Pulse

Connecting Pulse to a custom website

Learn how to connect Pulse to a custom-built website and install Pulse manually using a script tag.

April 20, 2026

Pulse works with Shopify, WooCommerce, and WordPress out of the box, but it also works with any custom-built website, one that isn't running on any of those platforms.

This guide explains exactly how that connection works, and what each piece of it is doing.

Why you need to connect anything at all

Connecting your site gives Pulse the ability to sync your products, track what's happening on your storefront, run popups, and pick up on customer events, all through a single connection step.

Without it, Pulse has no way of knowing what's happening on your site.

Choosing Custom

During setup, when you reach the Connection step, you'll see four options: Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, and Custom.

If your site doesn't run on any of the first three, select Custom.

Two fields will appear:

Custom URL

This is simply the web address of your site, for example, https://store.example.com.

Pulse uses this to know which site it's connecting to.

Access token or API key

This field is optional. A note next to it explains that it's not required for a manual website runtime, meaning if you're planning to install Pulse manually (covered below), you can safely leave this blank.

This field only matters if you're connecting through a more automated integration that requires authentication.

Once both fields are filled in (or the URL alone, if you're going the manual route), click Connect Custom.

Installing manually with a script tag

For most custom websites, the simplest path is a manual installation.

You'll see three tabs: WordPress, Shopify, and Custom Website. Pick whichever matches your setup.

Under Custom Website, Pulse gives you a small snippet of code that looks like this:

<script src="https://cdn.yourplatform.com/pulse.js" 
 data-installation-id="INSTALLATION_ID" async></script>

This single line is what connects your site to Pulse. Here's what it's actually doing:

  • src="https://cdn.yourplatform.com/pulse.js" loads Pulse's tracking script from Pulse's own servers.
  • data-installation-id="INSTALLATION_ID" is a unique ID tied specifically to your workspace. This is how Pulse knows which account the data belongs to. Your real ID will already be filled in here, not the placeholder text shown above.
  • async simply means the script loads in the background without slowing down the rest of your page.

To install it:

  1. Click the Copy button next to the snippet to copy it to your clipboard.
  2. Paste it into your website's HTML, ideally just before the closing </head> or </body> tag, depending on how your site is built.
  3. Save and publish your site.

If you're not the one managing your website's code directly, this snippet is exactly what you'd hand off to a developer or whoever maintains your site.

Skipping this step for now

If you're not ready to connect your site yet, you can click Skip for now and come back to it later from your workspace settings.

Just keep in mind that until this step is complete, Pulse won't be able to sync products, track storefront activity, or pick up customer events from your site.

A note on Shopify, WooCommerce, and WordPress

If your store does run on one of these three platforms, you don't need any of the manual steps above.

Just select the matching option during Connection, and Pulse handles the integration for you without needing a script tag or API key.