Elements: The Road Ahead

Hello,

I want to spend a little time talking about where we are and where we're heading with Elements. What I’m outlining below reflects our current thinking. This is a high-level view of where we are today and the direction we believe Elements is heading.

Before we dive in, it’s important to remember that plans can and do evolve. Nothing here is set in stone or guaranteed.

When we first introduced Elements, people doubted whether certain things would ever be possible. Release by release, we've kept proving that wrong. Today we genuinely believe Elements is the most modern and capable website builder available on the Mac.

However, the software landscape is now moving faster than ever. The rise of large language models is already reshaping how software is built and used, and we intend to meet that head-on. More on that below.

Our goal from day one has been to make Elements both the best app it can be and a sustainably successful product, one that generates enough revenue to support the team, fund continued development, and build a buffer that allows the business to navigate future challenges.

It's easy to forget how far we've come. Since going public, we've shipped nearly 100 builds, introduced almost 50 built-in components, and built an online platform that securely stores and backs up projects alongside any add-ons purchased through the Store. This progress is something the whole team is proud of.

The business side is moving in the right direction too. Revenue is growing month on month, and we're consistently gaining more subscribers than we lose. We're not where we want to be yet, but the direction is clear, and we've actively been investing in advertising to try and keep the user base growing.

All of this shapes how we make decisions. Being a small team means we have to be deliberate about where we focus, and we try to prioritise the work we believe will have the greatest long-term impact.

The three main priorities, besides the core app are, CMS, Store, and AI. I'll do my best to share my thoughts on each below.

Last year we introduced Elements CMS as part of the core product. At the time we knew it was more technical than we ideally wanted for many users, but there was clear demand for a CMS that could integrate directly into an Elements site. In order to ship something useful quickly, we made a few compromises.

Since then, we've been thinking hard about where the CMS should go next.

We want to finish and ship the current online CMS, something that is usable while we work on what comes next. We'll then turn our attention to Elements CMS 2.0. The direction we're exploring for this is an online-first system, with local components inside Elements connecting to an API to pull and display content. The goal is something easier to use and far more robust.

We haven't finalised everything yet, but that's the vision we're working towards. I'll keep you posted if anything dramatically changes.

The Elements Store is something we're genuinely proud of. It gives users a seamless way to discover, install, update, and manage components directly inside Elements and because everything is tied to your Cloud Account, you'll never lose access to something you own.

That account-linked model is also one of the reasons why we don't currently allow components to be distributed outside the store. Keeping everything within one ecosystem lets us avoid the fragmentation and support problems that have plagued us (and other systems) in the past.

We know third-party developers are keen to get access, and so are we. Earlier this year we hit a hurdle around EU VAT and tax compliance for digital goods. We're making steady progress on that, and once it's resolved we hope to move forward with opening the store more broadly.

In the meantime we want to build in support for sharing of free components. We think this will help meaningfully grow the Elements user base and give everyone access to a much wider range of building blocks.

On a related note, as AI tools continue to improve, the long-term economics of selling components are genuinely uncertain. You can already ask an AI to build something in Tailwind and Alpine JS and paste it straight into Elements. It works remarkably well. Not every user will do that, but the direction of travel is clear. We're thinking carefully about what this means for the future of the store, and for the ecosystem more broadly.

AI is enabling some remarkable advancements for both technical and non-technical users, and we believe it should play a role in the future of Elements. That said, we want to approach it thoughtfully.

Rather than simply adding a generic AI chatbot into the app, our aim is to integrate AI in ways that are genuinely useful and aligned with how Elements works.

Over the past year we’ve spent a lot of time discussing how AI could enhance the platform. Each conversation has focused on one key question, how can we make this truly helpful for our users building sites with Elements?

Importantly, the AI features we introduce will be optional. If you prefer to use Elements without AI, that will remain completely possible. The goal is to enhance the experience for those who want these capabilities, without getting in the way of anyone who doesn’t.

Later this year we plan to begin rolling out some of the first AI-powered features. Initially these will be smaller helper tools that lay the groundwork for more ambitious capabilities over time.

We plan to use state-of-the-art frontier models, with an allocation of monthly credits included so these capabilities will be usable by everyone with an active Elements subscription. We’re excited about the possibilities here, and believe the features we’re already building will take Elements to the next level.

We’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts on all the ideas we've expressed above. With the help of this community, we know Elements can become something truly remarkable.

Thanks,

Dan & Team Elements

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