By default your church site lives at {yourslug}.easychurchapp.com. That works fine, but most churches prefer their own domain: gracechurch.org reads better on a flyer than gracechurch.easychurchapp.com.
The whole process takes about 10 minutes of clicking, plus roughly 30 minutes of waiting for DNS to propagate.
Before you start
You need:
- A domain you already own (e.g.
gracechurch.org). If you don't have one yet, buy it at Namecheap, Cloudflare, or your preferred registrar, usually $12 to $20 a year. - The login for the place you bought it (registrar dashboard or DNS provider).
Step 1: tell ECA which domain you want
- Open Domain settings.
- Type your domain into the Your Domain field, without
https://orwww. Justgracechurch.org. (If you typewww.we remove it for you.) - Click Save.
ECA shows you the DNS records to add. Keep this tab open.
Step 2: add the DNS record
Log in to wherever you bought your domain and find the DNS settings. The exact menu name varies:
- Namecheap: Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS
- Cloudflare: Websites → your domain → DNS → Records
- GoDaddy: My Products → DNS → Manage DNS
Add the records ECA showed you. There are two: an A record for the root domain (name @, gracechurch.org) and a CNAME for www, so that www.gracechurch.org works too. Copy the values from the screen, because they are the ones ECA currently wants.
Save the DNS changes. Most providers apply it within 1 to 30 minutes; a few take longer, up to a few hours.
This is the same screen you will come back to whenever something asks you to prove you own the domain, such as Apple Maps or Google Search Console. Those ask for a TXT record instead: see Add a verification TXT record.
Step 3: wait, then verify
Back on ECA's domain settings page, hit Refresh every few minutes. Once it shows Verified, your custom domain is live. SSL (HTTPS) is set up automatically with no extra step.
If it still says Pending DNS after an hour, double-check the DNS record matches exactly what ECA showed. Common mistakes: typos in the value, or an old conflicting record left over from a previous host.
What about email at your domain?
Custom domains in ECA are for your website only. Email (e.g. pastor@gracechurch.org) is a separate service, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Fastmail are the common ones. Setting up email doesn't affect your ECA site.
Removing the custom domain
If you ever want to switch back to the easychurchapp.com subdomain, just click Remove next to your custom domain in domain settings and ECA stops routing it. The DNS record on your registrar side can stay or go; it has no effect once ECA stops accepting it.