Custom domains — your URL, not someone else's slug

There's a small but real trust gap when your audience clicks a link and lands on someone else's domain. linktr.ee/yourbrand says 'I am using a service.' link.yourbrand.com says 'I am the brand.' The same content lands differently depending on the URL it's served from.

We didn't want custom domains to be a Pro upsell that ships with a half-built DNS UI and three articles in the help center about why your TLS cert is in pending state. So we rebuilt that whole layer. The whole 'point your subdomain at us' flow is now a single CNAME record, a status indicator that tells you exactly which step is pending, and an auto-renewing TLS cert you never have to think about again.

Why a custom domain converts better

This isn't conjecture — we ran A/B tests on it for six months across about 200 creators who agreed to participate. Same page, same content, two URLs. The custom-domain version got 12-17% more clicks on the same external links, with the biggest gains on financial/e-commerce CTAs (Stripe checkout, Patreon subscribe, gumroad product page).

The mechanism is simple: people are more cautious clicking 'send my credit card details' when the page is on a domain they don't recognise. A custom domain removes that flinch.

DNS setup — actually two minutes

We've watched dozens of people set this up live in onboarding calls. The median time from clicking 'Add custom domain' to successful TLS provisioning is 90 seconds. Here's what's actually happening:

1. 1In your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Route53, GoDaddy, whatever) add one CNAME record for the subdomain you want — e.g. `links` pointing to `proxy.linkstacked.com`.
2. 2Come back to your Linkstacked custom-domain page. It detects the CNAME within 30 seconds.
3. 3We auto-request a TLS cert from Let's Encrypt. Provisioning takes another ~45 seconds.
4. 4Your link page is now live at `links.yourbrand.com`.

What's *not* required: changing your root domain. We don't ask you to point your apex domain at us. We work over a subdomain — `links`, `social`, `bio`, `app`, whatever you want.

How TLS stays up forever

Certificate expiry is the #1 cause of dead custom-domain link pages on competing platforms. People set it up, forget about it, and 90 days later their cert expires and their page suddenly throws an HTTPS warning to every visitor. We renew certs 30 days before expiry, automatically, with retries and Slack-able alerts if renewal fails. You will literally never see a TLS warning on your own domain because of something we did.

We also keep the certificate chain on transparency logs (this is a security best practice that lets your domain register as trustworthy in browsers and DNS tooling). Most platforms don't bother. We do it because our enterprise customers' compliance teams require it.

Redirects from the platform slug

When you go custom-domain, what happens to your existing `linkstacked.com/yourbrand` URL? Two answers, you pick: (1) keep both live — useful if you've got old print collateral with the platform URL; or (2) 301 redirect to the custom domain so all your SEO juice consolidates. Default is option 1 (keep both), since most people don't realise their old URL has been crawled and indexed.

Multiple domains, multiple pages

On Build and Scale plans you can map more than one custom domain. Useful if you operate sub-brands or run campaign-specific landing pages. Each domain can point at a different Linkstacked page in your account — `summer.yourbrand.com` to your summer campaign, `merch.yourbrand.com` to your shop overflow page, etc. All managed from one dashboard.

Apex domains and wildcard caveats

Two things we don't do, and the reasons why. (1) Apex domains (e.g. `yourbrand.com` with no subdomain) — most DNS providers don't allow CNAME at the apex, and the alternatives (ALIAS, ANAME) aren't universally supported. We can technically support apex via ANAME in Route53 or Cloudflare-only setups; talk to support if it's a hard requirement. (2) Wildcard subdomains — available only on Scale, requires a manually-issued certificate and a security review. Worth it for enterprise, overkill for most.

Switching plans

Custom domains require at least the Grow plan ($9/mo). If you downgrade back to free, your custom-domain mapping pauses (we keep the cert renewed for 90 days in case you upgrade again) and your link page resolves from the platform URL instead. We don't delete the mapping — re-upgrading restores it instantly. Better than the alternative of forcing a re-DNS-config every time someone churns and comes back.

Set it up in two minutes

If you're on the Grow plan or higher, this is genuinely a 2-minute setup. Login → settings → custom domain → enter your subdomain → copy the CNAME → paste it in your DNS provider → wait 90 seconds. Done. If you get stuck on the DNS step (some providers have weird UIs around CNAME records) drop us a note in support — we have screenshot walkthroughs for every common provider.