Dynamic content/forms can't be exported? need help

Publishing help Hosting
1

Can anyone help me? made a site and I wish to publish it. I have a domain name and hosting on bluehost. I have just read that on the Lite Plan, that dynamic content/forms can’t be exported.
Does this mean basic things like, contact form, getting in touch forms, won’t work?
Webflow is new to me, so I’m not sure how it works.

thanks in advance, alex

Webflow -
(Note: Dynamic content and pages cannot be exported and forms will stop working. Webflow hosts and manages all form submissions and CMS database content.)

2

Yes exactly, you can only export static sites, and for forms you have to use either third party form providers, or write a php script on your host to send emails (if bluehost is able too), otherwise you can export separately the website and cms content and build the site with that data, or use a third party converter to use another cms on your hosting

3

Hey Alex, adding to Pietro’s comment- the limiting factor here is not the Lite Plan.
It actually doesn’t matter which plan you’re on.

In Webflow, site exports are limited;

  • None of your CMS content is exported ( the collection lists themselves are entirely gone ).
  • Forms aren’t connected to anything, so you need to re-wire them

Beyond those things, your site should be mostly functional on an external hosting platform.

4

Hi Pietro. I think deep down I understood this, just didn’t want to accept it. Makes complete sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me. As you are here, I’ve got another question, not sure. For now I want to hold off from publishing the website. But I’m also under pressure from someone to link up a business email with their domain name from Bluehost. Is this possible by being on one of the plans with webflow, and linking up a custom domain with gmail suite or whatever email client I choose? All quite confused on the matter, thanks for reading this. Alex

5

Hi Memetican, again, thanks for clearing this up for me. I get it, makes sense and logical too. I just asked Pietro another question, probably quite a confusing one, but maybe you have some advice for me. I wish I just got the domain name from webflow originally, would be smoother I guess.
Cheers, Alex

6

Webflow hosting doesn’t include any email provider. You have always to attach a new one, but to use gmail suite your domain must be on google domain, with bluehost you are forced to use them as mail provider

7

@algibb Pietro is right- Webflow doesn’t offer any email services at all, you’ll need to find your own. Your domain registrar probably offers some form of email service, but personally I’d just go with Google Workspaces ( aka GSuite ) or Zoho mail. They’re both good, reliable, and feature-rich.

@pietrofalco , Google Workspaces ( aka GSuite ) doesn’t actually have any restrictions on where your domain is registered. I run my own registrar resale service for my clients, and use GSuite and Zoho mail for nearly all of them.

8

Wasn’t talking about gsuite in fact. I was talking about normal gmail accounts, if you have your domain on Google domain, you can have for free unlimited email aliases, so with 0 paid accounts, you have branded domain emails, and this can be done only if your domain is registered through google domain.

9

Hey that’s very slick. Your reference to “gmail suite” threw me, but that’s a valuable thing to know for my non-profit clients. Thanks for the tip!