How to Connect a Custom Domain to Your AI-Built Website

To connect a custom domain to a WisyLink site, open Domains (any plan, the free one included) and add the domain. Then create the DNS record shown at your DNS provider, or point your nameservers to WisyLink. After verification, HTTPS is set up automatically and you assign the domain to your link. If you don't have a domain yet, register one with any domain registrar first.

• There are two routes: connect your domain with a DNS record, or delegate its nameservers for full DNS control.
• A DNS record leaves your email and every other record untouched. Nameserver delegation replaces all records, so MX and TXT records must be recreated first.
• Verification starts when you ask for it, runs on its own for up to 6 hours and tells you what it found; most failures are a leftover A or AAAA record.
• The HTTPS certificate is issued and renewed automatically, and www can redirect to the bare domain.
• One domain is active per link. Moving a link to a domain retires its previous address, so connect the domain before you promote widely.
• Custom domains work on every plan, free included; free links last 30 days plus a week.

Your two options at a glance

You need a live link first (if you don't have one yet, start with how to build a website with AI). Connecting a custom domain works on every plan, the free one included. On the free Community plan, a link keeps its https://<id>.wisylink.com address and expires after 30 days; a paid plan, from Starter at $7 a month, keeps it live while you're subscribed.

Then pick the hostname. Use the root domain (mybakery.com) if this site is your main website. Use a subdomain (order.mybakery.com) if your main site lives elsewhere and this is an extra app, such as a booking page or a waitlist landing page.

If you're unsure, choose the DNS record: it's the only option that can't break anything you already have.

Every step works in the Domains screen, or you can ask Wisy in your link's chat, for example: "Connect order.mybakery.com to this link. My DNS stays where it is." Wisy goes through the same checks as the Domains screen and shows you the exact records to add.

If you don't have a domain yet

WisyLink doesn't sell domains, so register one with any domain registrar first. Once it's yours, connect it with option 1 or option 2 below, exactly like any domain you already own.

Option 1: Connect a domain you own with a DNS record

This keeps your DNS where it is, usually with the company you bought the domain from, and adds the records that send that hostname to your WisyLink site. Email, verification records and other subdomains are not touched.

What you add depends on the hostname:

• Root domain (mybakery.com): an A record on the root, usually entered as @, with the address shown in Domains, and a CNAME for www pointing to cname.wisylink.com.
• Subdomain (order.mybakery.com): one CNAME named order pointing to cname.wisylink.com. Domains also shows an A record as an alternative. Use one or the other, never both: a CNAME can't coexist with any other record on the same name.

1. In Domains, type the domain under "Add a domain", select Continue, choose Single record and select Add as record.
2. Copy the records with the copy buttons, so nothing is mistyped.
3. At your DNS provider, delete any existing A, AAAA or CNAME records on that exact hostname. New domains often carry a parking-page A record that blocks verification.
4. Create the records exactly as shown. If your provider has a proxy or CDN switch on records, turn it off for these, so public DNS returns the address WisyLink expects.
5. Back in Domains, select "I've updated the settings — start checking".
6. When the status reads Domain ready, assign it to your link.

A common slip: many DNS providers append your domain to the name field automatically, so typing order.mybakery.com there creates order.mybakery.com.mybakery.com. Enter just order.

Option 2: Point your nameservers to WisyLink

Delegating nameservers moves all DNS for the domain into WisyLink. You get one place to manage records and unlimited subdomains for your links, so shop., book. and events. can each serve a different link. The price is that every record at your current provider stops working once the switch takes effect, email included, until you recreate it.

1. Copy every record you have now: MX, TXT (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, site verifications) and the A and CNAME records of other subdomains. A screenshot of the full list will do.
2. In Domains, add the root domain and choose Use nameservers. Read the warning and confirm.
3. Copy the nameservers shown and replace the existing ones at your registrar.
4. Recreate your records in WisyLink's DNS manager straight away. It supports A, AAAA, CNAME, MX and TXT records.
5. Select "I've updated the settings — start checking".
6. Once verified, add a LINK record for each hostname that should serve a link, with @ for the root. Its address is filled in automatically.

