Custom domain setup

Custom domain feature is available for paid plans only. See: Pricing

You can use your own domain name for your Wild Apricot website. For example, instead of using a free Wild Apricot address like nycs.wildapricot.org you can use www.nycs.net.

Correctly setting up your domain can be tricky - and this is further complicated by the fact that domain setup process is different from one domain registrar to another. We have provided an overview of the process and key instructions - if you need any assistance with it you should contact your domain name registrar.

1. Choose and Register Your Domain Name

Skip this step if you already have registered your domain name.

• Chose domain name registrar. There are many companies that offer this service, from our experience Godaddy.com offers a competitive price and all the necessary capabilities for domain management.

Tips:

• Make sure that your selected domain name registrar offers online self-service for DNS management. This will give you direct control over the DNS records for your domain and ability to create and modify A, CNAME, and SPF records as needed. (Most registrars offer this as part of the basic domain registration, but there are still a few that do not.)

2. Set up your domain to point to Wild Apricot

Each domain name registrar has its own way of setting up Domain Name Server records.

• You can either contact your domain name provider directly and ask for their assistance with the setup. Use the following email template. Just copy-paste and adjust it as required.

@ refers to your domain name here, so it can be replaced with "yourdomain.org", and with some domain registrars the name is not required)

• Or you can try to set it up yourself.
  General instructions are provided below. We have also provided a more detailed examples for two domain registrars - see Godaddy DNS Setup example and Network Solutions DNS Setup Example. Even if you are using another domain registrar, you might still find these two examples helpful - but will have to interpret how to apply similar settings via your own domain registrar.

When in doubt, check directly with your domain registrar for additional help or instructions. Some (of many) Domain Name registrars

Godaddy
NetworkSolutions.com
Siteground.com
Web.com
Netfirms.com

General instructions

"CNAME" record

First setup a canonical name (CNAME) www for your DNS servers which points to sites.memberlodge.org.

For example:

1. Copy exactly as shown above - do not replace "sites.memberlodge.org" with anything else! 2. This only sets up "www.yourdomain.org" and not "yourdomain.org".

"A" record

If you want "yourdomain.org" (without the leading 'www') to work as well you need to setup an A-record for "yourdomain.org" to point to our server IP address 66.29.208.61

For example:

3. Setup TXT record for your domain

You need to create a TXT record for your domain (this is usually in the SPF setup section) - this basically specifies that Wild Apricot servers are allowed to send emails on your behalf. Without a TXT record the "From" email address will be automatically generated from the free sub-domain we provide you, and you will not be able to create a custom "From" address that is based on your custom domain (see: Organization details - email settings).

If your domain currently does not have a TXT record, you should add one as follows:

1. Copy the value exactly as shown above - do not replace "memberlodge.org" with anything else. 2. If you already have a TXT record then simply modify it by adding "include:memberlodge.org" before "~all" 3. With some domain registrars the name is not required, or it can be set to your domain e.g. "mydomain.com"

4. Add your domain to your Wild Apricot account

Go to Domain name management and do the following

• Add your custom domain
• Set your custom domain as 'Primary' - meaning that it will be used for email links

  While the process on WA's end takes about few minutes to complete, the process on your registrar's end can take 24-48 hours. Your free Wild Apricot-provided domain like NYCS.memberlodge.org will still work to reach your website - as a backup option. You can setup several custom domains, for example NYCS.info, NYCS.net and NYCS.com. One of the domains will be selected as primary.

Optional settings

Subdomain

Subdomain is a type of domain address - for example, if you have an established website at www.abc.org, you can setup WildApricot on a subdomain like memberarea.abc.org
For more information on how to set this up contact your domain name provider.

Email hosting

Be careful regarding your email (mailboxes on your own domain - for example john@ABCorganization.org). Wild Apricot does not include email hosting so if you are using your own domain, you have to set it up so that web traffic is sent to our servers while email traffic is sent to your email hosting company. (By the way, you can use free email hosting, for example from Google - see Email setup and WildApricot)

Examples

• Godaddy DNS Setup example
• Network Solutions DNS Setup example

See also

• Custom domain setup troubleshooting
• Email setup and WildApricot