WeWeb Hosting and Custom Domains: Cloud vs Self-Hosting

Before configuring DNS, decide which hosting path is right for your project. WeWeb Cloud is ideal if you want managed infrastructure, automatic builds on publish, easy staging environments, and a single dashboard to manage everything. Self-hosting is better when you need zero session/bandwidth limits, faster global performance (Cloudflare edge), air-gapped compliance requirements, or lower total cost for high-traffic apps. The key trade-off: WeWeb Cloud has session limits (500/month on Free, up to 250,000/month on Scale), while self-hosting on Cloudflare Pages or Vercel has no session limits. To start WeWeb Cloud setup, continue to the next steps. For self-hosting, refer to the WeWeb Export Code tutorial which covers the Vercel and Cloudflare deployment process.

Navigate to your WeWeb editor and click the gear icon in the left navigation bar to open App Settings. Select the Hosting tab. You will see your current hosting configuration — by default, projects are on the Free hosting tier (WeWeb subdomain, 500 sessions/month). To add a paid hosting plan, click Add Hosting Plan or Upgrade. The available tiers are: Free ($0, weweb.io subdomain, 500 sessions/month, WeWeb branding shown), Launch (custom domain, initial bandwidth allowance), Grow (custom domain, 200GB bandwidth), and Scale (up to 250,000 sessions/month, up to 10GB app size, staging environments, removes WeWeb branding). Select the appropriate tier for your needs and complete the billing steps. Note: Adding a hosting plan requires your seat plan to be Essential or above.

Before configuring your custom domain, ensure your project is published. WeWeb Cloud hosting only serves the last published version of your app. In the editor top-right, click the Publish button. In the publish dialog, verify you are publishing to the Production environment. Click Publish and wait for the build to complete (typically 30-90 seconds). While the build runs, the dialog shows a progress indicator. Once complete, your app is live at your WeWeb subdomain (e.g., yourapp.weweb.io). Verify it loads correctly before proceeding to custom domain setup — troubleshooting DNS is easier when you know the underlying app is working.

In the WeWeb editor, navigate to App Settings → Hosting → Custom Domain. Click Add Custom Domain. Enter your domain name (e.g., app.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com for a root domain). WeWeb will display the CNAME record you need to create at your DNS provider. The target will be something like your-project-id.weweb-hosted.com. Copy this CNAME target value — you will need it in the next step. WeWeb also shows the verification status, which starts as Pending. Leave this page open while you configure DNS. Note that WeWeb Cloud supports both subdomain configurations (app.yourdomain.com) and root domains (yourdomain.com), though root domain CNAME records require CNAME flattening support at your DNS provider (Cloudflare supports this natively).

Log into your DNS provider dashboard (Cloudflare at cloudflare.com, GoDaddy, Route 53, Namecheap, or your registrar). Navigate to the DNS management section for your domain. Add a new DNS record with these values: Type = CNAME, Name = the subdomain you want (e.g., 'app' for app.yourdomain.com, or '@' for the root domain), Target/Value = the WeWeb CNAME target you copied in the previous step (e.g., your-project-id.weweb-hosted.com). TTL = 3600 (1 hour) or Auto. Save the record. If using Cloudflare, set the proxy status to DNS Only (gray cloud) initially — the orange cloud (proxied) can be enabled later once the domain is verified. DNS propagation typically takes 5-30 minutes but can take up to 48 hours for some registrars.

Return to WeWeb App Settings → Hosting → Custom Domain. Click Verify or Refresh to check the DNS propagation status. WeWeb automatically provisions an SSL certificate via Let's Encrypt once the CNAME record resolves correctly. The status will update from Pending to Verified. Once verified, SSL is automatically active — no manual certificate installation required. The verification process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on DNS propagation speed. If verification fails after 24 hours, double-check your CNAME record for typos, confirm the record has propagated using a tool like dnschecker.org, and verify you are not using a conflicting A record at the same subdomain.

If your project is on the Scale hosting plan, you can set up a staging environment to test changes before publishing to production. In App Settings → Hosting, look for the Staging section. WeWeb provides a separate staging URL (typically a subdomain like staging.yourapp.weweb.io or a custom staging domain you configure). The staging environment serves a separate published version of your app. To publish to staging only, click the dropdown arrow next to the Publish button and select Staging as the target environment. This allows you to review changes on staging, get client or stakeholder approval, and then publish separately to production. For teams without the Scale plan, a common workaround is to create a second WeWeb project as a staging environment.

WeWeb Cloud tracks session and bandwidth usage against your hosting plan limits. To monitor current usage, go to App Settings → Hosting and look for the Usage section showing sessions used this month vs your plan limit. If you approach your session limit, WeWeb will send notification emails. To avoid service interruption for users, upgrade your hosting plan before reaching the limit via App Settings → Hosting → Upgrade Plan. For bandwidth, the Grow plan includes 200GB/month — more than sufficient for most apps but worth monitoring if you serve large media files. If you consistently hit limits, consider switching to self-hosting on Cloudflare Pages where there are no session or bandwidth limits.