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Mask Your Account in a Custom Domain
Mask Your Account in a Custom Domain

How to add CNAME records to your DNS to create an alias for your Rise subdomain

Anthony Karcz avatar
Written by Anthony Karcz
Updated over a year ago

You can already customize your subdomain in Rise, but what if you want to take things to the next level with a completely custom domain that you already own? It’s as easy as adding a couple of records to your domain name system (DNS) provider and then pointing your Rise account to your new address. Here’s how it works.

  1. Creating a CNAME Record

  2. Enter Your Domain Address

Once you’ve added your records to your DNS provider and everything is set up in Rise, traffic from your subdomain will redirect to your new custom domain. Unlike when you change your subdomain, you will retain your subdomain name.

Step 1: Creating a CNAME Record

Before you can add your custom domain to your Rise account, you’ll need to add a CNAME record to your DNS records. This is the hostname you’ll use to mask your Rise site’s name. The record should follow this formula, including the dot after your hostname:

your custom hostname. 60 IN CNAME custom.rise.com. 

For example, if you wanted the hostname for your current Rise site, glivy.rise.com , to instead be learn.glivy.com , you would create a CNAME record in your DNS records that looked like this:

learn.glivy.com. 60 IN CNAME custom.rise.com. 

The steps to create a CNAME for your site will vary depending on your domain provider but, generally, you’ll need to add the CNAME directly to your DNS records. Contact the site where you registered your domain name if you need additional assistance.

Note: Custom domain masking works only with web addresses that contain at least third-level domains. For example, learn.glivy.com and www.glivy.com are compatible, while glivy.com is not.

Step 2: Enter Your Domain Address

Once you’ve set up your CNAME record, it’s time to make the switch!

  1. If you’re an owner, navigate to Manage > Settings.

  2. Under URL, select Use my own domain, enter your custom domain URL, and click Submit.

  3. Click Confirm to complete the redirect from your current Rise subdomain to your new custom domain. Once we validate your custom domain, we’ll send an email to everyone in your account notifying them of the change.

After the redirect is complete, if you want to return to your original subdomain, click Change and select Use a Rise domain.

Note: If you wish to use a different custom domain URL after you've already set a custom domain, you must switch back to your original subdomain before you make any DNS changes. Once you've switched to a Rise domain, repeat the steps above.

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