Custom domain

By default your storefront is reachable at {your-slug}.dzbuild.app (or {your-slug}.minacef.app for Minacef-tenant stores). When you're ready to go pro, point your own domain — myshop.com, mybrand.dz, anything you own — at DZBuild and we'll serve the storefront from there with automatic HTTPS.

There is only one DNS target you need to remember:

link.dzbuild.app

That's the canonical CNAME target for every custom domain on DZBuild. If you ever read instructions pointing somewhere else, they're out of date.

What you need

• A domain you already own (any registrar — OVH, Namecheap, GoDaddy, Hostinger, GoDaddy.dz, …).
• 5 minutes of attention. Propagation itself is usually under 30 minutes.

You do not need:

• An IP address. We don't publish one. Cloudflare for SaaS routes your domain to our origin — you only point a CNAME.
• A separate SSL certificate. We provision and renew it for you, automatically.

Two paths to a custom domain

You'll see one of these two flows in Dashboard → Domains, depending on what your registrar supports:

Path	When to use	What happens
Standard CNAME (recommended)	Your registrar lets you set a CNAME on the apex (@) — Cloudflare DNS, OVH, Namecheap, most modern providers.	You add 2 CNAME records at your current registrar. Done in minutes.
Cloudflare nameservers (full takeover)	Your registrar doesn't allow apex CNAME (Hostinger, Wix, Squarespace, some .dz registrars).	DZBuild creates a Cloudflare zone for you. You point your domain's nameservers at Cloudflare. We manage DNS from then on.

The dashboard auto-detects your registrar when you submit the domain. If it knows your provider can't handle apex CNAMEs, it surfaces the Cloudflare nameservers wizard up front.

Path A — Standard CNAME (most providers)

1. Add the domain in DZBuild

Go to Dashboard → Domains (/dashboard/domains). Type your domain (e.g. myshop.com) into the input and click Verify.

2. Add 2 records at your registrar

Sign in to your domain registrar, open the DNS settings (often called DNS Records, Zone Editor, or Manage DNS) and add:

Type	Host / Name	Value / Target
CNAME	@ (apex / root)	link.dzbuild.app

That's it — no A record, no IP address, no port. Do not add a www CNAME — adding both @ and www causes a conflict and breaks verification.

If your registrar uses different terminology:

• Host / Name = the subdomain side. @ means "the domain itself" (the apex). Some panels want the bare domain there instead.
• Value / Target / Points to = always link.dzbuild.app.
• Leave TTL at the default (300–3600s). Lower is fine; very high TTLs slow down propagation if you ever need to change something.

3. Click Verify

Back in Dashboard → Domains, click Verify. DZBuild checks the records. When they resolve, your domain status flips to Active and your storefront responds at myshop.com.

4. SSL — nothing to do

Cloudflare for SaaS issues an SSL certificate for your domain automatically and renews it. Customers see the green padlock. No CSR, no upload, no renewal calendar.

In some cases (notably Hostinger, which silently rewrites your apex CNAME) the dashboard will surface an extra TXT record to add. The card in Domains shows the exact Host and Value to copy. Add it at your registrar — same place as the CNAMEs — and SSL activation completes within a few minutes.

Path B — Cloudflare nameservers (when apex CNAME isn't allowed)

Some registrars don't accept a CNAME on the apex. You'll typically see one of these symptoms:

• The registrar's panel rejects CNAME @ outright.
• The CNAME @ saves but the registrar silently flattens it and your domain ends up pointing at the wrong target.
• The Verify card shows a flatten warning.

In these cases the dashboard switches to the Cloudflare DNS wizard. The flow is:

1. Step 1 — Create the Cloudflare zone. Click Set up Cloudflare DNS in the dashboard. We create a zone for your domain on Cloudflare and pre-load the right records.
2. Step 2 — Change your nameservers. The dashboard shows you two Nameserver values (something like ns1.cloudflare.com / ns2.cloudflare.com — the actual values are unique to your zone). Sign in to your registrar, find the Nameservers section (Hostinger: hPanel → Domains → DNS/Nameservers → Change nameservers), and replace the existing nameservers with the two Cloudflare ones.
3. Step 3 — Wait for activation. Cloudflare emails Cloudflare-style "your domain is active" once propagation finishes. The dashboard polls automatically and shows Activated when ready.

DNSSEC must be off

If your registrar has DNSSEC enabled on the domain, disable it before changing nameservers — otherwise the switch fails and resolvers will refuse the new nameservers. The dashboard reminds you of this on Step 2.

After activation, Cloudflare manages your domain's DNS. Your storefront is live on myshop.com and www.myshop.com, SSL is automatic, and you don't have to manage any records yourself unless you want to add things like an MX record for email — those go through your Cloudflare dashboard.

Verifying it's working

Two quick checks:

1. Open https://myshop.com in a private window. Your storefront should load (and the URL should stay on myshop.com, not redirect away).
2. From a terminal:

   dig +short myshop.com

   It should resolve. The exact target doesn't matter — Cloudflare's edge handles routing — what matters is that something resolves and the storefront opens.

DZBuild also self-heals — a background job re-checks active custom domains and re-syncs the SSL state if anything drifts.

Common pitfalls

Symptom	Cause	Fix
"CNAME @ is not allowed" at the registrar	Provider doesn't support apex CNAME	Use Path B (Cloudflare nameservers)
Domain verifies but SSL stays Pending	Provider flattens CNAME	Add the TXT record the dashboard shows under Extra step required — SSL activation
Nameserver switch doesn't take effect	DNSSEC is enabled	Disable DNSSEC, then re-add the nameservers
Verify still failing after 1 hour	TTL too high on old records	Lower TTL to 300, wait one TTL cycle, re-verify
Storefront opens on the right domain but customers say "not secure"	SSL still issuing (5–10 min after first verification)	Wait, hard-refresh, retry
Domain verifies but storefront is unreachable	Both @ and www CNAME were added	Remove the www CNAME — only the @ record is needed

Removing a domain

Dashboard → Domains → click the red trash icon. We stop accepting traffic on that hostname and un-register it from Cloudflare. Your storefront falls back to {your-slug}.dzbuild.app. We don't delete the records at your registrar — that's yours to clean up.

Frequently asked

Q: Can I use a .dz domain? A: Yes. Some .dz registrars don't allow apex CNAMEs — if yours doesn't, the dashboard switches to Path B automatically.

Q: Do you publish an IP I can put in an A record? A: No. DZBuild doesn't expose origin IPs. Always use the CNAME to link.dzbuild.app (or the Cloudflare nameservers flow). Anything telling you to set A @ {some-ip} is wrong.

Q: How long does propagation take? A: Usually 5–30 minutes for CNAMEs, up to a few hours for nameserver changes. The 24-hour figure you'll read online is a worst case from the 1990s — modern resolvers refresh much faster.

Q: Will www.myshop.com work? A: Only the apex (myshop.com) is configured. Set your primary domain without www and share that with customers.

Q: Multiple stores, one domain? A: One custom domain per store. If you run multiple stores, each one needs its own subdomain or apex.

Q: Does this affect SEO? A: Positively — search engines treat myshop.com as a real brand. Canonical URLs are set automatically. After the domain goes live, submit a sitemap to Google Search Console for the new hostname.