Changing or removing a domain

Domains aren’t forever. Campaigns end, brands rename, and sometimes a domain needs to move between PageFork sites. Here’s how to handle each scenario without downtime.

Refresh a domain’s status

If DNS has changed or you’ve just added records, force a recheck:

1. In the editor, open Settings → Domain.
2. Find the domain in the list.
3. Click Refresh status.

Refresh is safe to click repeatedly — it just polls DNS and, if DNS looks right, attempts SSL issuance again.

Remove a domain from a site

1. Open Domain settings on the site.
2. Find the domain.
3. Click Remove.

This detaches the domain from this PageFork site. Your DNS records still exist at your registrar — update or delete them separately if you no longer want them pointing at PageFork.

Note: removing a domain does not unpublish the site — it stays live on any other custom domains still attached.

You can’t remove the last domain of a published site. PageFork refuses with “Unpublish the site before removing its last custom domain”, because there’s no pagefork.ai address for it to fall back to — the site would have nowhere to serve from. Unpublish it first, then remove the domain.

Move a domain to a different site

Because any given hostname can only be connected to one PageFork site at a time, moving a domain is a two-step process:

1. On the current site, open Domain settings and Remove the domain.
2. On the new site, open Domain settings and Add the domain.

Because DNS doesn’t change, propagation is immediate — the new site picks it up as soon as validation completes.

If you forget step 1, you’ll see “Domain already connected” when you try to add it on the new site.

Change from www to apex (or vice versa)

The cleanest way: remove the current domain in PageFork, then add the new one. DNS needs to match what PageFork shows for the new setup — update your records at your registrar before or just after adding.

Disconnect everything (unpublishing with domain cleanup)

If you’re taking a site down entirely and don’t want any of its custom domains pointing at PageFork:

1. Click Unpublish in the editor toolbar.
2. In the confirmation dialog, check Remove custom domains.
3. Confirm.

All custom domains for this site are removed in one go. Then clean up the DNS records at your registrar.

Cancelling a site’s plan does the same for you at the end of the period you’ve paid for: the site is unpublished and its custom domain released. See Basic and Pro plans.

Next

• Connecting your domain
• Unpublishing
• Domain not verifying