Free CourseBuild a Website

Module 7 · Go live (Vercel + domain)

Connect your custom domain

15 min

Stage 6, part two. Let’s give your site a professional address — yourbusiness.com instead of your-site.vercel.app. About $10–15 a year and a few minutes. There are two ways; pick one.

Option A — Buy the domain inside Vercel (easiest)

The simplest path by far: buy your domain directly in Vercel. When you do, Vercel sets everything up for you automatically — no DNS records to copy, nothing to configure. It costs a little more than the cheapest registrar, but for most owners the zero-hassle is worth it.

  1. In Vercel: open your project → Settings → Domains.
  2. Type the domain you want (like yourbusiness.com) and, if it’s available to buy, click Buy.
  3. Pay. Vercel connects it to your site and turns on HTTPS (the padlock) automatically. You’re done.
That’s genuinely the whole thing

Because Vercel owns the setup end to end, there are no DNS screens and nothing to paste. If you’d rather keep costs to the absolute minimum, use Option B below instead.

Your paid plan includes one free domain — with a catch

Vercel gives every paid account one free domain for the first year, but only on the endings .online, .site, .space, .store, .tech and .website — not .com. For a business, .com is worth the $10–15 a year. Worth knowing it’s there, though, and it doesn’t apply during a free trial.

Option B — Buy elsewhere, then point it at Vercel (cheapest)

Buy from an outside registrar and connect it. A few dollars cheaper, a couple of extra steps.

  • Use a reputable registrar: Cloudflare (cheapest), Namecheap, or Porkbun.
  • Match your business name if you can, keep it short, and go for .com first.
  • Add it to the cart, decline the add-ons, and check out. (Glance at the renewal price — ~$10–15/yr is normal.)
  1. In Vercel: open your project → Settings → Domains → click Add Domain → type your domain.
  2. Vercel shows the exact DNS records for your domain — usually an A record for @ and a CNAME for www. Vercel will suggest adding the www version as well — say yes. It recommends www.yourbusiness.com as the main address and redirects the plain version to it, so visitors reach you either way.
  3. Log in at your registrar, find DNS settings, and enter exactly what your Vercel screen shows — the Type, Name, and Value for each record.
  4. Save. Back in Vercel the status turns Active, usually within minutes. HTTPS (the padlock) is automatic.
Copy the values from YOUR Vercel screen — not from any tutorial

Vercel updates its recommended DNS values over time and tailors them to your project, so the exact IP and host you need are whatever your own Settings → Domains page shows right now. Don’t copy an address from a video or article (including this one) — enter precisely what Vercel displays for your domain.

Example layout only — always copy the real values from your Vercel screen
TypeNameValue
A@(the IP Vercel shows you)
CNAMEwww(the host Vercel shows you)
Let Claude help with the DNS screen

Registrar DNS screens are confusing. Take a screenshot and paste it to Claude:

Ask Claude to read your DNS screen

I'm connecting my domain to Vercel. Here's a screenshot of my registrar's DNS settings page, and here are
the records Vercel wants me to add: [paste the exact records from your Vercel Settings > Domains screen].
Please tell me exactly what to put in each box.
If it’s not instant, that’s normal

DNS changes can take a few minutes to a couple of hours to spread across the internet. If it’s not working after 15 minutes, give it an hour before worrying — it’s almost always just waiting.

End of Module 7 — you’re live on your own domain

You type yourbusiness.com and your site loads, with a padlock. That’s a real, professional, secure website — built and launched by you. Take a moment; that’s a genuine accomplishment.

If you get stuck

Stuck on the registrar’s screen even with the screenshot? Tell Claude which registrar you’re using (“I’m on Namecheap”) — it can give you the exact click path for that specific company.

Watch this step

If the DNS step feels abstract, watch it done once. This one follows Option B — buying the domain at Cloudflare and then pointing it at Vercel — so it's the one to watch if you're not buying inside Vercel. It’s from an independent creator — credited below, so go give them a follow.

How To Connect and Add Cloudflare Domain To Vercel Site - Custom Domain In Vercel

Evan ManzaCurated · third-party

More learning resources

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