NameSilo

To publish on a custom domain with automatic SSL, you need a registrar that gives you full control over domain names and DNS records. Otherwise, your site stays on a .webflow.io subdomain.

NameSilo is an ICANN-accredited registrar offering free DNS management, WHOIS privacy, and a pre-built Webflow DNS template. It suits freelancers launching client sites, agencies managing domain portfolios, and developers scripting multi-tenant provisioning via the NameSilo API.

How to integrate NameSilo with Webflow

What is NameSilo? NameSilo is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar managing over 5 million active domains across 400+ TLDs. It includes WHOIS privacy, DNS management, email forwarding, and domain security with every registration at no extra cost. NameSilo also has a free REST API for programmatic domain registration, DNS record management, and portfolio operations.

Teams connect NameSilo when they need a custom domain on a hosted site. The typical workflow starts with registering a domain at NameSilo, adding DNS records that point the domain to the right servers, and verifying ownership in your dashboard. Agencies running multiple client sites often use the NameSilo API to apply DNS templates and manage records in bulk.

You can connect NameSilo in 2 ways:

• DNS configuration handles domain connection through NameSilo's DNS Manager or pre-built Webflow template, with no code required.
• The Webflow and NameSilo APIs give you full control over DNS provisioning, domain registration, and site publishing, but require server-side development.

Most single-site setups use DNS configuration only. Agencies and developers managing multiple domains combine DNS templates with API automation.

Configure DNS records in NameSilo

Connecting a NameSilo domain requires three DNS records: an A record pointing your root domain to the correct IP address, a CNAME record pointing the www subdomain to the CDN, and a TXT record verifying domain ownership. You can add these records manually through NameSilo's DNS Manager, or apply NameSilo's pre-built Webflow DNS template to populate the A and CNAME records automatically. Both paths are documented in the custom domain guide and NameSilo's Webflow setup page.

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Before adding any DNS records, confirm your domain uses NameSilo's default nameservers (NS1.DNSOWL.COM, NS2.DNSOWL.COM, NS3.DNSOWL.COM). A bold red message appears in NameSilo's DNS Manager if your nameservers are incorrect.

Add your domain in Webflow

Add the custom domain in your dashboard first—each site gets a unique TXT verification code.

To add your domain:

1. Open Site settings > Publishing > Production.
2. Click Add a custom domain, then choose Manually add domain.
3. Enter your domain (for example, yourdomain.com) and click Add domain.
4. Copy the A record IP, CNAME value, and unique TXT verification code displayed on this screen.

Keep this screen open while you configure records in NameSilo.

Apply the Webflow DNS template

NameSilo has a pre-built Webflow template that populates the A and CNAME records automatically. You still need to add the TXT verification record manually afterward, since it is unique to your site. This is the fastest setup path.

To apply the template:

1. Log into NameSilo and click Manage My Domains.
2. Find your domain and click the blue globe icon in the Options column to open the DNS Manager.
3. If Domain Defender is enabled, answer your security question(s) when prompted.
4. Delete any existing A records on @ and any existing CNAME records on www to remove conflicts.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the DNS Manager page and select the Webflow template from the template selector.
6. Click Accept in the popup to apply.

After applying the template, verify the A record value reads 198.202.211.1 and the CNAME target reads cdn.webflow.com. Templates may contain outdated records from before the April 2025 Cloudflare migration. If the values differ from what your dashboard shows, correct them manually.

Add records manually

If you prefer to configure each record individually, or if the template values need correcting, add the records directly in NameSilo's DNS Manager.

To add records manually:

1. In the DNS Manager, remove any existing A records for hostname @ and any CNAME records for hostname www.
2. Add an A record with hostname @, value 198.202.211.1, and TTL 3600.
3. Add a CNAME record with hostname www, value cdn.webflow.com, and TTL 3600.
4. Add a TXT record with hostname _webflow, and paste the unique one-time-verification=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX value you copied from your dashboard.

Avoid setting TTL to exactly 7207 or 3603. Per NameSilo's DNS Manager documentation, records with those TTL values are automatically increased to a 2-day TTL after 2 weeks without modification.

Verify and publish

Once records are in place, return to your dashboard to complete the connection.

To verify and publish:

1. Go to Site settings > Publishing > Production.
2. Click Verify domain and wait for the "Custom domain verified" confirmation.
3. Click Publish, check the domain(s) you want to publish to, and click Publish to selected domains.
4. Optionally, click Make default next to your root domain to set it as the default domain.

DNS propagation typically completes within a few hours but can take up to 48 hours. Use whatsmydns.net to check propagation status globally. SSL certificates are provisioned automatically after DNS verification, so you don't need to purchase a separate SSL certificate from NameSilo.

Build with the Webflow and NameSilo APIs

NameSilo and the Webflow Data API both offer REST APIs that let you script domain provisioning, DNS configuration, and site publishing from a custom server or script. This approach requires server-side development and suits agencies onboarding multiple client domains, developers building multi-tenant provisioning tools, or teams that want to verify DNS records programmatically after each publish event.

