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Connect your own domain

Open your store at an address like shop.yourname.com, with steps for GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace, Cloudflare, IONOS, Wix and more.

Updated

Your store can open at your own address, like shop.yourname.com. You add one line, called a record, at the company you bought your domain from. It takes about ten minutes, and you don’t need to know anything technical.

What you need

  • A domain you already own, like yourname.com.
  • The login for the company you bought it from. That company is your domain provider (you may also see it called a registrar).

If you don’t know which company that is, see find your domain provider below.

Pick a sub-address

Your store needs a sub-address: a word in front of your domain.

  • shop.yourname.com works.
  • www.yourname.com works.
  • books.yourname.com works.
  • yourname.com on its own doesn’t.

If your website or blog already lives on www.yourname.com, use shop. Your website keeps working and your store gets its own address next to it.

To open your store at yourname.com too, use forwarding (some providers call it redirect). Turn it on for yourname.com and send it to https://shop.yourname.com. If you are moving from Shopify, pick the option that keeps the rest of the link (often called path forwarding), so old book links reach the right book. See old links after the Shopify import.

Add the address in Lanternbee

  1. Go to Store settings, Your domain.
  2. Under Connect your own domain, type the address, like shop.yourname.com, and choose Add domain.
  3. Lanternbee shows the record to add: a Type (CNAME), a Name and a Value. Each has a Copy button.
  4. Under Where did you buy your domain?, choose your provider. Lanternbee shows where to click for that company.

A CNAME is a signpost. It sends visitors of shop.yourname.com to your Lanternbee store. The Name is only the first part, like shop, because providers add the rest of your domain by themselves. The Value is the same for every store: stores.lanternbee.shop.

Add the record at your provider

Pick your provider below. Everywhere, leave TTL as it is. If a record with the same name is already there, delete it first: a name can only have one record.

GoDaddy

  1. Sign in and open My Products. Next to your domain, choose DNS.
  2. Choose Add New Record and pick CNAME.
  3. In Name, put shop. In Value, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Save. If GoDaddy says a record with that name already exists, edit that one and paste the value there.

Namecheap

  1. Sign in and open Domain List. Next to your domain, choose Manage.
  2. Open the Advanced DNS tab and choose Add New Record.
  3. Pick CNAME Record. In Host, put shop. In Value, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose the green tick to save. Delete any other record with the same host.

Squarespace Domains (formerly Google Domains)

  1. Sign in at domains.squarespace.com and choose your domain.
  2. Open DNS (it may say DNS Settings) and scroll to Custom records.
  3. Choose Add record. In Host, put shop. Pick CNAME. In Data, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Save. If a record with the same host is listed under Squarespace Defaults, delete it first.

Cloudflare

  1. Sign in and choose your domain.
  2. Open DNS, then Records, and choose Add record.
  3. Pick CNAME. In Name, put shop. In Target, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Click the orange cloud so it turns grey and says DNS only. Your store won’t open while the cloud is orange.
  5. Choose Save.

IONOS

  1. Sign in and open Domains & SSL. Choose your domain, then DNS.
  2. Choose Add record and pick CNAME.
  3. In Host name, put shop. In Points to, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Save. If IONOS warns that the new record clashes with an old one, let it replace the old one.

Hostinger

  1. Sign in and open Domains. Next to your domain, choose Manage.
  2. Open DNS / Nameservers (it may say DNS records).
  3. Pick CNAME. In Name, put shop. In Target, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Add Record. Delete any other record with the same name.

OVHcloud

  1. Sign in to the Control Panel. Open Web Cloud, then Domain names, and choose your domain.
  2. Open the DNS zone tab and choose Add an entry.
  3. Pick CNAME. In Subdomain, put shop. In Target, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Next, then Confirm.

Porkbun

  1. Sign in and open Domain Management. Next to your domain, choose DNS.
  2. Pick CNAME. In Host, put shop. In Answer, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  3. Choose Add.
  4. Porkbun adds a www record to new domains. If you chose www, delete that one.

