How to add a custom domain to your Substack publication
Custom domains are available on Substack.
Custom domains are now available on Substack. Many writers have told us they’d like to use custom domains to build a home for their newsletters, so we’re excited to finally bring this feature to everyone.
You can set up a custom domain from your Settings page:
To use custom domains, you’ll be charged a one-time $50 fee per publication. After you’ve unlocked this feature, you can add and remove custom domains at no additional cost.
We hope this feature helps you grow an independent publishing business on Substack.
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Thank you, this is great! Is it possible to host it as a directory of my domain rather than a subdomain, for SEO reasons? (e.g. instead of substack.mydomain.com have it be www.mydomain.com/substack)?
Has this been solved? Would love to have the www.mydomain.com/substack solution.
Any answers on this? Wondering this also. Even better would be if you could have the Substack "homepage" replaced with mydomain.com.
OH that would be AWESOME. I do wish the substack sites had a better "home page" configuration. I think I have found a way to sort of force a "home" page, but it will be primitive.... Sadly.
I just found out the hard way: no you still cannot use a subdirectory.
I am interested to know this as well
+100 to this. It's possible, and would be a huge SEO aid to writers!
I'd love to know this too!
Has this been addressed? I was also planning to do it sub directory instead of subdomain.
I'd like to know this too..
I was searching for a solution to this exact request. Thanks for post and the replies herein that state that this is currently not possible.
on a related note, does anyone know of any other application like substack that lets you do this? basically the link www.mywebsite.com/blog/ should go to substack.
Just set mine up -- incredibly easy. Thanks guys! You can find me at https://www.thehalfmarathoner.com/ now 😃
Thanks for sharing this. Can I ask how you managed to keep all your posts with that same domain too? Mine defaults to substack.domain.com
Thanks for the example. Well done site. Sadly, I don't run.
Thank you! So direct domain is possible. That's all I wanted to know.
(How) will this impact newsletter distribution? Will emails still be sent from substack or will they now be sent from my custom domain?
Good question, any answer yet?
💥 — boom goes the dynamite.
After a bit of musing, I realized the one-time $50 fee is actually a fair deal––you get the entire publishing system for free anyway with no limits on number fo subscribers and no ads unlike other platforms. Mapping the domain was easy and now my newsletter both looks and sounds professional. It’s live at https://updates.jatan.space 🚀
Thank you team Substack!
Jatan, your link isn't working.
He changed it to blog.jatan.space
Will there still be Substack branding?
Is it me, or is it actually overpriced? I can't see a point to pay that much for a custom domain. Especially if I'm from Russia and I can't make money on Substack.
Same. I’m from India and while I can technically charge Indian readers in INR currency, it’s not useful for me as my audience is global. Charging in $ doesn’t work.
Thanks you! JUST ABOUT TO POST THAT
Nice - this is a good change. Thanks for listening!
Well done, Substackers! I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet, but a one-time $50 fee is peanuts. The fee supports the platform's staff and is a reasonable hurdle for writers to jump to demonstrate they have a seriousness for their platform. *chef's kiss*
How will changing the domain impact our existing link equity? i.e. SEO?
If they properly set a redirect in robots.txt to let search engines know, You should be good. One way to check yourself is still go to your old .substack domain. If it redirects to your new site, you are 👍🏼
Finally! Thank you for adding this.
How do I setup a custom domain without the https://
This is stupendous news! After your helpful team answered a quick question, Timeless & Timely is now looking more professional than ever at https://www.timelesstimely.com.
It looks great! did you have to use code to make it look like that?
Does anyone have instructions specific for Squarespace?
Took some time, but was quite easy in the end. The only thing you need to get right is the CNAME record in your domain DNS settings. Rest Substack takes care of behind the scenes!
Here is mine (went for a brand-new .news domain for the newsletter) - https://www.drishtikone.news/
Hi Desh - your publication looks great. In terms of the custom domain (which I'm considering doing), do I need to have my own SSL certificate with my domain name - or does Substack provide this? Thanks, Craig
Craig, did you need to do the SSL certificate? I see your site has that set up :)
Yes, if I recall correctly, I had to pay 50 dollars to get that set up.
Test
$50? hye.fyi gives me the same fee, with custom css + More stuff like BMC intergation + Addons . Why would someone lets say buy a $5 domain and pay 10x that just to use it. I get we're in beta yet still Substack why?
I just tried to visit your website hye.fyi. It has expired, you need to renew like now, Arav.
hie.fyi
Not mine
What is hye? Can you tell more about the platform you're using?
I just changed over for hbcudigest.substack.com and am receiving a 1016 error. Is this just propagating or should I have changed the A record instead of the CNAME record?
Hey Jarrett -- I see that you've paid, but I don't see that you've filled out this form https://hbcudigest.substack.com/publish/domain -- can you try that?
Just completed, hopefully this helps?
