Using your own domain

Every studio has its own address on ours (your-studio.joul.studio), which always works. You can also put your site on a domain you own. You need access to the DNS settings at the company you bought the domain from (GoDaddy, 123 Reg, Cloudflare, Squarespace Domains and so on), or someone who has.

A subdomain such as book.yourstudio.co.uk or www.yourstudio.co.uk is easiest, and leaves the rest of your domain (your current website, your email) as it is. The bare domain (yourstudio.co.uk) works too, but points the whole domain at your studio site.

How many you can add depends on your plan: Studio 1 custom domain, Studio+ up to 2 custom domains, Multi up to 5 custom domains.

1. Owners and admins open Settings → Website and type the domain under Your own domain, then Add domain. You can paste a whole web address; only the domain is kept.
2. Two records appear, each with a Copy button. For a subdomain: a CNAME record that points it at us, and a TXT record with a code that proves the domain is yours. For a bare domain, an A record takes the CNAME’s place.
3. At your DNS provider, add both records. The Name column shows what most providers want typed in their host or name field (book, or @ for the bare domain); the full name is underneath. Leave the time to live (TTL) as it is.
4. Come back and press Check now. Each record shows what we found: Found, Not found yet, or Different value (with what is there instead).

DNS changes can take from a few minutes to an hour or two to reach everyone. We check by ourselves every few minutes at first, then every few hours, for a week; you can also press Check now (once every 20 seconds).

Once both records are found, the domain is verified and we get its security certificate (the padlock, https), which usually takes a few minutes and costs nothing. The domain then shows Live and your site answers on it. Your own address on ours keeps working alongside it.

• Almost there: one record is right and the other isn’t yet. Check the one marked Not found yet or Different value; a common slip is typing the whole domain in a field that adds it again (book.yourstudio.co.uk.yourstudio.co.uk).
• Different value on the CNAME: another service still holds the name (an old website builder, say). Remove its record first; a name can have only one CNAME.
• Not set up: we stopped checking after a week without the records. Create them and press Check now; it works the moment they are right.
• Not pointing at us: the domain was verified, but its routing record has changed since. Put it back.
• Used by another studio: someone on our platform verified this domain first. If it is yours, email us and we will sort it out.

Remove takes a domain off your site straight away; your address on ours carries on. Adding, verifying and removing domains are in your audit log.