Custom Domains

Use Your Own Domain Name on involve.me With CNAME Entries and SSL

Adrian avatar
Written by Adrian
Updated over a week ago

Available on

❌ Free

✅ Basic

✅ Pro

✅ Business

With custom domains you can reach the content you created on involve.me using your own domain name. This feature gives you full control over the URLs of your projects. All custom domains on involve.me include a SSL certificate and provide encrypted HTTPS connectivity.

Prerequisites

  • An active Basic plan or higher is required to use custom domains.

  • You need to have access to the DNS settings of the domain you want to use (usually this is part of the control center of the hosting provider where you registered your domain).

  • Custom involve.me domains are always subdomains: SUBDOMAIN.mydomain.com (this can also be www if you do not host a website there)

Setting up Your Custom Domain

Step 1: Add Your Domain Name on involve.me

To add your custom domain, please go to the manage domains page in your dashboard. 

Enter your custom domain in this format (without https or slashes):

subdomain.mydomain.com

Then double check the spelling before you click "Connect".
If you cannot click "Connect", please check that your subdomain format is correct.

Step 2: Create the CNAME DNS Record With Your Provider

Once your custom domain has been added, you'll need to configure the Domain Name System (DNS) settings for it. You can find the required DNS entry on the manage domains page.

  1. Login to your domain provider (eg. GoDaddy)

  2. Navigate to the DNS management page of your domain

  3. Find the DNS/CNAME record settings

  4. Create a new record of type CNAME

  5. Enter the DNS entry provided in the involve.me dashboard (your provider may require you to only enter the subdomain part of the host entry)

  6. It can take up to 24 hours for the new DNS entries to be propagated by your domain provider. 

  7. After involve.me has successfully verified your DNS entries the custom domain will be activated on your account.

ℹ️ Here are documentation links for some of the popular domain providers: GoDaddy, Namecheap, Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, Hover, Gandi, Name.com, Cloudflare

Important

  • You will need to keep the DNS entry active as long as you want to keep using your custom domain. Your custom domain also only works as long as your plan is active.

  • All pages reached by your custom domain are still hosted on our servers - we do not publish anything to your server.

  • Please be aware that your custom domain only works for published projects. Projects in Draft status are not available on your custom domain.

  • You can still use the standard involve.me domains for your projects even if a custom domain is active at the same time.

Special Projects: Homepage / 404 Not Found Page

  • Start: This project is loaded if your custom organization domain is opened without the project URL snippet.

  • Error: This project is opened if a custom domain has a project URL snippet that cannot be found (404 error).

You can set these special projects by going to the manage domain page and choosing "Domain settings" in the dropdown of the domain.

Pricing for Custom Domains

Only the Basic plan or higher provide the option to purchase custom domains.

The monthly price per additional custom domain option is 10 USD / 9 EUR. On yearly plans this is discounted: 100 USD / 90 EUR for the year. The domain add-on can be cancelled on a monthly or yearly basis based on the main plan.

Contact our support team to make a purchase request or for more information.

Changing a Custom Domain

Deactivating a custom domain and replacing it with another domain can only be done once every 30 days. Custom domains for other than monthly or yearly plans can only be changed for good reason (provide proof that the domain was transferred away, company was rebranded, etc).

You'll find the option to deactivate your custom domain in the "Manage Domains" page in your dashboard. Just click the dropdown next to your domain, and select "Deactivate".

Even if your domain hasn't been activated yet, you can still go ahead and deactivate it by clicking the button "Deactivate".

Restricted Countries

At the moment, secure certificates of any type cannot be issued to individuals or business entities in the following countries, websites, or the following country-code-top-level domains (TLDs):

  • .af - Afghanistan

  • .by - The Republic of Belarus

  • .cu - Cuba

  • .er - Eritrea

  • .gn - Guinea

  • .ir - Islamic Republic of Iran

  • .kp - Democratic People's Republic of Korea

  • .lr - Liberia

  • .ru - The Russian Federation

  • .ss - South Sudan

  • .su - Soviet Union

  • .sy - Syrian Arab Republic

  • .zw - Zimbabwe

This is because these countries and TLDs are restricted by US Export restriction laws.

Good to Know

If you are using Cloudflare for your custom domain, make sure not to route your CNAME entries through Cloudflare. Click the Cloud icon to make sure it is grey as shown here:

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