Porkbun Domain Forwarding — HTTPS Limitations and a Better Alternative

TL;DR: Porkbun offers basic URL forwarding, but HTTPS reliability is inconsistent and analytics/advanced features are missing. For guaranteed HTTPS redirects with SSL certificates, analytics, and path forwarding: point your DNS at Domain-Forward.com (free plan). Takes 5 minutes.

You registered a domain on Porkbun — good choice, they’re known for fair pricing and a developer-friendly interface. Now you need to forward that domain somewhere: a Notion page, a social profile, another website, or a landing page. You set up Porkbun’s built-in URL forwarding and… it mostly works.

But then you notice: HTTPS behavior is inconsistent. There are no analytics to tell you if anyone’s even clicking. Path forwarding doesn’t work the way you expected. And if you need an API to manage redirects programmatically — forget it.

Porkbun’s forwarding is fine for basic HTTP redirects, but it falls short for anything requiring guaranteed HTTPS, monitoring, or flexibility. Here’s what you need to know.

How Porkbun URL Forwarding Works

Porkbun includes free URL forwarding with every domain. The setup is straightforward:

Step 1: Log in to Porkbun

Go to porkbun.com and sign in.

Step 2: Find your domain

Navigate to Domain Management and click the domain you want to forward.

Step 3: Set up URL forwarding

Look for the “URL Forwarding” section. Enter:

• Destination URL: Where visitors should be sent
• Redirect type: Temporary (302) or Permanent (301)
• Subdomain: Leave blank for root domain, or enter a subdomain

Step 4: Save and wait

Save your settings. Porkbun will update DNS records automatically. Wait for DNS propagation (1-4 hours).

The Limitations

Porkbun’s forwarding is a basic feature — it gets the job done for simple cases but lacks several things:

HTTPS reliability

Porkbun’s forwarding may or may not provision an SSL certificate for your forwarded domain reliably. The behavior can vary depending on your DNS configuration, and there’s limited control over the SSL setup. If your visitors access your domain via HTTPS and the certificate isn’t properly configured, they’ll see security warnings.

No redirect analytics

When you forward a domain, you probably want to know: how many people are actually clicking? Where are they coming from? What devices? Porkbun doesn’t offer any analytics for forwarded domains.

Limited path forwarding

If you need yourdomain.com/blog to redirect to destination.com/blog (preserving the path), Porkbun’s forwarding likely won’t handle this — it redirects everything to one destination URL.

No API access

If you manage multiple domains or need programmatic control over redirects (changing destinations, enabling/disabling), there’s no API for forwarding configuration.

Conflicts with other DNS records

Setting up forwarding can override existing DNS records. If you have a complex DNS setup (email, subdomains, verification records), the forwarding feature may conflict with them.

The Alternative: Domain-Forward.com

Domain-Forward.com is built specifically for domain forwarding — it’s not a registrar feature bolted on as an afterthought:

• Guaranteed HTTPS — SSL certificates are auto-provisioned via Let’s Encrypt for every domain
• 301 permanent redirects — proper SEO value transfer
• Click analytics — visitors, geography, devices, referrers
• Path forwarding — preserve URL paths across the redirect
• Wildcard forwarding — handle all subdomains with one rule
• REST API — programmatic redirect management
• Both www and non-www handled automatically
• Free plan — 5 domains included

Step 1: Remove existing Porkbun forwarding

If you’ve already set up forwarding on Porkbun, disable it first. Go to your domain’s URL Forwarding section and remove the existing forward. This prevents DNS conflicts.

Step 2: Create your free account

Sign up at Domain-Forward.com — no credit card needed.

Step 3: Add your redirect

Click “Add Redirect” and enter:

• Source domain: yourdomain.com (add both root and www)
• Destination URL: Where visitors should go
• Redirect type: 301 (permanent) — the default

Step 4: Update DNS at Porkbun

Go to your Porkbun domain’s DNS management and set:

Delete any conflicting A records that Porkbun may have created from the old forwarding setup. Also delete any CNAME on www that points elsewhere.

Your email keeps working. Only A and CNAME records change. MX records are untouched.

Step 5: Wait for DNS propagation

DNS propagation takes 1-4 hours. SSL certificate provisioning happens automatically once propagation completes.

Step 6: Test

Visit http://yourdomain.com and https://yourdomain.com — both should redirect correctly. Use our redirect tester tool to verify.

Porkbun Forwarding vs Domain-Forward.com

When Porkbun’s Forwarding Is Fine

To be fair — if you need a simple HTTP redirect with no HTTPS requirement, no analytics, and no path forwarding, Porkbun’s built-in tool works. Use it for:

• Internal redirects nobody else sees
• Temporary redirects you’ll remove soon
• Cases where you genuinely don’t care about HTTPS

For everything else — branded links shared publicly, business domains, production redirects — use a dedicated forwarding service.

Get HTTPS Forwarding That Just Works

Porkbun is a great registrar — keep your domain there. Just use Domain-Forward.com for the forwarding layer, where guaranteed HTTPS, analytics, and path forwarding actually matter.

The fix takes 5 minutes: sign up for Domain-Forward.com, add your redirect, update two DNS records at Porkbun, and you’re live. Your email stays working — only web traffic records change. Check out our URL forwarding basics guide if you’re new to how redirects work.