IN SHORT
- Systems start on an address that already works and is already encrypted.
- Your own domain: have the domain, ask in the studio, make the change you are told to make at the registrar, wait, then check the padlock.
- The domain has to be one you can change records on.
- Email from your own domain is a separate step and needs the domain in place first.
The address you get for free
A system is reachable on the web from the moment it exists, over an encrypted connection, with nothing for you to configure. For an internal tool that is often the end of the story — staff bookmark it and never think about the address again.
The reason to move to your own domain is that customers see it: a booking page or a portal on your own name is the difference between looking like your business and looking like a supplier’s.
Moving to your own domain
- Have the domain first. Buy or find the one you intend to use before starting — the studio cannot register a domain for you.
- Ask for it in the studio, naming the exact address you want, including whether it should be the bare domain or a subdomain.
- Make the change you are told to make, at your registrar or wherever your DNS is hosted. This is the one step nobody can do on your behalf.
- Wait for it to take effect. DNS changes are not instant and the wait is normal, not a fault.
- Check the padlock in the browser before you tell anyone the new address.
Two things that catch people out
The domain has to be yours to change. If it is held by an agency, a former web designer or a cousin who set the website up in 2014, the DNS change is blocked until you can get at the records — and that, not the software, is what delays the launch.
Do not let the old address die quietly. Anything already printed, linked or bookmarked points at it. Ask in the studio what should happen to it before you switch, rather than discovering the answer from a customer.
Email from your own domain
Every system can send email — confirmations, reminders, the Monday summary — from the moment it exists. What it cannot do at the start is send them from your own domain, because that requires the domain to be in place and additional records to be set at the registrar so that receiving mail servers trust the messages.
Do the domain first, then ask for the email address. Doing it in the other order means doing the registrar work twice.
RELATED
Tutorial: your own domain — the same five steps, with what to say at each
Tutorial: reminders and scheduled jobs — what the system can send once email is set up
What every system includes — the address and the email, among the other seven