Custom domain — your public pages on your own address

By default your public pages live at a TrailsIQ address built from your organization's slug. A custom domain puts them on your own instead — trails.yourclub.org rather than someone else's brand — with no change to how you use TrailsIQ.

What you get

Everything on your public hub answers on your own hostname: the trail list, individual trail pages, conditions, the public daily report, news, events — the lot, at trails.yourclub.org/... instead of the TrailsIQ address.

The dashboard, the Field App and your logins are unaffected and stay where they are. This is about the pages you send the public to, not the ones your crew works in.

Custom domains are a Pro feature.

Choosing a hostname

Use a subdomain of a domain you already own — trails.yourclub.org, map.yourpark.gov, conditions.yourtrust.org.uk.

A bare root domain (yourclub.org with nothing in front) is not what this is for. Your organization almost certainly has a main website there already, and pointing the root at TrailsIQ would take it down. A subdomain is additive: your existing site keeps working and the trails section appears alongside it.

Pick something short and guessable. It goes on signs.

Setting it up

Settings → Custom domain.

1. Enter your hostname — for example trails.example.com — and save.
2. TrailsIQ shows you a DNS record to add: a CNAME, with the exact name and target to use.
3. Add that record with your DNS provider — wherever your domain is managed: your registrar, your hosting company, or your IT team's control panel. This is the only step that happens outside TrailsIQ.
4. Wait for it to verify. The status updates itself; there is also a refresh action if you would rather not wait for the next check.

Once the status reads active, the domain is live and serving. A certificate is issued for you automatically — there is nothing to buy, install or renew.

What "pending" means

A domain sits in pending from the moment you add it until the DNS record you created is visible and the certificate is issued.

Pending domains do not serve anything. That is deliberate: a half-provisioned domain that answered would show visitors a broken or insecure page with your name on it, which is worse than a domain that is not ready yet. Until it goes active, your existing TrailsIQ address keeps working exactly as before, so nothing is down while you wait.

Most of the wait is DNS propagation, which is out of anybody's hands — usually minutes, occasionally hours depending on your provider and the record's previous TTL. If it is still pending the next day, the record is almost always slightly wrong: check for a trailing dot, a duplicated domain suffix (trails.example.com.example.com is the classic), or an old A record for the same name still sitting there and winning.

Removing it

Remove the domain from the same settings screen. Your public pages revert to the TrailsIQ address immediately.

Take the DNS record down too, or you leave a CNAME pointing at something that no longer claims it.

If you are moving to a different custom hostname, expect the same pending wait for the new one. Change signage after the new domain is active, not before.

Common gotchas

• Use a subdomain, not your root domain. Pointing the root at TrailsIQ takes your main website offline.
• The DNS change is yours to make. We can tell you the exact record, but only whoever controls the domain can create it.
• An old record for the same name will beat the new one. If trails.example.com already had an A or CNAME record, delete it rather than adding a second.
• Nothing serves until it is active. Do not print the new address on anything until the status says so.
• Only the public pages move. Your team still signs in at the usual TrailsIQ address; you do not get trails.yourclub.org/login.
• It is a Pro feature. On a lower plan the section explains this rather than letting you configure something that will not switch on.