Use your own domain

As well as its smilehosting.tech address, a website can be shown on a domain you own - like example.com or shop.example.com. Smile Hosting sets up HTTPS for it by itself.

Who can use it

Custom domains come with the Growth and Power plans. On a Custom plan, add the Custom domain option - it’s included for free once your custom plan costs £5 a month or more. See the Plans page.

• Each account can connect up to 5 domains. The www version that’s added alongside a domain doesn’t count.
• The website’s owner can add domains, and so can anyone it’s shared with who has the Settings permission.
• A domain keeps working while anyone on the website has a plan that includes custom domains - the owner, or someone it’s shared with. If that person leaves the website, it carries on as long as someone else on it still has one.

Add a domain

1. Open your website and go to Settings.
2. Under Your own domain, type the domain, for example example.com or shop.example.com.
3. Leave Also add www… ticked if you want both versions to work. The second one redirects visitors to the first.
4. Click Add domain - or Add & set up automatically if the domain’s DNS is on Cloudflare (see below).

Add the DNS records

Smile shows you the records to create where you manage the domain’s DNS - usually where you bought it, or Cloudflare. Copy each one exactly. Domain at IONOS? See Use a domain from IONOS for where each record goes there.

A www partner and a subdomain of a domain you’ve already verified don’t need their own TXT record.

Aviso

On Cloudflare, set the records to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied (orange cloud). With the orange cloud on, Smile can’t see that the domain points to your site.

Set it up automatically (Cloudflare)

If your domain’s DNS is on Cloudflare, Smile can add the records for you:

1. Click Set up DNS automatically on the domain (or Add & set up automatically when adding it).
2. In Cloudflare, open My Profile > API Tokens and click Create Token.
3. Use the Edit zone DNS template, pick your domain under Zone Resources, then Continue and Create Token.
4. Paste the token into Smile and click Set up.

Smile uses the token once to add the records and doesn’t keep it. You can delete it in Cloudflare afterwards.

If a record is already using that name - for example an old A record pointing somewhere else - Smile lists it and asks before replacing it. Nothing is changed until you say so.

Going live

Each domain shows four steps, and checks itself every minute at first, so you don’t need to do anything once the records are in:

1. Ownership - the TXT record has been found.
2. DNS - the domain points to Smile Hosting.
3. Certificate - HTTPS is being set up.
4. Live - your site is showing on the domain.

DNS changes usually show up within minutes, but can take up to a day. Click the refresh button on a domain to check it again straight away.

Remove a domain

Click remove on the domain. Your site stops being shown there straight away, and its www partner is removed too. You can then delete the DNS records.