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Why am I receiving a 403 error when trying to access my website on Webflow with the link apifestival.africa despite having everything set correctly on Namecheap?

TL;DR
  • Add both apifestival.africa and www.apifestival.africa in Webflow's Hosting settings and set one as the default domain.
  • In Namecheap DNS, set A records for the root domain (75.2.70.75 and 99.83.190.102) and a CNAME for www pointing to proxy-ssl.webflow.com, removing any conflicting records.
  • Publish the site to both domains in Webflow, enable SSL, and wait for DNS propagation for changes to take effect.

You're seeing a 403 Forbidden error when accessing your Webflow-hosted domain (apifestival.africa) because the domain is likely not correctly verified or misconfigured in Webflow or Namecheap.

1. Confirm Custom Domain is Added in Webflow

  • Go to Project Settings > Hosting in your Webflow dashboard.
  • Make sure that apifestival.africa and www.apifestival.africa are both added under Custom Domains.
  • One of them should be set as the Default domain (typically the www version).
  • If the root domain (apifestival.africa) is marked as default, Webflow hosting may not behave properly unless DNS is configured exactly right.

2. Verify DNS Settings in Namecheap

  • Go to Namecheap DNS settings for your domain.

  • Ensure you’ve added the correct DNS records as provided by Webflow:

  • A Records for root/apex domain (apifestival.africa):

    • (a) 75.2.70.75
    • (b) 99.83.190.102

  • CNAME record for www:

    • www → proxy-ssl.webflow.com

  • Delete any conflicting A or CNAME records (e.g., default parking pages from Namecheap).

3. Make Sure the Domain is Published in Webflow

  • After configuring DNS, click "Publish" in Webflow and select your custom domains.
  • If not published to both www.apifestival.africa and apifestival.africa, the site won't load properly.

4. Wait for DNS Propagation

  • DNS updates can take a few minutes to several hours. You can check propagation at tools like whatsmydns.net.

5. SSL Status in Webflow

  • In your Hosting settings, scroll to Advanced options and make sure that SSL is enabled.
  • If it's disabled or in error state, you'll see issues. Toggle it off and back on to reset if needed.

Summary

A 403 error often means Webflow isn’t recognizing the domain due to incomplete setup. Ensure that both the DNS records in Namecheap and domain configuration in Webflow match Webflow’s requirements, publish your site, and allow time for DNS propagation.

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