Quick start
Sign up for free, set up your site or profile, and get your first source-backed article - from first click to Publish.
This page walks you from signing up to your first published article. It takes a few minutes to set up. After that, each article takes a few minutes more while the ten editorial desks research, write and check it.
On this page
Sign up
Go to dash.mastheads.app and create an account. There are three ways in:
- Continue with Google - one click, no password.
- Email and password - you confirm your address from an email before you can sign in.
- Magic link - we email you a one-time sign-in link.
Signing up asks for no card and no payment details. Every new account starts a free trial straight away: 10 articles over 7 days, for one site and one person.
Tell Mastheads about your site, or your profile
The first time you sign in, a short setup screen opens. What it asks depends on whether you have a website.
If you have a website
Type your web address. Mastheads reads your site to learn its language, its country, the topics it covers and the CMS it runs on. A card then shows you two things:
- The name of your publication. You can edit it right there.
- The language it writes in.
Press Connect to create your domain, or Change domain to try a different address. Everything else the scan learned - country, topics, your tagline, the CMS - is saved into that domain's Article defaults, where you can change it any time.
The last step is the real publishing connection: the details card for your CMS opens with your platform already picked and your site address filled in. Add your login details to connect now, or press Connect later. You can write without connecting anything.
If you do not have a website
You can still write. Setup asks for a few essentials instead, each already filled in from your browser's language so it is usually one click:
- the language and country you write for
- how long your articles should be
- the voice they are written in
- whether articles carry a picture
These are saved as your profile defaults, and you land on the writing surface ready to start.
Ask for your first article
The writing surface opens on a single field. Type a topic or a headline, the way a reader would search for it:
how to choose a standing desk
Mastheads builds a brief under the field before anything is spent: a suggested headline, what the pages already ranking for it cover, and the secondary keywords worth using. Below that is the plan - the headline, the sections, and the kind of piece (an article, a how-to guide, a news story, an opinion piece and so on). Everything in the plan is yours to edit. Whatever you leave there is what comes back.
When it looks right, press Write. You are shown what it will cost from your allowance and asked to confirm. Then the ten editorial desks start.
Research is on by default, so the article is written from real web pages the desks found and read, with links to them inside the text. You can turn Research off for a faster draft written without sources; you are asked to confirm that first, and the article is labelled as not source-backed.
Wait for it, or do something else
You do not need to watch. Your account runs up to five articles at once, and when an article is finished you get a notice in the app and an email. Close the tab if you like - the work carries on.
If the desks cannot find usable sources for your topic, nothing is written and nothing is charged. The article says why, so you can rephrase and try again.
Read what came back
Open the article. Alongside the text you will find:
- The sources it was written from, linked so you can check them.
- The authenticity panel - which desks worked on it, the eleven recorded checks it passed or failed, and anything the desks could not fix, in their own words.
- The byline it will publish under.
- The picture the Art Desk drew for it, if pictures are on.
Most articles arrive ready. A few arrive marked Needs a look - for example when the article names a person no source mentions. You decide what happens next: press Regenerate to write it again, or Publish anyway. See Review and approval.
Edit it, if you want to
Everything is editable in the article editor. Select a sentence or a paragraph and ask for a rewrite in plain words - "make this shorter", "more formal". Pick a different byline. Press Draw another on the picture for a new one. See Editing drafts.
Publish it
You have three ways to get an article out:
- Press Publish to send it to your connected site. Mastheads publishes to WordPress.org, WordPress.com, Ghost, Webflow, Shopify, HubSpot and GoHighLevel. See Connect your CMS.
- Export the article as Markdown or HTML and paste it wherever you publish.
- Download everything from Settings to take every article, its sources and its picture with you. See Export and portability.
Nothing reaches your site until you press Publish. Publishing on its own is something you switch on later, per domain, if you want the autonomous newsroom to do it.
What the trial includes
The trial gives you the same ten editorial desks every plan uses, your own voice settings, and named bylines. A few things start on paid plans: Blueprints, research reports, the content API and bringing your own AI keys. See Trial for the details.
When the trial ends
The trial ends when 7 days pass or the 10 articles are used, whichever comes first. Nothing is charged automatically. Unused trial articles expire. To keep writing, you can:
- Pick a plan - Starter, Growth or Pro, monthly or yearly. See Plans and your article pool.
- Buy articles without a plan - $5 each, or $3 each when you buy 100 or more. Bought articles never expire.
Related: Introduction · How an article happens · Ask for an article