How Spokewell works
Spokewell keeps one CMS collection in step across several sites of your Webflow workspace. One site holds the master copy (the source); the other sites (targets) get its items, each with its own field map and rules.
Install
- Install Spokewell from the Webflow Apps marketplace. On Webflow's screen, choose your whole workspace, so every site in it can be a source or a target. (If you pick single sites, only those can take part.)
- Open any site of the workspace in the Designer and open Spokewell from the Apps panel. It opens in the large panel size.
Set up a sync
- New sync. Pick the source site and the source collection. The sync takes the collection's name; change it if you like.
- Add a target site. If the site has a collection with the same name, Spokewell picks it; otherwise choose one, or leave "None yet" to create it there.
- Check the field map. Each source field is matched to a target field with the same slug, then the same name,
with a compatible type (a plain text field can take an email, phone, link, number or option; rich text can take
plain text; a multi-image field can take an image). Every row can be changed:
- Goes into: another target field, "Not synced", or "Create this field".
- Source wins: "Always" (the source's value is sent whenever it changes) or "Only when created" (set once, then the site owns that field: good for local phone numbers or a franchise's own intro).
- Name and slug always sync.
- Prepare this site (after saving) creates what's missing: the whole collection when the site has none, or the fields marked "Create this field". Webflow's API can create plain text, rich text, image, multi-image, video link, link, email, phone, number, date, switch, color, file and option fields, and reference fields once the referenced collection exists on that site. It can't add options to an existing option field or set validations (character limits, ranges); Spokewell tells you what to add in the Designer.
- Rules per site. Create new items, update existing ones, archive when the source archives; when a source item is deleted, archive it, delete it or leave it; skip source drafts or send them as drafts.
- When someone edited an item on this site (since Spokewell last wrote it): flag it for you to decide (the default), keep the site's edit, or overwrite with the source.
- Publishing: publish the items a sync changes, only items that are live on the source, or don't publish (the changes stay staged until someone publishes the site).
- Languages: when the source site has secondary locales, each one goes to the target locale you choose (Spokewell pairs them for you by language). Text, rich text, links, images and files are sent per language; references, options, numbers, dates, switches and colors are shared by all languages of an item and come from the primary locale.
- When to sync: by hand only, every 15 minutes, every hour, every 6 hours or once a day, and "also sync about a minute after items change on the source" (Spokewell asks Webflow to tell it about changes on the source site).
Save. Then press Preview on the Syncs tab.
Preview, sync and the log
- Preview reads everything and writes nothing. Per site it lists each item that would be created, updated, matched, archived, restored or deleted, and for each changed field the value before and after.
- Sync now does it. Items go 100 at a time; an item Webflow refuses fails alone, with Webflow's reason in the log, and the rest go through.
- The first time a site syncs, an item that already exists there with the same slug is matched instead of duplicated.
- The log keeps every run for 90 days: per site, every item, what happened, and the reason for any error.
References
A reference field on the source points at items of another collection (say, Regions). On each target, Spokewell points it at that site's own copy:
- If another sync in the workspace sends that collection to the site, Spokewell uses that sync's matches.
- Otherwise it matches items by slug.
- A referenced item it can't find is left out of the field, and the log says which item and which field. References to the same collection (related posts, nearby locations) point at the site's own copies, including items created in the same run.
Local edits
Every time Spokewell writes a field, it keeps a fingerprint of what it sent and of what Webflow stored. Next time, it can tell "the source changed" (send it) from "someone edited this on the site" (a local edit). With "flag it", the log shows the item, the field, the site's value and the source's value, with two buttons:
- Overwrite: the next sync sends the source's value.
- Keep: the site's value stays, and Spokewell stops flagging it until the source changes that field again. An item deleted on a site is a local edit too: Overwrite creates it again, Keep leaves it deleted.
Undo
On the Syncs tab (or in the log of the newest run), Undo last sync puts back what that sync did on every site: changed fields return to their earlier values, items it created are deleted, translated versions it added are removed, items it archived come back, and items it deleted are created again. An item someone edited after the sync is left alone, and the result lists it. Undo covers the newest sync of each setup, once, for 30 days.
Limits
- One-way: the source is the master. Edits on a target never go back to the source.
- A collection is either a source or a target in a workspace, never both, and a target collection takes content from one source.
- CMS collections only: not pages, styles, components or ecommerce products.
- Up to 25,000 items per collection per run, and Webflow's own CMS item limits per site plan apply.
- Spokewell reads and writes within each site's Webflow rate limit, one run and one site at a time, so a big first sync can take a few minutes.
Plans
Workspace plans: Studio $49/month or $490/year (3 target sites, 2,000 source items), Agency $99/month or $990/year (10 sites, 5,000 items), Network $249/month or $2,490/year (50 sites, 25,000 items). A source item counts once, however many sites it goes to; runs and changes are unlimited. 14-day trial with Studio limits from your first real sync. When it ends, syncing and previews pause until you pick a plan; every site keeps its content.
Remove
Settings > Remove Spokewell removes Spokewell's change notifications from your source sites, revokes its access and deletes your syncs, matches, decisions, log and undo data. Content already synced stays on every site. Cancel a paid plan in Plan > Manage billing.
Questions: hello@greatwork.company (a person replies within one business day).