Optional · after first ship

Custom domain notes

Expect roughly $10–20 CAD per year for a domain. Free *.pages.dev and Railway URLs are enough for learning.

A. Domain for this guide (Railway)

Use when you host YouthCocoon on Railway Pro and want a friendly URL for other parents.

1. Buy a domain (Cloudflare Registrar, Namecheap, Google Domains alternatives in CA, etc.).
2. In Railway → your service → Settings → Networking → Custom Domain, add the hostname (e.g. youthcocoon.com).
3. Railway shows the DNS record to create (usually CNAME to the Railway domain).
4. At your DNS host, add that record; wait for SSL to become active.
5. Share the custom URL; keep /health working for deploys.

B. Domain for a teen site (Cloudflare Pages)

Each teen (or household) should use their own Cloudflare account and domain — do not park other kids’ apps on your domain without clear parent consent.

1. In Cloudflare Pages → project → Custom domains, add name.example.ca.
2. If the domain is already on Cloudflare DNS, Pages can configure records automatically.
3. If DNS is elsewhere, add the CNAME/A records Cloudflare shows.
4. Confirm HTTPS works; update the portfolio footer with the custom URL.

DNS checklist

• Correct hostname (www vs apex)
• CNAME or A/AAAA matches vendor instructions exactly
• TTL can stay default; allow up to 24–48h for global DNS
• Remove conflicting old records for the same name
• Do not put student PII in subdomain names

Cost & consent

• One shared family domain is fine for siblings with parent approval.
• Do not put friends’ projects on your domain without written parent OK.
• Renewal fees are yearly — put the card on the parent account.

← Back to the playbook