Custom Domains

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

To make your app available at a different domain, you can add a custom domain. 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 A record with your DNS provider to point it at Hippo.

The following table shows common A record patterns:

Record Name Target
A www 192.168.1.100
A blog 192.168.1.100
A staging 192.168.1.100

You can also use a wildcard:

Record Name Target
A * 192.168.1.100

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

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

$ host docs.hippofactory.dev
docs.hippofactory.dev has address 172.67.129.47
docs.hippofactory.dev has address 104.21.1.112
docs.hippofactory.dev has IPv6 address 2606:4700:3036::ac43:812f
docs.hippofactory.dev has IPv6 address 2606:4700:3033::6815:170

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. Adding wildcard domains to applications are unsupported at this time.