diff --git a/site/app/start/page.tsx b/site/app/start/page.tsx
index 269ca44..60dcda3 100644
--- a/site/app/start/page.tsx
+++ b/site/app/start/page.tsx
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 import type { Metadata } from "next";
-import { InstanceForm } from "@/components/InstanceForm";
+import { AccountForm } from "@/components/AccountForm";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
     title: "Vantage Cloud",
-    description: "An instance owns its servers, keys, workflows, monitors and secrets. Free for three servers, hosted or self-hosted.",
+    description: "Your account is where instances, licences and billing live. Free for three servers, hosted or self-hosted.",
 };
 
 export default function StartPage() {
@@ -12,14 +12,13 @@ export default function StartPage() {
             <div className="split">
                 <div>
                     <span className="tag">Vantage Cloud</span>
-                    <h1 style={{ fontSize: "var(--s-3)", margin: "0.8rem 0 1rem", maxWidth: "15ch" }}>Set up your instance.</h1>
+                    <h1 style={{ fontSize: "var(--s-3)", margin: "0.8rem 0 1rem", maxWidth: "15ch" }}>Create your account.</h1>
                     <p className="lede" style={{ fontSize: "var(--s-0)" }}>
-                        An instance owns its servers, keys, workflows, monitors and secrets. Nothing inside it is visible to any other instance. Confirm your email and it is created with you
-                        as its owner.
+                        Your account is where instances, licences and billing live. Confirm your email and you can create a free instance straight away — three servers, hosted by us.
                     </p>
 
                     <div className="card" style={{ marginTop: "1.9rem" }}>
-                        <InstanceForm />
+                        <AccountForm />
                     </div>
                 </div>
 
@@ -30,23 +29,21 @@ export default function StartPage() {
                             <span className="spec__k">FIRST</span>
                             <div>
                                 <h3>Confirm your email</h3>
-                                <p>We send a link that works once. Your instance is created when you open it, not before.</p>
+                                <p>We send a link that works once. Your account is created when you open it, not before.</p>
                             </div>
                         </div>
                         <div className="spec">
                             <span className="spec__k">THEN</span>
                             <div>
-                                <h3>Add a key</h3>
-                                <p>
-                                    Paste the contents of <code>~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub</code>. Vantage fingerprints it and refuses duplicates.
-                                </p>
+                                <h3>Create your instance</h3>
+                                <p>One click in the portal. It gets its own subdomain and a free licence, and you are its owner.</p>
                             </div>
                         </div>
                         <div className="spec">
                             <span className="spec__k">THEN</span>
                             <div>
-                                <h3>Add a server</h3>
-                                <p>Run the install command as root. It expires in an hour and works once.</p>
+                                <h3>Add a key and a server</h3>
+                                <p>Paste your public key, then run the install command as root. It expires in an hour and works once.</p>
                             </div>
                         </div>
                         <div className="spec">
diff --git a/site/components/InstanceForm.tsx b/site/components/AccountForm.tsx
similarity index 72%
rename from site/components/InstanceForm.tsx
rename to site/components/AccountForm.tsx
index c736dc7..aea7a49 100644
--- a/site/components/InstanceForm.tsx
+++ b/site/components/AccountForm.tsx
@@ -2,20 +2,11 @@
 
 import { useState } from "react";
 import { Honeypot } from "@/components/Honeypot";
-import { submitSignup, type SubmitResult } from "@/lib/submit";
+import { submitAccountSignup, type SubmitResult } from "@/lib/submit";
 
 const MIN_PASSWORD = 12;
 
-function slugify(value: string) {
-    return value
-        .toLowerCase()
-        .trim()
-        .replace(/[^a-z0-9]+/g, "-")
-        .replace(/^-|-$/g, "");
-}
-
-export function InstanceForm() {
-    const [slug, setSlug] = useState("");
+export function AccountForm() {
     const [result, setResult] = useState<SubmitResult>({ state: "idle" });
     const sending = result.state === "sending";
 
