Hosting services: Setting up a custom domain for your NodeBB forum

Jay Moonah

By default, all NodeBB forums which use our hosting services are provided with a subdomain ending in "nodebb.com." However, you may wish to access your forum via your own custom URL. In this example, we'll set up a subdomain beginning with "forum", but you can also set up NodeBB to serve as your main website using "www" if you wish.

Go to your forum's administrative dashboard by clicking on the gear icon.
Select Plugins > SaaS.
Click on the text reading "update your domain's DNS records" to reveal the IP address for your forum. Highlight and copy this number.

URL Address

URLs are provisioned by domain registrars. In this example, we'll show the steps using the popular GoDaddy service, but the process would be very similar for other services.

From your GoDaddy domain list, select the "Manage DNS" option. On this page, you will see a number of different domain records. Select the "Add" option to create a new record, and under "Type" select "A record". Under "Host", enter "forum" or your own preference for subdomain, and then paste the forum IP address under "Points To". Save your record, and return to your forum.

You will now be able to enter your new subdomain as the main URL for your forum. Be sure to leave "http://" and then replace the rest of the default URL with your new address. Note that saving the changes will restart your forum, so it will not be available to users for a short period.

After your custom domain is setup, it's highly recommended that you enable SSL/HTTPS to ensure maximum security for your forum. Contact us at [email protected] to set this up.

Once this is completed, your subdomain should point to your forum. Note that there is sometimes a lag in updating new DNS records, so your new subdomain might not work instantaneously. If the domain is not working after a period of time, consult with your domain provider. If you continue to have problems, please contact us at [email protected].

Setting up a custom domain for your NodeBB forum