Connecting 1and1 IONOS domain to your Ecwid Instant Site

You can connect a custom domain purchased from 1&1 IONOS with your Ecwid Instant Site, so that customers can enter your unique URL in their browser and get right to your site.

Once connected, your Ecwid Instant site will open at your domain name, via secure HTTPS connection. You don’t need to separately purchase an SSL certificate as Ecwid provides free SSL for Instant Site users. Visit your 1&1 IONOS account to manage all the domain settings and to pay for the domain name, or renew it.

Step 1. Setting up your domain in the Ecwid admin

To link your domain with your Ecwid Instant Site, you should first specify your custom domain name in your Ecwid admin.

To specify a domain name:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Website → Domain.
2. In the Domain name and site address block, click Connect Existing Domain.
3. In the Specify a domain name field enter your custom domain name (without www):
   
4. Click Next Step.
5. You will see a popup that contains an IP-address. Copy that IP-address. You will need it to set up your domain in your registrar account.
6. Click Save.

Step 2. Setting up your domain in the 1&1 (IONOS) account

To finish linking your Ecwid Instant Site with your domain, you should make changes in your domain settings and point the domain to your Ecwid site. For that, you need to add an A record and a CNAME record in your domain host account.

To point the domain to your Ecwid site:

1. Sign in to your 1&1 account at login.ionos.com.
2. From the Menu dropdown choose Domains & SSL.
3. Click the gear icon under Actions next to the domain you're connecting to your Ecwid site and select DNS (or you can simply click on the domain name in the list and then go to the DNS tab):

4. On the next page, click Add Record, then select the A type:

5. Enter the following data for the A record:
   • In the Host Name field, enter @.
   • In the Points to field, enter the IP address that you’ve copied earlier from your Ecwid admin.
   • Leave the TTL option as 1 hour.
   • In the preview section, click Do not add DNS record for www.
   • Click Save.

6. Click Add Record and now select the CNAME type.
7. On the next page, enter the following data for the CNAME record:
   • Type CNAME
   • In the Host Name field, enter www
   • In the Points to field, enter your domain without "https" or "www" (e.g., yourdomain.com)
   • Leave the TTL option as 1 hour.
   • Click Save.

That’s it, you’ve added the A and CNAME records to your domain settings.

Now please wait a bit till the changes take effect. It usually takes no longer than two hours for the DNS changes to propagate, but can take up to 24-48 hours in some cases. After that, your Instant Site will be available at your own domain when customers enter the corresponding URL in their browser.