# Import an existing website

## How an import works

Enter your website's address on the homepage, or ask your AI to import it. Iron Fountain copies the public pages, images, styles, scripts, fonts and files it can discover from your links and sitemap, then checks for features that need a closer look. Your current website is not changed and stays online until you point your domain here.

The copy opens as a test site. Save it to your organization for a permanent staging address, review it there, and publish when it is ready. See [Test sites, staging & production](https://www.ironfountain.com/docs/hosting/sites/) for how the addresses work.

Pages or files that nothing links to and your sitemap does not list are not found automatically. Add up to 100 of their paths under **Advanced import options**, one per line.

## What comes with you

| Part of your site | What happens |
|---|---|
| Public pages, images, styles and fonts | Copied, with links rewritten to the new copy. |
| Webflow CMS items and collection pages | Saved as finished pages, including items only linked from lists. An item has to be linked from a page or listed in the sitemap to be found. |
| Native Webflow forms | Converted to Iron Fountain forms with a private inbox. Success messages, file uploads and redirects keep working. |
| Forms that post to another service, such as Mailchimp | Left as they are and keep posting to that service. |
| Embedded forms from another service, such as HubSpot or Typeform | Left as they are and keep sending to that service. They are not converted into Iron Fountain forms. |
| Webflow site search | Replaced with a static search. See [Webflow site search](https://www.ironfountain.com/docs/hosting/import/#webflow-site-search). |
| Menus, sliders, interactions and animations | Copied with the page. Check them in the preview before you switch. |
| Redirects from your old addresses | Copied when the importer sees them. Test sites show off-site redirects instead of following them; saved sites follow them. |

## What works differently

**Content is copied as it is on import day.** CMS items, blog posts and other content become ordinary pages. Changes you make later on your old platform do not come across. Until your custom domain is connected, you can refresh the import to copy the latest version. After that, add or change content by asking your AI or with the [REST API](https://www.ironfountain.com/docs/hosting/api/).

**Form email notifications and past submissions don't come over.** Your old platform keeps its submissions; export them there if you need them. Notification settings can't be read from a public website. After saving the site, members turn on email alerts for themselves in the site's **Forms** tab.

**CMS filter, sort and "load more" add-ons**, such as Finsweet's, usually don't work on the copy because they depend on the original platform. Check them in the preview. Your AI can replace them with a static list, or you can remove them.

**Editing happens by asking your AI**, or through the API, instead of in your old platform's editor. See [MCP & AI connections](https://www.ironfountain.com/docs/hosting/mcp/).

## Webflow site search

Webflow's built-in search does not work outside Webflow. When an import finds a native Webflow search form, it keeps the search box and its address (usually `/search`) and adds a static search page. The search looks through the text of the pages copied in the import. Visitors see matching pages with a short excerpt.

The search index is a snapshot, not a live connection to your old CMS:

- Pages marked noindex, and pages or elements excluded from Webflow's search, are left out.
- Up to 32,000 characters of text are indexed per page. The import report says when a page was cut short.
- Results are not ranked exactly as Webflow ranked them.
- Pages you add or change after the import are not in the search until you update the index.

The index is a JSON file in `imported-assets/search/`, referenced by the search page's `data-ironfountain-search-index` attribute. It lists each page as `{"url": "/about/", "title": "About us", "text": "..."}`, with `url` as a path on your site. Ask your AI to add, update or remove entries when you change pages, for example: "Add the new fall event page to the site search index."

Search forms from other services, such as Algolia or Finsweet, are left as they are. WordPress search is not recreated.

## Adding CMS items after the import

Your AI can add a new item the way a CMS would. A request like this works well:

```text
Read the blog index and two existing blog posts on my staging site. Add a new
post titled "Fall schedule" using the same layout, link it from the blog index
like the others, add it to sitemap.xml and the site search index if there is
one, and save a draft for me to review.
```

Review the draft on staging, then publish it.

## Not supported yet

| Site or feature | What happens |
|---|---|
| Wix and Squarespace sites | The import stops with an explanation; no copy is saved. |
| Single-page applications (sites that build every page with JavaScript) | The import stops with an explanation; no copy is saved. |
| Ecommerce checkout, memberships and logins | Account pages are skipped. Carts and checkouts are flagged; keep a working external service or remove them before switching. |
| WordPress plugins, comments and search | Pages are copied, but WordPress itself is not recreated. Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms and Jetpack forms are flagged for review and not converted automatically. |

## Limits

An import can copy up to **200 pages**, **20,000 files**, **100 MB per file** and **1 GB** in total, within fifteen minutes. You can start ten imports per hour. An unsaved test site expires one hour after the import starts.

## Before you switch

The import report lists everything that needs a look, with links to the affected pages. Before pointing your domain here:

1. Open the staging copy and click through your main pages on a phone and a computer.
2. Submit each form on staging and check it arrives in the **Forms** tab under Staging.
3. Try menus, sliders, search and any embedded services.
4. Turn on form email alerts in the **Forms** tab if you want them.
5. Publish, then follow the guided domain setup.

The import report is not a complete test, and some features can only be checked in a browser. Review the copy yourself before switching.