WordPress.com

  1. Sign in and open Upgrades, then Domains. Choose your domain.
  2. Open DNS records and choose Add a record.
  3. Pick CNAME. In Name, put shop. In the value box (it may say Alias of), put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Add DNS record. If your blog lives on www, use shop for your store.

Wix

  1. Sign in and open Domains. Next to your domain, open the menu (three dots) and choose Manage DNS Records.
  2. In the CNAME (Aliases) section, choose Add Record.
  3. In Host Name, put shop. In Value, put stores.lanternbee.shop.
  4. Choose Save. Wix keeps www for your Wix site, so use shop if you still have one.

Any other provider

  1. Sign in and open your domain. Look for DNS, Manage DNS or DNS records.
  2. Add a new record and pick CNAME.
  3. Put shop in the name box (it may say Name, Host or Subdomain) and stores.lanternbee.shop in the value box (Value, Target, Points to or Data).
  4. Save.

If your provider says your DNS is managed somewhere else, add the record there instead.

Find your domain provider

  • Search your email for your domain name. The receipt from when you bought it, or the yearly renewal bill, names the company.
  • Or type your domain at lookup.icann.org and look for Registrar.
  • If someone set up your website for you, ask them.

Send the steps to someone else

If someone looks after your website for you, they can add the record. On the Your domain tab, under the record, choose Copy the message and paste it into an email or chat, or choose Email it. The message has your address, the record (type, name and value) and the note about Cloudflare’s grey cloud. It reads like this:

Type: CNAME
Name: shop (the full name is shop.yourname.com)
Value: stores.lanternbee.shop
TTL: the default is fine

Check it

You don’t need to keep the page open. After you add a domain, Lanternbee checks for the record every 10 minutes for 2 days and emails you as soon as it works, with the next step. The record usually works within minutes. Sometimes it takes a few hours.

If you’ve just added the record and don’t want to wait, choose Check now on Your domain.

If we still can’t find the record after 2 days, we stop checking and email you what we tried, the exact record to add and the most common reasons it doesn’t work (see common problems). Fix the record, then choose Check now: we check every 10 minutes for another 2 days. The email has a line you can forward to whoever looks after your website.

What each label means

  • Waiting for the record: we’re checking every 10 minutes. Add the record and we’ll email you when it works.
  • Not found yet: we looked and couldn’t see the record yet. We keep checking for the rest of the 2 days. Check the name and value, or choose Check now.
  • Not connected: we checked for 2 days and couldn’t find the record, so we stopped. Fix the record, then choose Check now to check for another 2 days.
  • Connected: your store opens at this address.
  • Main address: the address readers see.

Make it your main address

When a domain says Connected, choose Make this the main address. Readers then see your own address. The first domain you connect becomes the main address by itself. Your lanternbee.shop address keeps working and points to the same store.

Remove a domain

Choose Remove and confirm. The domain stops showing your store. You can connect it again later.

Common problems

  • The name got doubled. Some providers add your domain to the name by themselves. If you typed shop.yourname.com there, the record becomes shop.yourname.com.yourname.com and we can’t find it. Change the name to just shop.
  • There’s already a www record. A name can only have one record. Delete the old www record (or edit it and paste our value) before you add ours. Your old website on www stops opening when you do, so use shop if you want to keep it.
  • Cloudflare shows an orange cloud. Click it so it turns grey (DNS only), save, then choose Check now.
  • Still not found after a few hours. Check for spaces or a missing letter in the value, stores.lanternbee.shop. Then check that you added the record at the company that runs your DNS (see find your domain provider).
  • Lanternbee asks for a sub-address. You typed yourname.com on its own. Add shop. in front, and use forwarding for yourname.com.
  • Lanternbee says the domain is already connected to a store. Another store has connected it.
  • Lanternbee says the address belongs to Lanternbee. Addresses ending in lanternbee.shop are already yours for free. See your store address.