How to move a domain off Framer without downtime

To move a domain off Framer without downtime, have the new site fully deployed and tested on its host's temporary address before you touch DNS, lower the TTL on your website records a day ahead, then change only the apex and www records to the new host and leave Framer connected until the new site answers over HTTPS everywhere. Because both sites are live during the switch, every visitor reaches one of them, and rolling back is just putting the old records back.

This post is host-neutral. For host-specific steps, see Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages or your own server. Deframer is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Framer.

Why domain moves cause downtime

Downtime during a move almost always comes from one of four things:

1. DNS changed before the new site was ready. Visitors arrive at a host with nothing deployed, or a half-configured one.
2. Long TTLs. Resolvers keep old answers for hours, so some visitors reach the old host and some the new, for longer than expected.
3. HTTPS not ready. The new host can only issue a certificate after DNS points at it, so there's a short window with certificate errors if you're unlucky.
4. Collateral DNS damage. Deleting or changing records you didn't mean to, most often email (MX) or verification TXT records.

Each one has a simple prevention. The order below handles them all.

The plan at a glance

Step 1: Have the new site live somewhere else first

If you're leaving Framer, you need the site as code. Convert the published site with Deframer to the framework you want; converting is free, and a verified download is 1 credit (pricing). Downloads are for your own sites, or sites whose owner has given permission. Then deploy it to your new host and test it on the host's own address (*.vercel.app, *.netlify.app, *.pages.dev, a server IP).

Test as if it were launch day:

• Every route in the project README's routes table.
• Desktop, tablet and phone widths.
• Forms reach their webhook or form service.
• Redirects you set in Framer behave the same.
• A missing URL returns the 404 page with status 404.

The migration checklist has the long version.

Step 2: Prepare the code for the real domain

If the domain stays the same, nothing changes. If you're switching domains, or converting from a *.framer.website address, update:

• metadataBase in the Next.js root layout (or the site origin in the other targets' head files), so canonical URLs and social images use the real domain.
• public/robots.txt and public/sitemap.xml, which name full URLs.

Step 3: Save the current DNS records

Before changing anything, write down or export every record in the zone. Most DNS providers can export a zone file. At minimum, record:

• The apex (@) A and AAAA records, or ALIAS/ANAME/flattened CNAME.
• The www record.
• MX, TXT (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, site verifications), CAA and any other subdomains.

Framer's records are whatever its domain setup told you to add; you'll restore exactly those values if you roll back.

Step 4: Lower the TTL in advance

TTL is how long resolvers may cache an answer. If the www record has a TTL of 3600 seconds, a resolver that looked it up just before your change keeps the old answer for up to an hour.

Lower the TTL on the apex and www records to around 300 seconds at least one old-TTL period before the switch; a day ahead is safe. You don't need to touch the TTL of records you aren't changing.

You can check what resolvers see:

dig example.com A +noall +answer
dig www.example.com +noall +answer

The number in the second column is the remaining TTL.

Step 5: Add the domain on the new host

Add both example.com and www.example.com to the new host's project. Choose the same primary form the Framer site used, so canonical URLs don't change; the host will redirect the other form to it.

Some hosts let you verify the domain with a TXT record before you switch traffic, and some can issue the certificate early that way. If yours does, do it now: it removes the HTTPS gap.

Check for a CAA record in your zone. If one exists, it must allow the certificate authority your new host uses, or certificate issuance will fail.

Step 6: Switch the web records

Change only the records that point at Framer:

• Apex: replace Framer's values with the new host's A/AAAA or ALIAS values. Remove any leftover AAAA record pointing at the old host; a stale IPv6 record sends some visitors to the old site indefinitely.
• www: replace with the new host's CNAME target.

Don't change MX, TXT, CAA or other subdomains. Email doesn't depend on where the website is hosted.

Step 7: Verify, in this order

# 1. DNS answers the new values
dig +short example.com
dig +short www.example.com

# 2. HTTPS works, served by the new host
curl -sI https://example.com | head -n 8
curl -sI https://www.example.com | head -n 8

# 3. The non-primary form redirects to the primary one
curl -sI http://example.com | grep -i location

# 4. A redirect you set in Framer still works
curl -sI https://example.com/old-page | grep -iE "^HTTP|location"

Then open the site in a private window on a phone using mobile data, which uses a different resolver from your desk. Submit a form for real.

Step 8: Disconnect Framer, later

Wait until resolvers have had time to pick up the change (a few multiples of the old TTL, plus a margin) and your checks pass. Then remove the custom domain from your Framer project, following Framer's own docs. Keep your Framer plan until you've also saved what you need from it; what to do before you cancel your Framer plan lists it.

Rollback

If something is wrong and can't be fixed in minutes:

1. Put the saved apex and www records back.
2. Because the TTL is low and Framer is still connected, visitors return to the Framer site quickly.
3. Fix the new deployment on its temporary URL and try again another day.

This only works if you haven't disconnected the domain from Framer yet, which is why that's the last step.

SEO during and after the move

A host change doesn't change your URLs, and a converted site keeps each page's path, title, description and canonical URL. Search engines care about URLs and content, not hosts. After the move:

• Resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
• Inspect a few key URLs.
• Watch the coverage and crawl stats reports for a couple of weeks.

SEO when moving off Framer covers the details, including what to do if you're changing domains at the same time.