Connect your own domain

Buy a domain like yourorg.org if you don't have one, then point it at your website.

Your website already has an address like yourorg.occam.gives. You can also give it your own domain, like yourorg.org, so it's the address you print on flyers and say out loud. This takes about 20 minutes of work. After that, you wait for the internet to catch up, usually under an hour.

There are two parts:

Get a domain if you don't have one yet.
Connect it by copying a few settings from Occam into the company you bought the domain from.

You don't need to be technical. Each step tells you exactly what to type.

Before you start

Publish your website first. Until it's published, your domain will connect but visitors will see a "not found" page. See Start your website.
Already own a domain? Skip to Connect your domain below. Keep it where it is. Moving a domain to another company is the most common way an organization's email breaks.
Have a website somewhere else on that domain, like Squarespace or Wix? Once you connect the domain to Occam, that old site stops showing at your address. Have your Occam site ready before you start.

Get a domain

A domain costs about $10 to $15 a year. You buy it from a company called a registrar. Your organization owns it, not Occam. You can use it with any website or email service, now or later.

Where to buy it

We suggest Porkbun. It's inexpensive, the yearly renewal price stays close to the first-year price, privacy protection is free, and its settings screen is easy to follow.

Namecheap works well too, though its screens show more upsells.

If someone on your team is comfortable with technical settings, Cloudflare is the cheapest over time. Read the Cloudflare warning under Connect your domain first.

We don't recommend GoDaddy. Its renewal price is roughly double the others.

Choosing a name

.org is what most people expect for a nonprofit.
Short and easy to say beats clever. Imagine reading it out over the phone.
Avoid hyphens and numbers. People forget where they go.

Buying it

Search for the name you want on the registrar's site and add it to your cart.
Skip the add-ons. You don't need email hosting, a website builder, an "SSL certificate" or "domain protection" bundles. Occam provides the website and its security certificate.
Create the account with an email address your organization controls, like info@ or admin@. Don't use a volunteer's personal email.
Pay with the organization's card, and turn on auto-renew.

If a domain isn't renewed, your website and any email on it stop working, and someone else can buy the name. Auto-renew on an organization card is the single most important setting here. Write down which registrar you used and who has the login.

Connect your domain

You'll go back and forth between two browser tabs: Occam, which tells you what to add, and your registrar, where you add it.

1. Tell Occam your domain

In the sidebar, go to Website, then the Settings tab.
Find Custom domain and type your domain, like yourorg.org.
Select Connect.

Occam sets up both yourorg.org and www.yourorg.org. The one you type is your main address, and the other one automatically sends visitors to it.

Occam then lists the records you need to add. Leave this tab open.

2. Open your domain's DNS settings

DNS settings are a short list of records that tell the internet where your domain points. Sign in to your registrar, find your domain, and open its DNS settings. They may be called DNS, DNS Records, Manage DNS or Advanced DNS.

At Porkbun, go to Domain Management, hover over your domain, and select DNS.

3. Remove records that point somewhere else

A newly bought domain usually comes with "parking" records that show the registrar's placeholder page. If Occam says First remove this existing record (or these records), find each one in your DNS settings by its type and name, and delete it.

Remove only the records Occam lists.

Don't delete MX records, or TXT records you don't recognize. Those usually run your email. Occam never asks you to remove them.

4. Add the records Occam shows

For each record in Occam's list, add a new record at your registrar and copy the three values across:

Type: A, CNAME or TXT. Choose it from the dropdown.
Name (or Host): where the record goes. Occam shows @ for your main domain and www for the www version.
Value (or Answer, Points to or Target): copy this exactly. It's easiest to copy and paste it.

If your registrar asks for TTL, leave the default.

Two things trip people up:

The Name box for your main domain. Some registrars want @ and others want the box left empty. Porkbun wants it empty. If @ is rejected, leave it blank.
Don't type your domain into the Name box. Registrars add it for you. If Occam shows a name ending in your domain, like _vercel.yourorg.org, type only the part before your domain, _vercel. Otherwise it becomes _vercel.yourorg.org.yourorg.org and won't work.

Occam also shows Step 1 — prove it's yours: a TXT record named _occam-verify with a long value that's unique to your website. Add it the same way as the others. It proves to Occam that you control the domain, and your site won't go live until it's in place. If the domain was used with another website host before, Step 1 may list a second TXT record too. Add both.

Using Cloudflare? Each record has an orange cloud. Click it so it turns grey (DNS only). If it stays orange, Cloudflare blocks your site's security certificate and the domain never goes live.

5. Check your status

Go back to Occam and select Check status. Changes usually show up within a few minutes to an hour. Occasionally it takes up to a day. You can close the page and come back later, because Occam checks again whenever you open Settings.

What the status means

Awaiting DNS: Occam hasn't seen your records yet. If it's been more than an hour, compare each record with what Occam shows, character by character, and make sure the records Occam told you to remove are gone.
Awaiting ownership verification: add the Step 1 TXT record (or records), then select Check status.
Finishing security certificate…: your records are right. Occam is setting up the padlock (HTTPS) for your domain. This usually takes a few minutes, and there's nothing for you to do.
Live: done. Your website is at your domain, with the padlock.
Not connected to hosting: something went wrong on our side. Select Check status once. If it stays, email info@occam.gives with your domain name.

Once you're live, your yourorg.occam.gives address keeps working too, so links you've already shared don't break.

Add email on your domain

You can use the same domain for email, like info@yourorg.org. Occam doesn't provide email. Most nonprofits use Google Workspace for Nonprofits, which is free if you're a 501(c)(3). To qualify, Google asks for a live website on your domain, so connect your domain here first.

For step-by-step instructions, see Get email on your domain. Your email provider gives you its own records, usually MX and TXT. Add them in the same DNS settings. They sit alongside Occam's records without getting in the way.

Change or remove your domain

In Website > Settings > Custom domain, select Remove. Your site keeps working at its occam.gives address. To switch to a different domain, remove the current one first, then connect the new one.

Removing the domain from Occam doesn't cancel it at your registrar. You still own it and still pay for it until you turn off auto-renew there.

Good to know

You can connect one domain per website, plus its www version.
Subdomains work too, like give.yourorg.org. Type it in Custom domain the same way. Occam shows a CNAME record for it.
Occam can't buy a domain for you, and doesn't need a login to your registrar.