Setting Up a Custom Domain

Point your own domain name at your Mayhem storefront

Setting Up a Custom Domain

By default, your Mayhem storefront lives at a URL like "mystore.mayhem.my". If you own your own domain name (like "myshop.com"), you can point it at your storefront so customers see your own branded domain instead of a mayhem.my subdomain.

Setting up a custom domain is more technical than most Mayhem features, so this guide walks through everything you'll need before you get started.

Before You Begin

To set up a custom domain, you'll need:

  • A domain name you own, purchased through a domain registrar (e.g., Namecheap, GoDaddy, Google Domains, Cloudflare Registrar).
  • Access to your DNS records. You'll need to know who your DNS provider is (this is often your registrar, but not always: some sellers buy a domain in one place and manage DNS somewhere else, like Cloudflare) and be able to log in and edit DNS records yourself, or get your provider's support team to do it for you.
  • A free Cloudflare account, so you can generate a Cloudflare Turnstile key. Turnstile provides bot protection for your storefront, and custom domains require their own Turnstile key rather than using Mayhem's default. See Setting Up Custom Cloudflare Turnstile for step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Request Approval

Custom domains aren't self-service. We need to route traffic correctly and issue a security certificate for your domain, and we'd rather do that before you start changing DNS records than after. Before you touch anything, open a support ticket from your seller dashboard and let us know you'd like to enable custom domain support for your store. Wait for us to confirm it's approved before moving on to Step 2.

Step 2: Point Your Domain at Mayhem

Once approved, you'll need to tell your domain to forward to your Mayhem storefront. How you do this depends on what your DNS provider allows.

If Your DNS Provider Allows a CNAME on the Apex Domain

Normally, a CNAME record can only be used on a subdomain (like "www"), not on the root or "apex" domain itself (like "myshop.com" with nothing in front of it). Some DNS providers (Cloudflare and a growing number of others) support special CNAME-like records (sometimes called CNAME flattening, ALIAS, or ANAME records) that work on the apex domain too.

If you're not sure whether your provider supports this, check your provider's documentation or ask their support team whether they support "CNAME flattening," "ALIAS records," or "ANAME records" on an apex domain.

If your provider does support this, simply add a CNAME (or ALIAS/ANAME) record pointing your domain to your Mayhem storefront URL, the same one you use today (e.g. "mystore.mayhem.my"). This is the easiest option, and the most reliable one, since it'll keep working even if Mayhem's underlying servers change down the road.

If Your DNS Provider Does Not Allow This

If your provider only allows standard CNAME records on subdomains, and doesn't offer an ALIAS/ANAME/flattening option for the apex domain, you won't be able to CNAME your root domain directly to your storefront URL. In this case:

  1. Mention this in your support ticket (or open a new one) and ask for the current IP address to use for an A record.
  2. Add an A record pointing your domain to the IP address we provide.

Keep in mind: unlike a CNAME, an A record points to a fixed IP address rather than a domain name. If we ever need to change our infrastructure, that IP address could change, and you may need to update your A record again down the road. We'll do our best to notify affected sellers via support ticket if this ever happens, but it's a good idea to periodically check in if you notice your custom domain isn't loading correctly.

Step 3: Let Us Know So We Can Issue Your Security Certificate

After you make your DNS change, your custom domain will show a security error (like "Your connection is not private") to any visitor until Mayhem issues an SSL/TLS security certificate for it. That's expected, and it's not something you can fix on your end. Only we can issue the certificate.

As soon as you've made your DNS change, reply to your support ticket to let us know. We'll issue your security certificate as quickly as we can, but the sooner you tell us, the sooner we can get started. Until the certificate is issued, avoid sharing your custom domain publicly, since visitors will see a security warning.

Step 4: Wait for DNS Propagation

DNS changes aren't instant. Depending on your provider and existing settings, they can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate fully around the internet. During that window, some visitors may reach your storefront while others temporarily can't. That's normal and it'll sort itself out.

Summary Checklist

  1. Confirm you know your DNS provider and can edit DNS records (or have support who can).
  2. Create a free Cloudflare account and generate a Turnstile key (guide here).
  3. Open a support ticket requesting approval for custom domain support.
  4. Once approved, add a CNAME to your storefront URL if your provider allows it on the apex domain. Otherwise, request an IP address from us and use an A record instead.
  5. Reply to your support ticket to let us know you've made the DNS change, so we can issue your security certificate.
  6. Allow up to 48 hours for DNS to propagate, and avoid sharing your domain publicly until the security certificate is issued.

If anything goes wrong along the way, your support ticket is the fastest way to reach us. Just reply to the existing ticket instead of opening a new one, so we have the full history of your setup.