Custom domain (BYO - Bring Your Own)¶

Mission Broadcast's default address (missionbroadcast.com/m/<your-slug>) is a great option for many missionaries — but if you'd rather subscribers see something cleaner like https://elder-smith.com and email letters to letters@elder-smith.com, you can bring your own domain.

Custom domain by plan — bring-your-own vs. managed

Bringing your own domain is included as an option on the Full-Mission and Pro upfront plans, not on Monthly. Any plan — Monthly included — can instead add the paid Managed Custom Domain upgrade, where we register the domain and set up DNS for you (bundled with Pro). Without an upfront plan or the managed upgrade, you stay on the shared subdomain. See Plans & pricing.

The whole setup takes about 30 minutes the first time and does not need a developer, though it is technical. The Domain Setup page in the account walks you through it and verifies each step automatically.

Prefer we set it up? Managed Custom Domain

This page covers bring-your-own (BYO) domains — you own the domain and add a few DNS records, guided by the app. If you'd rather we handle registration and DNS for you, add the Managed Custom Domain upgrade — a paid add-on available on any plan (and bundled with Pro). See Plans & pricing.

What you'll need

A domain name (registered at any registrar — GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, Squarespace Domains, and Bluehost have step-by-step in-app guides; others work too via the generic walkthrough).
About 30 minutes the first time. DNS changes typically propagate in 5–15 minutes but can take up to a few hours.
Login access to your domain registrar's DNS panel.

How it fits together¶

flowchart LR
    subgraph Registrar [Your registrar — you manage DNS here]
        A[DNS records<br/>at your registrar]
    end
    subgraph MB [Mission Broadcast — automatic]
        H[Public website]
        B[Outbound letters]
        S[Inbound letters]
    end
    A -->|A + TXT records| H
    A -->|TXT records| B
    A -->|CNAMEs + MX| S

The DNS records you add point your domain at three parts of Mission Broadcast. On the Domain Setup page, the records list groups them under these same three headings:

Group on the records list	What it powers	DNS records you add
Public website	The public archive at `https://<your-domain>`	1× TXT (ownership) + 1–2× A
Outbound mail	Broadcasts sent to subscribers	1× TXT ownership + 2× DKIM + 1× SPF + 1× DMARC
Inbound mail	Mail to `letters@<your-domain>`	CNAMEs + 1× MX

Total: typically 9–11 DNS records. You only do this once. The page shows you the exact rows for your domain — copy each value straight from its row.

The Domain Setup page¶

The sidebar item is labeled Domain Setup. Open it and you'll find a single page that runs top to bottom — one step after another, in order:

Custom domain — Type your domain and select Save domain. This saves the domain and builds the list of DNS records you'll need.
Where is your domain registered? — Pick your registrar from the dropdown. We try to auto-detect it from your domain's nameservers and pre-select it; you can override. Picking your registrar shows the exact steps for finding its DNS settings page, plus gotchas specific to it.
Add these DNS records at your registrar — One combined list of every record you need, grouped by what it powers: Public website, Outbound mail, and Inbound mail. Select any value to copy it, then paste it at your registrar. Each row has a Why this matters? link that opens a short explainer. When you're done, select I just saved my records.
Verify your records — Select Check DNS now. We look up each record across three public DNS resolvers (Google, Cloudflare, Quad9) and show you what's live versus what we still need. Start auto-poll re-checks for you in the background so you don't have to keep clicking.
Activate letter-receiving — Once every record is verified, select Activate letter-receiving to turn on letter intake at letters@<your-domain>.

There's one combined records list (not a separate card per part), one Check DNS now verify step, and one Activate letter-receiving button. There's no per-record "re-check" and nothing to copy as a single zone file — copy each value from its row.

Step-by-step¶

Don't try to wing it from the table — there are a few gotchas. The walkthrough page takes you through the whole setup, top to bottom.

If you're already in the middle of setup and something doesn't add up, the troubleshooting page covers what each verdict badge means and what to do when records say "missing" or "mismatch" hours after you saved them.

Disconnecting later¶

You can return to the shared subdomain at any time. In the Custom domain card at the top of the Domain Setup page, select Use Mission Broadcast subdomain instead and confirm. This:

Clears the custom domain.
Reverts the intake address to letters@<your-slug>.missionbroadcast.com and the public site back to the path URL shown on the dashboard.
Leaves your registrar DNS records alone — they just stop being referenced. (You can clean them up at the registrar at your leisure.)
Doesn't break links in already-sent letters. Subscribers' inboxes keep working.

What happens to the domain at the end of the term¶

Your site — and the custom domain pointed at it — stays up while your plan is active. It comes down at the end of your paid term unless you renew. A custom domain doesn't keep the site running on its own; the plan does.

When a paid term ends without renewal, the whole missionary site is decommissioned along the same lapse-and-retention ladder as any other site: a grace and read-only period first, then the archive is frozen, and finally the site (custom domain included) is taken down and removed. You'll get an email at each step, and you can keep everything alive by renewing. (Archive Keepalive — a standalone way to keep the archive online after the mission — is coming soon.)

The domain name itself is yours — it's registered in your name at your registrar, and Mission Broadcast never owned it. What stops is Mission Broadcast answering at that domain. Archive Keepalive — a way to keep the archive readable at your domain after the mission ends — is coming soon.

See Managing billing → If a Monthly payment fails and Plans & pricing → Lapse handling for the full ladder.