Your own domain

Your app already has a live address. A domain of your own is the same app behind a name you chose.

What DNS does

The internet routes by number, not by name. DNS is the phone book that turns a name like shop.example.com into the address of the server that should answer. When someone types your domain, their device asks DNS, gets an address, and connects there.

Two record types matter for a website:

1. An A record maps a name to an IP address directly.
2. A CNAME record says "this name is an alias of that other name."

Changes to DNS are copied around the world in stages, so a new record can take minutes to a few hours to be seen everywhere. That wait is called propagation, and it is why a freshly connected domain can work on your phone before it works on your laptop.

What TLS does

The padlock is a certificate: proof, signed by an authority browsers trust, that the server answering for your domain is allowed to. Certificates expire and must be renewed. DontCode issues and renews them for every domain it serves, so https just works.

Two ways to get a name

From the Deploy page, Manage Domains offers:

• a subdomain under dontcode.cafe, which is live right away, or
• a custom domain you own, which stays pending until the DNS records it shows you are in place and verified.

Manage Domains can also search whether a name is still free. Registering it happens at a registrar of your choice; once it is yours, connect it here.

Custom domains are a plan feature; the Deploy page shows an upgrade prompt if your plan does not include them.

Where DontCode fits

You add the name and, for a custom domain, paste one or two records at your registrar. Routing, certificates, and renewal are handled for you, and every domain points at the same deploy, so each new build reaches all of them at once.