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Publishing to your web host

Set up the FTP or SFTP connection, publish, check the server, or export the site to a folder.

Setting up the connection

  1. Open Publish.
  2. In Your web host, choose yours if it is listed (o2switch, OVH, IONOS, Hostinger, LWS, Infomaniak, PlanetHoster, Free…): the protocol, port and folder are filled in for you, and TOWeb remembers your choice. Otherwise, choose Another host. For Free, see also Publishing to Free.
  3. In Method, choose FTP or SFTP. When your plan offers SFTP, prefer it: it is the safest, as it also encrypts your password.
  4. Fill in the Server (host), Username and Password: you will find them in the welcome email for your hosting.
  5. Enter the full Site URL: https://www.mon-site.fr/ for example.
  6. Click Test connection. TOWeb usually finds the web folder by itself; otherwise, use Browse server directories to choose the Remote path (often www or public_html).

At one.com, choose one.com in Your web host: the connection is set up for SFTP. The site folder depends on the server (often “www” or “httpd.www”): Test Connection checks the one you choose. This test also says clearly when a remote folder does not exist or cannot be written to, and points out a folder that is empty or does not contain a site yet.

The password is stored encrypted on your computer.

If the server refuses the secure FTPS connection, as OVHcloud shared hosting does, the test explains it in plain words: untick Secure (FTPS) and test again, or switch to SFTP if your plan allows it.

An FTPS certificate TOWeb cannot verify

Over FTPS, TOWeb verifies the server’s certificate like a browser. If the server sends its certificate without the intermediate certificate (as o2switch does), TOWeb fetches the missing certificate by itself: the connection stays verified, with nothing to do.

When the certificate really cannot be verified, the Unverified FTPS certificate window opens before anything is sent, and explains the problem. Two cases are common:

  • on shared hosting, the certificate carries the name of the host’s server, not your site’s. The window shows these names: enter one of them in Server (host), and the connection will be verified without accepting anything;
  • an antivirus or a corporate proxy scans encrypted connections and presents its own certificate: exclude TOWeb V15 from it, or accept the certificate if you know the reason.

The Trust this certificate button accepts it once and for all: TOWeb remembers it for this server, renewals included, and refuses any other certificate that would show up in its place. Nothing is sent to the server, not even your password, before you answer.

Publishing

Click Publish site. TOWeb saves the site, generates the pages, then uploads the files. The following times, only modified files are sent. If files have disappeared from the server (deleted at the host, for example), TOWeb sends them again on its own. To send the whole site again, tick Re-send all files (in Advanced options).

The first publication of a site to a server asks you to confirm: it replaces everything online at that address, for example your old TOWeb 14 site. To try first, publish to a test subfolder or subdomain.

When the publishing folder contains something other than a site (emails, hosting settings), TOWeb only ever deletes there the files it published itself.

Before sending, the screen tells you what would not work online (a form without a receiving address, for example) and what your edition will put online. After sending, the Site optimizer reviews the site (dead links, missing titles and descriptions, heavy images, nearly empty pages with their word count…) without ever stopping you from publishing. It reviews the pages of the main language: automatic translations are not reviewed, only their links are checked. The Check online button also tests your external links, the files you uploaded yourself to your host (referenced in an Embed block or in custom code) and your certificate.

After the upload, TOWeb also checks that the files really reached the server, and that the site’s address shows the version just uploaded. If not, the result tells you, with what to do: most often, the chosen folder is not your site’s folder.

Once the site is online, the top of the screen shows its address (one click opens it in your browser), then the Last publication, the Files uploaded, the Duration and the Site size, rounded.

With the Standard edition

The free edition publishes only one of your sites: the others can be edited and previewed freely, and the Publish screen tells you so before uploading. Republishing that site is always possible, and deleting a published site frees up its place.

Checking the server

Forms, shop and bookings require PHP hosting. The screen tells you whether your site needs it. Click Test the server: TOWeb uploads a small test file, checks PHP, its modules, the data folder and email sending, then deletes it.

If sending e-mail fails, the test shows the exact reply of the mail server (Gmail’s, for example): pass it on to support or to your host.

Some hosts filter automated visits (bot protection from SiteGround, Cloudflare or Imunify360). The test tells you so, instead of wrongly concluding that PHP is not enabled: your forms, payments and bookings work for your visitors. Check it by sending a form from the published site.

No FTP hosting: the local folder

Choose the Local method, an Output folder, then Build & export: the complete site is written to that folder, ready to be copied wherever you like. A site without PHP features can be hosted anywhere. This method is reserved for the paid editions.

Exporting a copy to a folder

Export to folder…, in the Check and test section of the Publish screen, copies the ready-to-publish site to the folder of your choice, then opens that folder: to host it elsewhere or to archive it. Your publishing setting (FTP, SFTP) does not change. This export is part of the paid editions.

The export replaces the entire content of the chosen folder: choose a dedicated folder. TOWeb refuses to export directly into a personal folder (Desktop, Documents, Downloads…) or to the root of a USB drive; create a subfolder there, named after your site for example. A folder that TOWeb did not create is only replaced after your confirmation, and what it contained is moved to the Trash.

A backup with every publication

After each successful publication, TOWeb also makes an automatic backup of your site, outside its folder. See History and backups.

Your own .htaccess rules

TOWeb only writes to your server’s .htaccess file between the “# BEGIN TOWeb” and “# END TOWeb” markers. Rules added by you or your host outside this zone, such as a redirect or a PHP version, are kept at every publication. A .htaccess file already on the host that TOWeb cannot read is left as it is, never replaced.

In Settings › Advanced, the Redirect visitors to HTTPS setting sends any visitor who arrives over http:// to the secure address. It is on by default when the site address starts with https://. Turn it off only if your host already redirects to HTTPS itself (behind a proxy or a CDN, for example) or if the site shows “too many redirects”. The server test and the online check clearly report a redirect loop.

Updated on October 25, 2026