What is the process for updating a website built with Webflow after exporting the code and hosting it on your own servers? What are the options for handling form submissions on a self-hosted Webflow website? How can a back-end page be created for employees to make changes to the website? What happens to website designs if the Webflow subscription ends?
TL;DR
- Export and manually upload Webflow code after each design change.
- Use third-party services or a custom backend to handle form submissions.
- Build a custom CMS or integrate a headless CMS to let employees update content.
- Static site remains functional if subscription ends, but editing and CMS features stop working.
Managing a self-hosted Webflow project requires manual updates, third-party integration for forms, and a custom CMS if you want employees to edit content. Here's how each part works:
1. Updating a Self-Hosted Webflow Site
- Make changes in Webflow Designer as usual. All design updates must be done in Webflow.
- Re-export the code by hitting Export Code in the top-right of the Designer (available only on a paid Workspace plan).
- Manually upload the new files (HTML, CSS, JS, images) to your external web server via FTP or your hosting dashboard.
- This process must be repeated manually every time you make a change, because the exported site does not stay connected to Webflow.
2. Handling Form Submissions on a Self-Hosted Site
- Webflow Forms won’t work out of the box on an exported site, because the Webflow form handling only works when hosted on Webflow.
- To process form submissions, connect your form
<form>elements to one of these: - Form backend services like Formspree, Basin, Getform, or Netlify Forms.
- Your own custom backend (e.g., a server with Node.js, PHP, or Rails that accepts POST data and handles emails or saves to database).
- Update the form
actionattribute in the exported HTML to point to your chosen backend service.
3. Creating a Back-End Page for Employee Editing
- Webflow's CMS and Editor features are only available when hosted on Webflow.
- To allow employees to edit content on your self-hosted version, you need to:
- Build a custom content management system yourself or use a third-party headless CMS (e.g., Sanity, Contentful, or Strapi) and use Webflow for front-end design only.
- Connect the CMS data via APIs or server-side rendering.
- Alternatively, consider using tools like Webflow → Zapier → Google Sheets to make light content updates possible.
- A custom admin portal would need to be designed and developed outside Webflow from scratch (using PHP, Node, etc.).
4. What Happens If Your Webflow Subscription Ends
- You can continue using the exported code without issues because it’s static HTML/CSS/JS that’s already on your server.
- However:
- You’ll lose access to Webflow Designer and Editor, so future design updates won't be possible until you resubscribe.
- CMS Collections and dynamic content will no longer be editable or accessible if the site was relying on Webflow’s CMS.
- Forms, interactions, and other Webflow features that rely on their hosting infrastructure (e.g., form handler HTTP endpoints, site search) will stop working.
Summary
To update a self-hosted Webflow site, re-export and manually deploy your code. For forms, use a third-party processor or custom backend. To let employees change content, you must build your own content management portal. If your Webflow subscription ends, you keep your static site, but lose design/editing capabilities.