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Every page has its sharepa address and runs under name.sharepa.page right away. Your own domain comes on top if you want it, for example www.mysite.com or courses.mysite.com. It takes two records at your domain provider. sharepa gets the certificate for HTTPS itself.
The two records
In the app you type your domain in one of two places: in the settings of a page under “Address” with “Connect your own domain”, or under Settings › Domains with “Connect a domain”. Use the second one when no page should go on the domain yet, or when you want another domain. When you create a page, you can also do it right under “Where should the page live?” with “+ Connect another domain”. sharepa then shows you two records. The first one proves that the domain is yours. sharepa creates the value for you, it is different for every domain:
Type TXT Name _sharepa-verify.www Value sharepa-verify=…
The second one points the domain to sharepa:
Type CNAME Name www Target domains.sharepa.page
“Name” is the part in front of your domain: with www.mysite.com it is www and _sharepa-verify.www, with courses.mysite.com it is courses and _sharepa-verify.courses. The target is always domains.sharepa.page. The TXT record makes sure nobody else can connect your domain to a page of their own, not even when the CNAME already points to sharepa. It may stay in place afterwards. A CNAME tells the internet: “This address is to be found at sharepa.” Nothing more happens, your domain stays with your provider, and all other records (email, other subdomains) stay as they are.
At your provider
The menus have different names everywhere, the records are always the same. For twelve providers there is a page each with the steps in the wording of their panel and the pitfalls: Cloudflare, IONOS, OVH, GoDaddy and Namecheap in English, plus the Swiss providers Infomaniak, Hostpoint, cyon, Metanet, Hostfactory and Swizzonic in German. The overview of all providers sums up where a CNAME on the root domain works and where it does not.
If your provider is not listed: look for "DNS", "DNS zone" or "records" in its control panel, add the TXT and the CNAME there, and drop us a line with its name so we can add it.
Root domain without www
A domain without a subdomain (mysite.com instead of www.mysite.com) is not allowed a CNAME under the DNS rules. Cloudflare and some other providers work around that, Infomaniak and Hostpoint do not. The usual way: connect www.mysite.com to sharepa and set up a redirect at your provider from mysite.com to www.mysite.com. All the big providers can do that in a few clicks.
Several pages under one domain
With the one-time plan you can put several pages under the same domain, each under its own path: offers.mysite.com/miller, offers.mysite.com/smith. You connect the domain once as above. After that you pick it under “Your own domain” when you create a new page and enter a path. No more DNS records needed.
- Each page has its own password. Knowing the password of
/millerdoes not open/smith. - Statistics and form entries count per page.
- A page under a path has only this one address. It is not reachable under
name.sharepa.page. - A path is not a secret. If only the people with the link should see it, set a password.
- All pages of a domain share the browser storage (localStorage). If two of your pages store data under the same name, they see each other's data. If you need that separated, use a subdomain per page.
Under Settings › Domains you see all domains with their pages, connect another one and disconnect a domain when you no longer need it.
What it costs
Nothing. One page on your own domain is included in the free tier, certificate included. You rent the domain itself from your provider as before, sharepa changes nothing about that. In the one-time plan you connect up to five domains and put as many of your pages under them as you like.
Questions
How long does it take?
Usually a few minutes, sometimes up to an hour until the record is known everywhere. sharepa checks every few minutes. As soon as the domain is active it says so in the app, and you get an email. Until then the app says “Waiting for your records”. If sharepa finds no proof after seven days, it removes the domain again and tells you.
Does the sharepa address stay reachable?
Yes, for the page on the whole domain. It keeps running under both addresses. In the app you pick which one counts as the main address. Pages under a path only have the address on your domain.
What if it does not work?
Check four things first: a typo in the target, it is exactly domains.sharepa.page. For the TXT name only the part in front of your domain, many providers append the domain themselves. Another record with the same name (A, AAAA or CNAME), that one has to go. And at Cloudflare the proxy, which has to be off (“DNS only”). Otherwise: email konrad@getsharepa.ch with the domain and the provider, we will look into it.
Why is the TXT record needed?
Without it someone else could connect your domain to their page, for example after you disconnected it while the CNAME still points to sharepa. Only whoever manages the domain can set the TXT record with your value. If two accounts claim the same domain, it goes to the account whose proof is found first.
Can I disconnect the domain again?
Yes, any time in the app. The page stays reachable under its sharepa address, and the domain is free again for another page.
Provider menus change now and then. If something no longer matches, let us know.