Answer a few questions to find your fastest path to domain setup.
Have you registered your domain?
Extra help
What does it mean to register a domain?
Registering a domain means purchasing the rights to use a specific domain name (like example.com) for a set period, typically one year.
When you register a domain, you're essentially renting that web address from a domain registrar, which is a company authorized to sell domain registrations. A company can be a domain registrar and offer DNS (Domain Name System) services to help site visitors look up your domain name and to help you manage your domain. This gives you exclusive rights to use that domain name for your website or email.
How do I know if I've registered a domain?
If you've registered a domain, you should have received confirmation emails from the registrar and billing records for the domain purchase.
You can also check domain ownership using WHOIS lookup tools online, such as lookup.icann.org/en. You can also check your email for receipts from your domain registrar.
Do you want to use Netlify DNS or a third-party external DNS provider?
This choice affects how you manage DNS records and configure your domain settings.
Extra help
Why Netlify DNS?
• Customize domains for your preview URLs, such as for Deploy Previews or branch deploys to reproduce production environments and use tools requiring shared subdomains with the production URL • Automatic deploy subdomains • Support for standalone subdomains so you can host docs.company.com while allowing your company to host company.com elsewhere. • Wildcard SSL certificate provisioning and renewal (non-wildcard is supported with both) • Simplified DNS management from your dashboard • Optimized global infrastructure for faster resolution • Seamless integration with Netlify's edge network • Manage all DNS records in one place without switching providers
Buy and register domain with a third-party registrar
Follow your domain registrar's documentation on how to buy and register a domain. Once you buy and register your domain, you can choose to manage your new domain with Netlify DNS or with an external third-party DNS provider.
Register a domain with Netlify
Purchase a domain directly through Netlify for seamless integration and automatic configuration.
Is the domain you added either an apex domain or a www subdomain?
Extra help
Apex domains vs. subdomains
Apex domain (company.com): A root domain without any subdomain prefix. This is the base domain you registered.
Subdomain (www.company.com): A domain with a prefix before the root domain. The 'www' is the most common subdomain prefix.
Why does domain type matter for external DNS?
When using external DNS providers, we strongly recommend making a www subdomain, such as www.company.com, your primary domain instead of the apex domain company.com. While you can make the apex domain primary, this configuration can significantly impact website performance due to DNS resolution limitations with third-party providers.
This limitation only applies to external DNS setups. With Netlify DNS, both apex and subdomain configurations perform equally well due to our optimized infrastructure.
Are you setting up a domain for an Enterprise account with the High-Performance Edge Network?
If your domain is already assigned to your site, you can proceed with DNS setup. Return to the previous step and select 'Yes, I have' to continue with Netlify DNS configuration.
What if my domain isn't assigned?
If your domain isn't assigned, you'll need to add it to your site first. Use the 'Add domain to your site' button above, or return to the previous step and select 'No, I haven't' for step-by-step guidance.
Configure external DNS for Netlify's High-Performance Edge Network.
For Enterprise accounts with the High-Performance Edge Network, please reach out to Netlify Support or your Enterprise Account Manager for specific DNS configuration instructions tailored to your setup.
Extra help
How do I find my team slug?
Your team slug is found in your Netlify dashboard URL. For example, if your team dashboard is at https://app.netlify.com/teams/awesome-company, then your team slug is awesome-company.
Need extra setup help?
For additional help, consider checking out your external DNS provider docs, our External DNS setup docs, or you can reach out to your Enterprise Account Manager or Netlify Support.
Configure external DNS with CNAME support for our standard network
Set up your external DNS provider using ALIAS or CNAME-flattening functionality for your apex domain.
1. Go to your DNS provider dashboard. In most cases, this will be your domain registrar's dashboard. If you need help figuring out which third-party DNS provider you're using, you can reach out to Netlify Support for help.
2. If your DNS provider supports ALIAS records, then for the apex domain, point the "alias" to apex-loadbalancer.netlify.com. If your DNS provider does **not** support ALIAS records, then for the apex domain, create an A record that points to 75.2.60.5.
3. For the www (or any other subdomain) make a CNAME record that points to site-name.netlify.app.
4. You may need to wait up to 48 hours for your DNS updates to propagate or take full effect. To check if DNS propagation is complete, you can use a DNS lookup tool, such as DNSChecker, Google Dig Lookup, or use the dig command in your terminal. For example, you can check your DNS propagation by running dig company.com and dig www.company.com in your terminal.
Extra help
What is an ALIAS record?
An ALIAS record (also called ANAME or CNAME flattening) allows you to point your apex domain to another domain name, similar to a CNAME record. Different DNS providers use different names for this functionality.
How do I find my site name or project name?
Your site name is your project name, which you can customize in your project settings. It's visible in your Netlify dashboard and in your default .netlify.app URL. For example, if your site URL is https://my-project.netlify.app, then your site name is my-project.
