Domains: bind, unbind, renew
You will bind and unbind a domain, renew it and spread the organization's domains across projects — minutes; only new registrar records take up to a day.
Bind and unbind a domain
A domain belongs to the organization, is assigned to a project, and its address is bound to a funnel. Each action has its level:
| What to do | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| buy or connect a domain | the project's “Domains” → “Buy a domain” or “Connect your domain” | The domain belongs to the project at once. Steps — Publish a funnel, step 2. The same buttons in the organization's “Domains” put the domain into the pool, with no project. |
| give a domain to a project | the organization's “Domains” → ⋮ → “Assign to a project”, or “Reassign” if another project has the domain | The project's funnels will see the domain. Details — in the “Organization domains” section below. |
| bind an address to a funnel | “Funnels” (in an “On your own” project — “Quizzes”) → ⋮ in the row → “Domain”. For a quiz and a paywall — the same item in the “Quizzes” and “Paywalls” tabs, or the “Domain” button in the editor's top bar | After publishing, the funnel opens at this address. Steps — Publish a funnel, step 3. |
| unbind an address from a funnel | the same place, “Unbind” in the bindings table | At once, without confirmation: the funnel stops opening at this address. Its statistics stay. |
| take a domain away from a project | the organization's “Domains” → ⋮ → “To the organization pool” | Everything bound to the domain in this project stops opening on it. Assign the domain again — set the bindings anew. |
| delete your own domain for good | the organization's “Domains” → ⋮ → “Disconnect domain” | We stop serving it; statistics are kept. It cannot be undone: to bring the domain back, connect it again and bind the funnels again. |
| delete a bought domain | ⋮ in the domain row → turn off “Auto-renewal”. For a domain with no project the switch will not work, so first assign the domain to a project | A bought domain cannot be switched off early: it expires at the end of the paid year. |
The project's “Domains” has no binding, unbinding or deleting: there you buy, connect and renew. The connect window suggests binding in “Domains”, but binding is done via “Funnels” → ⋮ → “Domain”.
Where to see domains
| Section | What is there | Who manages it |
|---|---|---|
| “Domains” in the project menu | the project's domains: status, expiry, which funnels, quizzes and paywalls they are bound to (the “Usage” column; A/B tests are not shown there), buying, connecting, renewal. Funnel subdomains have no row of their own: their funnels are shown in the “Usage” of the main domain | the project owner, admin and member — they also bind addresses to funnels; the section is closed to a retention manager (roles) |
| “Domains” in “Entire organization” mode | all the organization's domains: which project each belongs to (the “Project” column), assigning to a project, returning to the pool, disconnecting, checking the records of your own domains | the organization owner and admin; others see the list read-only |
“Entire organization” mode is chosen in the list under the project name, top left. In both tables, “Cost” is a bought domain's yearly renewal price. 30 days before expiry, “Expiration” shows a “≤Nd” tag; after — “expired”.
What a domain costs
The purchase window shows the price beside the wallet balance. Renewal has its own price, possibly different: see “Cost” and the renewal window.
Both are paid from the organization wallet in credits. Their source — Plan and limits.
Renewal
A bought domain comes for a year with auto-renewal on. Your own you renew at your registrar: our “Renew” is inactive (grey) for it.
Auto-renewal
From 30 days before expiry we try to renew from the organization wallet once a day, at most three times, emailing the project owner after each failure. After the third, auto-renewal stops; renew by hand before the “Expiration” date.
To toggle it: ⋮ in the domain row → “Auto-renewal”. With it off there are no expiry emails — watch the “≤Nd” tag.
Renew by hand
- In the project's “Domains”, click “Renew” in the domain's row.
- The “Domain renewal” window shows the sum. Click “Renew”.
The year adds to the current term, so early renewal loses no days. For several, tick rows and click “Renew” above the table: the window shows the “Total”.
On the organization's domains page, “Renew” charges at once, with no sum window — check “Cost” first. A domain with no project cannot be renewed there: assign it first.
If credits are short
The window says “Not enough funds”. “Top up balance” there adds nothing: credit packages are not available yet. Credits come with the next paid invoice's plan grant, or from support. If the invoice comes after expiry, write to [email protected] early.
