.

Why this is a big win for creators

If you’ve ever wondered why Showit worked best in Chrome, you’re definitely not alone. When we first built the app, Chrome had the tech that helped everything run smoothly. Safari now supports the features we need, which means you can design in the browser you already use every day.

What to expect in the beta

This release is still in active testing and improvement. You can dive in and build like normal, and our team is watching closely to keep everything feeling smooth and reliable.

If you notice something acting strange only in Safari, send us a quick message through the in-app chat. Your feedback helps us polish things faster.

Supported version: Safari 17 or newer