Adding a Custom Domain to Your VTU Website

When your VTU site starts on our platform, it lives at an address like yourname.xpiriatech.com. That works, but a customer is more likely to trust and remember yourbrand.com.ng. Connecting your own domain takes a few minutes of work in two places: your domain registrar and your dashboard. This guide covers both, what the platform accepts, the exact messages you may see, and what to expect afterwards.

Before you start

• Own the domain in your name. Buy it yourself, with your own email, so you are the registered owner. Do not let a developer or friend register it for you. See our guide on what you should own for why.
• Use a domain you control the DNS for. You will need to add records at your registrar.
• Use a domain that is not already connected. Each domain can belong to only one site, and domains ending in xpiriatech.com (and a few others the platform uses itself) are reserved and cannot be used.

Step 1: Connect it in your dashboard

Open your project and go to the Output step (step 5 of the site builder), where you will see Hosted Subdomain and Custom Domain (optional). There is also a Domain tab in the project's settings page. Type your domain, for example yourbrand.com.ng, and click Connect. The platform tidies what you typed: it removes https:// or http://, anything after the first slash and a leading www., so pasting a full web address still works.

The domain must look like a real one: letters, numbers and hyphens in each part, parts separated by dots, a final ending of at least two letters, and no more than 253 characters in total. A subdomain such as shop.yourbrand.com is fine. If it does not pass, you will see "Enter a valid domain, e.g. myshop.com".

Step 2: Point your domain at the site

The dashboard shows the DNS records to add. At your registrar's DNS settings, create an A record with the name @ and the value shown in your dashboard, which is the server's IP address. Add a second A record with the name www and the same value. The dashboard shows A records only, so you do not need a CNAME. Save the changes. If your registrar already has an A record for the same name, edit or delete it rather than adding a second one, because two conflicting records cause random failures.

Step 3: Wait for HTTPS

When you click Connect, the platform saves the domain straight away and then tries to set up the site and request a free security certificate, so that your address shows the padlock. This can take a couple of minutes, and the platform waits up to two and a half minutes for it. You will see one of these results:

• "Domain connected with HTTPS." You are done.
• "Domain saved, but the SSL certificate could not be issued yet. Make sure the domain's A record points to this server, then retry." This usually means your DNS change has not spread yet. Check the A records are correct, wait a little, and click Connect again.
• "Domain saved, but provisioning did not complete. Please retry shortly." Try again after a few minutes.
• "Provisioning timed out. Check the domain DNS and retry." The setup took too long. Check the records and retry.
• "Provisioning failed unexpectedly. Please retry." Retry once, and if it keeps happening, contact support with your domain name.

Your domain is saved even when the certificate step does not finish, so it is safe to retry as many times as you need. DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to reach everyone, so a failure right after you add the records is normal, not a sign you did something wrong.

What changes once it is live

• Customers sign in again. Browsers remember logins separately for each web address, so someone who was signed in on yourname.xpiriatech.com has to sign in on your new domain. Tell them in advance.
• Payment webhooks are not affected. The webhook addresses you give to gateways point to the platform, not to your site's own address, so you do not need to change anything in your Paystack or Monnify dashboards.
• Your free subdomain is not deleted. Connecting a domain does not remove it, but share only the new address so people and search engines settle on a single one.
• Update everything that links to you: your WhatsApp profile, social pages, printed material and any message templates.

Check that it works

• Open https://yourbrand.com.ng and https://www.yourbrand.com.ng on your phone using mobile data.
• Log in as a customer and as an admin to be sure both work.
• Make a small test purchase.
• Tell your customers the new address, and update your social media pages and WhatsApp profile.

Disconnecting a domain

A connected domain is locked until you disconnect it. Click Disconnect and confirm. You will see "Domain disconnected.", and the platform removes the domain from the site, so the address stops showing your site. Your default subdomain keeps working. If you try to disconnect when no domain is connected, you will see "No domain is connected." To switch to a different domain, disconnect the old one first, then connect the new one.

Common problems

• "That domain is already in use by another site." It is connected to a different project, possibly one of your own. Disconnect it there first, or check the spelling.
• "That domain is reserved." Domains ending in xpiriatech.com cannot be used. Use a domain you registered yourself.
• The site shows an error or someone else's page. The A record may point to the wrong place, or an old record is still there. Compare it with the value in your dashboard.
• No padlock. The certificate may not have been issued yet. Wait for DNS to spread, then click Connect again.
• It works with www but not without, or the other way round. One of the two A records is missing or wrong. Add or correct it.

Related reading

Branding your site to match the new address is covered in branding your VTU site, and the bigger picture is in scaling from a subdomain to a full VTU brand.