Use your own domain

Your tip page lives at donate.chat/yourname. With a subscription you can also put it on a domain you own, like donate.yourname.com. Viewers see your domain in the address bar, pay with Vipps as usual, and come back to your domain after paying. Your donate.chat link keeps working, so links already posted in chat don't break.

Before you start

• You need an active donate.chat subscription.
• You need a domain, and access to the place where you manage its DNS. That's usually where you bought the domain (Domeneshop, one.com, GoDaddy, Cloudflare and so on).
• Pick a subdomain, like donate.yourname.com or tips.yourname.com. A bare domain like yourname.com doesn't work, because it can't point at us with the kind of record we use.

1. Add the domain in your dashboard

1. Open Tip page in the dashboard and find Your own domain.
2. Type your subdomain, for example donate.yourname.com, without https://.
3. Click Add domain.

The dashboard now shows the DNS record to create, with copy buttons.

2. Create the DNS record

Log in where you manage DNS for your domain and add a new record:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: the first part of your subdomain, for example donate
• Value: the value shown in your dashboard

The value usually looks like cname.vercel-dns.com, but copy the exact value from your dashboard. Some DNS providers want the full name (donate.yourname.com) instead of just donate. The dashboard shows both.

Using Cloudflare? Set the record to DNS only (grey cloud), not proxied. Otherwise we can't issue the HTTPS certificate for your domain.

Sometimes there's a TXT record too

If your domain has been connected to another site on Vercel before, the dashboard also shows a TXT record. It proves the domain is yours. Add it the same way. Your domain gets its HTTPS certificate once that check passes, and you can delete the TXT record after the domain works.

3. Check the status

DNS changes take anything from a few minutes to a few hours. Click Check again in the dashboard now and then. The status goes from Waiting for DNS to Working once everything is in place. After that it can take up to a minute before the domain opens your tip page.

If the status says Check DNS, your domain points somewhere, just not at us. Compare the record with the dashboard letter by letter, and remove any old record with the same name (an older CNAME or A record for donate, for example).

Good to know

• Your domain only shows your tip page and your sales terms (donate.yourname.com/terms). Everything else, like the dashboard, opens on donate.chat.
• If your subscription stops, the domain sends viewers to donate.chat instead. When the subscription ends for good, the domain is removed, and you can add it again if you subscribe later.
• To stop using the domain, click Remove domain in the dashboard. Then you can delete the DNS records.