A domain is your own web address — like yourbusiness.com. Instead of the free address on our domain, your site can live at an address you own. This is available on Starter and every plan above (it's the one builder feature the Free plan doesn't include, because domains cost real money to route).
You buy the domain itself from a domain company (a "registrar", like Namecheap or GoDaddy) — typically a small yearly fee. Then you connect it:
(If your plan includes the free-domain perk, that's one free domain per account, for the account owner — the person whose subscription pays for the plan. Team seats and student seats don't each get a free domain, and it's per account, not per site.)
The steps
1. Publish your site first (the domain needs something to point at).
2. In the Website builder, open the Domain tab.
3. Type your domain and press Connect.
4. We show you exactly one setting to add at your domain company — a DNS record. DNS is simply the internet's address book; the record tells it "this name points to my website." It's copy-and-paste:
- For an address starting with www: a CNAME record pointing to cname.vercel-dns.com
- For the bare domain (no www): an A record pointing to 76.76.21.21
5. Come back and press Recheck. When the record is found, your status flips from "Pending DNS" to Live.
Where to click at your domain company
Every company's menu is a little different — here are the common ones:
- GoDaddy: Sign in to GoDaddy → My Products → your domain → DNS → Records. To point your site, edit the existing A record (name @) or add it if none exists; add or keep the www CNAME.
- Wix (if you bought your domain from Wix): Wix dashboard → Domains → your domain → DNS Records / Advanced. Wix also controls your DNS there, so you add the record in that same panel.
- cPanel / traditional web host (Bluehost, HostGator, SiteGround…): If your DNS is managed in cPanel (look for Zone Editor), the record lives on the host you may be leaving — it's usually safer to move your DNS to your registrar first. And if your email is cPanel / webmail on that same host, it stops when you cancel the host — move your mailboxes to a new email provider first. We don't host mailboxes. See Moving off cPanel / shared hosting without losing your email.
Tips
- The www. version is usually the easiest to set up — start there if you're unsure.
- DNS changes can take from a few minutes to a few hours to spread across the internet. If Recheck doesn't pass right away, wait a bit and try again.
- Stuck at your domain company's settings page? Contact support and tell us which company — we'll walk you through it.