Run · beginner · 6 min read

How to Buy a Domain and Point It at Your App

Where to buy a domain, how DNS works in plain English, and how to connect it to Vercel, Netlify, or Railway.

Published March 15, 2026 ·

domainDNSdeployment

Your app is deployed. It works. But the URL is something like my-app-3kx9.vercel.app, which looks about as professional as a Gmail address on a business card. You need a real domain — yourapp.com — and you need it pointed at your live application.

This is one of those tasks that sounds technical but is genuinely straightforward once you understand what’s happening. The entire process takes about 20 minutes and costs $10-15 per year.

What You’re Actually Doing

When someone types yourapp.com into their browser, their computer asks a system called DNS (Domain Name System) where that domain lives. DNS is basically the internet’s phone book — it maps human-readable names to server addresses.

Buying a domain means registering a name. Pointing it at your app means adding an entry to that phone book so yourapp.com resolves to wherever your app is hosted.

That’s it. Two steps: buy the name, add the phone book entry.

Where to Buy Your Domain

There are dozens of domain registrars, but only three are worth considering for founders who want a clean experience without upsells.

Cloudflare Registrar

Best for most people. Cloudflare sells domains at cost — no markup, no hidden fees. A .com domain runs about $10/year. Their interface is clean, they include free WHOIS privacy (so your personal address isn’t public), and their DNS management is excellent.

The downside: Cloudflare requires you to create a free account and add your domain to their DNS system first, then transfer or register through them. It’s one extra step, but the savings and quality are worth it.

Namecheap

The reliable veteran. Namecheap has been around forever and does what it says. Domains are reasonably priced (often $8-12/year for .com), WHOIS privacy is free, and the interface is functional if slightly cluttered.

Namecheap is fine. Not exciting, not terrible. If you’ve used them before, keep using them.

Google Domains (now Squarespace Domains)

Google sold their domain business to Squarespace in 2023. The experience has degraded somewhat, and prices are slightly higher than Cloudflare or Namecheap. It still works, but there’s no compelling reason to choose it over Cloudflare.

Which to pick

Use Cloudflare Registrar unless you have a specific reason not to. At-cost pricing, great DNS, no upsells.

How DNS Records Work (The 2-Minute Version)

You only need to understand two types of DNS records:

A Record — Points your domain to an IP address. “When someone visits yourapp.com, send them to this server at 76.76.21.21.”

CNAME Record — Points your domain to another domain. “When someone visits www.yourapp.com, treat it the same as cname.vercel-dns.com.” CNAMEs are like forwarding — they say “this name is an alias for that name.”

Most deployment platforms use one or both of these. You’ll add them in your registrar’s DNS settings panel.

TTL — Time to Live

Each DNS record has a TTL value, measured in seconds. This tells other DNS servers how long to cache the record. When you’re first setting up, use a low TTL (300 seconds = 5 minutes) so changes propagate quickly. Once everything works, you can increase it.

Pointing Your Domain to Vercel

Vercel makes this particularly easy.

Step 1: Add the domain in Vercel

Go to your project dashboard in Vercel. Click “Settings” then “Domains.” Type your domain name and click “Add.”

Vercel will show you the DNS records you need to add.

Step 2: Add DNS records at your registrar

For the root domain (yourapp.com):

• Add an A Record pointing to 76.76.21.21

For the www subdomain (www.yourapp.com):

• Add a CNAME Record pointing to cname.vercel-dns.com

Step 3: Wait for propagation

DNS changes can take anywhere from 2 minutes to 48 hours to propagate globally. In practice, it usually takes 5-15 minutes. Vercel will show a green checkmark when it detects the records.

Step 4: SSL certificate

Vercel automatically provisions a free SSL certificate (the padlock icon, https://). No action needed — it happens automatically after DNS propagation.

Pointing Your Domain to Netlify

Almost identical process.

In Netlify

Go to your site’s “Domain management” settings. Click “Add custom domain.” Enter your domain.

DNS records

For the root domain:

• Add an A Record pointing to 75.2.60.5

For www:

• Add a CNAME Record pointing to your-site-name.netlify.app

Netlify also offers their own DNS hosting (Netlify DNS). If you point your nameservers to Netlify, they handle everything automatically. This is simpler but means Netlify controls your DNS instead of your registrar.

SSL

Automatic via Let’s Encrypt, same as Vercel. No configuration needed.

Pointing Your Domain to Railway

Railway’s process is slightly different because it’s a backend platform.

In Railway

Go to your service settings. Under “Networking,” click “Custom Domain.” Enter your domain.

Railway will give you a CNAME target (something like your-app.up.railway.app).

DNS records

Add a CNAME Record for your domain pointing to the Railway-provided target.

Note: CNAME records technically can’t be set on root domains (yourapp.com without www). Some registrars support “CNAME flattening” or “ALIAS records” to work around this. Cloudflare handles this automatically. If your registrar doesn’t, use www.yourapp.com as your primary domain and set up a redirect from the root.

SSL

Automatic once DNS propagates.

The www vs. Non-www Decision

Pick one and stick with it. Either yourapp.com or www.yourapp.com — not both. Set up a redirect from the one you don’t use to the one you do.

Most modern apps use the non-www version (yourapp.com). It’s cleaner and shorter. But this is purely aesthetic — there’s no technical advantage either way.

All three platforms in this guide let you configure which version is primary and automatically redirect the other.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

”DNS check failed” after adding records

Wait longer. Seriously. DNS propagation takes time. If it’s been more than an hour, double-check that you added the records to the correct domain (not a subdomain) and that there are no typos in the target values.

”Too many redirects” error

This usually happens when your registrar and your hosting platform both try to handle SSL. Make sure your registrar isn’t forcing HTTPS redirects if your hosting platform already handles SSL. In Cloudflare, set SSL mode to “Full” instead of “Flexible.”

Old site still showing at your domain

Your browser caches DNS aggressively. Try opening the domain in an incognito window or clearing your browser’s DNS cache. On Mac, run sudo dscacheutil -flushcache in Terminal.

Email not working after DNS changes

If you had email set up on your domain (like you@yourapp.com through Google Workspace or similar), make sure you didn’t delete the MX records when adding the new A and CNAME records. MX records control where email goes — they’re separate from where your website points.

After Your Domain is Live

Once your custom domain is working with HTTPS, do three things immediately:

1. Update all your links. Social profiles, email signatures, marketing materials — update everything to use the real domain, not the .vercel.app URL.
2. Set up redirects. If anyone has linked to your old deployment URL, set up a redirect so those links still work.
3. Verify in Google Search Console. Add your domain to Google Search Console so Google starts indexing your real URL. This matters for SEO from day one.

Your app now looks legitimate. That $12/year domain is the cheapest professional upgrade you’ll ever make.