How to connect a custom domain to your project

A custom domain is what separates "cool demo" from "real product" in a visitor's mind. The good news: connecting one to a vibe-coded project is a fifteen-minute job once you know the moving parts. Step one: buy the domain at any registrar. Prices for common TLDs are similar everywhere; what matters more is an easy DNS dashboard. Step two: find your hosting platform's custom-domain instructions. Every platform gives you either an A record (an IP address) or a CNAME (a hostname) to add in DNS — plus sometimes a verification TXT record. Add exactly what they specify, nothing more. Step three: wait out the SSL certificate. After DNS propagates, the platform issues a certificate automatically. This usually takes minutes but can take hours for freshly registered domains — resist the urge to change settings while it is pending, which restarts the process. Step four: set your canonical URL. Pick www or bare domain, redirect the other, and update the site URL in your app config so links and social previews point at the new address. The classic mistakes: a typo in the DNS record value, adding the record at the wrong level (the root instead of a subdomain or vice versa), and old records from a previous setup conflicting with the new ones. When stuck, delete everything related to the hostname and re-add only the current instructions.