Maintain your brand's experience by allowing members to land on your own custom subdomain! With any plan, you can point members directly to your personally branded community. This is a quick process that typically takes just 5 minutes.
In this guide
Before you begin, ensure you have:
A Heartbeat community that is already set up.
Access to the admin dashboard of your Heartbeat community.
Access to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains).
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Choose whether you want to set your custom domain with a custom root domain or a custom sub-domain:
Click here to set up a Custom Root Domain (ex. yoursitename.com).
Click here to set up a Custom Sub-Domain (ex. community.yoursite.com).
Setting up a Custom Root Domain
Step 1: Add your A record
By accessing your hosting provider, create an A record pointing from your domain to 188.93.147.211 Your hosting provider should have documentation telling you how to do this. You can Google “<your hosting provider> add A record” to try finding this documentation.
Step 2: Confirm your A record
After setting up your A Record, confirm that it exists here: https://www.nslookup.io/
If you can confirm that the A record exists, you can proceed to the next step.
If no records are found and you’re unable to confirm that your A record exists, we suggest contacting your hosting platform to troubleshoot further.
If you have multiple IPs associated with the A record, then you’ll need to delete the non-Heartbeat one before moving forward.
Step 3: Confirm your new domain
Access your Heartbeat admin dashboard by clicking on the profile picture located at the bottom left corner of the sidebar.
Under the Customization tab, locate and click on Custom Domain.
Fill out the Custom Domain section & save your changes.
Setting up a Custom Sub-Domain
Step 1: Create your CNAME record
Create a CNAME record pointing your custom domain to exactly
cfdxy.heartbeat.chat.
Below is a list of popular hosting platforms and links that will show you how to create a CNAME record. If your platform isn't listed below, we recommend searching its help articles using the keyword "CNAME."
Cloudflare (Ensure that "Proxy" is disabled)
Godaddy (Ensure the 'host' field only contains your subdomain name and not the entire url)
Step 2: Confirm your CNAME Record
After creating your CNAME record, look up your CNAME record here:
If you’re able to confirm your CNAME record, you can move on to the next step. A successful CNAME record will result in a page that looks like this:
If your CNAME record has not been created successfully, you will see a page that looks like this:
If you can’t confirm that your CNAME record exists, we suggest contacting your hosting platform to troubleshoot further.
Step 3: Confirm your new domain
Access your Heartbeat admin dashboard by clicking on the profile picture located at the bottom left corner of the sidebar.
Under the Customization tab, locate and click on Custom Domain.
Fill out the Custom Domain section & save your changes.
Troubleshooting
Propagation Delay: DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate. If your custom domain is not working immediately, wait and try again later.
Incorrect DNS Settings: Double-check that the CNAME record is correctly set up in your domain registrar.
Support: If you encounter issues, contact Heartbeat support for assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How long does it take for DNS changes to propagate?
How long does it take for DNS changes to propagate?
DNS changes can take anywhere from immediately to a few minutes to propagate globally.
What should I do if my custom domain is not working?
What should I do if my custom domain is not working?
Double-check your DNS records for accuracy.
Ensure there are no typos in the domain names or IP addresses.
Verify that your DNS changes have fully propagated.
Contact Heartbeat.chat support for assistance if problems persist.
What happens if I change my domain registrar or DNS provider?
What happens if I change my domain registrar or DNS provider?
You will need to reconfigure your DNS records with the new provider to ensure your custom domain continues to point correctly to Heartbeat.chat.
Can I revert back to the default Heartbeat.chat domain?
Can I revert back to the default Heartbeat.chat domain?
Yes, you can always revert to the default Heartbeat.chat domain by removing or deactivating your custom domain settings in the Heartbeat.chat admin dashboard.