Creating a custom domain

Here's how to create your community's custom domain.

You might want to give your community a URL that uses a brand or website you've already established. To do this you'll need to do a little work with your domain provider, which we'll explain below. 

By default, your Web community will have a domain like example.disciplemedia.com (where 'example' is the name you chose when creating your community).

With a custom domain, you can change this to anything you want if you’ve bought a domain in the past. However, we generally recommend that your community lives on a subdomain like community.example.com where 'example.com' is the domain you already own. 

To create a custom domain for your Web community, you'll need to update your DNS so that it has a CNAME pointing towards the appropriate place on Disciple’s servers, such as example.custom.disciplemedia.com. 'Example' should be replaced with your community name from your existing Disciple URL. This snippet is available to you by going to your Console ➡️ Branding ➡️ Other.


To set up your custom domain, please follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to the appropriate section in your domain registrar 

In your domain service's dashboard navigate to your DNS settings (sometimes called 'DNS Management'), then the 'Custom resource records' section (or 'CNAME' section) and start to add a CNAME.

Google Domains

For the Google Domains service you'll see something like this:

GoDaddy

For the GoDaddy Domain service go to the 'DNS Management' page and scroll down past your existing records until you see an 'Add' button: 

Then choose 'CNAME' from the dropdown and your screen should look like this:

2. Add a CNAME and point it to Disciple’s servers

Now you'll need to create a CNAME with the hostname you want. In the following screenshots, you'll see how to create a community.example.com subdomain and point it to example.custom.disciplemedia.com. It is really important to include 'custom' in the URL you are pointing to.

To find the appropriate place to point your CNAME to, go to the Branding page in your Console, and don’t forget the '.custom' part or the final 'dot'. 

These changes can take about 48hours to implement depending on your domain registrar, but it's normally much quicker.

Google Domains

Enter the hostname you’d like for your community, choose 'CNAME' from the dropdown, and then enter the appropriate place on Disciple’s servers for your CNAME to point to. For example:

Then click 'Add'.

GoDaddy

On GoDaddy enter the hostname you want in the 'Host' box, then enter the appropriate place on Disciple's servers in the 'Points to' box. For example:

Then click 'Save'.

3. Go back to the Branding section of your console

Click on the other tab at the top of the page, paste in your URL, click submit and wait for your domain to apply. This can take up to 48 hours to apply so don't worry if it doesn't sync instantly.

In the event the domain returns an error message, please reach out to help@disciplemedia.com with a screenshot of your set-up so we can troubleshoot your configuration.

Looking to create your own community app? Contact our Community Experts -  info@disciplemedia.com

Need help with your existing Disciple powered community? Contact our Customer Support team - help@disciplemedia.com