This article is meant as a checklist to help you better understand what needs to be completed in order to take your application live, using your own domain name.

1. Register your domain

What is a domain name?

A domain name is the name of your website e.g: bunnyshell.com.

More specifically, the name of your website is the address that people need to type in the browser to end up on your website.

If your website is new, then you will require a domain. If you already have a domain, please proceed with the next step on the checklist.

How to set a domain name?

You can use any domain registrar to buy and register your domain. You can use services like GoDaddy, Cloudflare, NameCheap, and so on.

2. Create your application and server

Now is time to create your application and server, if you haven’t already. You can create an application and host it either on an existing server or on a new server. Please do keep in mind that you need a server for any type of application you wish to launch. Learn more on how to create a new application in Bunnyshell.

After launching your application, you will notice that you have a temporary Bunnyshell domain.

Once you are ready to take your site live with your own domain, proceed to the next item on this list.

3. Map your domain and manage DNS Records

Now, in order to take your site live, using your own domain, follow the two steps indicated below:

· Adding your domain(s) at the Bunnyshell Platform.

· Pointing your domain to Bunnyshell using the DNS records.

· Learn a generic DNS setup in Bunnyshell, available here.

If you need additional help check out the resources below:

1. Creating an A Record: GoDaddy

2. Creating an A Record: Namecheap

3. Creating an A Record: Cloudflare

4. Secure your website with HTTPS

This step is particularly important when building your website as an unsecured website is vulnerable to attacks and can be very risky for your customers and online activity.

Bunnyshell platform offers an out-of-the-box free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate for all your applications, so you can secure your website from the get-go. Let’s Encrypt Certificates are free and get automatically renewed upon expiry. Alternatively, you can also use your custom SSL certificate, which you can buy from any Certificate Authority (CA) or certificate vendor.

Once your SSL certificate is installed, you will need to activate HTTPS redirect. Bunnyshell offers you the possibility to do this through application settings. In order to activate temporary/permanent redirect from HTTP to HTTPS you will need to click on your application, then go to the Settings tab and activate the desired option.

You can learn more about this, and how to automatically redirect your website from HTTP to HTTPS directly from our platform, by reading this article.

5. Configure email Add-ons

Transactional emails refer to automated emails sent by your application, such as password reset links, notifications, updates, newsletters, shipping confirmation, and so on. These emails require a gateway from where to be sent; else, they will be sent directly from your server, which is not a method we recommend and runs the risk to be tagged as spam.

If you send between 1 to 3000 emails/month from your server, we suggest you use a free service like Gmail SMTP; however, if the number of emails you need to send is bigger than this, we recommend you use paid services like Sendgrid, Mailgun and so on.