Client management for existing sites not possible?

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1

Webflow introduced Client Management a few months ago. Even though it seems like a nice feature, I can only use it for new hosting plans and not for existing sites.

And since we have 20+ websites online it’s not really an option for us to take down every one of them just to change the payment method.

Does anyone know a workaround for this without having to unpublish the site completely and buy a new plan through the client?

2

No. I wish it had been built in a “payment profile” approach so that you could simply switch the profile and have it take effect at the next bill.

Currently the smoothest approach could be-
About a week before the plan cycle ends;

  • Setup two dummy sites, A and B
  • Add a client hosting plan to A, which invites the client to pay. Set it to the same level you need on the live site

Then, once the client completes payment setup;

  • Transfer the live site’s plan to B
  • Transfer A’s client-paid site plan to your live site
  • Verify everything - domain redirects apps etc.
  • Cancel the plan on B

I have NOT tested this but it eliminates the biggest problem which is the client payment delay, so it should minimize downtime, and minimize plan overlap.

3

Yes, a payment profile as you describe would make much more sense.

Regarding your workaround. It’s an interesting approach, I think though that you cannot transfer a plan that is paid by a client (probably for security reasons). But an option could be to just duplicate the live site and invite the client there. As soon as the client has entered their information, go to site settings > publishing and add the domain. Then change the DNS-settings at the domain-provider to point to the new hosting. After that just remove the site plan from the old website.

I also didn’t test this, but I think this could work without having any downtime.

4

That could very well be the case- it would be unfortunate as it would break client upgrades though.
Unfortunately I cannot really test client payments myself until project fees is released as a feature.

I use the clone approach in other migrations, such as site migration to a client workspace- that does pretty well for minimizing downtime. In your scenario here, the domain is already verified to the workspace, so hopefully you wouldn’t need to update the verification TXT record.

Do keep in mind though that Webflow has recently changed its hosting settings so that might necessitate DNS changes anyway as part of the new plan setup. It might be possible to sort those out on the existing plan so you’re best positioned.