Custom Domains Overview

This feature only relevant when paywall is in client mode.

Custom domains allow you to use your own domain for displaying paywalls instead of the standard onlineapp.pro. This makes the payment process more trustworthy for your users and improves branding.

What are custom domains?

A custom domain is a subdomain of your website (e.g., paywall.yoursite.com or api.yoursite.com) that will be used to display the paywall. Instead of users seeing onlineapp.pro in the address bar, they will see your domain.

Important: The checkout page itself will open on the domain specified in your payment processor settings and is not related to the custom domain. The custom domain only affects the paywall display and authentication process, not the actual payment process.

Benefits of using custom domains

Main problem: Many browsers block third-party cookies by default. When a paywall loads from the onlineapp.pro domain while your site is on a different domain, the browser may block authentication cookies, leading to user login issues.

This issue is only relevant for SaaS applications and websites. If you’re building a browser extension, this problem doesn’t apply to you since extensions use Chrome’s built-in storage for authentication instead of cookies.

Solution: Using a custom domain (subdomain of your main site) bypasses these restrictions, as browsers consider subdomains part of the same domain.

🎨 Improved branding

Users see your domain in the address bar
Increases trust in the payment process
Creates a consistent user experience

🚀 Higher conversion rates

Users are more likely to complete payment when seeing a familiar domain
Reduces abandonment due to distrust of third-party domains
Improves overall perception of your service

Technical requirements

Supported domain types

✅ Supported: Third-level subdomains

api.yoursite.com
pay.yoursite.com
paywall.yoursite.com

❌ Not supported: Root domains

yoursite.com
www.yoursite.com

DNS configuration

To make a custom domain work, delegate your subdomain to DigitalOcean by creating NS records for the subdomain in your primary DNS provider. Example for pay.yoursite.com:


NS pay.yoursite.com ns1.digitalocean.com
NS pay.yoursite.com ns2.digitalocean.com
NS pay.yoursite.com ns3.digitalocean.com

This is called subdomain delegation. You do NOT need to change nameservers for the entire root domain — only delegate the specific subdomain (e.g., pay).

Setup process

Add domain — add the subdomain in settings
Delegate via NS — create NS records for your subdomain pointing to DigitalOcean (ns1-3)
Verification — we check NS records; if valid, the domain gets the status “Waiting for moderation”
Moderation — moderator sets the domain to “Verified”
Link to paywall — select the verified domain for a specific paywall and get the updated installation script

Security

Automatic NS record validation to prevent misconfiguration
Moderation step to protect against unauthorized domain usage

Limitations

Maximum DNS propagation time: up to 48 hours
Only third-level subdomains are supported
Your DNS provider must support subdomain delegation via NS records

Ready to start? Go to creating a custom domain.