Your Free Address & Connecting Your Own Domain

Every StoutStack site goes live the moment you create it: no waiting, no setup, no bill for a web address. You get a free address you can share right away, and whenever you're ready to look more professional, you can connect your own domain (like yourbusiness.com) in a few minutes. This article covers both: the free address you already have, and how to point your own domain at your site.

Your free web address

As soon as your site is created, it's already online at a free address that looks like this:

yourname.mystoutstack.com

So if your business is Meridian Studio, your free address might be meridianstudio.mystoutstack.com. This address works immediately. You can open it in any browser, text it to a friend, or use it to preview your site on your phone. There's nothing to configure and nothing to pay for.

The free address is perfect while you're still building. You can design pages, swap photos, and get everything looking right, all on a real, live web address. Plenty of businesses stay on their free address for weeks before connecting a custom domain, and that's completely fine.

When you connect your own domain later, this free address doesn't disappear. It keeps working and quietly forwards visitors to your new domain (more on that below).

When to connect your own domain

A custom domain is your own web address, like meridianstudio.com instead of meridianstudio.mystoutstack.com. It's the more professional choice for anything you put on business cards, in ads, in a pitch deck, or in your email signature. Customers trust a short, branded address, and it's easier to remember.

You'd connect your own domain when:

  • You're ready to promote your site publicly.
  • You want a branded address on marketing materials.
  • You already own a domain and want it to show your StoutStack site.

Before you start

To connect your own domain, you'll need two things:

  1. You already own the domain. If you haven't bought one yet, you can register it through any domain seller (common ones include Cloudflare, GoDaddy, and Namecheap). Buy the domain first, then come back here to connect it.
  2. You can edit the domain's DNS settings. DNS settings are the control panel at the company where you bought your domain. It's where you tell your domain which website to show. If you can log in to that account, you're all set.

Note: Connecting a domain is a Site Admin task. You'll find it under Site Settings. If you don't see the option, ask whoever manages your site's account to give you Site Admin access or to make the change for you.

How to connect your domain, step by step

  1. Save your site first. Make sure your latest changes are saved so your live site looks the way you want before you point a domain at it.
  2. Open Site Settings → General → Custom Domain. This is where all the domain tools live.
  3. Type your domain and click Add custom domain. Enter it plainly, like meridianstudio.com: no https:// and no slashes, just the address itself.
  4. Copy the DNS records StoutStack gives you. After you add the domain, StoutStack shows a small table of DNS records with three columns (Type, Host, and Value) and a copy button on each one. These records are the instructions that tell your domain to point at your site.
  5. Add those exact records at your registrar. Log in to the company where you bought your domain, find its DNS settings, and add each record exactly as shown. Use the copy buttons so nothing gets mistyped.
  6. Click Check now, or just wait. Once your records are saved at your registrar, come back and click Check now. You don't have to sit and watch it, though: StoutStack also checks automatically every 5 minutes.
  7. Let StoutStack finish the setup. As soon as your records are detected, your secure certificate (the padlock in the browser, also called SSL) is issued automatically, and the status flips to Live. That's it. Your domain is connected.

Understanding the DNS records table

The record table can look technical, but each column is simple. Here's what you're looking at:

Column What it means
Type The kind of record, such as A or CNAME. Your registrar will have a matching dropdown when you add a record.
Host The part of your address the record applies to (for example your main domain, or the www version).
Value The destination the record points to. Always use the copy button to grab this exactly; a single wrong character will stop it from connecting.

Every registrar lays out its DNS screen a little differently, but they all ask for these same three pieces. If yours uses slightly different wording, match Type to Type, Host to Host (sometimes labeled "Name"), and Value to Value (sometimes labeled "Points to" or "Target").

What happens once it's connected

A few things are handled for you automatically, so you don't have to set them up separately:

  • Both versions of your address work. Visitors reach your site whether they type meridianstudio.com or www.meridianstudio.com. You don't have to choose one. Both are set up.
  • Your old free address redirects to the new one. Anyone who visits your .mystoutstack.com address is sent to your custom domain automatically. Links you shared earlier keep working, and your search-engine rankings carry over instead of starting from scratch.
  • Your secure padlock is issued for you. The certificate that shows the padlock and the https:// in the browser bar is created and renewed automatically. There's nothing to buy or install.

How long does it take?

Adding the domain in StoutStack takes about a minute. The part that varies is your registrar: after you save the DNS records, changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to take effect across the internet. This is normal and out of anyone's control. It's just how domains work.

You don't need to do anything while you wait. StoutStack keeps checking every 5 minutes on its own, and the status will move to Live the moment your records are detected. If you're impatient, you can click Check now to nudge it along. If a few hours pass and it still hasn't connected, double-check that each record at your registrar matches the table exactly. A small typo is the most common holdup.

For a full rundown of the status badges and the messages you might see along the way, see Managing & Troubleshooting Your Domain.

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