How do I save a Webflow page as a draft?

Save the page from Page settings

A draft is how you keep a static page out of the next publish. Use it for unfinished work, an internal style guide, a page you have retired, or a spare copy while you rebuild something that is already live.

Open that page's Page settings. Click the dropdown arrow beside Save, then choose Save as draft. The page is now a draft. Publishing the site does not publish it, and it is not included in site search.

This is a static page control. Collection items have their own draft and unpublish actions. Saving a CMS item as a draft does not follow these Page settings steps.

What the next publish does to a live URL

If the page was never published, a draft simply stays off the live site. If it was already public, the timing matters. Webflow removes it from the live site when you publish the site after saving it as a draft. That same publish removes it from the auto-generated sitemap.

Until you publish, the old URL is still the previous version. Save as draft is not an instant takedown. The page comes off the live site on the next site publish.

People and search engines may still request the old path after it is gone. Webflow says you can use a 301 redirect to send a drafted page to a live page. Add that redirect and publish so the old path does not end on a dead end. The redirect is a separate setting from the draft itself. Drafting does not create one for you.

For example: you retire /old-offer and want visitors to land on /services. Draft /old-offer, add a 301 from that path to /services, then publish the site. Check both URLs after the publish finishes.

Drafted pages are still included when you export the site. An export is not the same as the published website. Do not treat an export folder as proof that the draft stayed offline.

Bring the page back with Stage for publish

When the draft is ready, open Page settings again. Use the menu beside Save and choose Stage for publish. Staging marks it for the next full site publish. It does not go live at the moment you click the menu.

Publish the entire site, then open the live URL. Staged pages go live the next time you publish the whole site.

After it returns, read the page on the live domain. That publish is also what ends the draft exclusion from the auto-generated sitemap.

Replace a live page without giving up the slug

A common job is a new version of a page that must keep its URL. Webflow's own sequence for that backup is specific, because you cannot give a new page the slug of a page that is still drafted.

Duplicate the live page, or create a new one, and save that copy as a draft while you edit it. When it is ready:

• Rename the old page, for example from Contact to Contact V1.
• Change the old slug, for example from contact to contact-v1.
• Save the old page as a draft.
• Rename the new page to Contact.
• Set the new page's slug to contact, the original path.
• Stage the new page for publish.
• Publish the site.

Doing the slug change in that order keeps existing links on /contact. If you try to create the new page on contact while the draft still owns that slug, Webflow will not allow it. Change the draft's slug first.

Check the live page, one internal link that pointed at it, and the old contact-v1 URL. If contact-v1 should not be a public spare, leave it drafted and add a 301 if anything still links there.

Pages you cannot draft

You cannot save the homepage as a draft, and you cannot set a draft page as the homepage. You also cannot draft the 404 page or the password page. Those pages have to stay available to the site.

If the goal is to share a published page with a client without putting it in front of everyone, password protect that page or its folder. A password page is a published page with a gate. A draft is absent from the publish. Pick the one that matches the job.

New websites and full redesigns are separate projects, not part of the membership. The membership is one plan for every existing Webflow site: $999 per month, including 10 hours of Webflow work. Urgent requests are reviewed and picked up within 24 hours, other requests within 48 hours. These are pickup times, not completion deadlines.