Configure external DNS without CNAME support for our standard network
Set up your external DNS provider to point your apex domain and/or www subdomain without CNAME support for our standard network.
1. Go to your external DNS provider dashboard. Most often this will be your domain registrar's dashboard. If you need help figuring out which third-party DNS provider you're using, you can reach out to Netlify Support for help.
2. For your apex domain, create an A record that points to 75.2.60.5.
3. For your www subdomain, create a CNAME record that points to {site-name}.netlify.app, where site-name is your project name.
4. You may need to wait up to 48 hours for your DNS updates to propagate or take full effect. To check if DNS propagation is complete, you can use a DNS lookup tool, such as DNSChecker, Google Dig Lookup, or use the dig command in your terminal. For example, you can check your DNS propagation by running dig company.com and dig www.company.com in your terminal.
Extra help
Why use different configurations for apex vs www?
Apex domains require A records pointing to IP addresses, while subdomains can use CNAME records pointing to other domain names. This is a DNS standard that applies to all DNS providers.
Set up DNS record for your Enterprise High-Performance Edge Network
For Enterprise accounts with the High-Performance Edge Network, please reach out to Netlify Support or your Enterprise Account Manager for specific DNS configuration instructions tailored to your subdomain setup.
Common questions
Where do I find my team slug?
Your team slug can be found in your Netlify dashboard URL. For example, if your team URL is https://app.netlify.com/teams/my-company, your team slug is my-company.
How long does DNS propagation take?
DNS changes typically propagate within 24-48 hours, but can sometimes take up to 72 hours to fully propagate worldwide.
Why use different configurations for apex vs www?
Apex domains require A records pointing to IP addresses, while subdomains can use CNAME records pointing to other domain names. This is a DNS standard that applies to all DNS providers.
Set up DNS records with CNAME support
Configure DNS records using your provider's CNAME-like functionality for the apex domain.
An ALIAS record (also called ANAME or CNAME flattening) allows you to point your apex domain to another domain name, similar to a CNAME record. Different DNS providers use different names for this functionality.
How do I find my site name or project name?
Your site name is your project name, which you can customize in your site settings. It's visible in your site dashboard and in your default .netlify.app URL. For example, if your site URL is https://my-project.netlify.app, then your site name is my-project.
How long does DNS propagation take?
DNS changes typically propagate within 24-48 hours, but can sometimes take up to 72 hours to fully propagate worldwide.
Set up DNS records without CNAME support
Configure A and CNAME records at your DNS provider to point your domain to Netlify.
Your site name is your project name, which you can customize in your site settings. It's visible in your site dashboard and in your default .netlify.app URL. For example, if your site URL is https://my-project.netlify.app, then your site name is my-project.
How long does DNS propagation take?
DNS changes typically propagate within 24-48 hours, but can sometimes take up to 72 hours to fully propagate worldwide.
Configure external DNS for your subdomain with our standard network
Set up a CNAME record to point your subdomain to Netlify.
1. Go to your External DNS provider dashboard. Most often this will be your domain registrar's dashboard. If you need help figuring out which third-party DNS provider you're using, you can reach out to Netlify Support for help.
2. Make a CNAME record that points to project-name.netlify.app, where project-name is your project name (for example, if your Netlify project URL is https://my-project.netlify.app, then your site name is my-project).
3. You may need to wait up to 48 hours for your DNS updates to propagate or take full effect. To check if DNS propagation is complete, you can use a DNS lookup tool, such as DNSChecker, Google Dig Lookup, or use the dig command in your terminal.
Extra help
What if my subdomain doesn't work?
Make sure you've added your custom domain to your Netlify site first, and that the CNAME record points exactly to your site's subdomain followed by .netlify.app. Check for typos in the DNS configuration and don't make your records point to https://.
How can I get more help?
If you have an Enterprise account, be sure to reach out to your Account Manager. Otherwise, you can reach out to Netlify Support if you still need help.
Why Netlify DNS? |
| a custom domain for my site/app that I already own, such as company.com or shop.company.com | Bring your own domain |
| Netlify DNS | Set up Netlifly DNS
| just a standalone subdomain, such as docs.company.com, where company.com is a domain managed or hosted outside of Netlify and where docs.company.com is managed by Netlify DNS for your production branch | Delegate a standalone subdomain |
| just https for my domain or an SSL certificate | HTTPS SSL |
| An alias domain or an additional custom domain since my site/app on Netlify already has a primary domain | Add an alias domain |
| A domain redirect | Add domain redirect |
| A domain transfer | Transfer a domain |
| A shared custom subdomain for preview environments of my site/app, such as early-access.company.com instead of the default Netlify subdomain of mysitename.netlify.app so I can use tools requiring shared subdomains with the production URL | Configure an automatic subdomain for deploys |