What a status means and what to do
| Status | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “Active” | The domain works. | — |
| “Pending” | A bought one is being prepared, usually about ten minutes. Your own one waits for two records you add in the registrar's panel: TXT confirms the domain is yours, CNAME sends traffic to us; the exact values are in the “Connection instructions” window. Until the TXT record exists, the name shows “Waiting for the TXT record” and the date when we delete the request without it — three days after connecting. | For your own: ⋮ → “Connection instructions” shows both records and hints where to set them in the panels of popular registrars. Set TXT — click “Check now” in that window or ⋮ → “Check now”. “The TXT record is not visible yet” right after adding is normal: a record usually spreads within an hour, and we check it in the background ourselves. Once TXT is found, the name shows “Ownership confirmed”, and the status stays “Pending” until we find the CNAME: usually within an hour, at most a day. Set CNAME — ⋮ → “Check DNS (CNAME)”: the answer comes as a message, stays as a line under the domain name and names the missing record. Waiting more than a day — open the CNAME record at your registrar and compare its type, name and value with the “Connection instructions” window; all matches — write to support: [email protected]. |
| “Frozen” | The plan dropped to free: above the table, the banner “The domain is switched off — the subscription is unpaid”. Or your own domain did not pass the record check in seven days: on the organization's domains page, the banner “The ownership check has not passed for this domain”. | If the plan dropped — the “If the plan dropped” section below. If the check failed, set both records at the registrar and click ⋮ → “Restart connection”: the domain goes back to “Pending”, the seven days for the check start over, and a message says whether it is accepted already or still waits for the CNAME record. A restart does not lift a freeze caused by payment. |
| “Expired” | A bought domain was not renewed before expiry; funnels on it do not open. | It cannot be brought back from the cabinet; “Renew” will not help here. Buy a new domain and bind the funnels to it. |
| “Released” | After the plan dropped, the countdown ran out, and the name went back on open sale. | If the name is still free, buy or connect it again; otherwise take another. |
Faster — ⋮ → “Set it up at my provider”: we take you to your registrar if it supports this, or say it does not. Then “Connection instructions” opened from the project's “Domains” also has “⚡ Set up DNS automatically”. Both set the CNAME; add TXT by hand.
These items stay after connecting — for checks if the domain stops opening. “Check DNS (CNAME)” is greyed out before ownership is confirmed and for a connected domain; its hint says why.
For a root domain (example.com, not go.example.com) the check adds a caveat: most registrars forbid a root CNAME; ALIAS or ANAME is needed. A subdomain is simpler — CNAME works on it freely.
If you need the root and the registrar lacks ALIAS (like NameSilo), point www at us: a CNAME named (Hostname) www alone — not “@”, not the whole domain — with value cname.subster.ai. Forward the root to https://www.example.com (NameSilo: Domain Forwarding). Keep the ownership TXT record.
Then ⋮ → “Check DNS (CNAME)”: found — “Active” in minutes; not — the line under the name says which record is missing.
Check the records at the registrar
Only your own domains need this: we keep bought domains' records.
If a registrar record disappears (DNS hosting changed, zone cleaned), the domain stops opening while the table still says “Active”. The “Your domains: records at the registrar” block shows records:
- in a project — “Funnels” → ⋮ in any funnel row → “Domain”;
- in the organization — “Domains” in “Entire organization” mode, below the table.
They are checked on opening and with “Check now”.
| Answer | What to do |
|---|---|
| “The records at your registrar are in place.” | Nothing. |
| “The records at your registrar are gone — the domain will stop opening” | Below, the block shows which record is needed and what stands in its place. Create it again and click “Check now”. |
| “Could not check the records right now” | This says nothing about the records themselves; retry in a minute. |
Organization domains
A project's funnels see only its assigned domains. A domain with no project sits in the organization pool: bought or connected from the organization page, returned, or its project deleted. Filter “Project” → “Not assigned” shows them.
| Task | How |
|---|---|
| Give a domain to a project | ⋮ → “Assign to a project” → choose the project → “Assign”. Several at once — tick the rows and click “Assign to a project” above the table. |
| Move a domain to another project | ⋮ → “Reassign”. Bindings to the old project's funnels are removed: in the new one, bind the addresses again, as in step 3 of Publish a funnel. |
With an A/B test on the domain, “Reassign” and “To the organization pool” refuse: “Deal with this domain’s smart links first” — the cabinet's name here for A/B test addresses. Change the test's domain or delete it in “A/B tests”, and retry. Tests in any status, drafts too, hold domains; ⋮ → “Domain” in its row shows which.
If the plan dropped
The plan turns free seven days after a failed payment or when a canceled subscription ends — see Plan and limits. All organization domains become “Frozen”, and their funnels stop opening. The banner “The domain is switched off — the subscription is unpaid” appears with a countdown “Only N days left…” and “Restore Pro”.
- Paid before the countdown ends — domains work again by themselves. Auto-renewal returns where it was on.
- The countdown ran out — the domain is lost: anyone can take a bought name; your own must be reconnected.
- A bought domain's paid year ends first — frozen domains do not auto-renew, so it expires on its date. To keep it, restore the plan before the “Expiration” date.
Rare cases
| What you see | What it is and what to do |
|---|---|
| The “Needs reconciliation” tag in “Expiration”, the “Renew” button inactive (grey) | Renewal is paid; we are reconciling the new term with the registrar. Do not pay twice. If the date never updates, write to support: [email protected]. |
| “The money is charged, the renewal is not confirmed” in the renewal window | Before clicking “Charge again and renew”, write to support: [email protected] — the button charges the sum a second time. |
| “Price unavailable” instead of a price | The registrar has not named a price right now; renewal is impossible. Try later. |
| The banner “The organization domains are frozen because of a debt” | Renewing and assigning domains is impossible for now, and topping up the wallet will not help. Write to support: [email protected]. |
Next
- Handoff to a developer — what the engineer needs so paid access opens in the app.
- A/B tests — one ad link on a domain, comparing funnel variants.
- Plan and limits — where credits come from and what an unpaid plan means.