Domains
Site Domains Tab
The Domains tab is where you attach domain names to a site, decide which one is the primary URL, and check whether DNS has caught up yet. A site can carry several domains at once, with one of them nominated as the main address.
Where the Domains Tab Lives
Open Websites, click the site, open the Domain menu in the site tab strip, and choose Domains. The page is titled Domains and describes itself as managing the domains connected to this site.
The neighbouring DNS item in the same menu shows the records for the domain rather than the site's attachment to it. See Site DNS Tab for that.
Reading the Domain List
Each domain attached to the site gets a row showing:
- The domain name.
- A DNS Active or DNS Pending pill.
- A Primary pill on the one that is the site's main URL, with the note Main URL for this site.
- A Make Primary button on the others.
- A remove control.
DNS Active means the domain currently resolves to this site's server. DNS Pending means it does not, yet. A newly added external domain always starts as pending.
Click Refresh in the top right after making a DNS change elsewhere, rather than reloading the whole page. The check is live, not cached.
Connecting a Domain You Registered With Kapsule
This is the easy path, because Kapsule already runs the DNS.
- Choose the My domains tab in the add card.
- Pick the domain from the Select a domain list.
- Click Connect.
DNS, SSL and the CDN are set up for you, and the domain becomes the primary URL for the site. The confirmation says as much: the domain is connected and set as primary, and the CDN is activating in the background.
The CDN part depends on your hosting plan. Plans that include a CDN tier get edge caching turned on automatically; plans without one simply skip that step and the domain still works normally. Enabling the CDN explains which plans include which tier.
The list only offers domains in your account that are not already attached elsewhere. If the domain you want is not listed, either it is not registered in this account, or it is already connected to another site.
Do not have the domain yet? The page carries a Register or transfer a domain link straight to the domain search.
Adding an External Domain
If the domain is registered somewhere else, the order is reversed: point the DNS at us first, then add it here.
- Choose the External domain tab in the add card.
- Type the domain. You can paste a full URL; the leading
https://and any trailing slash are stripped for you. - Click Add.
The domain is added straight away with a DNS Pending pill, and a certificate is issued automatically once DNS resolves to us.
The Records To Create
The page shows the records you need, including the server's IP address with a copy control. Create two records at your current DNS host:
| Record | Name | Points to |
|---|---|---|
| A | @ (the root domain) | The IP address shown on the page |
| A | www | The same IP address |
Copy the IP from the page rather than from any other source: it is the address for the server this specific site is on.
Changes normally propagate within minutes, though they can take a few hours depending on the previous TTL. Click Refresh to re-check rather than waiting for the page to notice by itself.
Do not add an external domain here before the DNS is pointed at us and then assume the site is live. Until the pill flips to DNS Active, visitors are still being sent wherever the old records point, and no certificate can be issued because the certificate authority cannot verify a domain that does not resolve to us.
If you would rather move the whole domain to Kapsule so that this is all handled for you, see Transferring a Domain To Kapsule and Nameservers.
Changing the Primary Domain
Click Make Primary on the domain you want as the main address, then confirm. KPanel is explicit about the consequences: on a WordPress site, the site URL is updated to the new domain, and both domains keep working.
That second part matters. Making a domain primary does not switch the other one off. Every attached domain continues to serve the site; the primary is the one the application treats as its canonical address.
Changing the primary domain on a WordPress site rewrites the site URL, which affects links, canonical tags and anything that has hard-coded the old address. Take a backup first, and afterwards check that the admin still loads and that internal links resolve. Taking a Backup and Search and Replace in WordPress are the two pages to have open.
Removing a Domain
Click the remove control on the row and confirm. The confirmation states the effect plainly: this domain will no longer point to this site.
Removing a domain here does not delete the domain from your account, cancel its registration, or change its DNS records at the registrar. It only breaks the link between the domain and this site. If the DNS still points at us afterwards, visitors get an error rather than your site, so update or remove those records too.
Remove a domain before attaching it to a different site, because a domain can only be connected to one site at a time.
Troubleshooting
The pill stays on DNS Pending. Check the records at your DNS host with a lookup tool, and confirm the A record's value matches the IP shown on this page exactly. A very common mistake is creating a CNAME for the root domain, which most providers will not serve.
The site loads without www but not with it, or the other way round. You have created only one of the two A records. Both the root and www need to point at the same address.
No certificate has appeared. Certificates are issued after DNS resolves to us, not before. Once the pill reads DNS Active, give it a few minutes. If it is still missing, see SSL Certificates.
Connect is greyed out or the domain is missing from the list. The domain is attached to another site. Remove it there first.
The old site is still showing. Your browser or an intermediate resolver has the previous answer cached. Try a different network or a private window before assuming the change did not take.
Where To Go Next
- Site DNS Tab to view and edit the records themselves.
- Adding Your Domain for the wider domain setup.
- Site Settings for the Force HTTPS switch you will want on once the certificate is live.