TidyHQ gives your organisation a default web address in the format yourclub.tidyhq.com. You can change this subdomain yourself at any time under Organisation Settings > Organisation Details.

A custom domain (e.g. yourclub.com.au) is different — this is a domain you own through a third-party registrar.

TidyHQ supports the ability for customers on our Pro plan to bring their own domain, using it for email communication and for hosting their TidyHQ Web Pages.

Please Note: Domains must be purchased through a Domain Provider e.g. VentraIP, GoDaddy, etc. TidyHQ does not provide this service, and all costs are external of your TidyHQ Subscription.

You'll need:

If you want to get Custom Domains setup in TidyHQ but need a bit more help than this article can provide, please get in touch with our support team by emailing support@tidyhq.com and we will be happy to walk you through it.

Our domain provisioning system for websites and emails is based on AWS Route 53.

To do this, we'll need to manage your domain's DNS through Route 53. We understand that giving up full DNS control can be a concern, but here's how it works: due to how our infrastructure is designed, we require management of the authoritative DNS to support custom domain features. That means DNS records are managed through our system (using Route 53) instead of directly via your registrar.

Therefore, we offer a solution that allows you to retain control over your DNS (excluding the records required by TidyHQ). After the initial setup, you'll receive secure access to manage your DNS records in Route 53, with limited permissions. You'll be able to view, edit, and add your own records, while TidyHQ-managed records (like those for email and custom domains) will remain protected to ensure system stability.

Your domain will still be registered with your own registrar — we won't change that. And if needed, you can remove or revert the DNS delegation at any time.

Once your custom domain is provisioned, you'll have access to add and edit your own DNS records alongside TidyHQ's. Here's what that looks like in practice:

Modifying TidyHQ-managed records would break your site or email delivery, which is why they're protected. If you're unsure which records are yours to edit, contact support before making changes.

If you have an existing website, externally hosted email, or other complex aspects to your web presence, having your TidyHQ site on a subdomain is a great solution.

This means that your members would visit your TidyHQ site at an address such as members.example.com, with your organisational emails coming from hello@members.example.com.

Go to Apps > Bring Your Own Domain and click Add App:

Once added, click on Settings to proceed.

Enter your domain and click Continue. We'll scan your domain for existing records, which informs the next section.
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Please enter just the domain — so yourclub.com.au and not https://www.yourclub.com.au/index.html for example.

If you already have a website or email address with your domain, you'll need to decide whether to replace that with TidyHQ web and email, or whether to put your TidyHQ web/email on a subdomain to keep things separate.

For example, if you have the existing email address hello@yourclub.com.au and you'd like to keep it with your current provider, we and they can't both listen @yourclub.com.au — instead, we would listen on a subdomain, e.g. @members.yourclub.com.au. It's much the same for websites.

In the screenshots below, tidyai.net has some records that make it look like a Squarespace site with Microsoft 365 for email.

There are three choices for web:

Similarly, there are several choices for email:

We've summarised the combinations below and linked to the relevant section.

Where either web or email is getting replaced, we'll need to set NS records for your main domain. Where only a subdomain is being used, we'll need to set NS records for the subdomain only; your provider will need to support "subdomain delegation".

Suppose you wanted to consolidate everything into TidyHQ, replacing both your existing website and email.

In this scenario, TidyHQ takes over DNS hosting for the main domain, so we'll need a copy of all existing DNS records so anything else (like Google Analytics site verification) can continue uninterrupted.
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We'll copy in all the well-known DNS records we can see. Note that while all DNS records are public, some aren't guessable.

At this stage, please review all the records. It's likely that you'll want to upload a file listing your DNS records (commonly called a "zone file"). You can also enter records by hand if there's just a few.

To upload records, click Browse... to choose a file and then Upload. We'll process the records and check them for validity, giving you the option to remove ones with problems.

In this scenario, TidyHQ takes over DNS hosting for the main domain, so we'll need a copy of all existing DNS records so your email and anything else (like Google Analytics site verification) can continue uninterrupted.

We'll copy in all the well-known DNS records we can see. Note that while all DNS records are public, some aren't guessable.

At this stage, please review all the records. It's likely that you'll want to upload a file listing your DNS records (commonly called a "zone file"). You can also enter records by hand if there's just a few.

In this scenario, TidyHQ takes over DNS hosting for the main domain, so we'll need a copy of all existing DNS records so your email and anything else (like Google Analytics site verification) can continue uninterrupted.

We'll copy in all the well-known DNS records we can see. Note that while all DNS records are public, some aren't guessable.

At this stage, please review all the records. It's likely that you'll want to upload a file listing your DNS records (commonly called a "zone file"). You can also enter records by hand if there's just a few.

Suppose you wanted to keep both our existing web and email, so you chose the new subdomain members.yourclub.com.au.

In this case, TidyHQ only needs to manage DNS records for the subdomain, not the main domain. Your main-domain DNS provider must support subdomain delegation.

If it's a new subdomain you'll see something like this:

Since it's new, there's nothing on this subdomain and you can safely proceed.

In this step, we'll give you four NS records for your main domain or subdomain as appropriate. You'll need to copy these over into your current registrar / DNS provider, possibly replacing existing records.
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We'll periodically check to see if they've been updated yet, and you can safely close the page in TidyHQ.

In the screenshot above, the exact values have been obscured, as they can vary, but they'll be similar.

If you already have a Custom Domain set up (prior to mid-2024) then you are likely using our legacy system, whereby you are responsible for managing your own DNS based on settings we provide. If you're not sure, please contact TidyHQ Support.

Please note that this legacy system is only available to its existing users and is no longer offered to new users.

If your custom domain was set up by TidyHQ in mid-2024 to mid-2026, you don't need to do anything. You have access to Route53 to manage non-TidyHQ records.

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