Delegation needs the root domain; a subdomain on its own can only be connected with a record. If you depend on record types the DNS manager doesn't list, such as SRV or CAA, stay with option 1. With a managed domain you can also ask Wisy: "Create book.mybakery.com and deploy this link there."

Verification, automatic HTTPS and the www redirect

Verification starts when you ask for it, not when you add the domain, so finish the DNS change first. Then it runs on its own:

• every minute for the first 15 checks, then every 5 minutes, then every 15;
• each check asks two independent public DNS resolvers, and both must see the domain pointing at WisyLink;
• after 6 hours without success it stops at "Could not verify within 6 hours". Fix the records and select Retry verification for a new window.

How long it takes depends on your DNS provider. A new record is often visible within minutes. If you replaced an old record, resolvers can keep the old answer until its TTL (time to live) runs out, which can be hours. Nameserver changes usually take longest. Meanwhile the screen shows the result of the last check in plain words, such as which address the domain points to instead.

HTTPS needs nothing from you. Once the domain points at WisyLink, a certificate is issued automatically and renewed 30 days before it expires. For a root domain, www.mybakery.com redirects to mybakery.com once www also points at WisyLink, so both work and search engines see one address. With a DNS record, that's the www CNAME from the records list.

Assign the domain to your link

A verified domain does nothing until a link uses it. From your link, open Domains, choose the verified domain, select Deploy and confirm. The site is served at the new address within seconds.

• One active domain per link. When a link moves to a domain, its previous address stops serving it. Update bios, email signatures and anything printed.
• Removing a domain sends the link back to its default address and revokes that domain's certificate. The link itself isn't deleted.
• A domain outlives its links. Deleting a link leaves the domain on your account, verified and ready for another link.

Your pages build canonical tags and sitemap entries from the address they are served on, so they follow the new domain. To get it indexed, verify the domain in Google Search Console with a TXT record and submit /sitemap.xml.

Protect your email and other DNS records

Email is the easiest thing to break when connecting a domain, and the easiest to protect:

• With a DNS record, MX records are never touched. When you clean up the hostname, delete only records on that exact name.
• Never put a CNAME on the root domain. It would shadow the MX records that receive your mail, which is why a root domain uses an A record.
• With nameservers, recreate first, switch second. MX records with their priorities, the SPF TXT record, DKIM records and the DMARC TXT record at _dmarc, exactly as your email provider lists them.
• Test after the switch. Send mail to the domain from an outside address and reply from it.

You can do this from your phone: the iOS app and the Android app cover connecting a domain you own, verification and DNS records.

Your domain is also the part of your online presence that's most clearly yours, whichever tools run behind it. We explore that idea in portability and owning the product you build.

Troubleshooting checklist

When verification fails, the last-check message usually names the problem:

• "has no CNAME … and no A record … yet": the record isn't published. Check the name field for the doubled-domain slip, and that you saved.
• "points at [address], not at [address]": an old A record is still there, or the record is proxied. Delete the old record or switch the proxy off.
• "also points at …; remove every A record except …": you added the right A record but kept an old one.
• "also has AAAA (IPv6) records (…); remove them": delete AAAA records on that hostname, or IPv6 visitors and the certificate check reach the old server.
• "is a CNAME to [target], not to cname.wisylink.com": edit the old CNAME to the value shown in Domains.
• The domain stops resolving after a nameserver change: if DNSSEC was on at your registrar, turn it off; old DNSSEC records break resolution after a switch, so ideally do this before changing nameservers.
• "This domain is already in use": it's on another WisyLink account. If that account is yours, remove it there first.
• Verified, but www fails: add the www CNAME. Email stopped after delegating: recreate the MX records.

To see what the internet sees, look the hostname up in a public tool such as Google Admin Toolbox Dig. When it returns the records from Domains, the next check should pass.

Put your site on your own domain

Keep it live on your own domain: compare plans. Every paid plan, from Starter at $7 a month, keeps links live for as long as you're subscribed; your own domain works on any plan, the free one included.

Haven't built the site yet? Start free on Community, get a live link the same day and move it to your domain when it's ready. If you're still weighing what this kind of tool can do, read what an AI app builder is.