Start with the address you can use today
Open Dashboard > Settings > Website Address. Your Cottage CMS address is available while you build, so you do not need to purchase a domain before creating products or testing checkout.
Plan availability: The standard Cottage CMS address is Free. Connecting a domain you already own and buying a managed domain are Pro features under the active matrix. Scale and Legacy Lifetime inherit their configured domain access; managed domain registration and renewal are billed separately.
Choose between the two paths
- Keep the Cottage CMS address when you are testing, taking orders from a small audience, or have not chosen a permanent brand name.
- Buy a domain when you want Cottage CMS to handle registration and managed setup.
- Connect your own domain when you already purchased it elsewhere and can update DNS or nameservers.
Use the website-address wording in the primary flow. Advanced setup may mention DNS, nameservers, SSL, and registrar, but the outcome is always the exact address customers type.
What customers see
Until a custom address is fully ready, customers can continue using your Cottage CMS address. Do not announce a new address until the dashboard shows routing and SSL are active.
Common problems
- The address search rejects what I pasted. A value such as https://yourbusiness.com/menu is normalized to its hostname; email addresses, unsupported punctuation, and Cottage CMS brand collisions are blocked.
- The domain is paid for but not live. Registration, DNS configuration, hostname activation, and SSL deployment are separate steps. Use the status actions instead of retrying checkout.
- I want to downgrade after buying a domain. The domain purchase and renewal are separate from the platform subscription; read the billing impact before changing plans.
Next steps
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