Custom Domains and Automatic HTTPS

A *.vercel.app URL is genuinely fine for previewing — a real product deserves your own domain, and Vercel's setup is deliberately low-friction.

Add a domain under Project Settings → Domains. Enter your domain, and Vercel either detects it's already using Vercel's nameservers (if purchased through Vercel) or provides the DNS records to add at your existing registrar — an A record or CNAME, depending on your setup.

SSL certificates are automatic and automatically renewed, the same zero-maintenance HTTPS story as Railway's equivalent feature — no certificate expiration to track yourself, no manual renewal process.

A domain can be assigned to a specific branch, not just your main production domain. Common pattern: staging.example.com permanently pointed at your staging branch's deployments, distinct from example.com tracking your actual production branch.

Redirects (www to non-www, or vice versa, and other patterns) are configurable directly in domain settings — a small detail, covered in the Railway Mastery track's equivalent lesson too, that real users and SEO both notice.

Buying a domain directly through Vercel is possible, but not required. You can register and manage a domain entirely within Vercel's dashboard, or bring an existing domain from any registrar — both paths lead to the same automatic HTTPS and DNS management once configured.

Why this matters for you

The same principle as every hosting platform in this library: automatic HTTPS removes a genuinely historically painful piece of manual infrastructure work — and a real domain is what makes a Vercel deployment feel like a shipped product, not a demo.

▶️ Before the next lesson

If you have a domain, start adding it to your Vercel project — DNS propagation takes time, so starting early means it's likely ready before you need it.