Yep we see it now. Give it about 30 minutes to update && look out for an email to let you know when everything has switched over
Thanks so much! Working now. Just to be clear - there’s no way for DNS to allow url without www?
you can configure it that way. if you own hbcudigest.com and have the www working, you can set up a "forwarding rule" to forward your root domain ("@") to www.hbcudigest.com (with a 301 permanent redirect) so then people can use either hbcudigest.com or www.hbcudigest.com
When I set the forwarding, should I use the http or https?
And, a referral program API? 🙏
One less USP from Ghost :)
This is great. I just tested on ppc.land and I come across the following errors:
a) Cloudflare will not work https://community.cloudflare.com/t/error-1014-cname-cross-user-banned/12584
b) Cnames do not allow MX or TXT records. Namecheap has an alternative called Alias Record. Otherwise you lose access to emails and txt records.
c) My settings page stop working. Error: "{"error":""}"
d) The detailed receipts with a custom address or tax id click stop working as well. https://domain.example/account/receipts
I'm also running into issues with Cloudflare and not sure if I've set up something incorrectly (I do have the grey cloud as directed) but the Substack support page I've found says that Cloudflare isn't supported. https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051222571
Even worse, now the redirect happens but the whole page is broken :( I can't even load my dashboard on Substack!
Hi Nadia, can you also help me with this, my newsletter is thechairmanscouncil.Substack.com and I own the domain thechairmanscouncil.com. I’ve followed the directions to point the domain, but it’s not working. I’ve already sent an email to support@substackinc.com, but did not get a response. Please help. P.s. I’ve been watching some of the YouTube videos you’ve hosted for Substack writers, please keep doing these, they are super.
Thanks for the update. Cloudflare is working without the proxy (I had the orange cloud). My fault there as this was in the tutorial. So only c) and d) are not working. The b) offers the solution. Thanks for launching the custom domain.
hell yeah
I changed my domain beslenmebulteni.substack to dunyadanesintilere.substack. I’m unable to register the domain beslenmebulteni.substack again to create a second site. How can I solve this issue?"
If I change my substack subdomain, can I keep my handle the same?
This topic really needs an upgrade re Gmail's new Bulk-Email rules. A lot of Newsletter on Substack are seeing massive degradation in spam rates, deliverability, open-rates, clicks, paid subs, etc... Please make better guides and How-tos when it comes to critical parts of their business.
Hello, I am interested in redirecting my old domain to a new domain on Substack so that users who enter my old domain are redirected to my current domain on Substack. I am not interested in changing my current domain on Substack and this current domain is fine with me. So is it possible to just redirect the old domain to the current domain without the current domain stopping working or being changed to the old domain?
As a result, I will have two different domains (old AND current) and both will point to the same newsletter on Substack?
Thank you.
If I move my domain name to Substack, what happens with the 4 email accounts we have on our present host? Will substack support those?
substack own domain is good for author, It may not be the right choice for agencies, but it is definitely the right choice of publisher for influencers. I would like to use it for my WordPress blog https://teknotr.com/ because there are no problems with hosting etc.
Am I the only one who can't find the "set up custom domain" link/page/feature on substack?
hi , is possible to use www.domain.net or www.domain.net as a custom domaine , substack has no problem with those domains
Hi I'm in desperate need of support. I've emailed yesterday but yet to hear back. I set up a custom domain a while back and amended code in my DNS with supplied code. I've since changed to a different domain and published a website that directs to my Substack publications. I have set up a redirect to new site on my server. But, rookie mistake, I didn't disable the cname record on my dashboard and now I cannot access it to remove it for everything to work. Please help 🤞🤞
How does the custom domain work if you already have a website? Would my entire substack become a section like www.website.com/newsletter?
Does this break old links?
Do you guys know if with this feature we can add in a custom email (eg. name@thepcosnewsltter.com) rather than thepcosnewsletter@substack.com?
Anyone else having an issue with Bluehost? They won't let me add a CNAME and for the A redirect, I need an IP address and "target.substack-custom-domains.com" won't work...I also tried a redirect and bluehost rejects that...
Can someone explain what does "per publication" mean? Will I need to pay $50 per each post moving forward? Or did it actually $50 per each custom domain change?
Per 'publication' means per substack newsletter, not per post. I for example have my own personal one, and one for my publishing company. Both would have to pay $50. It's not per-post as that would be ridiculously expensive
How can I integrate my site https://znbeyond.com/ for this opportunity ?
Argh! I'm brand new here and struggling to understand where to find my Substack URL. When I Google "Christine Wolf on Substack", I'm sent here: https://substack.com/profile/6077299-christine-wolf. I'd love to modify my URL, but don't understand how to do it. In "Danger Zone", it says my current URL is "christinewolf.substack.com". I'd like my URL to be simple and include either my name OR my newsletter's name (Writers' Haven), but writershaven looks like a shaving reference (lol). Thanks for any guidance. I'm such a newbie, but I won't give up. Sigh.
.
Hey. When I click unlock custom domains, I get this error:
"{"errors":[{"location":"body","param":"stripe_token","msg":"Please enter new payment details"}]}"
Seems to be ok now!