@@ -24,8 +15,8 @@ export function InstanceForm() {
         const data = new FormData(event.currentTarget);
         setResult({ state: "sending" });
         setResult(
-            await submitSignup({
-                instance_name: String(data.get("instance_name") ?? ""),
+            await submitAccountSignup({
+                name: String(data.get("name") ?? ""),
                 email: String(data.get("email") ?? ""),
                 password: String(data.get("password") ?? ""),
                 website: String(data.get("website") ?? ""),
@@ -38,7 +29,7 @@ export function InstanceForm() {
             <div role="status">
                 <h2 style={{ fontSize: "var(--s-1)" }}>Check your email.</h2>
                 <p style={{ color: "var(--ink-2)", marginTop: "0.5rem" }}>
-                    We sent a confirmation link. Open it and <b>{slug || "your instance"}</b> is created with you as its owner. The link works once and expires in 24 hours.
+                    We sent a confirmation link. Open it and your Vantage account is ready — then you can create your first instance from the portal. The link works once and expires in 24 hours.
                 </p>
                 <p style={{ color: "var(--ink-3)", marginTop: "0.75rem", fontSize: "0.88rem" }}>
                     Nothing exists until you confirm if the email does not arrive, start again or contact support@hostxtra.co.uk.
@@ -54,14 +45,11 @@ export function InstanceForm() {
             <Honeypot />
 
             <div className="field">
-                <label htmlFor="o-instance">Instance name</label>
-                <input id="o-instance" name="instance_name" type="text" placeholder="Northgate Systems" required onChange={(e) => setSlug(slugify(e.target.value))} aria-describedby="o-instance-err" />
-                <span className="hostline">
-                    <b>{slug || "your-instance"}</b>.vantage.hostxtra.co.uk
-                </span>
-                {fieldError("instance_name") && (
-                    <small id="o-instance-err" className="field__err">
-                        {fieldError("instance_name")}
+                <label htmlFor="o-name">Your organisation</label>
+                <input id="o-name" name="name" type="text" placeholder="Northgate Systems" required aria-describedby="o-name-err" />
+                {fieldError("name") && (
+                    <small id="o-name-err" className="field__err">
+                        {fieldError("name")}
                     </small>
                 )}
             </div>
diff --git a/site/lib/submit.ts b/site/lib/submit.ts
index bfc5537..aa6ce43 100644
--- a/site/lib/submit.ts
+++ b/site/lib/submit.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
  */
 
 const SITE_API = (process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_API ?? "").replace(/\/$/, "");
+const ADMIN_API = (process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ADMIN_API_URL ?? "").replace(/\/$/, "");
 const FALLBACK_ADDRESS = process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CONTACT_EMAIL ?? "support@hostxtra.co.uk";
 
 export type SubmitState = "idle" | "sending" | "sent" | "error";
@@ -56,12 +57,23 @@ export async function submitContact(fields: { name: string; email: string; serve
     return post(`${SITE_API}/api/contact`, fields);
 }
 
-export async function submitSignup(fields: { instance_name: string; email: string; password: string; website: string }): Promise<SubmitResult> {
-    if (!SITE_API) {
+/*
+ * Account signup posts to the admin service, not sitesvc. The two form targets
+ * are deliberately separate variables rather than one base URL: contact and
+ * signup are owned by different services, and an implied shared host is how they
+ * silently end up pointing at the wrong one.
+ */
+export async function submitAccountSignup(fields: {
+    name: string;
+    email: string;
+    password: string;
+    website: string;
+}): Promise<SubmitResult> {
+    if (!ADMIN_API) {
         return {
             state: "error",
-            message: `Signup is not available from here yet. Email ${FALLBACK_ADDRESS} and we will set you up.`,
+            message: `Signup is not connected yet. Email ${FALLBACK_ADDRESS} and we will set you up.`,
         };
     }
-    return post(`${SITE_API}/api/signup`, fields);
+    return post(`${ADMIN_API}/auth/signup`, fields);
 }