Ask Does Webflow not allow masking of redirected domains?

[Brajet]

I have a simple landing page hosted on a free plan. The site gets almost no traffic so I don't want to pay for hosting.



I have setup a domain redirect in Namecheap (mydomain.com → mysite.webflow.io) but when I try to enable masking, the forwarding breaks, and my site doesn't load. This setup works fine with other web builders (like Framer) but I can't get it working with Webflow.



Does Webflow do something on their end to prevent masking?

 

[Anthony Joshua]

Yes, this is a common issue with Webflow. From what I've seen, Webflow does not support masked redirects. Their system expects the custom domain to point directly to their servers using the correct A records and CNAME, and they don't allow the site to be loaded in a frame or masked forwarding. That's why when you try masking with Namecheap, the site breaks. If you want the URL to stay visible, you'd need a paid hosting option where you control the server or use a reverse proxy setup outside of Webflow.

 

[Felix😎]

Webflow does not support domain masking for redirected domains. When you set up a redirect in Webflow, it uses a standard 301 redirect, which means the old domain will forward users to the new domain, and the new domain's URL will show in the browser. This is better for SEO because search engines know the correct domain, but it doesn't allow masking to show the old domain in the address bar.