DNSimple

Publishing a Webflow site to a custom domain depends on DNS records that live outside Webflow. Site settings shows you the values and stops there, because the records themselves get created wherever the domain's DNS is hosted. Wrong values leave the root domain unresolved and SSL stuck waiting.

DNSimple hosts DNS for a domain and can register it as well. It ships a one-click service for Webflow that writes the hosting records for you, and its API creates the same records programmatically across every zone you manage. Once those records resolve, the domain serves your Webflow site and SSL provisions on its own.

Agencies managing client domains at scale and freelance Webflow developers launching client sites get the most out of this pairing, since the setup repeats unchanged from one domain to the next. DevOps engineers who script domain infrastructure also benefit, as do SaaS teams that register and onboard customer domains from inside their own applications using DNSimple's registrar and zone APIs.

How to integrate DNSimple with Webflow

What is DNSimple? DNSimple is a DNS hosting and domain management platform. It serves zones over Anycast DNS and acts as a registrar for domains you register or transfer in, and it issues Let's Encrypt certificates using DNS-based validation. Its REST API has official client libraries for Ruby, Go, Elixir, Node.js, .NET, Java, PHP, Python, and Rust.

Teams pair the two platforms when a Webflow-hosted site needs a domain whose DNS or registration sits in DNSimple. The connection is DNS record management, handled either in DNSimple's dashboard or through its API. No Webflow Marketplace app exists for DNSimple, and neither platform syncs data or embeds anything in the other.

Pick one of these DNSimple setup paths for the domain:

• The Webflow one-click service in DNSimple writes the hosting records without manual entry.
• Manual record entry lets you set each record yourself and keep existing email records intact.
• The Webflow Data API and DNSimple APIs cover registration, record creation, and publishing from your own code, at the cost of server-side development.

Most single-site setups need only one of these. Agencies tend to combine a saved record template or the one-click service with API automation for client onboarding.

Use DNSimple's Webflow one-click service

DNSimple's Webflow one-click service configures the hosting records in a few clicks. Per DNSimple's docs, "Applying a service creates all the DNS configuration needed to serve your webpage or configure your email." You need accounts on both platforms, a site ready to publish, and a paid Site plan to connect a custom domain. Copy the record values out of Webflow first, because DNSimple asks you to paste them rather than hardcoding them.

To set up the integration:

1. In Webflow, go to Site settings > Publishing > Production, click Add a custom domain, then Manually add domain, and copy the A and CNAME values shown.
2. In DNSimple, open the domain from your Domain Names list, then select the DNS tab.
3. Find the One-click services card and click Add.
4. Open the Hosting tab, find Webflow, and click Add.
5. Paste the A and CNAME values, then click Complete Webflow Setup.

The service covers part of the setup and can overwrite records you already rely on:

• Record values: DNSimple asks you for the A and CNAME values instead of storing them, so a value copied from an old runbook goes in unchallenged. Take both from Site settings every time.
• Verification record: The service handles the A and CNAME records only, so add the TXT record at _webflow yourself in the record editor afterwards.
• Existing entries: Because it sets the root A record and the www CNAME, it can replace a root A record or www CNAME that currently points somewhere else.
• Email records: Your MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC entries stay untouched, since none of them form part of the Webflow service.
• Availability: New records serve from all of DNSimple's name servers within seconds, so the wait that follows is resolver caching rather than DNSimple.

If the root domain or the www subdomain already carries records in use, take the manual path below so you can review each record before anything changes.

Manually add Webflow DNS records in DNSimple

Manual entry through DNSimple's record editor gives you control over every record, which matters on a domain that already carries email or other services. Webflow documents the current entries in Manually connect a custom domain, and a Webflow site needs exactly three of them.

To add them:

1. Copy the values from Site settings > Publishing > Production in Webflow.
2. In DNSimple, open the domain from Domain Names and click Edit DNS.
3. Click Add record, choose A, leave Name blank to target the apex, enter 198.202.211.1 in IP Address, and confirm with Add Record.
4. Click Add record again, choose CNAME, enter www in Name and cdn.webflow.com in Content, which takes a host name rather than a URL.
5. Add a TXT record named _webflow carrying the one-time verification value from Site settings.
6. Delete every other A record at the root, so 198.202.211.1 is the only one left.

Now check the zone for retired values, which is where most stalled connections come from. Webflow's older DNS set was two root A records, 75.2.70.75 and 99.83.190.102, with the www CNAME pointing at proxy-ssl.webflow.com. None of those three values works for setup today: Webflow has blocked publishing to custom domains that still use them since January 13, 2026, and legacy hosting began shutting down on June 1, 2026, so a zone left in that state is on borrowed time. If your DNS still shows any of them, replace them rather than keep them alongside the current records. Point the root A record to 198.202.211.1, delete the second root A record, and change the www CNAME to cdn.webflow.com. Two root A records is the signature of an older site still on the retired set, and only the single current record should remain when you finish. Webflow walks through the swap in manually migrate DNS records and the Cloudflare migration overview.

Create a reusable record template for client domains

Agencies repeating this setup can save the record group as a DNS template in DNSimple, which speeds up entry and removes a common source of typos. Templates are user-created, so build the Webflow one yourself.

