Module 7 · Go live (Vercel + domain)
Connect your custom domain
Stage 6, part two. Let’s give your site a professional address — yourbusiness.com instead of your-site.vercel.app. About $12/year and a few minutes.
Buy your domain
- Use a reputable registrar: Cloudflare (cheapest), Namecheap, or Porkbun.
- Match your business name if you can, keep it short, and go for
.comfirst. - Add it to the cart, decline the add-ons, and check out. (Glance at the renewal price — ~$10–15/yr is normal.)
Connect it to Vercel
- In Vercel: open your project → Settings → Domains → type your domain → Add.
- Vercel shows the exact DNS records to enter. When it asks which version is primary, pick the plain
yourbusiness.com(it redirectswwwfor you). - Log in at your registrar, find DNS settings, and add what Vercel shows — usually an A record (
@ → 76.76.21.21) and a CNAME (www → cname.vercel-dns.com). - Save. Back in Vercel the status turns Active, usually within minutes. HTTPS (the padlock) is automatic.
Registrar DNS screens are confusing. Take a screenshot and paste it to Claude:
Ask Claude to read your DNS screen
I'm connecting my domain to Vercel. Here's a screenshot of my registrar's DNS settings page, and here are the records Vercel wants me to add: [paste the records]. Please tell me exactly what to put in each box.
DNS changes can take a few minutes to a couple of hours to spread across the internet. If it’s not working after 15 minutes, give it an hour before worrying — it’s almost always just waiting.
You type yourbusiness.com and your site loads, with a padlock. That’s a real, professional, secure website — built and launched by you. Take a moment; that’s a genuine accomplishment.
Stuck on the registrar’s screen even with the screenshot? Tell Claude which registrar you’re using (“I’m on Namecheap”) — it can give you the exact click path for that specific company.