Today we are opening the Flatsome Site Builder beta. It is the biggest change to Flatsome since the very first release, and the start of a new chapter. Flatsome is now a block-based site builder plugin, it ships with Flatsome MCP so AI agents can build alongside you, and everything is built on core WordPress blocks and theme.json. The result is dramatically faster on mobile and desktop, and compatible with where WordPress and WooCommerce are heading, not just where they are today.
Why start over
For more than a decade, UX Builder has been the heart of Flatsome. It has powered hundreds of thousands of shops and sites, and we are proud of it. But WordPress has moved on. Blocks are now the native language of the platform, and building on top of them lets us go further than a shortcode-based builder ever could.
Rather than bolt blocks onto the old foundation, we chose to rebuild. Every section, banner, slider, and product grid is now a real block: responsive by default, theme-aware out of the box, and rendered with lean, semantic markup.
Flatsome Site Builder is not an update. It is a new beginning.
Flatsome Site Builder
Flatsome Site Builder is a plugin that brings the full Flatsome block library, block-based headers, footers, and WooCommerce templates, and a Site Editor experience that feels like Flatsome, all inside the editor WordPress already gives you. Pair it with the new Flatsome Block Theme, designed for Site Builder from the start, or use it with any block theme.
Why not just use the WordPress block editor?
You can. Every Flatsome block works in the standard WordPress editor. But on its own, the editor was never going to feel like UX Builder: fast, visual and fun to use. That is why we built Flatsome Site Builder. It gives you the workflow you already know, with real WordPress blocks underneath, so your pages stay standard WordPress content.
Flatsome MCP
Flatsome MCP opens your site to AI. It exposes pages, blocks, global styles, forms, and media through the Model Context Protocol, so tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor can read your site, build pages from real Flatsome blocks, and edit content safely with versioned writes. Describe the page you want and let an agent build it, or hand it a design and let it match your theme.
Core blocks and theme.json
Everything in Flatsome Site Builder is standard WordPress. Pages are core block content, and every color, font, spacing step, and radius lives in theme.json. There is no proprietary format and no separate builder state to keep in sync. Global styles built on these design tokens keep layouts, spacing, colors, and typography consistent from the first page to the last.
That foundation is the point. As WordPress and WooCommerce keep moving toward blocks, the Site Editor, and block-based store templates, Flatsome Site Builder moves with them instead of working around them. Your site is built on the platform’s own future.
Built for speed
Page speed on both mobile and desktop is up by a wide margin. Every block renders lean, semantic markup with no shortcode parsing and no builder runtime on the front end. Styles are generated from your theme.json tokens, so only the CSS a page actually uses is loaded, and scripts are only enqueued where a block needs them.
That shows up where it matters: faster first paint, lower layout shift, and better Core Web Vitals out of the box, without a caching or optimization plugin doing the heavy lifting.
Why we are moving from Envato to flatsome.com
Flatsome has been sold on ThemeForest for more than a decade, and Envato helped hundreds of thousands of people find it. We are grateful for that. But Flatsome Site Builder is a different kind of product, and it needs a different home.
Starting with Flatsome Site Builder, you buy Flatsome directly on flatsome.com, with secure checkout powered by Stripe. Selling directly means:
- A direct relationship: you buy from us, and we hear from you, without a marketplace in between
- Licenses that fit Flatsome Site Builder: a plugin with optional modules, not a single theme download
- One account: licenses, downloads, updates and support in one place on flatsome.com
- Updates straight from us: new versions reach you as soon as they are ready
It also lets us put more back into Flatsome itself: the builder, Flatsome MCP and the modules you use every day.
What about Flatsome Classic
The Flatsome you know is now Flatsome Classic, and it is not going anywhere. Flatsome Classic will always stay on ThemeForest, and it will keep getting updates for WordPress and WooCommerce compatibility, along with critical fixes. Existing sites will continue to work as they do today.
When you are ready to move, Flatsome Site Builder will offer a migration plugin for Flatsome Classic sites. It takes your shortcode-based UX Builder content and converts it to the new block system, so you can bring your existing pages over without starting from scratch.
We’re also planning to make it possible to use Flatsome Site Builder with your Flatsome Classic site so you can build landing pages and more with the new site builder.
Everything new in Flatsome Site Builder
- Flatsome Site Builder: Flatsome is now a plugin that works with any block theme, but Flatsome Block Theme is recommended.
- Flatsome Block Theme: a new theme designed for Site Builder from the start
- Flatsome MCP: build and edit your site with AI agents through the Model Context Protocol
- Core block foundation: every page is standard WordPress block content with no proprietary format
- theme.json design tokens: colors, fonts, spacing, radii, and shadows defined once and used everywhere
- Global styles: site-wide block defaults you set once in the Site Editor
- Full block library: sections, rows, banners, sliders, tabs, accordions, galleries, marquees, hotspots, image comparers, countdowns, popovers, and more
- Block-based headers and footers: announcement bars, header rows, mega menus, off-canvas menus, search, and mini cart, all as blocks
- WooCommerce blocks and templates: product galleries, add to cart, tabs, related products, deals, wishlist, and block-based shop, product, cart, and checkout templates
- Forms module: build forms from field blocks, with stored entries and typed settings
- Modules: Age Gate, Cookie Notice, Wishlist, Deals, Estimated Delivery, and Instagram, enabled only when you need them
- Responsive by default: container-based breakpoints, so blocks adapt to their parent, not just the viewport
- Effects and motion: scroll animations, parallax, hover states, transforms, and sticky elements without custom code
- Icon library: thousands of icons, including the full Phosphor set, installed on demand
- Faster on every device: lean markup, token-generated CSS, and no front-end builder runtime
- Migration plugin: convert Flatsome Classic UX Builder content to blocks
Join the beta
This is a beta, so expect rough edges. Try it on a staging site, build something with it, and tell us what works and what does not. Your feedback over the next months will shape the final release.