Connect your own domain

Every Yclas site starts at an address like yourname.yclas.com. When you’re ready, you can show it at your own domain instead, such as yourdomain.com. Members, search engines and your emails then use your address, and the site runs on https with a free SSL certificate.

Connecting a domain is included on every paid plan. It takes about 5 minutes of work: you add one DNS record where you bought your domain, and we take care of the certificate. You don’t need a Cloudflare account or any other service.

Connect your domain before you promote your site. Links people share and pages search engines index then use the final address from the start.

Before you start

You need a domain name. If you don’t have one, buy it from any domain registrar.

Open the setup page from either place:

• In your site’s admin panel, click Domain & SSL at the bottom of the sidebar.
• At yclas.com, open My sites, click Settings next to the site, then Use your own domain.

The page, Use your own domain, walks you through the same three steps as below.

If your Yclas account’s email address isn’t confirmed yet, you see a Confirm your email page first: click Send me the link and open the link we email you, and you come straight back here. Accounts that have paid for a plan skip this. See Confirm your email.

Already connected a domain before? Your setup stays exactly as it is. See Sites connected before at the end of this guide.

Step-by-step for your domain company

If your domain is at one of these companies, its guide shows exactly where to add the DNS record:

• GoDaddy
• Namecheap
• Cloudflare
• Squarespace Domains (including former Google Domains)
• IONOS
• Hostinger

Step 1: Get a domain name

If you already own the domain, skip this step. Otherwise buy one from any registrar; the setup page links to one option.

Step 2: Add one DNS record

Sign in where your domain’s DNS is managed (usually the company you bought the domain from) and open its DNS settings. Delete any A record for your domain itself, then add this record:

Type	Name	Target
CNAME	@ (your domain)	transfer.yclas.com

The Use your own domain page shows the same target, ready to copy. That’s the only record you need: there’s no SSL setting to choose and no verification record to add.

Some DNS providers don’t allow a CNAME record on the domain itself (@) and only offer A records there. If yours refuses it, look for an ALIAS, ANAME or “CNAME flattening” option, or open a ticket and tell us who manages your DNS.

Is your domain’s DNS on your own Cloudflare account? Add the same CNAME record there, under DNS, and set its proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied (orange cloud). Delete any A records for your domain first. With the record proxied, or with old A records left in place, our certificate can’t be issued and visitors can see a “too many redirects” error. Cloudflare’s own SSL/TLS setting doesn’t matter for this record.

Leave your email (MX) records as they are, so your email keeps working. See Email addresses on your domain.

Step 3: Connect it in Yclas

1. Back on the Use your own domain page, type your domain without www, for example yourdomain.com.
2. Click Connect my domain.

You’re taken back to My sites with the message Domain name for your site changed!. Your site now uses your domain, and your old .yclas.com address stops working, so update any links you’ve shared.

You can add the DNS record before or after this step, but it’s best to add it first: your site moves to the new address as soon as you click, and visitors can only reach it there once the record is live. DNS changes usually take a few minutes, sometimes up to 48 hours.

SSL (https) turns on by itself

Once your DNS record is live, we detect it, a free certificate is issued for your domain, and your site switches to https on its own. There’s nothing to buy, renew or switch on.

Until then your site opens with http, and its settings page on yclas.com shows SSL certificate: Off. To see how far it has got, open My sites › Settings and click Activate SSL. The page shows one of two states:

You see	What it means
Waiting for your DNS record	We haven’t seen your record yet, or the certificate is still being issued. No action needed: it turns on by itself once it’s ready.
Your certificate is ready	The certificate is issued. Click Check now to turn https on straight away, or wait a few minutes and it turns on by itself.

When https is on, My sites shows Own domain · SSL on on the site’s card.

www or no www?

Your site’s main address is the domain without www, and that’s the address this setup connects. If you also want people who type www.yourdomain.com to reach your site, set up a redirect from www to your domain at your registrar (most call it “domain forwarding”), or open a ticket and we’ll help.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
The SSL page keeps saying Waiting for your DNS record	The @ record is a CNAME pointing to transfer.yclas.com, and there’s no old A record left for your domain. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours.
“Too many redirects”, or the SSL page never gets past Waiting for your DNS record, and your domain’s DNS is on Cloudflare	In your Cloudflare account, the @ CNAME to transfer.yclas.com must be DNS only (grey cloud), with no A records left for your domain.
My DNS provider won’t accept a CNAME on @	Use its ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening option, or open a ticket.
“Domain name in use or invalid”	The domain is already connected to another Yclas site, or it’s not a valid domain name. Type it without http:// and without www.
Some images or links still use the old address	Clear your site’s cache (Tools › Cache) and your browser’s cache. See Cache.
Email stopped working	Your MX records were changed or deleted. Add them back in your DNS settings.

Still stuck? Open a ticket and tell us which step you’re on.

Sites connected before

If your site was already on its own domain before the one-record setup arrived, nothing changes: it keeps running through your own Cloudflare account, with the records and the Flexible SSL setting you chose then. Don’t change those settings.

If you change the domain of such a site, the Use your own domain page shows the original steps instead:

1. Add the domain to a free Cloudflare account and set Cloudflare’s two name servers at your registrar.
2. In Cloudflare, open DNS, delete any A records for your domain and for www, and add a proxied (orange cloud) CNAME for @ pointing to yclas.ovh, plus an optional proxied CNAME for www pointing to your domain.
3. In Cloudflare, open SSL/TLS and choose Flexible (not Full or Full (strict), which can stop your site from loading).
4. Type your domain, click Test domain, and when you see Your domain points to Yclas. You can switch your site to it., click Switch to my domain.

On these sites, SSL comes from Cloudflare and is switched on when you switch domain. You can turn it off and on from My sites › Settings with Deactivate SSL and Activate SSL (then Turn on SSL); before turning it back on, make sure SSL/TLS in Cloudflare is still set to Flexible. If you see too many redirects or an SSL error, check that setting first.

Related guides

• Email addresses on your domain — use you@yourdomain.com for your email.
• Make sure your emails arrive — send your site’s emails from your domain.
• Plans and billing — your own domain is included on every paid plan.
• Sitemap — regenerate it after switching, then tell Google.