The final step when taking your site live is to update your DNS records. This will route web traffic from your domain to your site hosted on Flywheel’s servers. Most of the time you will update these records at your domain registrar – where your domain was purchased.
If you’re brand new to the world of domain names, some of the terminology may seem a little confusing. If you ever feel stuck, feel free to reference our Glossary of DNS terms.
Before continuing, we suggest completing the steps in this article: How do I go live on Flywheel?
1. Add the domain to your Flywheel site and note the IP address
2. Log in to your registrar and edit your DNS records
3. Confirm your changes using Flywheel’s DNS checker
Note: DNS propagation times
Note: Custom nameservers
A DNS editor allows you to configure the records that tell an incoming visitor’s browser where to go for things like web traffic and email. To get your domain connected to your Flywheel site, you’ll need to tell this system to start pointing your domain to your site’s IP address.
Domain | DNS Record Type | Value |
example.com or @ | A record | Your Flywheel site IP address |
www.example.com or www | CNAME record | example.com |
@ | This represents the root version of your domain. In our example above, @ would be a placeholder for example.com without any subdomain or www before it. |
www | This represents a subdomain. Some registrars do not require you to type in the entire domain for every field. For most, simply typing in www in the name field will mean you are creating a subdomain that is actually www.example.com. |
* | This is a wildcard record. It means that it doesn’t matter what subdomain you type into your browser(www.example.com, shop.example.com, dolphins.example.com). All are going to be directed by this * value. |
Domain | DNS Record Type | Value |
www.example.com | A Record | Your Flywheel site IP address |
Domain | DNS Record Type | Value |
blog.example.com | A Record | Your Flywheel site IP address |
After a short propagation window, your site should be connected to Flywheel! You can use our built in DNS checker to confirm your settings.
DNS can be confusing, and nobody wants to break their site. If you have questions about DNS, Flywheel support is more than happy to help. Just grab a screenshot of your current settings, have your registrar login handy, and get in touch with one of our Happiness Engineers.
New to Flywheel? Start here, we've got all the information you'll need to get started and launch your first site!
How to migrate your site to Flywheel using Flywheel Migrations
How do I go live on Flywheel?
What is a demo site?
Learn all about managing your Flywheel user account, Teams and integrations.
Your role as a collaborator
How do I transfer a subscription to/from an Organization?
What is a collaborator in Flywheel?
Flywheel hosting plans include a ton of great features. Learn about how to get a free SSL certificate, set up a staging site, and more!
Deploying to Flywheel via SSH and GitHub Actions
How do I get started with Staging?
Backups on Flywheel
All the server and setting info you'll need to help you get the most out of your Flywheel hosting plan!
Connecting to Flywheel’s SSH Gateway
Can I access my Flywheel site via SSH?
Can I get access to my database?
Tips and tricks for managing your sites on Flywheel, including going live, troubleshooting issues and migrating or cloning sites.
Connecting to Flywheel’s SSH Gateway
How to enable WP_CACHE
How to point your domain to Flywheel from GoDaddy
Learn how to connect, deploy, and more with SSH on Flywheel's platform.
Using SSH tunneling to access your site’s database
Deploying to Flywheel via SSH and GitHub Actions
Connecting to Flywheel’s SSH Gateway
We can help! Check out our Brand Resources page for links to all of our brand assets.
Brand Resources