Want people to see your own web address instead of a Stacklist link? A custom domain lets your Stacklist profile, Stack, Collection or Surface show up at an address you own.
For example, instead of sharing stacklist.com/kyle, Kyle on our team shares kylehudson.xyz. Both open the same Stacklist page.
Use this article to pick your address, add it in Stacklist, and copy a few settings over to the company where your domain is managed. It's mostly copy and paste, then a short wait.
Words you'll see
A few words come up a lot when you set up a custom domain. Here's what they mean:
Domain: your web address, like
stacklistdemo.com. You buy it from a company like GoDaddy or Namecheap.Subdomain: a word added to the front of a domain you already own, like
content.stacklistdemo.com. You don't need to buy anything new to make one.Domain company: the company where your domain is managed. This is usually where you bought it. If someone else built your website, it may be with them.
DNS settings: the page at your domain company that tells the internet where your domain should go. You'll add a few lines there. Each line is called a record.
Choose your address
To choose your address for Stacklist, pick one of these two options.
Option 1: a domain you're not using yet, like stacklistdemo.com. Your Stacklist page becomes the whole site. This is a good fit if you bought a domain for yourself or a project and it has no website on it yet.
Note: Don't use the domain your current website is on. Connecting it to Stacklist replaces your website. If you already have a website, use a subdomain (Option 2) instead.
Option 2: a subdomain, like content.stacklistdemo.com. This is the easiest option, and it works with every domain company. Your website and email keep working just like before. You can make as many subdomains as you like for free, such as blog.stacklistdemo.com or guides.stacklistdemo.com.
Note: Picking Option 1 on GoDaddy or Amazon Route 53? Your page lives at www.stacklistdemo.com there. See Fix a custom domain that isn't working for how to make it open without the www.
Add your domain in Stacklist
To add your domain in Stacklist, go to the Custom Domains section of your settings.
Open Account Settings. If the domain is for a team workspace, open that workspace's settings instead.
Scroll down to Custom Domains and click Add new domain.
In Domain, type your address, like
content.stacklistdemo.comorstacklistdemo.com. Leave offhttps://andwww..Under Connect domain to, choose what people should see: your Stacklist profile, a Stack, a Collection or a Surface. Then pick which one.
Click Connect.
Your domain now shows under Custom Domains with an Action needed label. Below it, Stacklist lists the settings you'll copy in the next step.
Note: In a team workspace, only workspace admins can add or remove a domain. A Surface has to be published before you can connect a domain to it.
Copy your settings to your domain company
To finish connecting your domain, copy a few lines from Stacklist into the DNS settings at your domain company. This tells the internet to send visitors to your Stacklist page.
Stacklist shows you exactly what to copy. For content.stacklistdemo.com, it looks something like this:
Type | Name | Value |
TXT |
| A code made just for your domain |
CNAME |
|
|
TXT |
| A code made just for your domain |
TXT |
| A second code made just for your domain |
You don't need to know what TXT or CNAME mean. Just copy each line exactly as Stacklist shows it. You may see two lines with the same name, like the two _acme-challenge.content lines above. That's normal. Add both.
Sign in to your domain company and open the DNS settings for your domain. For steps at GoDaddy, Cloudflare and other companies, see Add your domain settings at GoDaddy, Cloudflare and more.
For each line in Stacklist, add a new record. Choose the same Type, then copy the Name and the Value. The copy buttons in Stacklist make this easy.
If you see a TTL setting, leave it as it is.
Save.
That's the hard part done. Stacklist checks for your new lines on its own.
A few easy mistakes to avoid:
Only type the short name. Type
content, notcontent.stacklistdemo.com. Your domain company adds the rest for you. If a line saves ascontent.stacklistdemo.com.stacklistdemo.com, delete the extra part.Watch for a line that's already there. If there's already a record named
content, change it or delete it. Two lines with that name can't live side by side.No extra spaces or quotes. Paste the value just as it is. If your domain company adds quotes around it on its own, that's fine.
On Cloudflare, set each CNAME line to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied (orange cloud).
Lines under Optional are only needed if the note next to them says they apply to you.
Note: The line that starts with _acme-challenge keeps your page secure (the lock icon in the browser). It can take a few seconds to show up in Stacklist, and it can change later. If your domain company lets you upload a file of settings, Download Zone File gives you every line at once. Download a fresh copy right before you use it.
Check that it's working
To check that your domain is working, go back to Custom Domains in your settings. After you save, it usually takes 5 to 30 minutes. If you changed a line that was already there, it can take up to an hour. You don't need to keep the page open while you wait.
Each line shows Found once Stacklist can see it. Want to check again right away? Click Recheck status. You can do this once a minute. When every line is found, Stacklist says Records confirmed, and your page usually goes live within a few minutes.
Domain Success
Once you see Live next to your domain, you know it has been successfully connected. Try it out in a new browser window!
Seeing something else, like Not seen yet after an hour or Not reachable? See Fix a custom domain that isn't working.