Custom Domains

Custom domains let you serve your Buildorado website from your own domain — like yourbusiness.com — instead of a yourname.buildorado.io subdomain. SSL certificates are provisioned automatically, so your site is served over HTTPS with no extra configuration.

Custom domains are available on paid plans.

Prerequisites

Before connecting a custom domain, you need:

• A paid Buildorado plan — Custom domains are not available on the free tier.
• A published website — Your site must be published to a Buildorado subdomain first (a subdomain is required for routing).
• A domain you control — You need access to your registrar's DNS settings.

How It Works

Buildorado routes by hostname, not IP address. That has two important consequences:

• You'll set up a CNAME record at your registrar — never an A record.
• For www.yourbusiness.com, the CNAME setup is straightforward.
• For the bare/apex domain (yourbusiness.com with no www), most registrars don't allow CNAME at the root, so you'll need either domain forwarding or DNS hosted on Cloudflare/Route 53/DNSimple.

When you connect a custom domain, Buildorado automatically maps both the bare domain and the www variant to your site. You only need to make sure DNS resolves for at least one of them — the other can be a redirect.

Choose Your Setup Path

Pick the path that matches what you want your URL to look like in the address bar:

Path A — www.yourbusiness.com as the canonical URL (recommended)

This is the recommended setup for technical reasons:

• DNS RFC compliance — A CNAME record at the apex breaks coexistence with MX records (email), so the cleanest hostname-based setup keeps the apex free for MX/TXT/etc and points the website at www.
• Performance — apex domains served via third-party DNS (most users) have slower DNS resolution than www subdomains.
• Universal registrar support — works on every registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Google Domains, etc.) without moving DNS.

The bare yourbusiness.com redirects to www.yourbusiness.com via a one-line "Domain Forwarding" setting at your registrar.

Path B — yourbusiness.com (no www) as the canonical URL (advanced)

Requires DNS hosted on a provider that supports CNAME flattening or ALIAS records: Cloudflare, AWS Route 53, or DNSimple. The most common approach is to keep your domain registered at your current registrar but move DNS hosting to Cloudflare (free).

Why this is "advanced": most domain registrars (Squarespace, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains) don't support CNAME at the apex. To use this path you'll either need to use one of the supported DNS providers from the start, or migrate your DNS to one of them.

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Path A: www-Canonical Setup

Step 1 — Enter Your Domain

1. Open your project in the website builder.
2. Click the Publish button to open the deployment panel.
3. Scroll to the Custom Domain section.
4. Enter your domain (e.g. yourbusiness.com — you can enter the bare or www form, both are accepted).
5. Click Connect.

Buildorado initiates SSL provisioning immediately and shows you the DNS records to add.

Step 2 — Add the www CNAME Record

At your registrar's DNS panel, add:

Replace yourname with your actual Buildorado subdomain (shown in the publish panel).

Step 3 — Set Up Apex Forwarding

For the bare yourbusiness.com, set up domain forwarding at your registrar. The exact UI label varies:

• GoDaddy — Domain Settings → Forwarding → "Forward your domain"
• Namecheap — Domain List → Manage → Redirect Domain
• Google Domains / Squarespace Domains — Domain → Forwarding (or "URL Redirect")
• Squarespace (when DNS is hosted there) — Settings → Domains → select domain → Forwarding

Configure it as:

• From: yourbusiness.com (the apex/root)
• To: https://www.yourbusiness.com
• Type: Permanent redirect (301)

Step 4 — Verify

Back in the publish panel, click Verify Connection. Once DNS resolves, your site is live at www.yourbusiness.com, and visitors typing yourbusiness.com are redirected to www.

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Path B: Root-Canonical Setup (via Cloudflare)

If you want yourbusiness.com (no www) as your canonical URL, the simplest reliable approach is to host DNS on Cloudflare. This is free and doesn't change where your domain is registered — only where its DNS records live.

Step 1 — Add Your Domain to Cloudflare

1. Sign up at cloudflare.com (Free plan is sufficient).
2. Click Add a Site, enter yourbusiness.com.
3. Choose the Free plan when prompted.
4. Cloudflare scans existing DNS records — review and continue.
5. Cloudflare gives you two nameservers like aragorn.ns.cloudflare.com and nia.ns.cloudflare.com.

