Custom Domain Frequently Asked Questions

To set up a Custom Domain for your Thinkific site, you require the following:

1. A domain purchased from a domain host (Namecheap, Bluehost, Hover, GoDaddy, etc.)
2. A paid Thinkific plan

No, we do not provide domain hosting. You will need to purchase a domain from a domain host (Namecheap, Bluehost, Hover, GoDaddy, etc.)

Please refer to these instructions.

To do this you need to first follow these steps to create a CNAME record using www. Then on your domain host, create a forwarding/redirecting rule from example.com to www.example.com. You can create a 301 redirect in your domain host that points example.com to www.example.com. This way, when a student just types example.com, they are automatically taken to www.example.com.

Changes to your CNAME record can take 24 hours to propagate. Make sure to test your CNAME record for any errors. If you’re still having issues, you can contact your domain host.

Make sure to set your custom domain to primary.

Follow these steps to create a new CNAME record for your new domain. Remove your existing custom domain within Thinkific:

1. In your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Settings
2. In the Site tab, select Site URL
3. Select the 3 dot menu to the right of your custom URL
4. Select Remove

Once you have removed your previous domain, you can add your new one following these instructions.

It's also possible to add a new custom domain without removing previously added custom domain(s). However, with multiple custom domains, only one can be set as Primary. For more information about this option, check out our article: Can I have multiple domains on one Thinkific site?

Send us a quick message and we can point you in the right direction! You can also reach out to your domain host directly. Let them know you were following our instructions and got stuck. Since they have access to your account, they can make the changes for you.

Your domain host may ask for an IP address to create an A record. Since we use cloud-based servers, our IP addresses may change periodically, so we are unable to provide an IP address. This is why a CNAME record is required (rather than an A record, MX record, etc.)

Yes, you can. If your site is on your main domain, you can set your Thinkific site to be on a subdomain like learn, courses, or academy (eg. academy.example.com)

Most domain hosts will have a similar setup so you can follow these general instructions. If you get stuck, contact the Support team.

Yes, you can set this up. However, your Thinkific URL will still be visible and you will not be able to set your custom domain as the primary domain.

With the way Thinkific sites are set up, we’re not able to place this on a subfolder on your domain. You would need to create a subdomain to host your Thinkific site.

Your custom domain will no longer work and it will display an error message if your learners try to access your site through the custom domain. To make sure that your students still have access to your site, you can set up a forwarding/redirecting rule on your domain host.

We are not able to directly set up the domain for you as this requires access to your domain host account. If you need assistance, we can point you in the right direction or you can reach out to your domain host’s account with these instructions.

If you try to update your Thinkific URL when a custom domain is set as primary, you will be blocked from doing so as this will break your site. Since the CNAME record is pointing to your existing Thinkific URL, editing it will prevent access to your site. If your custom domain is not set as primary, you can adjust this however, make sure that you are updating your CNAME record in your domain host accordingly.

We don't currently have an option that would allow you to have unique domains per course. It is possible to add an additional domain to your site on our end if you would like the entire site accessible by more than one domain.

For example, if you owned www.mysite1.com and www.mysite2.com, both of these could direct visitors to your Thinkific site. One thing to note in this case is that only 1 domain can be set to primary. Your primary URL is the only URL that will be visible within the browser bar when someone navigates to your site.

If your custom domain is set as primary, this means if someone typed in either your Thinkific URL (ex. mysite.thinkific.com) or your custom domain (ex. www.mysite.com), they will see your custom domain in the browser bar (ex. www.mysite.com). If you had multiple custom domains, then you would need to choose which one to set as your primary domain.

Configuring a custom domain for your site will not break any existing links, provided they are pointing at your Thinkific URL. Your Thinkific URL continues to work even once you have a custom domain set up; it is basically operating underneath the custom domain registration, and can still be linked to directly.

If you move from using one custom domain to a different custom domain, links that use the previous custom domain will break, once the registration for that domain lapses (or if you change its CNAME record, e.g. to use it for a different site.)