"Website builder that gives you the code" sounds like a settled promise — until you see what lands in the ZIP. "The code" can mean three very different deliverables, with different levels of editability and portability. Here is how to tell them apart, and exactly what Full Export in Pubner includes.
"The code" comes in three flavors
When a builder says you get the code, it's usually one of these:
- A static snapshot — published HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and media. Duda's export, for example, is available on Agency plans and higher. It can be hosted elsewhere, but it no longer works with Duda's editor, dynamic features do not carry over, and later changes require work in HTML and CSS.
- A framework repo — real, editable code (v0 provides React/Next.js; Bolt syncs code to GitHub). This is genuine code ownership, though deployed services or backend integrations may still depend on the vendor's ecosystem. A CMS or business-site workflow is not automatically included.
- Templates plus your content as data — editable templates and your content as structured, portable data, kept separate so both stay reusable. This is what actually lets you move or rebuild.
The word "code" hides which one you're getting. The question that doesn't: after I export, can I still edit the site and reuse the content — or do I just have a frozen copy?
Why a static snapshot isn't ownership
A static export can be a useful backup, but it is a limited starting point for continued work. Content is embedded in the markup, dynamic product features may be absent, and later changes require editing the exported files directly. That is different from receiving a maintainable project or reusable templates and structured content.
What Pubner's Full Export actually includes
Full Export gives you the site in parts, kept separate on purpose:
- The code the site is drawn with — plain, readable Twig templates, the stylesheet and scripts, exactly as they render your pages. Not minified, not a snapshot.
- Your design and structure — the design (colours, fonts, layout, and any template you changed) and the site's structure (pages, menus, SEO, redirects) as readable YAML, the site's own words as JSON.
- All your content as portable JSON, plus your media — structured data, separate from the markup, so it stays queryable and reusable anywhere.
That separation is the point: editable Twig, a design and structure in plain files, and content you can move as JSON. Export reduces lock-in, but it is not a runnable copy of the Pubner backend; moving elsewhere still requires a compatible runtime or a migration.
Before export: inspect and edit the templates
Ownership also matters while the site is still in Pubner. Advanced Editor shows Pages, Partials, Layouts, and Assets in one file tree, including nested templates. A template you change becomes your design's own version of it, and the edit stays inside the draft workflow, with version history and undo available before publication. This makes the code the site is drawn with inspectable; it does not turn Full Export into a copy of the Pubner backend.
Honest limits (because "own your code" gets oversold)
Full Export is portability insurance, not a one-click migration:
- You get the site's code, design, structure and content — not a turnkey Pubner-in-a-box. To run them elsewhere, you need a compatible renderer or a migration. The export preserves editable templates and structured content; it does not preserve Pubner's hosted behavior.
- It exports out; it doesn't import in. Pubner doesn't migrate an existing site in from another platform — that's not a feature, and anyone promising a clean cross-platform import is usually overselling.
- If a client stops paying, nothing is deleted right away — but Full Export runs only on an active plan. The clean self-serve window is the 14-day grace period after a lapse (or reactivate to export). After that the site is frozen behind an overlay and the data is kept — about five months on a paid plan, a month on trial — before removal, but pulling it out then means reactivating first. Simplest rule: export before you cancel.
Saying this plainly is the point: "own your code" is only worth anything if it's true when you actually try to leave.
Who should care
If portability matters, this is the feature to inspect closely. It is most concrete for developers because the export contains readable Twig, while the content remains structured JSON rather than a screenshot. It does not remove every migration cost: recreating Pubner's hosted behavior elsewhere still takes technical work.