Guide

Use your own domain.

Every Spellship project has a free address like anas-bakery.spellship.app. If you own a domain name, such as example.com, your visitors can use that instead. It takes a few minutes of work and a wait for the internet to catch up.

What you need

A domain name you own, for example example.com, and access to its DNS settings. Ask whoever registered it if you are not sure who that is. DNS is the list of records that tells the internet where your domain lives. It is managed at your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains…) or at a DNS provider such as Cloudflare.
A Spellship project with a production site. Only the production site can have your own domain; the beta test site cannot.

Good to know:

You can add up to 2 domains to a project. Usually that is www.example.com and the bare example.com.
One of them is the primary address: your site answers there. The other domain, and the project's free .spellship.app address, send visitors on to the primary one once it is live. Visitors never see two copies of your site. The first domain you add is the primary one; Make primary on the other one switches them.
HTTPS (the padlock) is set up and renewed for you automatically. There is nothing to buy.

Step by step: www.example.com

This works with every DNS provider, so start here.

Add the domain in Spellship. Open your project, go to the Domains tab and add www.example.com. Use your real domain, of course.
Open your DNS settings at your registrar or DNS provider and add a new record:

Type Name (or Host) Value (or Target)

CNAME www fallback.spellship.app

Type the name as www only. Most providers add example.com for you.
Save, then wait. The Domains tab shows how far along you are (see What the statuses mean). When it says Live, open https://www.example.com and your website is there.

Type	Name (or Host)	Value (or Target)
`CNAME`	`www`	`fallback.spellship.app`

The bare domain: example.com

The bare domain is the one without www. To use it you add the same kind of record, with the name @ (or empty, depending on your provider) and the same value fallback.spellship.app.

There is a catch. Standard DNS does not allow a CNAME record on the bare domain. Some providers offer a special record that does the same job. Check which one yours supports:

Feature name	Providers that offer it (examples)
CNAME flattening	Cloudflare
ALIAS record	DNSimple, DNS Made Easy, Name.com
ANAME record	Some other providers
"CNAME at the apex" (or "at the root")	Providers that simply let you add a `CNAME` on `@`

Whatever it is called, create it on @ and point it at fallback.spellship.app. An A record that points at an IP address does not work with Spellship.

Your provider does not offer any of these?

Many registrars' default DNS (GoDaddy's, for example) cannot do it. You have two options:

Use www as your primary address and ask your registrar to forward the bare domain. Look for Domain forwarding in your registrar's settings and forward example.com to https://www.example.com. Visitors who type the bare domain land on your www site.
Move your DNS to a provider that supports it. Cloudflare's free plan does. Then follow the bare domain steps above.

Adding the bare domain? Delete the old records first. If @ already has A or AAAA records (they point at your old host), delete them. A name cannot have them and the new record at the same time. Write down the old values first, so you can go back if needed.

If your domain is on Cloudflare

The record must be DNS only: click the orange cloud next to it so it turns grey. A proxied (orange) record does not work with Spellship, and your domain will not go live.

Cloudflare flattens a CNAME on the bare domain automatically, so example.com works there with the same record: type CNAME, name @, target fallback.spellship.app, DNS only.

Moving a live website without downtime

Is www.example.com already showing a website somewhere else? Changing the record switches your visitors at once. To make that switch smooth, get the HTTPS certificate ready before you change the record:

Add the domain in your project's Domains tab, as above, but do not change your CNAME yet.
The card shows two optional TXT records: one named _cf-custom-hostname.www.example.com and one for the certificate validation. Add both at your DNS provider, copying the names and values exactly as the card shows them.
Wait a while so the certificate can be issued. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to spread, but it is usually much quicker.
Now change the CNAME to fallback.spellship.app. Your visitors move to Spellship with the padlock already in place.

If a short gap does not matter to you, skip the TXT records and go straight to the CNAME.

What the statuses mean

The Domains tab shows one status for each domain. Check now looks again right away instead of waiting for the next automatic check.

Status	What it means	What you do
Waiting for your DNS record	Spellship cannot see your `CNAME` yet.	Check the record (see below), then wait.
Issuing the certificate	The record was found. The HTTPS certificate is being created.	Nothing, just wait.
Live	Your domain works.	Open it and enjoy.
Failed	Something went wrong. The card shows the reason.	Read the reason and see Troubleshooting.

How long does it take? DNS changes can take a few minutes, and up to 48 hours, to reach everyone on the internet. Most of the time it is quick.

If the DNS record never appears, the domain is marked Failed after 7 days. Remove it, and add it again once the record is in place.

Removing a domain

On the Domains tab, select Remove next to the domain. Your site stops answering on it right away. After that you can delete its DNS record (and the two TXT records, if you added them) at your DNS provider.

Troubleshooting

The card still says "Waiting for your DNS record"

Give it time. DNS changes can take a few minutes, and up to 48 hours, to spread.
Check for typos. The type is CNAME, the value is exactly fallback.spellship.app (no https://, no slash at the end), and the name is www, or @ for the bare domain.
Check the domain you added. If you added www.example.com in Spellship, the record must be on www, not on @. A misspelled domain in Spellship (exmaple.com) will never find its record. Remove it and add the right one.
Did you save? Some providers need a second click to publish the change.

It is stuck and my domain is on Cloudflare

The record is probably proxied (orange cloud). Click the cloud so it turns grey (DNS only) and wait a few minutes.

My provider says the name is already in use, or I cannot add the record

A name can have a CNAME or other records, not both. Delete any existing A, AAAA or CNAME record with the same name, then add the new one. This is the usual problem for the bare domain: old A and AAAA records still sit on @ and must be deleted. If your provider has no way to add a record on @ that points to a name, see the bare domain for the alternatives.

The card says "Failed"

Read the reason shown on the card and fix what it names. If you cannot work it out, write to [email protected] and tell us your project and domain.