The things people ask before they try it.
Plain prose, no jargon. If your question isn't here, email us. We'll answer it — and probably add it to this page.
Q.01I've never used Claude before. Is that going to be a problem?
No. Most people who use Lanlan have never used Claude. Most of us hadn't either, until pretty recently.
Claude is like ChatGPT — an AI you talk to. It comes from a company called Anthropic. To use Lanlan, you'll make a free Claude account and add a small connection that lets Claude do website things. We have a step-by-step page for it, with a video coming this week. If you get stuck, you email us, and a real person walks you through it.
Q.02Do I need to know anything about websites or design or branding?
No. If you do, great. If you don't, also great. You can pick the quick way — tell us your business and a few details, and we'll make a site that's good for your kind of business. You don't need to know your colors. You don't need to have a logo. You don't need to know the difference between a font and a typeface (almost no one does).
If you'd like a longer conversation about your business — what makes you different, who exactly you serve — that's our sit-down. About thirty minutes with a small design team. Also free. Up to you.
Q.03What is a custom domain and do I have to pay for one?
A website needs two things, like a house does — a place to live, and a sign on the door. The place to live is hosting (we handle it). The sign on the door is a domain — like your-business.com. You don't have to pay for one. Your free site is at your-business.lanlan.site, which is a real, working web address. Plenty of small businesses use that and never go further.
If you do want your own dot-com, it's about ten dollars a year. We handle setting it up. You can also buy your domain somewhere else (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Porkbun are common options) and connect it — both work fine.
Q.04What does it actually cost?
The site is free. A dot-com is about ten a year. Make it mine is fifteen a month, and only when you want what's in it (more than one site, a blog, payments through Stripe, dynamic content). The pricing page shows everything in plain words.
Q.05What's the difference between the quick way and the sit-down?
Both are free. Both end with a real, deployed website.
The quick way is for people who want a site, fast, and don't have a lot of energy for the bigger questions. About five minutes of input from you, twenty minutes total before your site is live. We make smart guesses about colors and voice based on what you do.
The sit-down is for people who want to think it through with a small design team. Thirty minutes of conversation with specialists who help with different angles — visual direction, voice, audience, business strategy. Then we build the site from that conversation.
The sit-down is more thorough, but it's heavier — some people aren't in the headspace for a thirty-minute strategy chat about their business, and that's fine. You can always start with the quick way and book a sit-down later.
Q.06I already have a website. Why would I switch?
Maybe you wouldn't. If your current site is good and you like it, keep it.
The honest reason to switch isn't "ours is prettier." It's that your current site was probably built before anyone sat down with you about your business. Lanlan starts with a conversation, then builds. The site you end up with reflects what your business has actually become — not what you knew about it years ago when you picked a template.
Q.07How many free sites can I make?
Up to three. Most people only need one. If you need more (a side project, a related business, a personal site too) — that's when Make it mine kicks in, with unlimited sites.
Q.08Can I change things later?
Yes, anytime. You change things by talking to Claude — "make the header bigger", "add a page about my prices", "change the colors to something warmer". There's also a dashboard where you can edit the site directly without Claude, if you'd rather click around.
Q.09Will my site be fast?
Yes. Every Lanlan site runs on a global network of edge servers, with HTTPS (the lock icon), and is built as plain HTML and CSS. Most Lanlan sites load in well under a second on a phone.
Q.10What if I want to leave?
You take your site with you. The whole site is plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files — not locked in our system. You download them and host them anywhere else. We don't charge a fee to leave. We don't make it hard.
Q.11Do you run ads on my site?
No. Not on the free tier. Not on any tier. Not ever. Your visitors see your site, your business, your offer. That's it.
Q.12Who's behind Lanlan?
Four humans in Berkeley. Lani (CEO), Jean (CTO), Britt (CMO), and Will (technical founder and Lani's spouse — that's how we got our start). The product is named after Lani — Lanlan was their childhood nickname. Meet the team here.