Setting Up Your Custom Domain

Updated by Eric Lutz

This is an advanced feature, and requires that you are comfortable with making changes to your domain's DNS records. The Church Online Platform will generate a TLS certificate for your domain at no cost.

Set up your DNS

  1. Create a CNAME for your Custom Domain that points to ingress.online.church.

Example:

Host: Custom domain (e.g.: live.example.church)

Points To: ingress.online.church

TTL (Time To Live): hour is a good default

For more detailed instructions, check with your specific DNS provider.

Many DNS providers will want the host name to be just the first part of your custom domain, Example: live and not the whole URL.

Add your Custom Domain to the Platform

  1. From the Admin, go to Setup > Domain.
  2. Enter the Custom Domain you want to use for the Church Online Platform and save your changes, for example “live.example.church”.

Once you've added a Custom Domain you will be able to check the status. Please note: it can take up to a few hours for your DNS changes to take effect, though our system will know about the new settings immediately.

If the "Check Status" button is not working, an alternative is to check your DNS settings through Google Dig

FAQs

My Custom Domain is set up correctly but is still directing to its previous target.

DNS settings define the IP address to which a domain name (e.g. live.example.church) points. Those settings have an attribute called TTL which stands for “Time To Live”. This might be set to 1 hour which means that a user’s ISP might remember the DNS setting for an hour, instead of checking every time to see if the value has changed. DNS settings can take a variable amount of time to take effect, which is a good thing in terms of performance for the user but a constraint in terms of how quickly a change takes effect.

If you are using Cloudflare as your DNS host, please make sure that your domain has “DNS only” and not proxied.

Can I use a root domain, such as examplechurch.com or example.church?

No, we are only able to support a subdomain such as live.examplechurch.com or live.example.church. However, you can use your DNS provider to point that domain to your instance of the Platform.

My custom domain stopped working. Help!

If you are experiencing an issue with your URL, you can check for status updates under the Admin page - Set Up - Domain.

I am having issues with SSL.

try adding letsencrypt.org in your approved CAA (Certification Authority Authorization).  If that is the case, you can add an ADDITIONAL CAA record for "Let's Encrypt" as follows: your church's domain 300 IN  CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org"

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