Custom Domains

Every web service and static site on Render automatically gets a free onrender.com address which does not change.

But you can also bring your own domains to Render easily. We handle SSL certificate creation and renewal, as well as automatic HTTP to HTTPS redirects for all your custom domains, including wildcard domains. Let’s learn how to set up your domains on Render!

Adding a Custom Domain

First, if you haven’t already, create a web service on Render. See Getting Started for sample applications.

Web service header with Settings link on the right

Then go to the Settings tab for your service. You’ll see the Custom Domains section further down the page.

Custom Domains section with Add Custom Domain button

Click Add Custom Domain and enter your custom domain.

If you add a domain containing www, we automatically add the version of your domain without the www and redirect it to the www version.
If you enter a root domain (also called an apex domain) without the www, we automatically add the www version and redirect it to the root domain.

You should now see the following message with instructions to update DNS settings with your DNS provider. See the next section for how to do this.

Custom Domains section with DNS update needed

Adding a Wildcard Custom Domain

When you add a wildcard custom domain to Render, you have to add two CNAME records to your DNS settings. The first CNAME record for * allows Render to respond to your wildcard domain, and a second _acme-challenge CNAME record allows Render to manage Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificate issuance and renewal on your behalf. This is what it looks like for *.example.com:

Wildcard Custom Domain with DNS update needed

Configuring DNS to Point to Render

At this point, you’ll need to work with your DNS provider to add CNAME, ANAME, ALIAS or A records pointing to Render. We have instructions for common providers below:

Make sure to remove any existing `AAAA` records for your domains when you update your DNS settings. `AAAA` records map a domain to a corresponding IPv6 record, but Render does not support IPv6 addresses yet. As a result, `AAAA` records can interfere with Render hosting your custom domains.

Once you’ve updated your DNS records, it can take a few minutes for your domains to be verified on Render. See Speed up Domain Verification below.

You’ll see the domain verification status in green once everything is good to go.

Custom Domains section showing Verified domains

🎉 You’re all set! Your custom domains will start pointing to your Render service and we’ll continue to issue and renew SSL certificates for them as long as you’re using Render.

Speed up Domain Verification

We recommend removing cached entries in public DNS servers after updating your DNS records. This is especially important if you’re updating nameservers for your domains. Clearing the cache will speed up DNS verification and SSL certificate issuance for your domains.

Use the links below to clear cached records in popular public DNS servers:

As always, if you run into any trouble, find us on Render Community or email us at support@render.com and we’ll be glad to help out.