Custom domains

Your card can open at an address you own: card.yourname.com instead of ekard.app/yourname. You connect it yourself, in a few minutes: type the domain, add one record where the domain's DNS is managed, and it goes live on its own, with a secure https:// address. Your own domain comes with every paid plan (the course on plans and billing).

Connect it, step by step

1. Open your Kard, then Settings, and find Your own domain. For a team, an admin opens the team's Settings instead.
2. Type the domain, such as card.yourname.com, and press "Connect domain".
3. The panel shows the record to add, with a copy button for each part: type CNAME, name card (the part before your domain), and a target of this domain's own, such as k3fp9x7q2m1a.domains.ekard.app. Copy the target from the panel: each domain gets a different one.
4. Sign in where your domain's DNS is managed (usually the company you bought the domain from), open its DNS settings, and add that record exactly as shown. Some providers want the whole name, card.yourname.com, rather than card.
5. That's all. The panel checks by itself, every few minutes for the first hour and then every few hours, and updates as it goes. You get an email when it's live.

The target is your domain's own because it proves the domain is yours: nothing opens at your domain until we see that record, so nobody else can connect your name to their card, even one that pointed at eKard before. Most records show up within minutes; some providers take a few hours. Once the record is in, the certificate that makes the address secure takes a few minutes more.

A subdomain, or the bare domain?

A subdomain such as card.yourname.com or hello.yourname.com is the easy path: a CNAME record works with every DNS provider, and the rest of your domain (your website, your email) stays as it is.

The bare domain, yourname.com, works only where your DNS provider can point it with a CNAME. Providers call that CNAME flattening, ALIAS or ANAME: Cloudflare, DNSimple, Namecheap and Netlify DNS do, for example. The record's name is then @. A flattened record can't be seen from outside, so the panel asks for a second record too: a TXT record, named _cf-custom-hostname, that proves the domain is yours. Where your provider can't flatten a CNAME, connect www.yourname.com instead and have your registrar forward yourname.com to it.

If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (the grey cloud): behind the orange cloud, its target can't be seen.

What the panel says

It says	What it means
Waiting for your DNS record	The record isn't there yet. Add it, or give a new one a few minutes.
Your record points somewhere else	The name has a record, but it points to another service, an IP address, or an older target. Change it to the target the panel shows.
Your record is proxied by Cloudflare	The record is behind Cloudflare's orange cloud. Set it to DNS only.
Add the TXT record too	A bare domain answers, but its TXT record, the proof, isn't there yet.
Found your record: confirming it	The domain is proven yours; our certificate service is confirming it. Nothing to do.
Securing your domain	The certificate is being issued. Nothing to do.
Live	The domain opens your card, securely.
A CAA record blocks the certificate	Your domain names the companies allowed to issue its certificates, and ours aren't among them. Add the CAA records the panel lists, alongside any you have.
The certificate couldn't be issued	The panel quotes our certificate service's reason. Fix it at your DNS provider, then press "Check again".
Setting up didn't finish	Our certificate service didn't answer. That's on our side: we try again every few minutes.
… can't be connected	Our certificate service won't take that name; the panel says why. Connect a different one.
Stopped working	It was live, and its record no longer points here. Put the record back; we email you when this happens.

After you fix something, press "Check again" rather than waiting for the next check.

What moves and what stays

Once it's live, the sharing surfaces switch over: the "Share link" box, the share buttons, the one-tap links (card.yourname.com/whatsapp opens a WhatsApp chat with you), even the address printed on the card itself. Your ekard.app link keeps working beside it, so links you have shared and QRs you have printed stay live. Until the domain is live, everything keeps using the ekard.app link.

• Your card's QR code keeps encoding the ekard.app link, which works even if the domain lapses. To print your domain in it instead, open the QR studio and press "Save & regenerate". The course on your QR code has more.
• Document links and their QRs stay on ekard.app, so they outlive the domain.

For a team, the domain moves its own card: that card's links, buttons and printed address switch to the domain, which opens it at its root. Each team card also answers one step below, such as acme.com/aanya, but team cards' own links, buttons and QR codes keep their ekard.app/acme/aanya address. See the course on teams.

Changing or removing it

"Use a different domain" swaps it for another; "Remove" disconnects it at once, and your ekard.app link carries on. Then delete the record at your DNS provider too.

If the panel says your domain "is waiting for another account to prove it's theirs", someone claimed it and never proved it. If it's yours, add the TXT record the panel shows where you manage its DNS, then connect it again: it proves the domain is yours, and the other claim ends.

Connect your domain →