Webflow currently does not have any feature to "pause" a site plan subscription. You must cancel the site plan entirely.
Unfortunately cancelling a plan means;
- You must first remove all add-ons like localization, via the designer
- You will lose all of your 301 redirects
- Your domains will be disconnected
- Possibly other impacts to apps, etc.
This creates an issue for freelancers and agencies who are hosting client sites, and who need to "pause" hosting on a past-due account to ensure no further losses.
However cancelling a plan and re-instating it comes at a significant cost-
- Re-localizing everything
- Re-establishing 301's
- Re-establishing domain names
The Workaround
A huge thanks to Vikas from Webflow Support for sharing a workaround. Cloning a localized site will preserve all localized content, even though there is no localized plan attached.
I'm embellishing this a bit based on my understanding of how the overall process needs to work.
"Pause" Process
- Clone the site to a new unhosted site. This will preserve the localized content, without a plan.
- Backup the 301's by exporting as CSV. Store this somewhere safe.
- Note that when you delete a site plan, you lose access to 301's but they should still exist. Still this is an important safeguard.
- Record the domains and primary domain to make "resume" easier.
- Record any SEO settings, app settings, hosting plan details that you need to be able to recall easily later.
- Shut down the hosted site;
- In the designer, remove all secondary locales
- In the hosting plan, delete all add-ons
- Remove the hosting plan
Vikas indicates-
[ When a localized site is cloned ], the locales will not be removed or deleted and will remain in a locked state. When you add back the site hosting plan and the localisation plan, the locale will be again enabled for use again.
"Resume" Process
- Add the site plan to the cloned site
- Add the number of locale add-ons you need
- In the designer, enable your locales
- In settings;
- add your domains, set your default domain
- import your 301's from CSV
- Review your SEO settings, e.g. canonical setting
- Publish and retest
Notes
If you're an agency or freelancer and pausing a past-due client, this will minimize the work and make re-instating service much less costly-
However this generally works best on a monthly site plan.
If you're using Optimize, the situation is the same as Localize- duplicating the site will preserve those settings so that adding a site plan will give you access again.
I have not yet tested this full process, if you have any notes or corrections to add, please share them in comments.
