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.