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FeaturesDomains & DNS

The settings that point your domain at your site.

DNS is the address book of the internet. It tells browsers which server your domain lives on, and tells mail systems where to deliver your email. Run it here and the entries for the sites you host are written and kept up to date for you, including the ones that decide whether your email arrives at all.

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  1. 01

    Point your domain here

    Change two settings at whoever you bought the domain from, or register it with us and skip that step.

  2. 02

    The entries write themselves

    Create a site on a domain we manage and the entries that point it at the right server appear.

  3. 03

    And they stay right

    Move the site to another server and the entry moves with it. That is the step people forget.

The setting that breaks is the one nobody owns

A site gets moved to a new server. The DNS entry still points at the old one. The site keeps working for exactly as long as the old server stays switched on, and then it does not. Here the entries we manage are marked as ours, and they change when the thing they describe changes.

The entries for one domain, with the ones we look after marked as such.
The entries for one domain, with the ones we look after marked as such.

And a full editor for everything else

Every type of entry you are likely to need, with the timing and priority settings. A verification code for Google Search Console, an entry for a third-party mail service, one for a CDN. All normal, and none of them needing a support ticket.

Every domain you manage, with who runs it and whether it is set up correctly.
Every domain you manage, with who runs it and whether it is set up correctly.

Email settings that are right first time

Add a mailbox and the entries that prove your mail is really from you get written for you. Those are the reason "my WordPress contact form goes to spam" is such a common complaint, and setting them up by hand is fiddly enough that most people get one of them wrong.

Or keep DNS where it is

Cloudflare and others can be connected instead, and sites on domains you keep somewhere else work exactly the same. This is a convenience, not a condition.

Common questions

Do I have to move my domain to WPShift?

No. You can leave the domain where you bought it and leave its DNS wherever it is now, and a site works either way. Running it here means the entries write themselves and the email ones are correct, which is a convenience rather than a requirement.

What happens to DNS when I move a site to a different server?

The entry pointing at the old server is updated to the new one. That is the single most common way a move goes wrong when DNS lives somewhere nobody is watching.

Can I use Cloudflare in front of my WordPress site?

Yes. Point the domain at Cloudflare and manage the entries there, or connect Cloudflare as your DNS provider. One thing to watch: getting a security certificate needs one particular path on your site to be reachable, so make sure Cloudflare is not intercepting it.

How long do DNS changes take?

The change is saved immediately. How quickly the rest of the world sees it depends on a timing setting on the entry being replaced. Lowering that setting a day before a planned move makes the switch close to instant.

Keep reading

Domains & emailEmail hostingReal inboxes at your own address — you@yourbusiness.com — that work in Apple Mail, Outlook, Gmail on your phone, or the webmail here. Not forwarding to a personal address. And the settings that decide whether your mail arrives instead of landing in spam are written for you.ReadWordPressSSL certificatesAn SSL certificate is what puts the padlock in the address bar and turns http into https. Browsers warn people away from sites that do not have one. WPShift gets a free certificate when your site is created, renews it before it runs out, and tells you loudly if a renewal ever fails.ReadWordPressWordPress sitesPick a server, pick a domain, and WPShift installs WordPress, sets up a database, gets the security certificate and puts the site online. You can also copy a site you already run here, or move one across from your current host.ReadInfrastructureCloud serversYou open an account with a cloud company like Hetzner or DigitalOcean, and give WPShift permission to use it. We build the server, install everything WordPress needs, and look after it from then on. The server sits in your account, on your bill, and stays there if you ever stop using us.Read

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