How to point your domain to Flywheel from GoDaddy

Flywheel provides each site with an IP address to which domains can be pointed. This is useful if you own, for example, thisfinedomain.com, and would like it to resolve to a Flywheel site.

Table of Contents

1. Add the domain to your Flywheel site and note the IP address
2. Log in to GoDaddy
3. Edit the current A record
4. Optional: Configure CNAME record for www
5. Double-check your work
Note: DNS propagation times
Note: Custom nameservers

Add the domain to your Flywheel site and note the IP address

1. From the Flywheel site’s Overview tab, click the (+) icon in the Domains list to add the domain you’d like to point to Flywheel.
   
2. Enter the domain name in the URL field, and set the domain to primary. You can add the www version of the domain by ticking the box. (If enabled, make sure to add a CNAME record for www in your DNS editor, see section below.)
   In the background, our system will automatically update all appropriate URL references in the database to this new primary domain.
3. Note the site’s IP address for use in your domain’s DNS editor.

Log in to GoDaddy

1. In a separate tab, log in to the GoDaddy administration panel.
2. On the My Products page, locate the domain you want to point to Flywheel.
   
3. Click the DNS button.
   

Edit the current A record

There’s a good chance you’ll see several records on the DNS page, especially if your domain was pointed to a different host previously. For now, we’re just going to be concerned with the A record, since it’s the record responsible for pointing your domain to your website.

Be careful about modifying or deleting any other records – especially MX records, which are responsible for email. Also, it never hurts to take a screenshot before you start making changes.

1. Locate the A Record.
2. Edit the A Record by clicking the pencil icon.
3. Set Host to @
   
   Note: The @ symbol serves as a placeholder for the root level domain. In this case, it stands for thisfinedomain.com.
4. Enter your IP address under Points To. In this example, the IP is 151.101.66.159.
5. Usually, there’s no need to adjust TTL, which stands for Time To Live. For more information on TTL, check out this help article: DNS: What is TTL?
6. Click Save to apply the changes.

Unless you have a subdomain setup, for example shop.thisfinedomain.com, you should only need one A record value. At the very least, make sure that you have one A record with @ set as the host which is pointing to your Flywheel IP address.

For more information, visit GoDaddy’s help article on creating/updating A records.

Optional: Configure CNAME record for www

We recommend you also set a CNAME record in your zone file to allow use of the www prefix. A CNAME (aka canonical name) points a subdomain to another domain name.

For example, with a CNAME in place, visitors entering www.thisfinedomain.com in their browser will be re-routed to thisfinedomain.com. Without a CNAME record, visitors will instead reach an error page.

1. Click Add under the Records table.
2. Under Type, select CNAME.
3. Enter www under Host.
   
4. Enter @ under Points to.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

For more information, visit GoDaddy’s help article on creating CNAME records.

Double-check your work

1. Check GoDaddy’s DNS Management page to make sure the record changes have been updated. Your records should look like this (with your domain’s information instead of the example domain here):
   
2. After propagation, you can also verify your domain is successfully pointed to Flywheel by clicking the Check DNS button.
   
3. Once your site is pointed to Flywheel, the status will switch to ✅ Pointed and the domain registrar will be displayed as well.
   

Still need help?

If you get stuck, or have any questions along the way, we’d love to help! Reach out to our support team with a screenshot of your current DNS records or provide us with your current registrar login for assistance.