Step 2 — Point Your Registrar to Cloudflare's Nameservers

At your domain registrar (where you originally bought the domain — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, etc.), find the Nameservers setting and replace the existing nameservers with the two from Cloudflare.

• GoDaddy — Domain Settings → Nameservers → Change → I'll use my own
• Namecheap — Domain List → Manage → Nameservers → Custom DNS
• Squarespace — Settings → Domains → select domain → DNS Settings → Custom Nameservers

Save and wait 5–60 minutes for the change to propagate. Cloudflare will email you when it has detected the switch.

Step 3 — Add DNS Records in Cloudflare

In Cloudflare's DNS panel for the domain, add these two records:

Important: keep the proxy status as DNS only (gray cloud) for both records. Don't enable Cloudflare's orange-cloud proxy — it'll conflict with our SSL provisioning.

Cloudflare automatically flattens the apex CNAME (@), which is what makes this work where most registrars can't.

Step 4 — (Optional) Redirect www → Root

If you want www.yourbusiness.com to redirect to yourbusiness.com (so the root is the canonical URL), add a redirect rule in Cloudflare:

1. In Cloudflare → Rules → Redirect Rules → Create rule
2. Match: Hostname equals www.yourbusiness.com
3. Action: Static redirect to https://yourbusiness.com${http.request.uri.path}
4. Status code: 301 Permanent
5. Save

Without this rule, both yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com will work in parallel — neither will redirect to the other.

Step 5 — Verify

In the Buildorado publish panel, click Verify Connection. SSL activates automatically once DNS records are live.

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DNS Propagation

DNS changes don't take effect instantly. When you add or modify a CNAME record, the change propagates through the global DNS system. Typical propagation times:

• Cloudflare DNS — Usually under 5 minutes.
• Namecheap, Google Domains — 15 to 30 minutes.
• GoDaddy — 30 minutes to a few hours.
• Squarespace — 30 minutes to a few hours.
• Other registrars — Up to 48 hours in rare cases.

During propagation, some users may see the old records while others see the new ones — this is normal and resolves on its own.

You can check propagation status with dnschecker.org.

SSL Certificates

SSL certificates are provisioned automatically — you do not need to purchase, install, or renew anything manually.

1. When you connect a domain, Buildorado initiates SSL provisioning.
2. A free certificate is issued for your domain (covering both bare and www variants).
3. The certificate auto-renews before expiration.

Your site is always served over HTTPS. HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS automatically.

SSL status visible in the publish panel:

• Pending validation — Certificate authority is waiting for DNS to verify domain ownership. Activates automatically once DNS resolves.
• Active — Certificate is live and your site is fully HTTPS.

Troubleshooting

Registrar won't save a CNAME at @

This is the most common issue. Most registrars (Squarespace, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.) don't allow CNAME records at the apex — they'll either silently reject the save or show an error like "Custom record not saved".

Fix: Either use Path A (www-canonical with apex forwarding), or move DNS to Cloudflare (Path B).

"Enter valid IP address" when adding the apex record

You probably selected an A record by mistake. Don't use an A record — A records require a numeric IP (like 192.0.2.1), and Buildorado routes by hostname.

Fix: Use a CNAME instead (where supported), or use domain forwarding (Path A).

"DNS not verified" after adding records

• Wait for propagation — Try again in 15–30 minutes.
• Check the CNAME target exactly — It should be yourname.buildorado.io with no https://, no trailing slash, no extra characters.
• Check for conflicting records — If an old A record or AAAA record exists for the same name, delete it first.

Site not loading on custom domain

• Verify DNS — Use dnschecker.org to confirm the CNAME points to the right target.
• Wait for SSL — SSL provisioning can take up to 15 minutes after DNS verifies. HTTP may work before HTTPS does.
• Clear browser cache — Try the site in an incognito window.
• Cloudflare proxy enabled? — If you're on Path B, make sure both records show DNS only (gray cloud), not the proxied (orange cloud) state.

Changing or removing a custom domain

To change a custom domain, remove the current one and add the new one. Your site stays accessible at the yourname.buildorado.io subdomain throughout.

To remove entirely, click Remove domain in the Custom Domain section. Confirm in the dialog. The domain is disconnected immediately and visitors using it will no longer reach your site.