Custom domains: your site, at your address
The DNS records to add, the difference between a bare domain and www, what each status means, and how to fix the snags that keep a domain from going live.
A great site deserves its own address. Laarpi gives every site a free one the moment you publish, and on paid plans connects your own domain with the exact records to add, checks that keep running until they resolve, and HTTPS issued automatically.
Your free address: laarpi.site
Press Publish and the site is live at yourname.laarpi.site. Share it straight away, collect feedback, take payments. Sites on the Free plan carry a small "Made with Laarpi" mark in the corner; paid plans publish without it.
Sites live on laarpi.site, a domain separate from the Laarpi app itself, so the code your site runs never shares an origin with your account.
Before you start
You need two things:
- A domain you own, from any registrar.
- Access to its DNS settings. These are usually at your registrar, but if you moved DNS elsewhere, such as Cloudflare, add the records there instead.
Connect your domain in four steps
- Add the domain. Open the Publish popover in the studio and type the address you want:
www.example.comorexample.com. - Add the records Laarpi shows you. Each record has a copy button. Paste them at your DNS provider.
- Verify. Laarpi checks the records automatically and keeps checking until they resolve. Press verify to check again at any moment.
- Go live. When the records are right, a certificate is issued and your site is served over HTTPS at your domain.
The records, explained
You add two kinds of record: one that proves you own the domain, and one that sends visitors to your site.
| Record | Name (host) | Value | Needed for |
|---|---|---|---|
| TXT | _laarpi-challenge for the bare domain, or _laarpi-challenge.www for www | laarpi-verify= followed by your token | Every domain: proves you own it |
| CNAME | www, or whatever subdomain you chose | The target shown in the studio | Subdomains such as www or shop |
| A | @ (the bare domain) | Each address shown in the studio | Bare domains such as example.com |
Most DNS providers add your domain to the name for you, so type only the part before it: www, not www.example.com.
Bare domain or www?
DNS does not allow a CNAME record at the bare domain (the "apex"), because the apex already holds other records. That is why bare domains use A records and subdomains use a CNAME.
example.com | www.example.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Record type | A | CNAME |
| Looks like | Shorter, cleaner | The traditional web address |
| Counts as | One custom domain | One custom domain |
Choose the one you will put on business cards. If you want both to work, add both: each counts as one domain on your plan.
Keep your main site, add a subdomain
You do not have to move your whole domain. A subdomain lets a Laarpi site live beside the site you already have:
launch.example.comfor a product launch while the shop stays where it is;tickets.example.comfor this year's event;work.example.comfor a portfolio next to a blog hosted elsewhere.
Add one CNAME and one TXT record for the subdomain, and nothing about your existing site or email changes. It is the lowest-risk way to try your own domain.
What the statuses mean
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | We cannot see your records yet | Check them against the table above, then wait for DNS to update |
| Verified | Ownership is proven, but traffic does not reach us yet | Check the A or CNAME record |
| Active | Your site is live at your domain over HTTPS | Share it |
When something is wrong, Laarpi tells you what it found, in plain words, not an error code.
Fixing the common snags
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Stuck on pending | The host field includes the domain twice, such as www.example.com.example.com | Enter only the part before your domain |
| Verified but not active | An old A, AAAA or CNAME record still points somewhere else | Delete old website records for that name |
| Verified but not active, on Cloudflare | The record is proxied (orange cloud) | Set the record to DNS only |
| Works for some people, not others | DNS caches still hold the old record | Wait for the old TTL to run out |
| Email stopped working | MX records were deleted by mistake | Restore your mail provider's MX records |
The records you should leave alone
Your domain probably already carries records for other services. Connecting it to Laarpi does not need any of them changed:
- MX records route your email. Leave them exactly as they are.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC are TXT records that protect your email. Laarpi's verification record lives on its own name,
_laarpi-challenge, so it never conflicts with them. - Verification records for other services, such as search consoles or email providers, can stay too.
The only records to change are the A, AAAA or CNAME records for the exact name your Laarpi site will use.
Moving an existing site without downtime
- A day before, lower the TTL on your current website records, to five minutes if your provider allows it.
- Add the TXT record first. It changes nothing for visitors, and it verifies ownership in advance.
- Switch the A or CNAME record to the values Laarpi shows.
- Keep your old host running until the status reads Active.
Security and trust
- Ownership before routing. A domain only serves your site after its TXT record proves you control it.
- Your domain only. Laarpi rejects IP addresses and its own domains as custom domains, and normalises international names, so lookalike addresses cannot be claimed.
- HTTPS everywhere. Certificates are issued and renewed automatically.
Before you share it
A custom domain is the last step. Before it, make sure the site works: sign-in and forms, payments, and a final check at phone size. To start from someone else's work instead of a blank page, see Remix. Plans and the number of domains each includes are on the pricing page.
