A domain name is not a website. It is a signpost, and it points at whatever you tell it to. Right now yours probably points at nothing, or at a holding page your registrar put up when you bought it. Connecting it to Kitset means changing where that signpost points.
You do this at your registrar, which is whoever you bought the domain from, not us. We cannot do it for you because we do not have your registrar login, and you should be wary of anyone who asks for it. What we do is tell you exactly what to type.
The important part, and the reason we do it this way, is that a domain carries more than a website. It also carries your email. The records you are about to add only affect the website. Your email keeps working throughout, because we ask for two specific records rather than asking you to hand the whole domain over. Some website builders ask you to change your nameservers instead, which moves everything at once and is how people lose their email for a day.
After you save the records there is a wait. The internet passes this information around slowly on purpose, so it can take anywhere from a few minutes to most of a day for your domain to start pointing here. That wait is normal and there is nothing you can do to speed it up.
| Type | Name / Host | Value |
|---|---|---|
A | @ | 75.2.60.5 |
CNAME | www | kitsetlabs.nz |
Step by step
In your dashboard, open Set-up and find "Use your own web address".
Type your domain without the www, like mybusiness.co.nz, and press Connect it.
We show you the exact records to add, with a copy button on each value.
You can reopen them any time with the "What do I do?" button beside the domain. You do not need to finish this in one sitting.
Sign in wherever you bought the domain.
In New Zealand that is often Freeparking, 1st Domains, Umbrellar, GoDaddy or Crazy Domains. If you cannot remember, search your email for the renewal invoice.
Find the DNS settings. They are sometimes called DNS records, Advanced DNS, or Zone file.
Add the records exactly as shown, then save.
Come back to Kitset and press Check now.
If it does not go to plan
My registrar will not accept @ as the name.
Some want the field left blank instead, and a few want the domain typed out in full. All three mean the same thing: the domain itself rather than something in front of it.
What if I am connecting a subdomain, like shop.mybusiness.co.nz?
Then it is one record, not two: a CNAME with the name shop, pointing at kitsetlabs.nz. Your dashboard shows the right records for whatever you typed in, so follow what it says rather than this page.
Will this break my email?
No. Email is carried by MX records and you are not touching those. This is exactly why we ask for two records rather than a nameserver change.
It still says Waiting on DNS.
Normal for a few hours. There is a whole guide on that, linked below.
I do not own a domain yet.
Buy one from any New Zealand registrar first. A .co.nz is usually around $30 a year. Come back once you have it.