Transform Your Airtable Views into Branded Websites with GoHostless

Airtable has revolutionized how teams organize and visualize data with its flexible database capabilities and customizable views. Many businesses use Airtable to create product catalogs, event listings, content calendars, and more that they want to share publicly.

However, when sharing an Airtable publicly, it uses an airtable.com URL with a long string of characters — not exactly memorable or aligned with your brand. That's where GoHostless comes in.

Why Use a Custom Domain for Your Airtable Views?

Before we dive into the setup, let's understand why you might want to put your public Airtable views on a custom domain:

• Professional Branding: Replace the generic Airtable URL with your own domain (e.g., catalog.yourcompany.com)
• Improved Discoverability: Custom domains are easier to remember and share
• Brand Consistency: Maintain a cohesive brand experience across all your digital touchpoints
• Better SEO Potential: Custom domains can contribute to your overall SEO strategy

Popular Use Cases for Airtable + GoHostless

Here are some common ways businesses use this combination:

1. Product Catalogs: Create a branded product catalog or inventory
2. Event Directories: Build public event listings with registration links
3. Content Libraries: Share resource libraries or content databases
4. Job Boards: Host a careers page with open positions
5. Member Directories: Create public team or membership directories

Step-by-Step Guide: Connecting Airtable to GoHostless

Step 1: Create and Share Your Airtable View

First, you need to prepare your Airtable base:

1. Open your Airtable base
2. Create a view that displays exactly what you want to share publicly
3. Click "Share view" in the upper right corner
4. Select "Create a shared view link"
5. Configure the share settings (what visitors can see and do)
6. Copy the share link (it will look like https://airtable.com/shrXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

Pro Tip: Customize your Airtable view thoroughly before sharing. Consider which fields to hide, sort order, filtering, and the overall visual presentation.

Step 2: Set Up Your Domain in GoHostless

Now that you have your public Airtable view, let's connect it to your custom domain:

1. Sign in to your GoHostless dashboard
2. Click "Add Domain"
3. Enter the subdomain you want to use (e.g., catalog.yourcompany.com)
4. Paste your Airtable share link from Step 1
5. Click "Create"

GoHostless will provide you with two DNS records to set up:

• A CNAME record pointing to proxy.gohostless.com
• A TXT record for domain verification

Step 3: Configure Your DNS Settings

Next, you need to add these DNS records with your domain provider:

1. Log in to your domain provider's website (like GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
2. Navigate to the DNS management section
3. Add the CNAME record for your chosen subdomain
4. Add the TXT record for verification
5. Save your changes

Note: DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate fully, though typically they take effect within 15-30 minutes.

Step 4: Verify and Activate

Once you've added the DNS records:

1. Return to the GoHostless dashboard
2. Click "Verify DNS" to check if your records are properly configured
3. Once verified, your custom domain will be activated
4. Click "Visit Site" to see your Airtable view on your custom domain!

Advanced Tips for Airtable + GoHostless

Improving Mobile Responsiveness

Airtable's default public views can sometimes be challenging on mobile devices. Consider these tips:

• Use Grid or Gallery views which tend to be more mobile-friendly
• Minimize the number of visible fields to reduce horizontal scrolling
• Test your view on multiple devices before finalizing

Customizing Headers and Metadata

With GoHostless Pro plans, you can add custom HTTP headers to your Airtable views, which can be used for:

• Setting custom meta tags for social sharing
• Adding analytics tracking codes
• Implementing security headers

Using With Airtable Forms

If you're using Airtable forms:

1. Create a form view in your Airtable base
2. Share the form view publicly
3. Use that share link with GoHostless
4. Now your form has a branded, professional URL

Limitations to Be Aware Of

While GoHostless provides a seamless way to brand your Airtable views, there are some limitations to be aware of:

• You cannot remove all Airtable branding from the interface
• Advanced customization of the view's appearance requires Airtable's paid plans
• Certain interactive features may still require users to sign in to Airtable

Real-World Example: Product Catalog

Let's walk through a real example: creating a branded product catalog.

The Challenge: A small e-commerce business has their product inventory in Airtable, with images, descriptions, prices, and stock levels. They want to share this catalog with retailers but need it to look professional.

The Solution:

1. They create a Gallery view in Airtable showing product images, names, descriptions, and wholesale prices
2. They share this view publicly and connect it to wholesale.theirbrand.com using GoHostless
3. Now they can direct retailers to a professionally branded catalog that updates automatically whenever they change their Airtable inventory

Conclusion

By combining Airtable's powerful database capabilities with GoHostless's custom domain functionality, you can create professional, branded data-driven websites without any coding. Whether you're sharing a product catalog, event directory, or any other type of database, this solution provides a seamless way to maintain your brand identity.

The best part? When you update your Airtable base, your branded website automatically reflects these changes in real-time. This makes it an incredibly efficient solution for maintaining public-facing data.

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Ready to transform your Airtable views with custom branding? Sign up for GoHostless today or explore our other integration guides.