Custom Domains

By default, a Hippo app is available at a default domain which has the form of {name of app}.hippo.test. For example, an app named myapp can be reached at myapp.hippo.test.

To make your app available at a different domain, you add a custom domain to it.

You can add custom domains to any app.

A short summary of steps to follow are:

  1. Confirm you own the domain name. You can buy a custom domain at any domain registrar.
  2. Add the custom domain to your application.
  3. Look up the DNS target provided by Hippo.
  4. Configure your app’s DNS provider to point to the Hippo-supplied DNS target
  5. Confirm your app is accessible via the custom domain. There might be a delay while changes propagate.

Configuring DNS for Custom Domains

After you add a domain, you need to point your DNS provider at the DNS target provided by Hippo.

You usually configure a new CNAME record with your DNS provider to point it at Hippo.

The following table shows common CNAME record patterns:

Record Name Target
CNAME www hello-world.hippo.test
CNAME blog my-blog.hippo.test
CNAME staging hello-world.hippo.test

Consult your DNS provider’s documentation for specific instructions on creating CNAME records.

You can confirm that your DNS is configured correctly with the host command, assuming your DNS changes have propagated:

$ host www.example.com
www.example.com is an alias for hello-world.hippo.test.
...

Configuring DNS for Root Domains

Configuring your DNS provider for a root domain is similar to configuring a DNS provider for a subdomain. However, whereas with subdomains the type of record to configure is always a CNAME, with root domains the type of record depends on the DNS provider.

Whichever provider you have, point the ALIAS/ANAME/CNAME entry for your root domain to the DNS Target, just as you would with a CNAME record:

Record Name Target
ALIAS or ANAME @ hello-world.hippo.test

Rules on Adding Domains

Any Hippo user can attempt to add domains to their app. Instead of explicit domain ownership verification, Hippo enforces the following rules to ensure domains aren’t claimed by multiple owners:

  1. A given domain can only be added to a single Hippo app. For example, if you add www.example.com to hello-world, you cannot add that domain to goodbye-world without removing the domain from hello-world first.
  2. Wildcard domains are unsupported at this time.