Domains — buy one, point it at your app

Where to buy

All registrars do the same thing — register your name with ICANN. What differs is price, renewal cost, and how annoying their DNS panel is. My ranking:

1. Cloudflare Registrar — at-cost pricing (no markup), clean DNS panel, free SSL. Requires your domain use Cloudflare DNS. My default.
2. Namecheap — cheap, simple, honest. The name is accurate. Good if you want to stay registrar-agnostic.
3. GoDaddy — expensive renewals, aggressive upsells, cluttered UI. Only use if you already have domains there.

Pointing a domain at Vercel

Two ways: point DNS directly (keep your registrar) or transfer the domain to Vercel. For most people, pointing DNS is simpler and lets you keep your registrar.

Option A: Keep your registrar, point DNS

1. In Vercel: Project → Settings → Domains → Add
2. Vercel gives you one of two records to add:
   • A record pointing @ to 76.76.21.21
   • CNAME pointing www to cname.vercel-dns.com
3. Log into your registrar's DNS panel
4. Delete any existing A or CNAME records for @ and www
5. Add the Vercel records
6. Wait 5-60 min (usually 5), hit Refresh in Vercel

Option B: Transfer to Vercel

Vercel sells domains too. One-click add. Slightly more expensive than Cloudflare Registrar but the integration is seamless. Good for the "I just want it to work" crowd.

Registrar-specific DNS steps

Namecheap

Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS. Delete the default parking records (CNAME for www, URL Redirect for @). Add your Vercel records. Changes save instantly.

Cloudflare Registrar

Cloudflare DNS is automatic. Websites → [your domain] → DNS → Records. Add the A record, make sure Proxy status is set to DNS only (grey cloud), not Proxied (orange cloud). Proxied will break Vercel's SSL.

GoDaddy

My Products → Domain → DNS → Manage DNS. Look for existing A records and CNAMEs for @ and www — delete them. Add the new ones. GoDaddy sometimes takes 30+ min to propagate.

Subdomains

Want packager.youtubeproducer.app? Same process, different record type:

• In Vercel, add the full subdomain (e.g., packager.youtubeproducer.app)
• Vercel gives you a CNAME to add at your registrar
• In the DNS panel, add a CNAME record for packager pointing to cname.vercel-dns.com

Email on your domain

Your domain is separate from email. To receive email athello@yourdomain.com:

• Use Google Workspace ($6/user/mo) — best for professional use
• Or use ImprovMX (free) — forwards hello@yourdomain.com → your Gmail
• Or use Fastmail ($5/mo) — if you want independence from Google

To send email from your domain, see the Resend guide.

Common gotchas

• Cloudflare proxy breaks Vercel SSL. Always use DNS-only (grey cloud) for Vercel A records.
• DNS propagation isn't instant. Use dnschecker.org to see what different regions see.
• WHOIS privacy. Every decent registrar includes this free. GoDaddy charges extra — one more reason to skip them.
• Auto-renewal. Turn it on. Losing a domain because your card expired is a very expensive lesson.

Related skills

Once your domain is live, /seo generates the sitemap and robots with the correct canonical domain. /og-image creates a social preview at yourdomain.com/og-image.png.