Put Your Website on Your Own Domain

A website on its own domain looks like a real business. yourshop.com on a business card, a menu or a shop window is easier to remember and easier to trust than a long free address.

Every paid C Building plan lets you connect your own domain. Here is how it works, and what happens behind each step.

Before you start

• Publish your site once. Your first publish puts it on a free C Building address, where you choose its prefix. A custom domain is added on top of that.
• Have a domain, or buy one. If you already own a domain, you need access to the account where you bought it (for example GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare or Gandi). If you don't have one yet, the Domains page has Search and buy a new domain, which shows you the price; you complete the payment yourself.
• Be on a paid plan. Basic includes 1 custom domain, Professional 3, Business 5, Enterprise 10 and Flagship unlimited. See the pricing page.

Connecting your domain in four steps

1. Open the project's Domains page in its console.
2. Enter your domain under Custom domain, for example www.yourshop.com, and choose Set up DNS.
3. Add the records C Building shows you at your domain provider. There are two: an A record that points your domain to C Building, and a TXT record that proves you own it.
4. Come back and choose Verify. DNS changes usually take a few minutes to a few hours to spread. When verification succeeds, the domain shows as Verified and your website is served from it.

What those two records do

You don't need to understand DNS to connect a domain, but it helps to know what you are copying:

• The A record is the address book entry. It tells the internet that when someone types your domain, they should be sent to the server where your C Building site lives.
• The TXT record is a note only you could have added. Because it can only be set by whoever controls the domain, it proves to C Building that the domain is yours.

If verification doesn't succeed straight away, it is almost always because the records haven't spread yet. Wait a little and verify again.

Moving a domain between sites

Domains you have used before can be reused: choose Reuse domain to connect one to a different website in your account. That is handy when you rebuild a site as a new project and want the new version to take over the old address.

Why we built it this way

Why do I have to publish before connecting a domain?

A domain has to point at something. Publishing first gives your site a live address, and the domain is then connected to that published site.

Is the domain included in the plan?

No. The plan decides how many domains you can connect; the domain itself is registered with a domain provider, or bought from the Domains page. For typical prices, see how much it costs to build a website with AI.

Wrapping up

A domain is a small cost that makes a big difference to how a business looks online. On C Building, connecting one is two DNS records and a click on Verify.