Webflow is slow in China

Hey there,
Webflow is super slow in China(to load webflow.com it takes more than 3 minutes) and my main costumers are from China.
It’s fine for now, when work is in progress(I use VPN), but I am scared that when website will be ready, my loadtime of pages will be extremely slow as there will be some things(pictures, fonts…) connected with webflow even if I purchase Chinese domain.
Please help me on that!
Thanks!

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Why not just host the finished site with a hosting provider located in China?

I want to keep working on webflow when I want to make changes.
So, its not going to be a problem if I host my website on Chinese hosting provider?

Your host has nothing to do with webflow at all. When you export it, the only thing that uses webflow’s servers is forms which you can also change the way they work to not use those servers. So just export the site and host it wherever you want. Anytime you make changes, you will have to export again and re-upload to your host.

Isn’t it harmful for SEO and other things?(analytics, api…)

All your analytics and seo should be tailored to where you plan on hosting the finished site. Obviously you don’t want to use webflow as a hoster. So use webflow and the subdomain as a testing site and export and upload to your host. Analytics and seo start there. It will take time to build rankings and traffic regardless.

Anyone else with more information can chime in.

@eugene we have not heard complaints about speed in China before and we have a handful of customers from China. Here’s a list of servers that our CDN (Amazon Cloudfront) has all over the world (including Hong Kong): Key Features of a Content Delivery Network| Performance, Security | Amazon CloudFront

Unfortunately, China is not included to the list. Hong Kong it's a different story without the great firewall.
Probably Chinese customers who are using Webflow are really trendy and up-to-date and they also know how to use VPN, which is crucial for China as many websites are blocked.
This is my proof that webflow is blocked in China:
http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=www.webflow.com

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Hi @eugene, thanks for your information. Actually, we have had in the past few weeks, a couple of other users who also have experienced slowness in China. We will check more into this issue to see what can be done. Webflow does not control that access, so at the moment, we cannot guarantee the performance in China. As soon as there is some more information, we are happy to share that with you. Hopefully after the holidays, we can get an update for this.

Cheers, Dave

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Dear Dave,
I found that even exported webflow website doesn’t work in China, because it’s sending requests to Webflow or somewhere else.
When I open the page it’s loading and telling “Establishing secured connection”
I know that my case is unique, but please give me some response, how can I make it workable?

Hi there @eugene, thanks for your post. Could you share your published site url, and I am happy to take a look at that. Cheers, Dave

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Hi there, I am not an experts on this. We have built a website on Webflow aiming to provide service to clients in China. We found the loading speed is really slow. Maybe it is due to our website’s photo’s size and fonts? But what would be the best option for us? Is it just to wait for Webflow to solve it or shall we export the webstie and put it on a China/Hong kong based CDN?

our website is oasistour.webflow.com

thanks

Hi @rooenb, at the moment, We cannot guarantee the performance for sites in China at the moment. One thing is to of course optimize your site images etc, but if the problem persists, more than occasionally, then you might consider testing the differences between the local country cdn and cdn network used in Webflow.

I just ran some speed tests on the domain oasistour.webflow.com, and the site pulled up really fast from Amsterdam, New York and Dallas.

I hope that helps, if not, let me know and I am happy to assist further. Cheers, Dave

I think the only fix is to

  • export the site to a local server.

Change all external references (JQuery, and Images) to your local server.

If you limit code changes to the above stated…

  • you can still manage the site in webflow

But it also means every time you export the site

  • you have to redo the external reference changes.

The fix for that…

  • use an editor that allows scripts to automatically make the change for you.

This will allow you to manage your site in webflow

  • make changes in webflow
  • export the code to a local server
  • reference all external calls as local calls
  • improve speed
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Hi @eugene i would like to know if you could solve the problem with the server in China I am in Shenzhen and i have the same problem as you. Thank you so much.

@eugene @Luis_Alfredo_Prieto , did you eventually solve the problem? Any ideas to improve the speed in mainland China?

Thanks.

Hi Webflow, need some help on this as well. I’ve also experienced this problem. My client’s Shanghai office reported that the website is loading extremely slow in China, took 4 minutes to finish loading, but we don’t have any problems loading the site in the US. Is China blocking or restricting access of webflow? Since this post is 1 year ago, I would like to know if this is still happening. Any way I can resolve this for my client?

Thanks!

Hi @Zii - seems like the Great Firewall of China is blocking access to Webflow, as well as its CDNs. Unfortunately there isn’t anything Webflow can do about this.

If you want to dig deeper, PM me and we can investigate the network firewalls that may exist.

It would be helpful as well if users in China asked authorities about granting Webflow access to Chinese internet users.

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