Custom domain
A domain name is the URL or web address where visitors find your site. By default, all Nolt boards are accessible via the Nolt subdomain, shown as [name-of-your-board].nolt.io. You can also use a domain you already own. To perform this action, follow the steps below.
If your DNS provider does not offer SSL with a reverse proxy, please contact us at
hello@nolt.io to setup your custom domain with our automatic SSL service (beta).
1. Add the DNS record
Go to your DNS provider’s website. If this is the first time you are making this choice, select an option that can issue an SSL certificate. Depending on your DNS provider, editing DNS records can take several hours before the changes are applied across the internet.
- Create a new CNAME DNS record.
- Enter the subdomain name, for example, the "feedback" of feedback.mydomain.com.
- Type in the hostname custom-domain.nolt.io (not yourboard.nolt.io).
Note: The previous method using cname.nolt.io is being deprecated. Please use custom-domain.nolt.io instead and enable Managed SSL as described below.
2. Enable Managed SSL
For security reasons and to ensure optimal protection against DDoS attacks, we require using our Managed SSL service. After setting up your CNAME record:
- Navigate to your board settings
- Find the Custom Domain section
- Toggle on the "Managed SSL" option
Important: Only enable Managed SSL after you have updated your CNAME record to point to custom-domain.nolt.io. This ensures proper SSL certificate provisioning.
3. Configure SSL
For security reasons, we are redirecting HTTP to HTTPS. Depending on the browser the following error messages may appear on your screen "Your connection is not private" or "Your connection is not secure" while trying to open your custom board domain. Let's fix that.
Configure SSL with Cloudflare
- Make sure your CNAME record is proxied through Cloudflare (orange cloud icon).
- Go to the Page Rules page.
- Create a new Page Rule with the following settings:
[your domain]/* (SSL: Full)
e.g. feedback.example.com/* (SSL: Full)
Configure SSL with Amazon CloudFront
AWS CloudFront is no longer supported! Instead: please contact us at
hello@nolt.io to setup your custom domain with our automatic SSL service (beta).
- Create a certificate in AWS Certificate Manager.
- Open AWS CloudFront and create a new distribution.
- Select the Web delivery method.
- Origin settings
- Origin Domain Name: cname.nolt.io
- Origin Protocol Policy: HTTPS Only
- Default Cache Behavior Settings
- Viewer Protocol Policy: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
- Allowed HTTP Methods: GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, POST, PATCH, DELETE
- Cache and origin request settings: Use legacy cache settings
- Cache Based on Selected Request Headers: All
- Forward Cookies: All
- Query String Forwarding and Cache: Forward all, cache based on all
- Distribution Settings
- Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs): your custom domain (e.g., feedback.mydomain.com)
- SSL Certificate: Custom SSL Certificate. Select the previously created certificate from the drop-down menu.
- Click on Create distribution
- Change the previously created CNAME record to point to your CloudFront distribution domain (e.g., d1abcdefghijk8.cloudfront.net)
Configure SSL with Google Cloud
- Navigate to Network services > Load balancing.
- Create a HTTP(S) Load Balancer.
- Select From Internet to my VMs.
- Give your load balancer a name: e.g., nolt-load-balancer.
- Backend configuration > Create a backend service
- Name: nolt-backend-service
- Backend type: Internet network endpoint group
- Protocol: HTTPS
- Internet network endpoint group > Create Internet network endpoint group
- Name: nolt-network-endpoint-group
- Fully qualified domain name: replace-with-your-board-name.nolt.io
- Create
- Advanced configurations (Session affinity, connection draining timeout, security policies)
- Custom headers
- Host: replace-with-your-board-name.nolt.io
- X-Forwarded-Host: feedback.mydomain.com
- Create
- Frontent configuration
- Name: nolt-frontend
- Protocol: HTTPS
- Certificate > Create a new certificate
- Name: nolt-certificate
- Create mode: Create Google-managed certificate
- Domains: feedback.mydomain.com
- Create
- Done
- Create
- Wait for the load balancer to be created.
- Click on nolt-load-balancer (or however you named your load balancer)
- Copy the IP address listed under Frontend
- Go to Cloud DNS
- Open your zone
- Click on Add record set
- Enter your DNS name: e.g., feedback.mydomain.com
- Resource record type: A
- IPv4 address: <paste the copied IP address>
- Create
- Make sure your Nolt board is pointing to your custom domain.
- Open your Nolt board: replace-with-your-board-name.nolt.io
- Manage Board > Settings
- Custom domain: feedback.mydomain.com
- Wait for your load balancer and certificate to be provisioned (this can take up to 15 minutes)
4. Add the domain to your board
Navigate to your board → Settings → Custom domain and enter your domain name in the Custom domain field. It works with root domains (mydomain.com) and subdomains (example.mydomain.com).
Troubleshoot
- Your connection is not private / Your connection is not secure. Your website hosting / DNS provider has not issued an SSL certificate. If they support SSL, please wait for another few minutes until your certificate is active. If your DNS provider does not provide SSL support, set up a service like Cloudflare in front of it.
- There's nothing here, yet. Check the entered text in the CNAME subdomain and the "Custom domain" field in your board settings and make sure you have not misspelled some character.
- CNAME Cross-User Banned. Make sure your CNAME record is pointing to cname.nolt.io.
- 403 Forbidden. Make sure your CNAME record is pointing to cname.nolt.io.
- Page not found. Are you using a custom proxy? Make sure to forward all HTTP headers or, respectively, set the header "X-Forwarded-Host: feedback.mydomain.com".