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.
With the C Building Pro plan you can connect your own domains, as many as you need. 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 (your project's ID followed by .cbuilding.app). 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 Pro. Custom domains come with the Pro plan (US$20 a month), and you can connect as many as you need; on the Free plan, your site is published on its C Building address only. See the pricing page.
Ways to connect your domain
The simplest way is to ask the website AI to connect your domain. It checks where your domain's DNS is managed and tells you which of these ways fits:
- You bought the domain through C Building. Choose Set up the DNS records on the Domains page, and C Building writes the records for you.
- Your domain's DNS is on Cloudflare. The site owner can choose Set up with Cloudflare, and C Building adds the records for you once you approve access. This one-click setup works with Cloudflare only.
- Hand the domain's DNS to C Building. Choose Let C Building manage DNS and change the domain's nameservers at your registrar to the ones the Domains page shows. C Building then manages the domain's DNS, including your website, email and other records, and the check finishes on its own once the change takes effect, which can take up to 48 hours.
- Add the records yourself. This works wherever your domain's DNS is managed. The steps are below.
Adding the records yourself in four steps
- Open the project's Domains page in its console.
- Enter your domain under Custom domain, for example www.yourshop.com, and choose Configure DNS.
- Add the records C Building shows you wherever your domain's DNS is managed (usually your domain provider): a TXT record that proves you own the domain, and A records that point your address to C Building (usually one for the root address and one for www).
- Come back and choose Verify setup. 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 records do
You don't need to understand DNS to connect a domain, but it helps to know what you are copying:
- A records are the address book entries. They tell 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. Pro lets you connect as many domains as you need, but 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, you can ask the website AI to connect it, set it up in one click (a domain bought here or DNS on Cloudflare), or add a few DNS records yourself and click Verify setup.