Changelog

What is new in Baton.

What changed, newest first. Written for the people who use Baton, not for the people who build it.

Writing credits, and preview links for everyone

Writing help now works in credits, and sharing a draft is free on every plan.

  • Writing help now uses credits: 5 a month on Free, 50 on Starter and 200 on Pro. One suggestion uses one credit, and asking for another uses another. Credits come back on the 1st of every month and do not roll over.
  • The editor shows how many credits you have left, and the day they come back.
  • New prices: Starter is $4.99 a month ($49.90 a year) and Pro is $9.99 a month ($99.90 a year). The plans themselves are unchanged.
  • New: Share preview, in the top bar of the editor. It makes a read-only link to your draft that anyone can open without an account. It is free on every plan and works for 14 days.

In the editor: review links, plain limits and writing help counts

Share a draft before it goes live, and the editor now says in plain words when a plan limit stops you.

  • New: press Publish, then Share a review link. Anyone with the link can see your draft on the real page, read only and with no account. A site has one link at a time, a new link ends the old one, and a link stops working after 14 days. Starter and Pro.
  • When you reach your plan’s limit of live sites, Publish now tells you so, and your changes stay safe as a draft. Before, you got a general failure message.
  • Writing help now counts each ask: 10 a month on Free, 100 on Starter and 500 on Pro. When the month’s asks are used up, the panel says so and says they start again on the 1st.
  • The Publish window in the demo now points to creating a free account.

Baton is open to everyone

You no longer need an invite: create an account, start for free, and pay only if you choose a paid plan.

  • Anyone can sign up. Confirm your email address and you can add your first site.
  • Starter and Pro can now be paid for by card in Settings, monthly or yearly. You can cancel any time, and the plan stays on until the end of the period you paid for.
  • You get an email when a subscription starts or your plan changes.
  • When a plan limit stops you, the message now has a See plans link that takes you straight to Settings.

Install Baton from GitHub in one click

If your code is on GitHub, you no longer need to paste the script line yourself.

  • After you connect a repository, choose Install Baton for me. Baton opens one pull request that adds its script line to your layout and merges it as soon as your checks pass.
  • Baton then waits for your site to rebuild, usually 1 to 3 minutes, checks that the script is live, and tells you.
  • If your checks are still running or need a review, the pull request stays open and you can accept it from Baton when you are ready.
  • The Get your website connected card on the dashboard now mentions connecting with GitHub.

A clearer way to start, and the plans that apply after early access

Sign up says what you want to do, handing over is free for developers, and the plans are set out in plain numbers.

  • Signing up now asks one question: edit my own website, or set up sites for clients. People invited by a developer are not asked, because the invite already says.
  • Nobody pays by default. Developers connect and hand over for free, as many sites as they like. Whoever owns a site starts on Free and only pays if they choose a plan.
  • A site counts toward a plan once it is live. Sites you have connected but not published yet do not count, so you can set up many and hand them over.
  • The plans, for after early access: Free (1 live site), Starter at $9.99 a month (3 live sites, 5 editors a site) and Pro at $14.99 a month (unlimited sites and editors). Nobody is charged during early access.
  • Writing help now has a monthly number: 10 asks on Free, 100 on Starter and 500 on Pro. An ask is one request for three better ways to say a piece of text.
  • New: the activity list shows who did what on a site. Free shows the last 7 days, Starter and Pro show everything, and Pro can download it as a spreadsheet.
  • Invite emails now explain what Baton is for someone who has not heard of it, and a developer can add a short message of their own.

No more badge, and Baton asks before it splits a heading

The Free plan no longer puts anything on your site, and Baton is more careful about where in your code an edit belongs.

  • The small "Made with Baton" tag is gone. No plan adds anything to your site.
  • When a heading is drawn line by line and your new words do not say how to share them across the lines, Baton now asks you to choose, instead of guessing.
  • When the same words appear in several places in your code, Baton uses the element’s tag, its classes and the words around it to find the right one, and asks when they do not agree.
  • Words inside a type definition in your code are never changed.
  • A new version of Baton no longer retries publishes that failed more than a day ago.

Saves into your code check themselves, and a place to get help

Edits that go into your repository are checked against the code every time, and Baton is clearer about what it cannot change.

  • Headings that a site draws line by line from a list of strings in its code can now be saved. Baton cuts the new words across the same number of lines, so the animation keeps working.
  • Baton now checks what it saved earlier against your code before trusting it. If someone reverted or rewrote those words, the edit is reported, never written over a developer’s change. Change the words again to save them again.
  • Publishes that stopped under an older version of the writer are tried again by themselves.
  • A new Send feedback window in the dashboard. Pick what it is, pick the closest topic, or choose Something else and say what it was.
  • The homepage now shows how clients undo a change and go back to an earlier version, and how far back each plan reaches.
  • Right-click the Baton logo to download the logo or the press kit.
  • New Resources menu with the blog, this changelog and the documentation, and a Help column in the footer.
  • Emails have a new look: a black strip with the logo that stays the same in dark mode, shorter text, and ticket emails that show what the person wrote.

The code writer understands more of your site

More kinds of text can be found and saved into a repository, with plainer reasons when something cannot be.

  • Edits made on top of each other (A to B, then B to C) are saved as one change.
  • Words in YAML content files and in Markdown front matter can be saved.
  • Line breaks in a heading become spaces when the words live in a plain string, instead of skipping the edit.
  • When words are not in the code, Baton now says why, using what it can see: what the page imports, and what the live page’s own HTML holds.
  • A new demo film, and a newsletter box in the footer with a name field and a working unsubscribe.

A smarter editor, and the public site opens

The editor copes with more kinds of website, and plans now set how many clients and developers a site can have.

  • Strict edit mode: slideshows hold still, accordions open on a click, and blank headlines and sections show so they can be edited.
  • Pictures that wait to scroll into view are loaded up front while editing, and icons that stand alone can be edited.
  • Fixed and sticky bars and banners stay in place while you edit.
  • Free, Starter and Pro limits for sites, client editors and developers, with a Made with Baton badge on Free sites.
  • The first blog post, and the public pages are open to search engines.
  • Sign-up is open to anyone with an invite.

Write it better, and more ways to connect

Text suggestions in the editor, and support for sites that keep their words in a content system.

  • Write it better: three ways to say a sentence, with the important words in bold, one click to use one.
  • A colour picker in the editor.
  • Connect a content system (Payload, Sanity, Strapi, Keystatic, Tina or Decap) when the words live there instead of in the code.
  • A rebuilt homepage, with terms and privacy in the same style.

Feedback and automatic retries

Tell us when something is wrong from wherever you are, and saves that failed are tried again.

  • Feedback tickets, sent by hand or automatically when a save into code needs a look.
  • Saves that stopped or failed are retried every day without anyone asking.
  • A View live button that is always visible in the editor.
  • Logos and artwork drawn as SVG can be edited like any other picture.

Baton opens in early access

Developers add one script to a site and hand it to a client, who edits the real page.

  • Edit text, photos, links and icons on the live page, publish when ready, and go back to any earlier version.
  • Invite a client by email, with owner, developer and editor roles.
  • Optional: save edits into your GitHub repository as a pull request.
Free to start

Make your next website change yourself.

Your developer connects Baton once. After that, your words, photos and links are yours to change.

No card needed.