Publishing overview
How publishing works, from a first click to a live URL on your own domain.
To publish a PageFork site: choose a plan for that site (Basic or Pro), connect a domain you own and verify it, then click Publish in the editor. The current version is deployed to your custom domains. Go live usually takes under 30 seconds.
Publishing takes the current version of your site and serves it at your own domain.
PageFork does not host sites on a
*.pagefork.aisubdomain. Going live means going live on a domain you own. To share work before then — with a client, a colleague, or for feedback — use a preview link, which is free and needs no domain at all.
The three steps
- Choose a plan for the site: Basic (€5/month or €50/year) or Pro (€14/month or €140/year). One plan per site; pay in Stripe Checkout. See Basic and Pro plans.
- Connect a custom domain and complete its DNS setup. Adding a domain needs the plan from step 1, and publishing is blocked until at least one domain on the site is verified. See Connecting your domain.
- Click Publish in the editor toolbar. PageFork builds a static snapshot of the current version and pushes it to the CDN. Your site is live on your domain within a few seconds.
Both gates are enforced when you click Publish, and each has its own message:
| What you’ll see | What’s missing |
|---|---|
| ”Your custom domain is not verified yet” | No domain, or DNS not finished |
| ”This site needs an active Basic or Pro plan to publish” | No active plan for the site, or its last payment failed |
| ”Site has no content to publish” | Nothing generated yet |
If a domain verified since you last looked at the Domain tab, PageFork re-checks it as you publish rather than making you refresh first.
First publish vs republish
- Publish (first time) appears when the site has never been published.
- Republish appears afterwards. It snapshots the current version again and updates the live site.
Republishing is quick — visitors see the new version within seconds of the CDN cache clearing. Editing the site does not automatically update the live version; you must republish.
Where to find the Publish button
The Publish / Republish button lives in the editor toolbar, top-right. If the site has no plan yet, clicking Publish opens Choose a plan to publish, with Basic and Pro and a yearly/monthly toggle. You can also start a plan from Settings → Domain.
What “live” includes
- All pages in the current version.
- All assets (images, fonts, scripts).
- All forms — submissions flow into your leads.
- Every verified custom domain on the site, serving the same content.
What happens automatically
- Analytics. Every published site collects its own pageview and form-conversion numbers, with nothing to install, on every plan. The dashboard that shows them is a Pro feature. See Built-in analytics.
- “Built with PageFork” footer. Basic sites show a small credit at the bottom of every page; Pro sites don’t.
- SSL. Certificates are issued and renewed for your domains.
What doesn’t
- SEO copy and structure. You’re responsible for titles, descriptions, and OG images — prompt PageFork for them. See SEO basics.
- Third-party tracking. Add GA4, Meta Pixel, or similar by prompting. See Analytics and tracking.