Very interesting, thank you! https://substack.com/
I have just signed up and created a subdomain also. But looking for a process to propagate my website https://www.dubaieveningsafari.com/ on subdomain. I am sure I am wrong and missing something. Can anyone please guide. Thanks
I integrated my custom domain here: iosdevie.com However, the posts still show the substack subdomain in their URL (iosdevie.substack.com). Any leads?
Hello Anupam, may I know how do you resolve this? Or you just wait for 36 hours for it to take effect? I am having the same issue.
Hi Chenming, same issue here. Did your issue get resolved? Like you asked, do I wait for 36 hours?
Yeap 1-2 working days and it should reflect the changes.
Hi, is there any way to remove the subscribe page when people navigate to the website? Thanks
Does Substack block just domain forwards from domains we already have? I have my own and when I try and forward, it never loads. Only way is to pay the $50? Thanks!
Took a few nerve-wracking minutes to work (I'm not patient with that stuff.. can't help but think that it didn't work), but it did work and I've now got it working at www.LibertyRPF.com -- thanks guys & gals!
We currently setup everything right to use beehivestartups.com as our custom domain, but then we ran into problems with out MX records with Google. They were looking for the MX records at target.substack-custom-domains.com and not what we had in our MX records. So we had to go back to adding the www, but that doesn't work either. Is there a way we can either get a IP address to add to our A records or a way around this that doesn't require using a sub-domain?
I purchased the domain through google and registered the custom domain on substack, however I cannot find the site on search and I cannot search for it directly, e.g if i searched for fse101.com google return an error message. I tried to have the site indexed but Google says it cannot be indexed. any guidance on this !!!
Anyone know if a domain purchased through Squarespace can be used?
I'm wondering if it's possible to run two separate newsletters off one domain, like newsletter@economy.com and next@economy.com?
That's a great idea. I have trouble to do it though. I wrote to the support team, I hope we will find a solution. Because that's really awesome !!!
A simple question: do you need a domain + hosting service to make this work, or just a domain? The technical FAQs are pretty patchy. It would be very nice if Substack were to provide more detailed instructions.
I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but if I want something like "example.substack.com," how do I do that? I don't currently own a domain name. I read the FAQ's/tutorials, and am still lost. Tech is NOT my forte...
you just create your substack space by clicking on the “write on substack” button on the homepage
Thank you, but I meant a custom domain rather than the one that is auto-generated.
50 for 1 domain.... and if i want starting mailing list with 10 domain is 50 for any newsletter used on those domain..that have differents topics ?
Just set mine up -- fairly easy. Thanks men! You can discover productive content at https://manchesterremovalsgb.co.uk/
I have a custom domain aimlbox.com from godaddy. I have enabled custom domain to the www version www.aimlbox.com, but when someone types aimlbox.com, it simply opens the godaddy's default parked page. How to fix this?
I a having the same issue-- but I'm using hover.
Here is the fix via https://serverfault.com/questions/486406/configuring-cname-record-in-godaddy-control-panel :
"In short, you can't make the @ record a CNAME without deleting all other resource records for @, and you can't do that since some (like the NS records) are required for proper DNS functionality. This is one reason why providers such as Heroku tell you not to use naked domain names.
You will need a host to perform the HTTP redirection from example.com to www.example.com for you, to which you will point A (and AAAA) record for @.
If your DNS is hosted with GoDaddy, then they have a free service that will do this for you. In your GoDaddy domain manager, look on the left hand side for "Forwarding" and click "Manage". Then set it to forward example.com to www.example.com and update your DNS to support the change. You should leave the Advanced Options at their defaults."
Yes I'm a writer of on-line content at https://techquare.com/ produced by way of a tribe of passionate warriors running voluntarily online from locations spanning the globe, I'm eager to nurture their ardour to make an impact using this platform.
The custom Domain link is not working... This is a feature I rally need.... ???
Any idea if we can use .in domains for this?
UFC 254 Lives
https://ufc254lives.com/
Does anyone know how this will impact external links to the [name].substack.com ? Example, let's say I have 10 Twitter posts and 10 Reddit pointing to [name].substack.com/[post1], will those links automatically map to the new domain, say [name].com/[post1]?
Once everything is set up, the link will be redirected automatically :)
Thank you, sir!
Yay! Any special instructions to set up a subdomain - blog.domain.com?
nope, same instructions so long as you own domain.com you can DNS whatever subdomains you'd like on it
What a custom domain is?
It costs us money (more than it should) right now to terminate the TLS for custom domains, so until we can scale that particular cost down, a $50 one time fee is likely currently net present value negative for us (hence the beta). We love our writers and fundamentally need to align our incentives with them. It's just that we can't prudently offer a lower price for this right now without the risk of ballooning our own costs.
I understand the concern about price point, but given the ease of the configuration on the user end and the speed of support here on this thread, it almost seems more than worth it to me. And I’m sure to writers who are just starting out, $50 to have a site branded wouldn’t be terribly painful. Considering it’s totally option, feels like a win; but that’s just me?
It is a win Jarrett. A win, win for everyone. They just don't see it yet or realise the potential for it all.
The explanation is that you are not the target customer yet. It's people who don't understand that this is steep. At scale, this can be a huge monetisation win for Substack team.