Framer · Move in steps
Design tools stay open. You are not uninstalling Sites this week. You are moving one hosting layer — CMS collections, form endpoints, or where Publish lands — onto a host you control while the canvas still owns layout. Finish that layer’s restore checklist before you touch CMS and Publish together. This page shows how to move in steps while design stays live: the canvas for craft, your host for the layer that already moved.
30 min · senior team · leave with a clear next step
Company-level evidence
Review methodologyIn plain words
Transition here means the Sites canvas keeps owning layout while one hosting layer — export tree, form secrets, or Publish target — answers from your host. Design tools stay open. CMS and custom code stay coherent on that layer. A layer is done when your host serves it and the editor is only a design workshop for what already moved.
Why moving in steps gets its own page
A full migrate or host exit assumes you can leave Sites hosting this week. Plenty of teams still need layout work safe in the editor while one hosting layer relocates.
Looks tidy until collections, webhooks, and DNS all break at once. Move one hosting layer, prove it, then decide.
If you cannot put that layer back on Sites hosting inside a known window, you are not moving in steps — you are hoping.
Two editors on the same page with no reconcile rule. That is how last week’s layout fix reappears wrong.
If DNS or integrations sit under one founder login, ownership is the first layer — even while the canvas still serves design.
The order we move things in
Owned host hardens first. Editor stays for layout until that layer proves itself.
01
Sandbox canvas edits okay; live Publish for that layer needs a reviewed owned path.
02
Both can answer for that layer.
03
Restore checklist on paper. Then retire editor Publish for that layer.
04
No silent dual edits on the same page.
How to
Keep design live. Use a restore checklist for each layer. Keep visitors safe.
Step 01
Form secrets, CMS collections, or Publish target — pick one.
Step 02
Both can answer for that layer.
Step 03
Known window to put the layer back on Sites hosting.
Step 04
Watch. Support knows both tracks.
Step 05
Finish one move before you start another.
Read next
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Stay inside the vibe-coding cluster, or open booking and the Austin money page.
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Shared guides and the rest of the Framer pages.
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First useful ship on the owned host.
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Tighten in place before strangers.
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Bring which layers still live on Framer hosting. We will put the moves in order.
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Studio page if you want a partner for the staged path.
Before you book
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Require reviewed publish for the live layer → stand owned host + secrets → move CMS and forms as hosting layers → prove parity → retire editor Publish for that layer. Restore stays available until the final host kill-switch.
Yes — allow canvas work for design while production merges only through a reviewed export or rebuild, then tighten when health holds. Downtime stays planned near zero.
Write it down: which frames design may still change, which exports eng owns, who holds vault access. Unowned dual edits are how last week’s layout fix reappears wrong.
When you already need a full practiced Sites cutover this week, or when you only need a wrap before ads hit the published URL. Then migrate, get-off, or harden is the honest page.
Bring which layers still publish only from the editor, who holds the domain, and how you would restore a bad cut. We put the moves in order before we talk about a full exit.
Prefer writing? Send project details on the contact page.