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 on the Full-Mission and Pro plans. On Full-Mission you can instead add the paid Managed Custom Domain upgrade, where we register the domain and set up DNS for you; Pro bundles it. 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 on Full-Mission (and bundled with Pro). See Plans & pricing.

When we register a domain for you, the name you request is checked to be family-appropriate before we buy it — please pick a clean name that fits a missionary's site (your name or mission works great). Names that are profane, offensive, or demeaning can't be registered; see our Terms of Service for details.

What to expect with a Managed Custom Domain¶

If you chose the Managed Custom Domain (the rest of this page is for the bring-your-own path), you don't touch DNS at all — here's the whole journey:

You pick a name at checkout (e.g. elderpehrsonmission.com) and tick the box to confirm it. As you type we show a quick, advisory "looks available" hint, and the name must be family-appropriate. Double-check the spelling: we register the exact address you confirm, automatically, the moment you buy — so it's yours right away and can't be swapped for a different one afterward. If you'd rather decide later, choose "I'll decide later" and no domain is registered until you tell us the address.
We register and manage it for you. There's no form to fill out and no contact details to provide. We register the domain in our name and hold it on your behalf, with everything kept private (WHOIS privacy is on), so your family's name and address are never shown publicly.
We do the rest automatically — point the domain at your missionary's site and set up email so letters to letters@yourdomain work. This usually finishes within an hour.
We email you when it's live. Nothing for you to configure.
Renewal & keeping it: while your plan is active we renew the domain for you. Before each renewal date we email you 60, 30, 14, 7, and 1 days ahead so there are no surprises. The domain is yours to keep — if you ever leave, you can take it with you by moving it to your own registrar. Just reply to any of those emails (or email us) and we'll send you the transfer code (there's a standard 60-day hold right after registration, per ICANN).

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 Custom domain page¶

In the sidebar, open Delivery & Domain and choose Custom domain. 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 host, value, or MX priority 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 through your paid term. A custom domain doesn't keep the site running on its own; the plan does.

When your paid term ends, you get a 30-day export window to download every letter and photo and generate the final PDF Letter Book. After that, the site (custom domain included) is taken down and the archive removed — unless Archive Keepalive keeps it online (a standalone way to keep the archive readable after the mission, 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.

See Plans & features → After the mission ends for the export window and Archive Keepalive details.