Hi Everyone,
I am looking to publish my first site for a client with a custom Domain. I am a little overwhelmed on where to start. The old site is still up at go daddy with the url that she wants this one to have. I have finished the build so should I have her open her own webflow account? I know there is a tutorial on publishing with a custom domain, but I don’t know if I can use it while it is published to the web currently. If anyone can share their process or overview with a newbie, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you
Toby
I am in a similar situation with a current client, and the answer could depend on a couple things to my knowledge.
Do you know if the client created the site themselves or had a different designer/developer create it?
-Either way, you will need the current site unpublished from its current platform to be able to publish with the same domain on here. But finding out who created the site will tell you who you have to contact to make that happen.
Regarding the transferring of the site to your client: if you don’t intend to remain active in site updates, or be involved in a workspace with your client moving forward, then they would need to make their own webflow account, and you can follow these easy steps to do that in your project settings:
Go to Project Settings
Click the transfer button above the main settings tabs
Choose to transfer to a specific user
Enter the email address associated with their webflow account
Hit transfer
They will recieve a notification in their webflow dashboard and have 7 days to accept the transfer of the site.
Nice answer Lance, I’ll add two points, and I’ll reverse them since this is the order @Toby_Sagara needs to address them.
#2 - Choosing the Webflow workspace account for the hosted site
Option 1 - keep the site in your account
You get easier control, but the hosting fee goes to you, and you then have to bill the client. Trade-offs.
PROS, this works if you’re going to mark up Webflow’s hosting or offer ongoing support and small changes as part of a hosting package.
CONS, now you’re a hosting company, sort of.
Option 2 - move the site to a client account
PROS they pay their hosting directly to webflow
CONS as I understand it… if you have anything like custom script anywhere in your site, HTML embeds, page headers/footers, site header/footer, they require custom code which is not available on the free plan, so their monthly cost more than doubles. e.g. Hosting on the CMS plan is $20/mo, plus Core workspace is $28/mo.
Granted option 2 is easier for you… but why not just bill them $50/mo, and keep them on your account, and your Core is covered. It costs the same either way. Decisions decisions. Later you can reduce that when you have more clients.
It’s a tough call, but you’ll want to choose this first, and transfer the site if you choose to, before you bring the site live, since the host has to be set up in the Workspace account.
#1 - Bringing the site live
This is all about the DNS setup, which is probably at the registrar GoDaddy.
Preferably, you’ll want access to the account, if the client is ok to give you their login.
Once you’re ready to go live, the process is-
Setup the hosting plan you want for the site, e.g. CMS Hosting.
Go to the Hosting setting, and add the client’s website domain e.g. COMPANY.COM
Webflow will show you the DNS settings you need
Go into GoDaddy
Configure the DNS with the new settings and save.
Wait for the DNS to update, anything from 5 mins to 12 hours. Usually not too long though these days.
In Webflow when that happens, the domain will turn green and show it’s linked ok.
Publish the site to the new domain now.
Everything should be live. SSL errors might appear for a bit, but they’ll go away in a few hours.
Once that’s done, your client will need to cancel their old site hosting, or they’ll keep paying for it. Most likely, that means deleting the site. You might try backing it up first just as a safety measure.
