Use a domain from IONOS

Point a domain registered or managed at IONOS to your Smile Hosting website - the DNS records to add in the IONOS control panel.

If your domain’s DNS is managed at IONOS, this is how to point it at your Smile Hosting website. Start by adding the domain to your website as in Use your own domain - Smile then shows the exact records for it.

Before you start

Your website needs a plan with custom domains - see Who can use it.
In Smile, open your website, go to Settings > Your own domain and add the domain. Keep that page open: you’ll copy the records from it.

Open the DNS settings at IONOS

Sign in to your IONOS account.
Go to Domains & SSL and click the domain.
Open the DNS tab. This lists every record the domain has.

Add the records

For each record Smile shows you, click Add record, pick the type, fill in the boxes, and save.

Type	Host name (IONOS)	Points to / Value	When
TXT	`_smilehosting` (or `_smilehosting.shop` for `shop.example.com`)	`smilehosting-verify=...` - copy it from Smile	Proves the domain is yours
CNAME	the subdomain, e.g. `shop` or `www`	`domains.smilehosting.tech`	For a subdomain like `shop.example.com`
A	`@`	each IP address Smile shows (add one A record per address)	For the root domain, like `example.com`

IONOS adds the domain itself to the host name, so type only the part before your domain - _smilehosting, not _smilehosting.example.com.

IONOS doesn’t have ALIAS records, so a root domain uses the A records. Smile shows an ALIAS option too - skip it at IONOS.

Remove IONOS’s own records for that name

A new IONOS domain often comes with records of its own, pointing at an IONOS parking page or website. They’d send some visitors there instead of to your site:

For a root domain: delete or change any other A and AAAA records for @. An AAAA record left behind sends visitors on IPv6 to the old page.
For a subdomain (including www): delete any other A, AAAA or CNAME record with the same host name before adding yours. IONOS won’t save a CNAME next to another record with the same name.

Leave your email records (MX, and TXT records like SPF) as they are - they don’t affect your website.

Nota

If IONOS won’t let you edit the records for @ because the domain is connected to an IONOS website or product, change what the domain is used for in IONOS first (in the domain’s settings), then come back to the DNS tab.

Going live

Once the records are saved, go back to Settings > Your own domain in Smile. Each domain checks itself every minute at first and moves through Ownership, DNS, Certificate and Live - see Going live. Changes at IONOS usually show within minutes, but can take up to a day.

If it stays on Waiting for DNS, check that:

the host names don’t have your domain on the end twice (_smilehosting.example.com.example.com),
there’s no leftover A or AAAA record for the same name,
the CNAME points to domains.smilehosting.tech exactly.

Still stuck? Get in touch and tell us the domain - we can see which records are missing.