Maintain your brand's experience by allowing members to land on your own custom root or sub-domain! With any plan, you can point members directly to your personally branded community.

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)

Root Domains vs. Subdomains

Root domain

Serves as the unique identifier that appears after the "@" symbol in email addresses and after "www." in web addresses. Some well-known examples of domains include heartbeat.chat and google.com.

Subdomain

Subdomains can be an extension of a primary domain, acting as a secondary domain. Subdomains appear to the left of the main domain name, helping organize different sections or functionalities of a website while remaining part of the primary domain. They serve as prefixes added to the root domain, creating distinct areas that can function independently or provide specific content without requiring a separate domain such as community.yoursite.com.

The table below provides examples of common domains, their related subdomains, and other web pages/domains that are not connected to the listed primary domains:

Domains help users easily identify and access websites, while subdomains provide a way to categorize and navigate to specific sections within those websites.

How connecting a domain works

Heartbeat uses Entri to connect your custom domain. In most cases Entri does the setup for you. When you enter your domain and click Connect, Entri can sign in to your domain provider and add the required DNS records automatically — no manual editing. If you'd rather do it yourself, or your provider isn't supported, you can still add the records manually:

• Automatic (recommended) — Entri detects your provider; you sign in and approve, and it adds the records for you.
• Manual — Entri shows the exact record(s) and you add them at your domain host yourself.

Don't have a domain yet? Choose "Or, get a free domain" on the Domains page to register one through Heartbeat — free for the first year, with paid options from about $10/year.

Follow a Setup Guide

Once you've decided on either a root or sub-domain, follow one of the step-by-step guides below:

• 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)

Customization Options

After you connect, your domain may show as "Setting up" while DNS propagates and we issue an SSL certificate. This can take 24–48 hours. Once it's finished, the status changes to Active and your domain is live.

Once your custom domain is active, you'll see two new customization options available.

Homepage Link

Direct users to your homepage from Heartbeat. If set, your logo in the top left of the community will navigate users to the link you provide. By default, clicking on the logo in the top left of the community will allow members to switch between other Heartbeat communities they are members of, or create one of their own.

Many community admins choose to use the URL of the root domain here or a link to the marketing site for the community.

Default homepage

On the Domains page, Default homepage sets what visitors see at your custom domain when they're not logged in. The dropdown offers your Custom Pages and your Sign Up Links. If nothing is selected here, visitors of your custom domain will only be able to log in to your community. By adding a custom landing page, anyone that visits your home page will see a sign up option as well, meaning non-members can sign up and existing members can log in.

If the sign up link you choose also has a custom landing page enabled and configured, that will display and serve as a marketing page for your community, amping up the experience for visitors.

Learn about creating and customizing sign up links here

Troubleshooting: Domain Still Not Working After DNS Is Set Up

If you've added the DNS record from the setup guide above and it's confirmed live (check with a tool like dnschecker.org), but your custom domain still isn't working, try the following:

1. Check your domain's status

Go to Settings > Community > Domains. A domain that's still connecting shows "Setting up"; once DNS has propagated and the SSL certificate is issued, it switches to "Active". This can take up to 48 hours, so if it's only been a short while, give it time. To start over, use Reset. Note that Reset disconnects the domain inside Heartbeat only. The DNS record at your domain host stays in place, so you'll need to remove or update it there as well. See How to Set Up a Custom Root Domain for the full steps.

2. "TXT record not validating"

In some cases we need an extra TXT record to confirm you own the domain before we can issue an SSL certificate for it. If you see a message about a TXT record not validating, the exact TXT host and value to add will be shown on your Settings > Community > Domains page. Add that exact record at your domain host (not Heartbeat); we'll re-check automatically and issue the certificate once it's visible.

3. Give it time

DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes up to 48 hours to fully propagate, depending on your domain host.