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Serve your app on your own domain

Pro plan Admin

By default a published Onplana Maker app lives at https://<name>.onplana.app. On Pro and above you can also serve it on your own domain, for example yourbrand.com or app.yourbrand.com, with an automatic HTTPS certificate. This page covers the parts that are the same no matter how you got the domain: the statuses, how long each takes, and what to do when one fails. The exact DNS records to create (or buying a domain) are shown to you in the app itself when you add the domain.

Add a domain

Section titled “Add a domain”

Open a published app, go to the Domains panel, and enter the domain you want to use. Onplana then shows you the DNS records to create at your domain provider. Add those records exactly as shown, and the domain verifies itself, you do not need to come back and click anything, though a Re-check button is there if you want to nudge it.

What each status means

Section titled “What each status means”

A domain moves through these on its own:

  • Pending DNS: we are waiting to see the DNS records you were asked to create. Add them at your domain provider; we check automatically every few minutes.
  • Verifying: the records were found and we are issuing your HTTPS certificate. Nothing more is needed from you.
  • Active: the domain is live and serving your app over HTTPS.
  • Failed: something needs your attention. The panel names exactly what (see below).
  • Removing: the domain is being disconnected (after you remove it).

How long it takes

Section titled “How long it takes”
  • Verification (Pending DNS to Verifying): usually a few minutes after the records are in place, and up to about ten minutes as DNS propagates.
  • Live HTTPS (Verifying to Active): a few minutes, and up to about an hour for the certificate to be issued and start serving.

If a domain sits in one status well beyond these windows, use Re-check. If it still does not move, the records almost certainly are not in place yet, check them at your domain provider.

When a domain Fails, and how to act

Section titled “When a domain Fails, and how to act”

A Failed status always names the reason, so you can fix exactly that. The most common one is a CAA record: some domains have a CAA record that lists which certificate authorities may issue certificates for them, and if it does not include the issuer Onplana uses, the certificate cannot be issued. The fix is to add the issuer to your CAA record (or remove the restrictive CAA record) at your domain provider, then Re-check.

Other failures name their own cause the same way, whatever the panel says is what to change. You never have to guess.

If someone else has added the same domain

Section titled “If someone else has added the same domain”

Nothing stops another workspace adding a domain you are also adding, and you will not be told that it happened. Your domain sits at Pending DNS exactly as it normally would.

Whoever proves control of the domain first gets it. Proof is the DNS record Onplana gives you: publishing it at your registrar is something only a person who actually controls the domain can do. Adding a domain reserves nothing on its own.

There are two reasons it works this way, and both protect you:

  • If adding a name claimed it, anyone could type in your company’s domain and permanently block you from ever connecting it, without owning anything.
  • If Onplana replied “that domain is already registered”, that answer would tell any stranger which domains other companies are in the middle of setting up.

So if your domain stays pending after you have published the record and given it time, first re-check the record: the wrong host, a trailing dot, or a proxy layer in front of it are the usual causes. If the record is definitely right, is publicly visible, and the domain still will not activate, contact support rather than deleting and re-adding, which starts the wait again.

Apex domains (yourbrand.com without a prefix)

Section titled “Apex domains (yourbrand.com without a prefix)”

A subdomain like app.yourbrand.com uses a standard CNAME record. A bare apex domain (yourbrand.com, no prefix) needs an ALIAS or ANAME record, which not every domain provider supports. If yours does not, the simplest path is to serve www.yourbrand.com (a subdomain, which always works) and add a redirect from the apex to it at your registrar. The panel tells you which record type your domain needs when you add it.

Remove a domain

Section titled “Remove a domain”

Remove a domain from the Domains panel at any time. It stops serving your app, and you can add it again later. Your app keeps serving on its https://<name>.onplana.app URL regardless.

If you delete the app itself, the domain stops serving right away: the app’s published files are removed and the cached copy behind your domain is cleared, so visitors do not keep seeing it while a cache expires.