Connect your custom domain to Pendro in five minutes

Pendro gives every project a free subdomain at yourbrand.pendro.co — perfect for prototyping, but most paying customers want their own yourbrand.com. Custom domains are included on every paid plan. The setup is genuinely five minutes of your time; the only wait is DNS propagation, which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.

Here's the exact recipe.

Before you start

• A Pendro project on a paid plan (Beginner+).

• A domain you own — bought from any registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Google Domains, Porkbun, anywhere).

• Access to your domain's DNS settings. Usually a page called "DNS Management" or "Advanced DNS" inside your registrar dashboard.

Step 1 — Add the domain in Pendro

1. Open your project → Domains.

2. Click Add domain.

3. Type your domain (e.g. acme.com or www.acme.com). Don't include https://.

4. Pendro shows you the DNS records to add — one A record for an apex domain, one CNAME for a subdomain. Keep this page open.

Step 2 — Add the records at your registrar

Open your registrar's DNS settings and add the records exactly as Pendro shows them. Three of the most common registrars:

Namecheap

1. Domain List → Manage on the domain → Advanced DNS.

2. Click Add New Record.

3. For apex: Type = A, Host = @, Value = (Pendro's IP). TTL = Automatic.

4. For subdomain: Type = CNAME, Host = www (or your subdomain), Value = (Pendro's CNAME target). TTL = Automatic.

5. Save.

Cloudflare

1. Domain dashboard → DNS → Records → Add record.

2. For apex: Type = A, Name = @, IPv4 = (Pendro's IP). Set Proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud), NOT Proxied (orange cloud). Pendro provisions its own SSL; Cloudflare's proxy double-wraps it and breaks.

3. For subdomain: Type = CNAME, Name = www, Target = (Pendro's CNAME target), Proxy status = DNS only.

4. Save.

GoDaddy

1. My Products → DNS on the domain.

2. Add Record.

3. For apex: Type = A, Host = @, Points to = (Pendro's IP), TTL = 1 hour.

4. For subdomain: Type = CNAME, Host = www, Points to = (Pendro's CNAME target).

5. Save.

Step 3 — Verify in Pendro

Back in your project → Domains, click Check now. Pendro queries DNS, confirms the records are live, and triggers SSL provisioning via Vercel. The verification badge flips to Verified, and within a minute the SSL cert is issued. Your domain is live on https://.

What happens next

• Pendro publishes your project at the new domain. Your old pendro.co subdomain keeps working too — both are aliases.

• SSL renews automatically every 60 days. You never touch the cert.

• Email + form notifications continue working with the new domain. The renderer attaches the host correctly.

• SEO: Pendro automatically generates a sitemap.xml and robots.txt at the custom domain.

Troubleshooting

Verification keeps failing

Most likely: the DNS record isn't propagated yet. Run dig acme.com +short from your terminal — if it returns a different IP than Pendro wants, wait 10 minutes and recheck. If it returns nothing, the record didn't save at your registrar.

Cloudflare proxy is still on

If you set up the records with the proxy enabled, switch to DNS only (grey cloud) and reverify. The proxy must stay off while Pendro provisions the cert.

Wrong record type at the registrar

Apex domains need an A record (or an ALIAS/ANAME if your registrar supports it). Subdomains need a CNAME. A CNAME on an apex breaks email + RFC 1034.

I want to move FROM another platform

Set up the new records at Pendro first. Pendro starts serving the moment DNS flips. The old platform stops serving when the TTL of its records expires (usually under an hour). For zero-downtime migrations, this works because the new records take over as soon as DNS propagates.

Try it

New to custom domains? Buy a domain from any registrar, open your Pendro project → Domains, and follow the on-page instructions. The full setup is genuinely five minutes plus the DNS wait.