Connecting your domain to Webflow

Your Webflow site is built and ready, but to make it accessible at your own domain name (like yourbusiness.com), you need to connect your domain to Webflow. This guide explains the process.

What you'll need

Your domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com)
Access to your domain registrar (where you registered the domain: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.)
Your Webflow site, with a paid Site plan (you need one for every site you connect to a custom domain)

How domain connection works

Connecting a domain is a two-step process:

Add the domain in Webflow: tells Webflow to expect traffic from your domain
Update DNS records at your registrar: tells the internet to send traffic to Webflow

Both steps are needed. One without the other won't work.

Webflow also offers Quick connect, which connects the domain and sets the DNS records for you automatically, if your DNS provider is on its list. The steps below are the manual method, where you set the DNS records yourself.

Step 1: Add your domain in Webflow

Log in to webflow.com and open your site's Site settings. On the Dashboard, click the "more options" dots on your site's thumbnail and choose Site settings.

Go to Publishing → Production.

Click "Add a custom domain," then choose Manually add domain.

Type your domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com) and click Add domain. This connects both the root domain and the www version.

Copy the DNS records Webflow shows you. You'll find them in Site settings → Publishing → Production. They include an A record, a CNAME record and a TXT record.

Step 2: Update DNS at your registrar

Log in to your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.).

Find the DNS settings for your domain. This is often called "DNS" or "DNS Management." Every provider's screens are different, so check your registrar's help pages if you get stuck.

Remove old website records. If the domain pointed to another website host, delete the old A and CNAME records for the root domain and www. Leave email records alone (see below).

Add the DNS records Webflow provided. Copy the exact values from your Site settings. At the time of writing, they are:

An A record with the host @ (the root domain, e.g., yourbusiness.com) pointing to 198.202.211.1
A CNAME record with the host www pointing to cdn.webflow.com
A TXT record with the host _webflow and the value that starts with one-time-verification=, which proves you own the domain

Save the DNS records.

DNS propagation takes time

After updating DNS records, it can take up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect everywhere, although it usually happens within a few hours. This is normal. Don't panic if the site doesn't switch over immediately.

Four hops, all of them in milliseconds. The resolver is the one that remembers, which is why a record you changed this morning can still be invisible to some visitors this afternoon, until its TTL expires.

Read this as text

When somebody types your domain, their browser does not know where your site is. It asks a DNS resolver, run by their internet provider, or by a service like Cloudflare or Google.

If the resolver does not already know the answer, it asks your domain’s authoritative nameservers, which hold the official records for your domain. They reply with the IP address, for example 185.199.108.153.

The browser then connects straight to that address and your site loads. The nameservers are not involved again.

The resolver keeps that answer for a set period, the TTL. Until it expires, that resolver keeps handing out the old answer without asking your nameservers again, which is the whole reason a DNS change can take minutes for one person and hours for another.

Step 3: Publish to your custom domain

When the records are in place, go back to Site settings → Publishing → Production and click Check status under your domain. Next, click Verify domain and wait for the "Custom domain verified" message. Then click Publish, tick your custom domain, and click Publish to selected domains. See How publishing works in Webflow.

SSL / HTTPS

Webflow hosting includes an SSL certificate for your custom domain. It means your site is served securely over HTTPS, so browsers don't show visitors a "not secure" warning.

Webflow sets this up and renews it for you, as long as your DNS records keep pointing to Webflow. One exception: if your domain uses CAA records, they need to allow Webflow's certificate providers, or the certificate may fail. We can check this for you.

www vs non-www

When you connect a domain manually, Webflow connects both yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com. Set one as the default domain (Site settings → Publishing → Production → Make default), then publish, and Webflow redirects visitors from the other one to it. Webflow recommends making the www version the default: setting the root domain as the default without changing your DNS settings can cause redirect loops.

Common questions

I updated DNS but the site still shows the old one.

DNS propagation takes time, up to 48 hours, though usually a few hours. You can check progress with a DNS propagation checker (see DNS propagation: why changes take time), and clearing your browser cache can help. If it's been over 48 hours, check that you entered the records correctly.

Do I need to keep paying my domain registrar?

Yes. Webflow isn't a domain registrar, so Webflow hosting does not include the domain name itself. You must renew your domain registration separately to keep owning the domain.

What if I have email on my domain already?

Be careful when updating DNS records: incorrect changes can affect your existing email. Webflow doesn't host email, so your email stays with your current provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.). Only add or update the A, CNAME and TXT records Webflow specifies. Don't remove MX records.

One name, one set of DNS settings, two entirely separate destinations. Changing your host does not move your email, and changing your email provider does not touch your website.

Read this as text

Your domain name (yourbusiness.com) sits at the top. It points to your DNS settings, which act as a switchboard.

From there the DNS settings send traffic two separate ways. The A record sends website visitors to your website hosting, where your site’s files live. The MX record sends email to your email provider, where your messages live.

The two destinations are independent. They are often different companies, and changing one does not affect the other.

Can Chykalophia do this for me?

Yes, this is something we regularly help with. If you'd like us to handle the domain connection, grant us access to your domain registrar account. See Giving us access to your domain registrar.