How to Set Up URL Forwarding

If you don't need full hosting and just want to forward all web visitors to your domain to an existing site, you can do so using our free URL forwarding service.

How to configure the URL Forwarding service

Porkbun has made learning how to set up URL forwarding easy! Follow these simple steps to set up our free URL forwarding service and send all your website visitors right where you want them:

Log in. You should arrive at the Domain Management screen. If you're already logged in, click on ACCOUNT in the top-right corner and select "Domain Management" from the list.

Locate the domain you wish to forward. To the right of the domain name will be a row of icons. Click the drop-down list labeled "Details" and select the edit icon next to "URL Forwarding".

URL forwarding option in domain details menu

On the Edit URL Forwarding screen, type in the subdomain you wish to forward from (leave it blank if you are forwarding from the root domain) and then the domain or URL to which you wish to forward browser requests. Click the "Submit" button once you are done.

⚠️️ Hint

If you input something in the "Hostname" field, a subdomain will be created in the DNS records for your domain. Leaving the field blank forwards the "root" domain.

Optional: As you are setting up free URL forwarding, you can select the "Wildcard Forwarding" option, which makes it so no matter what the user types in before the root domain, it will automatically forward to that URL. To forward all traffic to your domain and all its subdomains, leave the hostname field above blank and leave this box checked. A wildcard DNS record will be created to accommodate wildcard forwarding.

Free URL Forwarding Advanced Settings

By default, Porkbun uses HTTP's Temporary Redirect (302/307) feature to accomplish our free URL forwarding. In general, Porkbun recommends using this type of forwarding since it is easily reversible and will not negatively impact SEO for the target site. Rarely, however, an individual will require a different type of forward. If you need a 301 Permanent Redirect or a Masked redirect, click "Toggle advanced settings" and scroll down to select a different redirect type.

You may also select to include the requested URI in the path redirection. For example, this will forward domain1.com/page1 to domain2.com/page1.

Once you've selected your advanced settings, click the "Submit" button to save your free URL forwarding settings.

Why is there an error message in the URL Forwarding menu?

When you open up the menu to create a URL forward, you may see a scary looking error message like this:

This means that our system has detected some DNS records on your domain that could potentially cause conflicts with the URL forward you're setting up. There are a number of things that could cause this, but for most folks, it usually means that Porkbun's default DNS records (pixie.porkbun.com) are still applied to your domain. You'll want to delete any records that could conflict with your URL forward first, then you can set up the redirect afterwards, and everything should start working as expected.

⚠️️ Warning

If you previously had your domain connected to an external web hosting provider, you'll need to remove their DNS records before creating the URL forward so your domain can redirect properly.

Feel free to get in touch with our Support team if you run into any issues configuring URL Forwarding for your domain.