How to Set Up a Custom Domain on Netlify (Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide for 2026)

Before you touch Netlify, you need to own a domain. Netlify does not sell domains directly, so you buy one from a separate registrar. Go to a site like Namecheap, GoDaddy, Hostinger, or Name.com. Type your desired domain name into the search bar on their homepage to check if it is available. A standard .com domain costs between $8.88 and $20 per year depending on the registrar, with Hostinger sometimes offering first-year prices as low as $2.99. Once you find an available name, add it to your cart and complete the checkout. During checkout, look for an option called WHOIS privacy or domain privacy protection and enable it. This hides your personal contact information from public lookup tools. After purchase, you will land in your registrar's control panel or dashboard. Log in and confirm you can see your domain listed under My Domains. Do not make any DNS changes yet. Just confirm you have access. You will need to return to this dashboard in Step 4 to add Netlify's DNS records. Keep your registrar login credentials handy for later in this guide.

Before adding a custom domain, you need a site actually deployed and running on Netlify. If you have not done this yet, go to netlify.com and click Sign up. You can create a free account using your email, GitHub, or Google account. Once logged in, click Add new site. You have two main options: connect a Git repository from GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket for automatic deployments, or drag and drop a folder of your built website files directly into Netlify's interface. If you are using a static site builder like Hugo, Gatsby, or plain HTML, the drag and drop method is the fastest way to get started. After your site is uploaded or built, Netlify assigns it a default URL that looks something like amazing-site-a1b2c3.netlify.app. Click that link and make sure your website actually loads correctly before moving forward. This is an important check because the custom domain will point to this exact deployed site. If the site is broken on the Netlify subdomain, a custom domain will not fix it. Only continue to Step 3 once your site is confirmed working on the .netlify.app URL.

Now you will tell Netlify which domain you want to connect. Inside your Netlify dashboard, click on the specific site you want to configure. In the left sidebar, find and click Domain management. You will see a section called Custom domains. Click the Add domain button, then select Add a domain you already own. In the text field that appears, type your full domain name exactly as purchased. For example, type mywebsite.com for an apex domain, or www.mywebsite.com if you want to use the www version as your primary address. Click Verify, then click Add domain to confirm. Netlify will now show your domain with a status label that says Awaiting External DNS or Pending DNS verification. This is completely normal and expected at this stage. On the same page, Netlify will display the specific DNS records you need to add at your registrar. These records are customized for your account. For an apex domain like mywebsite.com, you will typically see an A record pointing to an IP address such as 75.2.60.5. For a www subdomain, you will see a CNAME record pointing to yoursite.netlify.app. Copy these values carefully because you will use them in the very next step.

This is the most important technical step, but it is straightforward if you follow Netlify's instructions exactly. Log in to the dashboard of your domain registrar, the company where you bought your domain. Look for a section called DNS, DNS Management, Advanced DNS, or Nameservers in your domain settings. Netlify gives beginners two methods to choose from. The first method is External DNS, which is the recommended starting point. You keep your DNS at your registrar and simply add Netlify's records there. For an apex domain, add an A record. Set the host field to @ or leave it blank, and paste Netlify's IP address like 75.2.60.5 as the value. For a www subdomain, add a CNAME record. Set the host to www and the value to yoursite.netlify.app. Before adding new records, delete any older conflicting A or CNAME records for the same host to prevent errors. Save your changes. The second method, called Netlify DNS, involves changing your registrar's nameservers entirely to Netlify's four provided nameservers such as dns1.p01.nsone.net. This hands full DNS control to Netlify and is great for long-term simplicity. Use this method only if no other services like email are currently depending on your registrar's DNS settings.

After saving your DNS records at the registrar, you need to wait. DNS propagation is the process of your new settings spreading across servers worldwide, and it can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours depending on your registrar and your internet provider's caching. Go back to your Netlify Domain management page and watch the status next to your custom domain. It will change from Pending DNS verification to a green Active status once everything is confirmed. Once your domain goes active, Netlify automatically requests and installs a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt, which is what gives your site the HTTPS padlock in the browser. You do not need to do anything manually for SSL. To check propagation progress, open whatsmyDNS.net in a new tab, enter your domain name, and select the A or CNAME record type to see which regions have already picked up the new settings. You can also test your site by opening your custom domain in an incognito or private browser window, which avoids local caching issues. If your domain is still not resolving after 48 hours, revisit your DNS records for any typos in the host or value fields.

Once DNS propagation completes and your domain shows as Active in Netlify, there are two final checks to complete. First, confirm that HTTPS is working. Visit your domain in a browser and look for the padlock icon in the address bar. The URL should begin with https:// not http://. Netlify provides this SSL certificate free through Let's Encrypt and renews it automatically. If you see a certificate warning instead, wait a few more hours because certificate provisioning sometimes lags slightly behind DNS activation. Second, check that your custom domain is set as the primary domain in Netlify. In Domain management, your primary domain should be listed at the top with a Primary badge. If it is not, click the three-dot menu next to your custom domain and select Set as primary domain. The primary domain is what Netlify uses for your production branch and for SEO canonical URLs. Also confirm that Netlify redirects traffic properly. For example, visiting the www version should redirect to the apex version or vice versa depending on your preference. Netlify handles these redirects automatically once the primary domain is set correctly.

If you want the simplest possible ongoing management of your domain settings, consider switching to Netlify DNS. This means changing the nameservers at your registrar from your registrar's default servers to Netlify's four nameservers, which look like dns1.p01.nsone.net, dns2.p01.nsone.net, dns3.p01.nsone.net, and dns4.p01.nsone.net. You will find your exact nameservers listed in the Netlify Domain management panel after adding your domain. Once you update these nameservers at your registrar, all DNS records are managed directly inside Netlify's dashboard rather than at your registrar. This is convenient because you never need to log into two separate places to make DNS changes. Netlify DNS also enables advanced features like automatic ALIAS records for apex domains and integrated load balancing. The trade-off is that if you use your domain for email services like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, you will need to re-enter those MX and TXT records inside Netlify's DNS panel instead of your registrar. For most beginners running a simple website with no email hosting, Netlify DNS is the cleanest long-term setup.