How to Use Staging to Test Before Publishing in Webflow

In this tutorial, Sandro, cofounder of Gemeos Webflow agency, shows you how to use staging in Webflow to test your changes before publishing them to production.

Understanding Webflow staging

Webflow lets you publish to the .webflow.io subdomain and to your custom domain independently. The .webflow.io site becomes your staging environment: you can publish and test freely without affecting your live site.

1. Publish only to staging

In the Publish menu, uncheck your custom domain and leave only the .webflow.io subdomain checked. Publish, and your changes will be visible on monprojet.webflow.io, but not on monsite.fr.

2. Share the staging link with your client

Send the .webflow.io URL to your client for approval. The link is public by default. If you want to protect it, enable a site password in Project Settings > Publishing > Site Password.

3. Publish to production after approval

Once the changes are approved on staging, go back to Publish and check your custom domain. Publish to push the same changes live in production.

Conclusion

The .webflow.io staging environment is an essential tool for getting client approval before going live. See also: save and restore a version.