Webflow hosting, custom domain plus subdomain

Hey guys

I just finished my website. First, I wanted to export the code and host it with a webhoster.
There I had the problem, that the dimensions of the website didn’t match with what I designed. Like everything (images , text and so on) appeared much smaller then in Webflow.
Also it isn’t really comftable to always re-export and re-upload after changes.
So I thought about using the Webflow hosting service.
But there is one need for me, where I couldn’t find any answer till now.
My domain is: schnauzug.ch
This should link to main page (index.hml)
Then, there is gewinnspiel.schnauzug.ch - this should link to a specific site within my website. going trough the URL gewinnspiel.schnauzug.ch is the only way how to access this site, cause it’s a kind of a contest, where people can attend, if they buy a beer. (the url and QR Code is written on the beer bottle)

Is it possible to use a subdomain like that?

Hope you understood what I wanted to ask :smile:

Many thanks for your help!

–My domain is: schnauzug.ch
–This should link to main page (index.hml)

I’m sure you meant htm or html.

schnauzug.ch is your 1st and 2nd level domain (ie: your domain name).

You need to add a 3rd level domain (ie: a sub-domain) called “gewinnspiel”

Currently, gewinnspiel.schnauzug.ch is setup to forward to
http://schnauzugmovember.webflow.com/gewinnspiel

In the example above… schnauzugmovember is the 3rd level, webflow is the 2nd level, .com is the 1st level, gewinnspiel is a folder.

If you host it on your own server… and have cPanel… you can do it yourself.

Login to cpanel for domain schnauzug.ch
and create a subdomain under schnauzug.ch

then ftp / upload the code to the subdomain.

Hi @Revolution

Many thanks for your quick reply!
Of course I ment .html :smile: sorry for that.

I want to use webflow hosting with custom domain. So is it possible to do that with webflow hosting?

That might be an issue. You need to confirm with Webflow about this.

Since your domain is resolving at webflow…

  • you must have already added the cname record.

[SIDENOTE]
Unless I am misunderstanding the WebFlow hosting service:

Your domain should resolve as [http://schnauzug.ch]

http://schnauzugmovember.webflow.com/gewinnspiel should resolve

What you are really looking for a 4th level domain on WebFlow.
This is possible if you manage your own servers

  • not necessary (see further below)
  • and I don’t think can or will do it.

Also… it doesn’t appear that you can get to the 2nd level support team at ask this question. The 1st level communicates with the 2nd level.

I have my own dedicated servers…

  • and what you need is very easy to do…
  • but I don’t how WebFlow setup their servers.

On your server… schnauzug.ch would be the 1st and 2nd level domains

gewinnspiel would be the 3rd level

Custom domains for Top Level domains are charged at the rate of $4.99. Addition subdomains to a main domain such as files.mydomain.com is a subdomain, are not charged extra, as long as the subdomains point to the same site as the the main domain. Otherwise, there is a $4.99 charge on each site where a custom domain is used.

I hope that helps, let us know if any questions. Cheers, Dave

Thanks both for your help.

@cyberdave thank you very much! That’s a good Idea. Let me check some things. If I need further help or something, I’ll come back to this thread.

Great support!

Hi there @cyberdave!

I think I’m trying to do something similar to what’s being discussed here but I din’t quite get the solution;

My situation is that I have a mother website with a child domain. Like a magazine, that each edition has its own title and URL.

So I have the main website hosted at http://crise.org (mother) and I have a second domain (http://entrerioeruas.com.br) which should point to a specific set of pages within my main website. It’s really just a secondary domain that is more related to the content of this “first edition” of the bigger thing.

I think that If I had this second domain also on GoDaddy for example, I could have entrerioseruas.com.br forwarded to crise.org - This website is for sale! - crise Resources and Information. and there I would have the cover page of this first issue of the magazine. However, I think it’s beacuse it’s a .br (Brazlian) domain, it has to be managed by Registro.br which only allows me to change the DNS servers and zone records but that doesn’t seem to offer me a simple forwarding action.

What’s the correct way of doing this?

I currently have both domains with cpanel and a records pointing to Webflow; Is there a solution to do this?

Thank you very much…!

A.

Hi @AlanBorger, in your case, you will need to pay the $4.99 custom domain fee for each custom domain as they are setup as different top level domains.

Forwarding of one domain from your DNS provider without setting up the domain in Webflow in the hosting tab will not work, as we do not allow 301 redirects without having hosting setup for the top level domain.

Each of the domains will need to be added to the hosting tab, and have their DNS settings for those domains setup to point to Webflow: http://help.webflow.com/faq/how-do-i-set-up-custom-domain-hosting-with-my-webflow-site

I hope this helps, if not, let me know !

Hi Dave, thank you very much for your answer. That does not help me however, as in addition to having to pay for hosting for each “edition of the magazine”, I’d have to keep a number of websites updated regularly rather than just one as, if I understand correctly, once you duplicate the websites, all content and classes and styles will not be synced anymore, right?

Thanks again for your time!

Hi @AlanBorger, any site that you duplicate will also duplicate all the style classes and content. The duplicated site is not “synced” to the original site, if that is what you mean.

You can always publish a second site, but it would be a standalone site, separate than the original. That second site can use a free webflow.io domain, or a custom domain ($4.99 per month).

If you add a second domain to the original site, then both custom domains you setup are pointed at the same home page of that site, in essence pointing two domains at the same site.

It is not possible in Webflow to redirect a specific domain to a specific page on your site (yet, no eta).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

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Hey @cyberdave, thanks again for your help! I’ve got one last question; does this mean that if only I did not host this project on Webflow I would be able to do what I want…? To have urls pointing to specific pages within my main domain? ( I understand that in this case I would have to manually upload the website with every change but that might be an option for this project, what do you think?)

Btw, since I’m talking to you already; I have a few clients for whom I would use the Webflow CMS system once it’s up. I understand you’re not sending out an ETA yet but could you give a rough estimate, like, are we talking 3 months, 6 months 24 months? Just so I can advise and prepare my clients and design accordingly…

Thanks again and again… :smile:

A.

Hi @AlanBorger, thanks for the followup ! If you wanted to point a domain like www.mydomain.com to redirect to a page like: www.myotherdomain.com/blog, then you could do that using .htaccess on an external server.

Your right that I cannot give an ETA yet, but work is going on literally 24/7 to get things ready! The time frame has already been discussed in this post: WOO this CMS is gonna be really really cool - CMS - Forum | Webflow

We are not talking months here as you have described, much sooner than that !

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That’s what I wanted to hear @cyberdave :slight_smile:
This is going to be a huge game changer… Thanks for the heads up!

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