Using non-www as the default domain

Hi,

We’ve been using Webflow to host our website for several months now and have it running with SSL on https://www.mydomain.com*. However, we want to host at https://mydomain.com.

We’ve moved to use ClouDNS for our name servers so we can use an ALIAS record for mydomain.com and have pointed the ALIAS record at proxy-ssl.webflow.com, as per Webflow guidance.

Despite this, Webflow still reports ‘Issues detected’ for the ‘mydomain.com’ version of the domain and, naturally, won’t allow us to publish the site on ‘mydomain.com’.

Are there any other Webflow users that have successfully used ALIAS records with ClouDNS to host at the equivalent of mydomain.com? Or otherwise, can anyone suggest what the problem might be?

Thank you.

  • Not our actual domain :slight_smile:

Hey Ewan,

Provided that the ALIAS record has been added correctly and you’ve set the root domain(non-www. address) as the default in your Webflow project settings, then my understanding is that this should work fine provided that the DNS changes have propagated (which can take 48 hours).

It’d be worth making sure that you don’t have any conflicting A records set up on the root domain too, as these would have been added while you were using the www. subdomain as the default domain. While i’m not 100% familiar with ClouDNS, it may be that they allow both A Records and ALIAS Records to be present on the same host - which would cause conflicts in this case.

When the root domain is being as the default domain on Webflow hosting, DNS Records are usually set as follows:


Record 1:
- Type: ALIAS (or CNAME/ANAME with some providers)
- Name/Host: @
- Value: proxy-ssl.webflow.com

Record 2:
- Type: CNAME
- Name/Host: www
- Value: proxy-ssl.webflow.com

Therefore, any A records you had set up on the root domain (as would have been added when utilising the www. subdomain as the default), should be removed.

Webflow list ClouDNS in their list of providers that support root domains as the default on their University article on the subject, so I would recommend checking out the following guide and double checking you’ve got everything set up correctly: Set the root domain as the default domain on SSL hosting | Webflow University :arrow_upper_right:

If you’re still having issues after checking this out - could you provide us with the URL address of the domain you’re having issues with? That way we can take a deeper look at your DNS Records :slight_smile:

Hope this helps!

The CNAME for www as well as the ALIAS for the root are set up (no A records in root), yet webflow still complains of a problem. The “Make Default” button IS available. Issue detected is still displayed though in Webflow itself.
Do you think it is safe to do the flickover?

Hi,

I wonder if anyone in the community has the knowledge and can advise, please? As far as we can tell, we’ve implemented DNS with a recommended provider, and all the configuration is as we’ve been advised.

Is it safe to make our non-www the default, even if Webflow is reporting there’s an issue with the setup? I’m inclined to think this is a bug in Webflow.

Thank you.

Apologies. The address we’re trying to configure is https://enable.com.

Thanks.