Attach your own domain to a site

A site can start on a free preview address. It is live for your visitors once it answers on your own domain, with HTTPS. This is how to get it there.

1. Choose the domain

Open the site. If it is still on its free address, the Attach your own domain card offers two ways:

• Connect a domain you own if the domain is registered somewhere else. You keep it where it is; you only change where it points.
• Buy a domain if you do not have one yet. A domain bought here is set up for you and needs nothing more from you.

2. Point it here

The site's Domains & DNS section shows exactly what to set: either the two nameservers, or the records to add at the company that runs your DNS. Each value has a copy button. Make the change at your registrar or DNS provider and save it.

If your domain already runs e-mail or other services through DNS somewhere else, the card tells you to add records rather than change nameservers, so nothing else stops working.

3. Follow the progress

The Your own domain progress on the site's page moves through four steps on its own:

1. Waiting for DNS — your domain does not reach us yet. The card shows what is set now, what it should be and the exact fix.
2. DNS found — your change has been seen and we are confirming it.
3. SSL — the domain reaches your site and its HTTPS certificate is being issued, usually within minutes.
4. Live — the site answers on your domain with HTTPS.

The card shows when we last checked and when we check next. You do not need to press anything: we keep checking for you. Check now reads your DNS at once if you have just made the change.

What happens to your site and its old address

• It is the same site. Your pages, posts, courses, users, uploads, plugins and database stay as they are. We move the installation onto the new name and update the address the application keeps for itself (WordPress's site address, Moodle's wwwroot, and the same setting in every other application we install), then clear its caches.
• No downtime. The site keeps answering on its free address until the move is finished.
• Old links keep working. The free address stays on the site and sends visitors to the same page on your new domain.
• You do it yourself, on every plan. You need to be the account owner, or a team member allowed to create sites. Changing the address costs nothing.

If it stays on Waiting

• Check the nameservers or records against the card, character by character. A missing dot or an old record left in place is the usual cause.
• Nameserver changes can take time to spread; see How long nameserver changes take.
• Ask the assistant in your dashboard or open a ticket: both run the same live check and tell you what is set, what is expected and what to change.