Put your site on your own address
Your site is always live on its free test URL. Connecting a domain you own gives it a proper home, automatic HTTPS, and a place in search results.
The subscription that unlocks domains
Building and previewing on the test URL (your-slug.webbuddy.radioworkflow.com) is free, forever. Connecting a custom domain is the paid step: it takes a $250 / month subscription for that site.
One subscription covers all of a site's domains — so your apex (example.com) and www.example.com are included together, not billed twice. See Billing for the full picture.
The Domains page for your site is the paywall. Until the subscription is active it shows the billing card instead of the add-domain form. Activating it (or a complimentary flag set by our team) unlocks adding and verifying domains.
Add your domain
- 1Open your site in the console and go to Domains.
- 2Enter the hostname you own — just the name, like
news.example.com(nohttps://, no port, no path). You can connect a subdomain likenews.example.comor an apex likeexample.com. - 3Add it. The domain appears as Pending verification with the two DNS records it needs.
The two DNS records
At your domain registrar or DNS host, create these two records. The exact values for your site are shown on the domain's card in the console (with copy buttons) — the example below is for a site whose slug is riverside connecting news.example.com:
| Type | Host / Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | news.example.com | riverside.webbuddy.radioworkflow.com |
| TXT | _webbuddy.news.example.com | wb-verify-a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8 |
- The CNAMEpoints your domain at Web Buddy. The target is your site's test hostname, which resolves to our load balancer — so you never have to track an IP address.
- The TXT record at
_webbuddy.<your-domain>proves you own the name. Its value always starts withwb-verify-.
A bare example.com can't use a CNAME. Add an A record on the host @ pointing to 8.232.189.60 instead. (Some hosts also offer ALIAS/ANAMErecords, which can point straight at your site's test host — either works.) The domain's card in the console shows the exact record for your domain, and its Check DNSbutton confirms in real time whether it's pointing at us. The _webbuddy TXT record is the same either way.
Verify it
Once the records are saved, click Verifyon the domain's card. We look up the _webbuddy TXT record and, when it matches, flip the domain to Verified.
DNS changes can take a few minutes (sometimes longer) to propagate. If Verify can't find the record yet, wait a moment and try again — the message tells you exactly what it found.
Automatic HTTPS
The instant a domain is verified, Web Buddy provisions a managed TLS certificate for it — you don't upload anything or add extra DNS. The domain card shows a live status pill:
- HTTPS provisioning… — the certificate is being issued.
- HTTPS active — the certificate is live and your domain serves securely.
Provisioning usually finishes within a few minutes, and occasionally takes up to an hour. There's a Recheck control on the pill if you want to poll the latest status without reloading.
Set a primary domain
When a site has more than one verified domain, pick one as the Primary. The primary domain becomes your site's canonical public address — the URL used for share links, the sitemap, and the "Open site" button. Use Make primary on any verified domain to switch; there's always exactly one primary.
If billing lapses
Your content is never held hostage. If the subscription ends, the site's custom domains pause— visitors to them see a "not connected" page — but:
- Your free test URL keeps working and becomes the canonical address again.
- Your articles, settings, domain records, and certificates are all retained — nothing is deleted.
- Reactivating the subscription brings the domains straight back — no need to re-add or re-verify them.
A past-due payment (while automatic retries run) does not pause your domains — they only pause once the subscription actually ends.