You made a website on Cloudways with the Cloudways subdomain, and now you do want to add your own domain name.
By the end of this article, you will be able to add and manage your domain name on Cloudways step by step.
You will learn how to point your domain name to any application -website- on the Cloudways platform simply and easily.
You will also learn how to enable HTTPS redirection, and add a free SSL certificate to your website.
1. Register a Domain Name
Cloudways doesn’t offer domain name registration. Therefore, you need to register a domain name somewhere else.
If you already have the domain name registered, you can proceed to the next step.
If you don’t have a domain name go to NameCheap and buy a domain name, it’s a reliable domain hosting, hosts millions of domains, and has a clean dashboard and low-price domain name registration.
2. Add Domain Name to Cloudways
The next step is to add your domain name to your website or application on Cloudways.
Go to the Cloudways platform, login to your account, and then to the application that you want to add or change the domain name for.
Once you do that, you will find yourself on a page like the one below. I created this application (hostingengines2) to demonstrate the process.
From this control panel, you can manage all your website settings with ease. Everything you need in order to manage your websites such as backups, migration, monitoring, access credentials, and more can be done from there.
From the Application Management panel on the left side, click on Domain Management to go to your domain settings on your application.
Next, in the blank field under PRIMARY DOMAIN, type in your domain name, and click on SAVE CHANGES.
3. Point your Domain To Your IP Address
An Internet Protocol (IP Address) is a string of unique numbers assigned to websites and servers Used to send and retrieve data from specific devices connected to the Internet.
After you finished the previous steps, now it’s time to point your domain name to your website by adding the Public IP address of your server to your domain DNS records.
To get your IP address on your server click on Access Details to take you right back. From there just click on your IP address to copy the set of numbers marked in yellow below.
Next, go to where you host your domain name; your domain DNS settings, and add an “A” record and a “CNAME” record.
The “A” record maps a domain name to the IP address. In other words, the “A” record tells your domain name that this IP address is the targeted one. So whenever someone clicks on your domain name, he will be directed to your website.
The “CNMAE” record redirects the “www” version of your website to the “non-www” version. So whenever visitors type your domain name -for example- (www.hostingengines.com), they will be redirected to (hostingengines.com).
In this tutorial, I will edit the DNS records on the most known domain managers to match the most requested query: Cloudflare, NameCheap, and GoDaddy.
Point a Cloudflare domain name to Cloudways IP address:
To edit your domain name DNS settings on Cloudflare, click here to go to Cloudflare and log in to your account.
Next, select the targeted domain name that you want to point to Cloudways and click on the DNS in the left sidebar. From there you can find all the DNS records your domain name has.
To add the A record, on your domain DNS click on Add record. The type would be an “A” record.
In the name field, type in your domain name such as (hostingengines.com) or just type in “@” instead. The “@” symbol means that you are referring to the origin registered domain.
In the IP Address field, paste the IP address that you copied before. If you lost it, go back and copy it again the same way. You can leave the TTL option auto as it is and click Save.
If there’s an existing “A” record you can’t add a new one. Instead, edit the existing one the same way you add a new one.
Wait a few seconds and then you can see that your domain name has been assigned to your website -application- on Cloudways.
To add the CNAME record, on your domain DNS click on add record. The type would be a “CNAME” record.
In the name field type in “www” and in the Target field, type in your domain name the same as “yourdomain.com”.
Point a NameCheap domain name to Cloudways IP address:
To point your domain name on NameCheap click here to go to NameCheap and login to your account.
Once you are in there, in the left sidebar click Domain List to go to your domain lists. Next, click Manage on the right side of the domain name tab. From there you can manage all your domain settings.
Click Advanced DNS, and scroll down to ADD NEW RECORD. Choose to add an “A” record.
In the host field, add the “@” sign, and in the value add your server IP address, as we did earlier with Cloudflare.
If you find an existing “A” record you can’t add a new one. Just edit the new old by adding your new IP address.
The CNAME Record on NameCheap will be added automatically when you register the domain name with them. You just need to edit its value. Click in the Value field and type in”yourdomain.com” instead of “parkingpage.namecheap.com”
However, if you don’t find it, you can add it the same way you would add a new one.
Finally, hit the checkmark on the right side to save your settings.
Point a GoDaddy domain name to Cloudways IP address:
To point your domain name on GoDaddy click here to go to GoDaddy and log in to your account.
Next, go to your products on GoDaddy or where your domain name is and click on the three dots to open the domain name settings, then click on manage DNS.
In the DNS record click Add, and choose the type “A“, to add an “A” record.
Put the “@” sign in the Name field, and your IP address in the Value field. Then click Add record.
For the “CNAME” record once again Add, this time choose the “CNAME” record.
Put the “www” letters in the Name field, and type in “yourdomain.com” in the Value field. Then click Add record.
If any of the above records already exist, edit their values in the same way you would add a new one.
4. Install Let’s Encrypt Free SSL Certificate?
You don’t need to buy an SSL certificate from your domain name registrar if you host your website with Cloudways. Instead, you can install the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate that Cloudways offer.
Follow the steps below to know how to install the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
- From the Application Management panel of your website, select SSL Certificate. By default, you find that “Let’s Encrypt” certificate.
- On the Email Address field, type in the email address that you want Cloudways to notify you with after the end of the certificate to renew it again.
- In the Domain Name field, type in your domain name. Click Install Certificate, wait a few seconds and that’s it. Your website is now secure.
5. Enable HTTPS Redirection
It’s very necessary to have your non-secure “HTTP” version of your website redirected to your secured “HTTPS” version on Cloudways, so your visitors can trust your website.
How to redirect “Http” to “Https” on Cloudways?
To force redirect “HTTP” to “HTTPS” go to Application Management again, this time click Application Settings, then go down to the HTTPS REDIRECTION option.
If it’s enabled by default, you are all set up. If it’s not enabled yet, click on the toggle icon to switch the option and then click YES on the pop-up window.
6. Change Cloudways Domain Name
The process of how to change a domain name on Cloudways application (website) is the same process as adding a new domain.
So if you want to change your existing domain name to another one, you can go through the process of adding a new domain name as we explained above:
- Replace the old domain name with the new one from Domain Management.
- Add or update the DNS record of your new domain name as we explained above.
- Install the SSL certificate if you want. As well as that, redirect the “HTTP” version of your website to the “HTTPS” version.
Read also:
Install WordPress on Cloudways.
Install PHP on Cloudways.
Upgrade Cloudways Server PHP Version.
why Cloudways is the best.
Best Cloudways Features And Add-Ons.
