A hosted tool is a small interactive page that lives on your own shop: a calculator, a quiz, a checklist, a planner. You upload one finished file, and visitors use the tool on a page of your site. Free tools work as lead magnets that bring people to your shop. Paid tools are sold like any other product.
What you need
A single self-contained .html file. Claude and other AI assistants can build these for you from a description, for example "build a fee calculator for digital sellers as a single HTML file". The admin only accepts .html or .htm files. Upload the one file the AI gives you, not a folder of files.
Adding a tool
- In your admin, open Hosted Tools and add a new one.
- Give it a title. The page address is created from it: yourdomain.com/tools/your-tool-title/.
- Upload the HTML file.
- Choose Free or Paid under Access (see below).
- Fill in the optional fields you want, then save. The tool is live as soon as it is saved and published.
Untick Published to take a tool offline without deleting it. Staff can still preview an unpublished tool by adding ?preview=1 to its address while logged in.
The fields
- Description: a short caption above the tool. It accepts formatted text, so you can add bold, lists and links.
- Image: an optional thumbnail for the tools list page. Keep it under 1 MB and no larger than 1200 pixels on its longest side. Without one, the tool shows as a plain card.
- URL name, URL link and URL link position: an optional button on the tool's page, such as "Back to the shop" or "Get the full guide". Choose whether it appears at the top, the bottom or both. The button only shows if both the name and the link are filled in.
- Extra title and extra description: an optional block of text shown below the tool. Use it for background, instructions or context you do not want above the tool. Real text on the page also helps it get found in search.
- Order: a lower number shows first on the tools list at /tools/. Tools with the same number are listed alphabetically.
- Marketing list ID and marketing tag: where people who sign up from this tool go, see the sign-up box below.
Free and paid tools
Free tools are open to anyone and are marked Free tool on the page. Your footer has a Free Tools link to the tools list page.
Paid tools are marked Paid tool. They are unlocked only by buying a shop product that you link to the tool. A visitor who has not bought it sees a short "This is a paid tool" page with an Unlock button that goes to the product, and a login link for people who already bought it. Buyers use the tool right on your site and have nothing to download.
On managed hosting you can have up to 7 free tools. Paid tools do not count toward that limit. Self-hosted shops have no limit on free tools.
The sign-up box under a free tool
You can show a sign-up box under a free tool. The visitor is emailed a copy of their results, and is added to your email list at the same time. Switch it on under Site Settings, then Email Settings, then Show newsletter sign-up on free tools. Each tool can send its sign-ups to its own list and tag using the marketing fields above, so you can tell which tool someone came from. The form and your email provider settings are explained in Built-In Sign-Up Forms and Waitlist.
Sharing
Every tool page has share buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X (Twitter) and email, so visitors can pass a tool on.
How tools stay safe
Each tool runs in a sealed frame on its page. It cannot read your shop's cookies, your visitors' logins or anything else on the page around it. The uploaded file is stored privately and can only be opened through the tool page, so a paid tool cannot be reached by guessing its file address.
Ideas for tools
A calculator that shows what someone is paying in selling fees, a quiz that points visitors to the right product, a checklist they can print, a planner. Free tools work best when the result leads naturally to something you sell, and the link button is the place to point it there.
On self-hosted shops, logged-in customers can also save their results to their dashboard.