WES custom hosting

Creating a project

Where to find it

  1. Go to Projects in the main sidebar.
  2. Click New project at the top of All projects.

Only team admins see the New project button. Adding a source is admin only too.

How it works

A project has three parts, shown left to right on its Dashboard:

  • Sources: the site WCH reads pages from, usually your Webflow site.
  • Rendering: the static copy WCH builds and hosts on your staging site.
  • Deployment: the destinations that receive your live site.

You create the project first, then add a source. Some teams connect Webflow while creating the project, and WCH adds the source for you. Either way, the Publish all pages button appears on the Dashboard once the project has a source, unless Staging visibility is Off.

Creating the project

  1. Click New project. The Start new project window opens.
  2. Enter a Project Name, for example Marketing Site.
  3. Check the Project Alias. WCH fills it in from the name, for example marketing-site. You can edit it.
  4. Click Create project.

The alias is the project's permanent ID:

  • Unique across WCH. If another project already uses it, WCH shows "Project alias already exists." Pick another.
  • Letters, numbers and hyphens only. WCH lowercases the name, turns spaces into hyphens, and drops other characters.
  • Fixed after creation. Settings shows the alias, but you cannot change it. You can rename the project at any time.
  • Used in addresses and file names. Your staging site lives under /sites/your-alias/, and archives are named after the alias. See Staging site.

When the button says Connect to Webflow

For some teams, WCH connects the project to a Webflow site at creation. The button reads Connect to Webflow instead of Create project. This happens when:

  • Your team has a default Webflow webhook.
  • Your team publishes through the Webflow API.
  • You chose New project with API publishing from the arrow next to New project.
  • Your team requires a Webflow Enterprise plan.

Click Connect to Webflow and approve access in the Webflow window. If your account has one site, WCH creates the project straight away. If it has several, choose one from the Webflow Site dropdown and click Create project. Closing the Webflow window without approving leaves the form open and creates nothing.

WCH then adds that site as the project's source, set to clone all pages, and fills Project domain with the site's .webflow.io address. Change Project domain to your live domain before you publish, as described under Before your first publish below.

If your team requires Webflow Enterprise, WCH checks the site's plan at this step. A site that is not on an Enterprise plan is refused with the message "This Webflow site is not on an Enterprise plan." Contact your support representative.

New project with API publishing creates a project that finds pages through the Webflow API instead of your sitemap. See Publishing modes.

Adding a source

  1. Open your project.
  2. Go to Sources, or click Add source in the Sources column of the Dashboard.
  3. Click Add source.
  4. Fill in the Webflow tab or the Advanced tab, then click Add source.

Webflow tab

Use this for a Webflow site.

  • Webflow project name: the part before .webflow.io. For https://marketing-site.webflow.io, enter marketing-site. If you paste the full address, WCH keeps only that part.
  • Clone all pages or Clone selected pages: which pages WCH publishes. See Choosing which pages to publish below.
  • Has password: tick this if the site is password protected in Webflow, then enter its Site Password.

WCH reads your published site at https://your-project.webflow.io/ and its sitemap at /sitemap.xml. Publish the site in Webflow before you publish in WCH.

Advanced tab

Use this for a site on its own domain, or when the page list comes from a file instead of a sitemap.

  • Name: a label for the source.
  • Domain: the site's host, for example site.com.
  • Homepage URL: the full address of the home page, for example https://site.com/. WCH adds https:// if you leave it off.
  • Sitemap type: URL or CSV.
  • Sitemap URL: the address of the site's sitemap, for example https://site.com/sitemap.xml. With CSV, click Upload CSV instead.
  • Directory: optional. A folder to publish this source's pages under. With docs, the source's /setup page publishes at /docs/setup/. Use it to combine several sources in one project without their pages colliding.
  • Clone all pages or Clone selected pages, and Has password: as on the Webflow tab.

WCH takes only the path of each URL in the sitemap and joins it to the Homepage URL. A sitemap entry for https://other-host.com/about publishes the page from https://site.com/about.

A CSV needs the page URL in the first column and its content type in the second. WCH keeps only rows whose content type contains text/html and turns them into a sitemap for the source.

When you add a source, WCH reads its home page. If the project has no thumbnail yet, WCH uses the page's social share image.

Choosing which pages to publish

  • Clone all pages (the default): each Publish all pages picks up every page in the source's sitemap, including pages added since the last publish.
  • Clone selected pages: WCH publishes only the pages you add. New pages in the sitemap are not added for you.

To add pages yourself, go to Sources and click the source. The panel lists every page in its sitemap, plus the 404 page. Click a page to add or remove it, or click Add N Pages to add everything not yet added.

Both options apply to the Sitemap and Url Rewrite publishing modes. In API mode, WCH reads the page list from Webflow. See Publishing modes.

Changing or removing a source

On the Sources page, open the menu at the end of the source's row:

  • View page: opens the source's home page.
  • Edit source: change the source's name, addresses, sitemap, Directory, page option, or password.
  • Delete source: removes the source and its pages from the project's page list.

Files already on your staging site or at a destination stay until you publish again or clean them up.

Before your first publish

Open Settings and check two fields, then click Save changes:

  • Project domain: your live site's address, for example https://www.example.com. WCH builds sitemap.xml, canonical links, and hreflang links from it. If it still shows a .webflow.io address, change it now.
  • Staging visibility: Public staging, Private staging, or Off. Set it now, because changing it later deletes your staging build. See Staging site.

See Project Settings for every other field.

Testing your project

  1. Publish your site in Webflow.
  2. On the Dashboard, click Publish all pages.
  3. When the publish finishes, click Launch build and check your pages.
  4. Add a destination under Extensions, then Deployments.

See Steps to Publishing in WCH for the full walkthrough. If the publish fails, see Publish errors and troubleshooting.