Advanced DNS Setup Checklist

A condensed, checkable version of the Advanced Custom Domain Setup guide — track your progress through a zero-downtime cutover from your existing web host to Ploy.

Your domain

Enter without https:// or trailing slash, e.g. acme-corp.com. The checklist below updates with your record names and SSL check link as you type.

0 / 25 steps complete

Prepare for cutover

Do this 24–48 hours before your planned cutover. See Preparing for Ploy Transition. If you're managing DNS at Cloudflare with the DNS proxy on (orange cloud), don't worry about TTL — leaving it at Auto is fine.

Lowered TTL on the apex A record for your-domain.com to 60–300 seconds (if apex domain to be hosted on Ploy)
Lowered TTL on the www CNAME record (if apex domain to be hosted on Ploy)
Waited at least 24–48 hours for the lowered TTL to propagate

Phased rollout

Use the exact record values from the DNS Setup Reference. Full detail in Phased Rollout.

Added _acme-challenge / _acme-challenge.www CNAME record(s) for SSL verification
Confirmed domain status moved from DNS Pending to SSL Ready in the Ploy dashboard — verify at SSL Labs
Transferred routing rules from the staging domain to production (if applicable)
For Enterprise support, contacted Ploy support if routing rules exceed 5 items

DNS Hostname Update

Use the exact record values from the DNS Setup Reference. Full detail in Phased Rollout.

Set the production DNS hostname records — you can do one hostname at a time and come back to repeat this for the other. If one of the pair is the non-default hostname (e.g. a bare domain that redirects to www, or vice versa), do that non-default hostname's setup first.
- Saved the pre-existing (non-Ploy) DNS values before overwriting them — taking a screenshot is usually sufficient
- Set the apex A record to 207.207.209.209
- Set the www CNAME record to proxy.runploy.com
Purged DNS cache at https://one.one.one.one/purge-cache/ (optional, but often helpful in further minimizing propagation time to Ploy/Cloudflare observing your DNS update)
- Purge apex A record type
- Purge www A record type (if coming from the IP value of your old host)
- Purge www CNAME record type
Kept the domain setup page open in the Ploy dashboard for fastest go-live detection — if 30 minutes have passed since starting the _acme-challenge record rollout, Ploy has stopped actively scanning, so manually trigger Check Readiness from the ••• overflow menu on the domain card
- Verified the www hostname resolves to Ploy:
```
curl -v --resolve www.your-domain.com:443:207.207.209.209 https://www.your-domain.com 2>&1
```
  Response headers should include server: cloudflare, with a status of 200 OK for your default hostname or 308 for a sibling domain that redirects into the set.
- Verified the apex hostname resolves to Ploy:
```
curl -I -v --resolve your-domain.com:443:207.207.209.209 https://your-domain.com 2>&1
```
  Response headers should include server: cloudflare, with a status of 200 OK for your default hostname or 308 for a sibling domain that redirects into the set.
Confirmed the domain shows Live in the Ploy dashboard
Kept the old hosting provider's content online during the propagation window — or, if you're proxying to your old host, kept the old host's content online and subscribed until you migrate 100% to Ploy

Self-Serve Troubleshooting

Hit an issue during the cutover? Check the Troubleshooting section of the Custom Domain Setup guide first — it covers common Cloudflare error codes and other issues before you need to escalate.

Checked the Troubleshooting section for the issue you're seeing

Enterprise Support

For Enterprise plans with more complex or higher-stakes migrations. Most users and domains do not require this level of support — new websites and domains, or sites with very low traffic (hundreds to thousands of visitors a day), typically don't benefit from this class of support.

Ploy Customer Support will monitor your domain setup and our edge network for live status. Contact sales@ploy.ai to pre-arrange Enterprise Support.
Looped in Ploy support ahead of the cutover so the team can monitor alongside you
Confirmed a rollback plan with Ploy support in case the cutover needs to be reverted
Confirmed an escalation contact and channel for the cutover window