The relevant APIs are:

• The NameSilo API handles domain registration, DNS record management, template application, and portfolio operations using GET requests with API key authentication.
• The Data API v2 handles site listing, custom domain retrieval, and site publishing.
• Webhooks send real-time events (like site_publish) that can invoke NameSilo DNS verification on your server.

You can't add custom domains to a site programmatically. Each domain must be added manually in your dashboard before API-based publishing works. Full zero-touch provisioning isn't currently possible.

Automate DNS configuration

The most common API use case replaces manual DNS Manager work with scripted record creation. Your server calls NameSilo's API to list existing records, remove conflicts, and add the required records.

To automate DNS setup:

1. Call dnsListRecords to retrieve all current DNS records and their record_id values:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsListRecords?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com

2. Delete any conflicting A records on @ or CNAME records on www using dnsDeleteRecord with the rrid from step 1:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsDeleteRecord?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&rrid=<record_id>

3. Add the required records with dnsAddRecord:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsAddRecord?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&rrtype=A&rrhost=@&rrvalue=198.202.211.1&rrttl=3600

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsAddRecord?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&rrtype=CNAME&rrhost=www&rrvalue=cdn.webflow.com&rrttl=3600

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsAddRecord?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&rrtype=TXT&rrhost=_webflow&rrvalue=one-time-verification=<site-specific-token>&rrttl=3600

4. After adding the domain manually in your dashboard, retrieve the domain UUID and publish:

GET https://api.webflow.com/v2/sites/{site_id}/custom_domains

POST https://api.webflow.com/v2/sites/{site_id}/publish
Body: { "customDomains": ["<domain-uuid>"] }

NameSilo's API uses an inverted response code convention where 300 means success. Your error handling must account for this instead of expecting standard HTTP 2xx responses.

Scale with DNS templates for agency portfolios

Agencies managing many client domains can register domains and apply the Webflow DNS template programmatically, then organize domains into portfolios.

To provision a new client domain:

1. Check domain availability:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/checkRegisterAvailability?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domains=example.com

2. Register the domain:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/registerDomain?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&years=1&payment_id=<payment-profile-id>&private=1

3. Apply the Webflow DNS template to set A and CNAME records:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsApplyTemplate?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&template=<webflow-template-id>

4. Add the TXT verification record separately (the template doesn't include it):

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/dnsAddRecord?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&rrtype=TXT&rrhost=_webflow&rrvalue=<webflow-txt-token>&rrttl=3600

5. Assign the domain to a client portfolio:

GET https://www.namesilo.com/api/addDomainsToPortfolio?version=1&type=json&key=APIKEY&domain=example.com&portfolio=<portfolio-id>

After applying the template, verify the resulting records by calling dnsListRecords to confirm the A record points to 198.202.211.1. For batch API calls, use the /apibatch/ base path instead of /api/. Per NameSilo's batch API documentation, automated batch processing against the standard /api/ path violates their terms of service.

Trigger DNS verification on publish with webhooks

The site_publish webhook fires when a site is published and includes the published domains in its payload. Your server can receive this event and verify that the corresponding NameSilo DNS records are correct.

To set up publish-triggered verification:

1. Create a webhook using an OAuth token (site tokens can't create webhooks):

POST https://api.webflow.com/v2/sites/{site_id}/webhooks
Body: { "triggerType": "site_publish", "url": "https://your-server.com/webhook-handler" }

2. When the webhook fires, parse the domains array from the payload.
3. For each domain, call NameSilo's dnsListRecords to confirm the A record, CNAME, and TXT records are present and correct. Add missing records with dnsAddRecord.

NameSilo doesn't support webhooks or push-based event notifications. All domain-state monitoring (expiration dates, transfer status, DNS changes) requires scheduled polling via the NameSilo API. The only push-based event triggers in this integration come from the Webflow side.

What can you build with the NameSilo Webflow integration?

Integrating NameSilo lets you publish sites on custom domains and script domain provisioning without switching between multiple registrar dashboards.

• Agency client onboarding pipeline: Register a client domain via the NameSilo API, apply the Webflow DNS template, add the TXT verification record, and publish the site, all from a single script. An agency managing 20 client sites can repeat the same provisioning flow for each new project instead of configuring DNS manually every time.
• Multi-subdomain architecture: Point www.company.com to a Webflow marketing site, blog.company.com to a separate Webflow CMS site, and app.company.com to your application server. All subdomains are managed from one NameSilo DNS panel, with each site published to its own subdomain.
• Branded email with Webflow forms: Set up NameSilo's free email forwarding so that contact@yourdomain.com forwards to your personal inbox. Webflow form notifications and customer replies both route through a professional domain address.
• Domain portfolio with active landing pages: Register brand variants and related TLDs at NameSilo, connect your primary domain to a Webflow site, and use NameSilo's domain forwarding to redirect secondary domains (like .net or .co variants) to the primary URL. Free WHOIS privacy protects registration details across the entire portfolio.

If you need more control over DNS verification or multi-tenant domain provisioning, the API integration path handles those cases directly.