Custom domains and branded links examples & FAQ

No. Every beehiiv publication comes with a built-in subdomain (e.g., newsletter.beehiiv.com). A custom domain simply lets you use your own URL (e.g., newsletter.yoursite.com) to provide a more personalized experience and improve brand credibility.

You can verify multiple custom domains in your account, but each publication can have only one active custom domain. That domain can then be configured as a web domain, email domain, redirect domain, and/or branded links. Refer to this article for a step-by-step domain setup guide.

Yes, you can use different sending addresses for different publications. However, each publication can only have one custom domain and email configured with it.

While one domain can be used across publications, this isn’t recommended as deliverability on one may impact others. Instead, we suggest using different subdomains (e.g., news.yoursite.com, updates.yoursite.com) for each publication.

No, a single domain can’t point to two different websites at once. If you're already using your root domain (like yoursite.com) for a personal or company website, we recommend setting up a subdomain to use with beehiiv instead.

The most common scenario is to simply create a subdomain like newsletter.yoursite.com, and use that as your beehiiv web domain. This allows you to keep your main site intact while hosting your newsletter on a dedicated URL, and ensures there’s no conflict with DNS or IP routing.

Yes, please refer to this article for instructions on how to remove a custom domain from your beehiiv account.

Web, web redirect, and branded link domains all require an SSL certificate to work properly. These are frequently renewed to keep the security of your domain and website current. 

When the providers of our SSL certificates alert us that they’ve been unable to renew a certificate for more than 7 days, we remove those domains within our system. This often occurs to the domain owner removing DNS records linking a domain in beehiiv. If your domain has been removed, you can reconfigure the domain at any time using the normal domain set up flow.

Yes, you can update your email username or web URL at any time, whether you’re using a custom domain or a beehiiv subdomain.

• If you’re using a beehiiv subdomain (e.g., yourpublication.beehiiv.com): Follow the steps in our guide on changing your publication name, email username, or web URL.
• If you’re using a custom domain (e.g., yoursite.com): See our guide on updating your email username for a custom domain.

Updating your email username or web URL automatically updates the other, since these fields are linked. This change will also update your publication’s URL and may affect any existing links or backlinks.

Not always. Many web hosts already redirect your root domain to the www version automatically, so you’ll want to check this beforehand.

But if you'd like to ensure both your root domain (yoursite.com) and subdomain (www.yoursite.com) point to your beehiiv site, you can configure one as the web domain and the other as the redirect when you set up your custom domain.

Connecting this domain will overwrite your existing website on another provider.

The domain you entered has existing website hosting records, such as a CNAME or A record. By connecting this domain you will overwrite the existing website and disable it. This error can appear when certain DNS providers place temporary parking records on the domain, a measure that they take when a domain isn’t actively hosting a website.

If you run into an overwrite error, you’ll want to ensure the custom domain you're adding is available for use with your beehiiv site. If it's currently used for another website, it's best to set up a subdomain (like, newsletter or blog). For example, using ‘blog’ would create a URL like blog.yourwebsite.com. This way, your beehiiv site will be hosted on the subdomain without affecting your existing website.

Additionally, if you're repurposing an old website for beehiiv, clicking Finish Setup will overwrite your records if you used the Entri Setup to configure your domain. When using the Manual Setup, make sure to remove any old website DNS records before adding the new ones.

If a domain URL field shows red and asks you to ‘Please enter a valid URL’ you’ll want to ensure there are no extra characters or spaces before or after the domain URL you entered. This can cause the system to not recognize the URL as valid. Double-check the URL to confirm it is correct and properly formatted.

If you're encountering this issue, it’s best to remove your domain and start the process again. Please refer to this article for instructions on how to remove a custom domain from your beehiiv account.

This usually means your custom domain DNS records haven’t finished verifying yet. 
Here’s what to check:

• Confirm your DNS setup: Make sure all DNS records shown in beehiiv are correctly added in your domain provider’s DNS settings.
• Allow time for propagation: DNS updates can take time to go live. Depending on your provider, it may take up to 72 hours for all records to fully propagate. You can try refreshing your browser in both beehiiv and your DNS provider to see updated results.
• If you’re using Cloudflare: Check your Proxy Status for each record. If it’s set to Proxied, beehiiv won’t be able to detect the records because proxying hides their values. In this scenario, it’s best to edit the records in Cloudflare to disable proxying, or change the Proxy Status to DNS Only to complete verification.

Proxying is not recommended for beehiiv domains, as it can interfere with authentication and verification. However, if you must keep proxying enabled for other reasons (such as custom redirect rules or Cloudflare Workers), please go to the Help page in your account and submit a support ticket for assistance.

You’ll see this message at the top of your screen once all 4 domain types have been successfully configured during your custom domain setup:

• Web domain
• Redirect domain
• Email domain
• Branded link domain

Your web domain and redirect domain are used to host your publication, while your email and branded link domains share the same subdomain. The branded link domain, however, requires one additional CNAME record to complete setup.

A 404 error means the page isn’t currently live. To make a page visible on your site, be sure it’s enabled before publishing.

Additionally, you can set up a 404 redirect to guide visitors to a helpful destination, like your homepage or another active page instead of seeing a 404 error.

This message means your branded links setup isn’t fully verified yet. Until verification is complete, links in your outgoing emails may not work as expected.

To finish setup, click Branded Links Configuration in the banner. This will take you to the Domains page in your account, where you can complete the remaining steps.

You’ll see this option when your branded links configuration is incomplete. Disabling click tracking ensures your links still work, but it also means you won’t see any click data in the Performance tab or Post Analytics report.

If you send an email with click tracking disabled, you’ll see this message afterward: ‘Click tracking disabled for this post. Click tracking was disabled for this post, so analytics data for this post may be incomplete.’

To ensure you can properly track email click tracking for your future posts, we recommend completing the branded links configuration.

No, click activity can’t be tracked retroactively. Once your branded links setup is complete, all future posts will include click tracking automatically.