Connect a custom domain to your Hub

What can I use this for?

Connecting a custom domain to your Hub is essential for enhancing your brand’s visibility and professionalism using a personalized web address. This process ensures your Hub is easily recognizable and accessible to your audience.

This involves pointing your nameservers (i.e., changing your domain name's NS records) to Cloudflare. So please note that if you have a Wix site/domain, you won't be able to change your nameservers as stated in their public documentation. If you would like more information, you can contact Wix.

Step 1 - Enter your purchased Domain in Cloudflare

Inside your Cloudflare account, click + Add site and enter the existing domain (or register a new domain) to connect to your Hub.

Choose how your DNS configuration option (Quick scan recommended) and click Continue. 

Step 2 - Select the free plan and wait for the quick scan

Step 4 - Check the nameserver update status on Cloudflare

Registrars take up to 24 hours to process changes in the nameservers, but Cloudflare will periodically check for nameserver updates.

You can check the nameserver update status from time to time on your Cloudflare dashboard.

To initiate a nameserver check, click your domain/website to open the settings, and then click Check nameservers now.

A message will show that Cloudflare is now checking the nameservers.

You will receive a confirmation that your website is now secure and protected by Cloudflare once the nameservers have been updated correctly. 

Here's a snapshot of the security and performance dashboard once you have successfully added your domain/website:

Step 5 - Use a root domain or subdomain

REMINDER: yourdomain.com is the domain used in these examples. You will have to replace this with your actual domain name.

Decide whether you want to point the root domain “yourdomain.com” to your Hub directly or to use a subdomain “hub.yourdomain.com”.

Using the root domain

On your DNS settings, click + Add Record, type in the following, and then hit Save:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: yourdomain.com
• Target: ingress.membership.io

Click + Add Record to add another record and type in the following before clicking Save:

• Type: CNAME
• Name: www
• Target: ingress.membership.io

Your DNS records should have these two:

NOTE: A handshake error may occur if the Proxy status is off for your DNS record(s). Make sure that it is set to the default status "Proxied."

Adding a subdomain

NOTE: Using a subdomain, your audience will not be able to access your Hub by putting "www." at the start of it. "hub." replaces the "www." prefix in your URL.

• Type: CNAME
• Name: hub (or subdomain name of your choice e.g., "learning")
• Target: ingress.membership.io

Step 6 - Add a page rule to redirect the subdomain, such as "www"

Membership.io only allows one domain to be assigned to your Hub. This means if you access "www.yourdomain.com", it needs to be redirected to yourdomain.com to view the Hub.

1. Go to Rules > Page Rules and then click on Create Page Rule.

2. Type/Choose the following:
   URL: www.yourdomain.com/*
   Setting: Forwarding URL
   Status Code: 301 - Permanent Redirect
   Destination URL: https://yourdomain.com/$1

3. Then, click Save and Deploy Page Rule and choose Proceed anyway on the pop-up display that appears.

   

Step 7 - Set the SSL/TLS encryption mode to Full

This is a default setting, so you might not need to set anything else here. If it is not already set to "Full," go to the SSL/TLS menu and click Configure. Make sure that the "Full" encryption mode is selected. 

Step 8 - Add your domain to your Hub

If using a root domain, you will enter the root domain only (without "www") and hit Save.

If using a subdomain, enter the full domain (e.g. hub.yourdomain.com) and hit Save.

Hooray! Test your Hub now with your new domain! 🎉