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Getting started with DNSPeek preview links

Updated October 2026

DNSPeek shows you your website as it runs on a new server, while your real DNS keeps pointing at the old one. You get one link that works in any browser, on any device, for anyone you send it to. No hosts file, no VPN, nothing to undo afterwards.

On this page

How a preview works

Every preview link has its own address, such as shop-preview.dnspeek-preview.link. When someone opens it, DNSPeek connects to the server IP you entered and asks for your site using its real domain name, exactly as a browser would after the DNS switch. The answer is sent back to the visitor.

On the way back, links, redirects and cookies that point at your domain are rewritten to the preview address, so you can click through pages, submit forms and sign in to an admin panel without ever leaving the preview.

Requests from DNSPeek to your server carry an X-DNSPeek-Proxy: 1 header, in case your application needs to recognise preview traffic.

You need two things: the domain of the site and the public IP address of the new server.

  1. Enter the domain and the server IP

    Type both on the home page, or sign in and click Create Link on the Links page. Not sure about the IP? See Find your server IP.

  2. Adjust the options if you need to

    Under Advanced options you can change the HTTP and HTTPS ports (80 and 443 by default), pick a custom alias (3–50 lowercase letters, digits or dashes; otherwise one is generated), set a password, an expiry date and a project space.

  3. Open the preview

    Your link looks like https://shop-preview.dnspeek-preview.link/. Open it, click around, and copy it to anyone who should see the new site.

Your next step, always in view

Right after you create a link, the result shows where the site is served from today next to the new server, for example Now: 203.0.113.7 (Old Host, AS64500) → New: 198.51.100.4. When a CDN such as Cloudflare sits in front of the site, the line says so, because the CDN hides the old server's own address. If the domain already points to the new server, it tells you that plainly instead.

Below it, one Next step suggests what to do now. As a guest, that is a free account to run a check on the new server; the link moves into your account. Signed in, click the link on the Links page to open its page. There, the Migration checklist walks you through the move in eight steps and ticks them off as checks finish:

  1. Preview works: the server check of the new server, with the fix right in the step when something is wrong.
  2. Lower TTL: the TTL read from your domain's nameserver, the change to make, and a countdown with a reminder once the old TTL has run out.
  3. Check the new server: a QA report, within your plan's monthly reports.
  4. Compare with live: the side-by-side compare. Already compared another way? Skip it.
  5. Client sign-off (optional): tick it when your client says yes, or let them approve in the comments widget.
  6. Prepare DNS records: what to change, what to keep for email, and a zone snippet to copy.
  7. Switch DNS: the switch screen, where you watch resolvers around the world pick up the new server.
  8. Verify & finish: the automatic check of the live site and a shareable Migration complete certificate.

The current step is open with its one main action; any other step opens with Details. Every step and the reminders are explained in the migration playbook. The QA report and launch readiness also sit as blocks on the link page, under Get ready to switch. Every other tool is listed under All tools.

Once you have links, the Overview page you land on after signing in shows every move in progress with its stage, client feedback, the latest QA scores and links about to expire: see The Overview page.

Share and protect a link

Each link on the Links page has an on/off switch and a settings panel:

  • Password: visitors see a password form before the site. Available on every plan.
  • Expiry date: after it passes, the link shows “This preview link has expired.” Links on the Free plan always expire after 7 days; paid plans can keep links without an expiry.
  • Disable: turns the link off immediately. Visitors see “This link has been disabled by its owner.”
  • SSL mode: how DNSPeek talks HTTPS to your server. See SSL modes.

Every message a visitor can see instead of your site, and who can fix it, is listed in Messages visitors see on a preview link.

To check the site on a phone, click the QR code button on the link (or QR code in its settings panel) and scan the code with the phone camera. The same window copies the address and downloads the code as PNG or SVG. A password-protected link asks for the password on the phone too.

Hosting providers and agencies can send customers straight to a filled-in preview form, for example from a welcome email after a migration or from a knowledge base article. Put the domain and the new server IP in the address:

Prefilled form links
https://dnspeek.link/new?domain=example.com&ip=203.0.113.10
https://dnspeek.link/new/203.0.113.10/example.com

The page shows the usual preview form with both fields filled in and a short note that the details came from the link. Nothing is created until the customer clicks Get my preview link, so the link is safe to put in a template. A value that is not a valid domain or public IPv4 address is left out, and the customer can type it in.

Welcome email or KB article
<a href="https://dnspeek.link/new?domain=example.com&amp;ip=203.0.113.10">
  Preview your site on the new server
</a>

Fill in the domain and IP from your own system when you send the email. To create the links yourself instead, in bulk and without the customer clicking anything, use the REST API.

Why not just edit the hosts file?

The classic way to test a site on a new server without changing DNS is to point your own computer at it through the hosts file:

hosts file
# Windows: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts  (edit as Administrator)
# macOS / Linux: /etc/hosts  (edit with sudo)
203.0.113.10   example.com
203.0.113.10   www.example.com

That works, but only for you, and only on that machine:

  • Every teammate or client has to edit their own hosts file, with admin rights.
  • Phones and tablets have no hosts file you can easily edit.
  • Browsers and the operating system cache DNS, so it is easy to look at the wrong server without noticing.
  • Forgetting to remove the entry later breaks the site for you after the migration.

A DNSPeek link needs none of that: it is an ordinary URL that always goes to the new server, and it stops working when you disable it or it expires.

Next steps

  • Running several moves at once? The Overview page shows where each one stands.
  • Moving a whole site? Follow the migration playbook.
  • Let DNSPeek crawl the new server for broken pages and files with a QA report.
  • Read the limitations before sharing with a client.