Build it in DNSimple:

1. Open the Templates tab in the header, then click New template.
2. Save the template, open it, and add the A, CNAME, and TXT records.
3. Apply it to a domain from the Record editor by choosing Add record, then Templates.

A template will not apply if the zone already holds a conflicting record, such as an existing www CNAME, so clear those first. The TXT verification value differs per site, so update that record on each domain after you apply the template.

Build with the Webflow and DNSimple APIs

Full automation calls for server-side development against two REST APIs. DNSimple API v2 is the current version, uses the base URL https://api.dnsimple.com/v2, and authenticates with an OAuth2 Bearer token or HTTP Basic credentials; accounts with two-factor authentication add an X-Dnsimple-OTP header. The Webflow Data API v2 uses https://api.webflow.com/v2 and accepts Site tokens for single-site tools or OAuth tokens for Marketplace apps.

The endpoints that matter for a domain launch:

• Zone records endpoints create, update, and delete DNS records, and report per-record distribution.
• Registrar endpoints check availability, then register, transfer, and renew domains.
• The Publish Site endpoint pushes a site live to its custom domains once records resolve.
• DNSimple webhooks POST domain and DNS events to an HTTPS endpoint you host.

One limit shapes the whole design: the Data API cannot add a custom domain to a site, so add each domain in the dashboard before you automate anything downstream of it.

Provision Webflow DNS records for a new domain

After adding the domain in the dashboard and copying its values, create the records programmatically. This is the core workflow for agencies launching client sites from scripts.

To implement it:

1. Create the root A record with POST https://api.dnsimple.com/v2/{account}/zones/{zone}/records and body {"name": "", "type": "A", "content": "198.202.211.1"}. An empty name targets the apex.
2. Reuse the endpoint for the CNAME with body {"name": "www", "type": "CNAME", "content": "cdn.webflow.com"}.
3. Add the verification record with body {"name": "_webflow", "type": "TXT", "content": "one-time-verification=…"}.
4. Confirm rollout with GET /{account}/zones/{zone}/records/{record}/distribution.
5. Fetch domain IDs with GET https://api.webflow.com/v2/sites/{site_id}/custom_domains via the Get Custom Domains endpoint, then publish with POST /sites/{site_id}/publish and body {"customDomains": ["<domain_id>"], "publishToWebflowSubdomain": false}.

Successful record creation returns 201 Created. Script the root A record as a replace rather than an add, so a rerun on a zone holding a retired value corrects it instead of stacking a second record beside it.

Register a client domain and configure DNS in one workflow

The Registrar API supports end-to-end domain onboarding from your own application. ClickFunnels used DNSimple's REST API to register and manage customer domains inside its own product and reports a 20% drop in customer support requests as a result.

To implement it:

1. Check availability with GET /{account}/registrar/domains/{domain}/check.
2. Register with POST /{account}/registrar/domains/{domain}/registrations, passing whois_privacy and auto_renew as needed, since both default to false.
3. Poll status with GET /{account}/registrar/domains/{domain}/registrations/{domain_registration}.
4. Once the domain registers, create its zone records with the workflow above.

Transfers and renewals run through sibling endpoints on the same path, so an onboarding flow that handles registration handles inbound transfers with little extra work.

React to DNS events with webhooks

DNSimple webhooks notify your systems when domains or records change. No packaged bridge to Webflow exists, so a handler you host connects the events to the Webflow Data API.

Create the webhook in DNSimple, then hand events to your code:

1. Create a webhook with POST /{account}/webhooks and body {"url": "https://your-handler.example.com/hook"}. The URL must use HTTPS.
2. Parse the envelope; the name field uses the object.action format, for example domain.register.
3. Call the Webflow Data API from your handler, for example to publish a site after its records update.

DNSimple retries failed deliveries for up to 2 hours with exponential backoff, across as many as 10 attempts, and each payload carries a request_identifier UUID you can use to drop duplicates.

What you can build with the DNSimple Webflow integration

Pairing DNSimple with Webflow lets you launch and manage custom domains for Webflow sites without hand-editing records across scattered registrar dashboards.

The setups teams get the most out of:

• Agency domain portfolios: Keep every client domain on DNSimple with a separate account per client for isolated billing and scoped access, and apply a saved record template as you onboard each zone. Always Beyond, a Calgary-based MSP, manages 250+ client domains this way and reports saving at least 5 to 10 hours a month.
• Scripted client site launches: Register the domain through the Registrar API, create its hosting records through the Zones API, then publish the site through the Data API once the distribution check comes back clean.
• Portfolio-wide DNS corrections: When a zone still carries a retired root A record or a proxy-ssl.webflow.com CNAME, patch every affected client zone in one pass and verify rollout with the distribution check before you publish.
• Subdomain microsites: Publish a Webflow site to a subdomain such as landing.yourdomain.com with a single CNAME record pointing to cdn.webflow.com, while the root domain keeps serving an existing app.

Scripting any of these means calling Webflow from your own code, so learn the Webflow CMS API before you wire domain launches into a pipeline.