Adding a custom domain

Bring your own domain to Genesis — the setup wizard, nameserver change, automatic SSL, and DNS management.

Every published project gets a Genesis address out of the box — yourproject.genesis.estage.com. A custom domain (like mysite.com) replaces it as your public address: better branding, better trust, and your SEO equity accrues to your domain.

It's a two-part process: first you add the domain to your workspace (this page), then you connect it to a project.

Before you start

• You need a registered domain — buy one at any registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, …), or buy one right here and skip the setup below. Own one already? You can also transfer it to ESTAGE instead of pointing it here.
• Genesis manages your domain's DNS for you. Setup means pointing your domain's nameservers at Genesis — one change at your registrar, everything else is automatic.
• Custom domains require an active subscription.

The setup wizard

Open Domains in your workspace and click Add Domain. The wizard walks you through:

1. Enter your domain

Type the bare domain — mysite.com, no https://, no www.

2. Change your nameservers

Genesis creates a DNS zone for your domain and shows 4 nameservers (each with a copy button). At your registrar, find the nameserver settings ("Nameservers", "DNS settings", "Use custom nameservers") and replace the current entries with these four.

3. Verify

Click Verify Nameservers. If the check fails, your registrar's change simply hasn't propagated yet — typically minutes to a few hours, worst case up to 48. Come back and retry; nothing is lost.

4. SSL certificate

Once verified, Genesis automatically issues an SSL certificate for the domain (and its subdomains) — the validation records are created for you, nothing to do. The status shows "Validating certificate… usually takes 2–5 minutes" and flips to issued; your site will be HTTPS-only.

5. Activate

The final step activates the domain for traffic. After this, the domain shows Active with a green status — ready to connect to a project.

Your domains list

The Domains page lists every domain you've added — status, SSL badge, and how many projects it's connected to. Click one to open its detail view:

• Overview — nameservers, verification, and certificate status in one place.
• DNS Records — see below.
• Connected Projects — which projects this domain serves.

Managing DNS records

Since Genesis runs your domain's DNS, the DNS Records tab is where you add anything else the domain needs — the records Genesis itself created for your site are managed for you, so you only touch your own:

• Email — your mail provider's MX (and SPF/DKIM TXT) records, if your mail lives elsewhere. A domain registered or transferred through ESTAGE can have mailboxes hosted by ESTAGE instead, and those records are added for you.
• Verification records for third-party services (Google Search Console TXT, etc.).
• Any custom subdomain pointing elsewhere.

Removing a domain

Deleting a domain from your workspace removes its DNS zone, certificate, and all project connections. The domain itself stays yours at your registrar — point its nameservers anywhere you like afterwards.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
"Verify Nameservers" keeps failing	The registrar change hasn't propagated — wait and retry (up to 48 h). Double-check all 4 entries were saved and old ones removed.
Certificate stuck in validation	Almost always propagation as well. If the domain is behind Cloudflare, make sure you changed nameservers, not just added records under Cloudflare's proxy.
"Domain already registered"	The domain is verified in another Genesis account — remove it there first, or contact support.
Email stopped working after setup	MX records didn't survive the nameserver move — re-add your mail provider's records in the DNS Records tab. (Mailboxes hosted by ESTAGE don't need this.)