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CUSTOM DOMAIN

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Domain onboarding grader

The step between "add your domain" and a working custom domain is where a lot of signups quietly stall, and most teams have never measured it. This grader scores your flow against 9 specific, observable behaviors, not opinions. The rubric below is public: answer honestly, get a letter grade, and see exactly what to fix first.

0 of 9 answered

Check 1 of 9

Provider detection

Do you detect the customer's DNS provider automatically, or ask them to pick from a dropdown?

Good looks like: the moment a domain is entered, a nameserver lookup identifies the provider. No dropdown, no support article to find first.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 2 of 9

Record creation

Are DNS records written for the customer programmatically, or does the customer copy-paste values into their own dashboard?

Good looks like: a provider API or one-click authorization writes the exact records. The customer approves; they don't type.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 3 of 9

Copy accuracy protection

If the customer must paste a record by hand, do you validate what they entered before accepting it?

Good looks like: a trailing dot, a value pasted into the wrong field, or a split TXT record gets caught and flagged before verification is even attempted.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 4 of 9

Verification feedback

Does the customer see live verification status, or do they wait blind on propagation?

Good looks like: a status indicator updates in real time as records resolve. No guessing, no manual refresh, no "check back later."

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 5 of 9

HTTPS issuance

Is the TLS certificate issued automatically on verification, with zero action from the customer?

Good looks like: verification success triggers certificate issuance directly. Nothing to request, approve, or upload.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 6 of 9

Fail-closed behavior

Can an unverified or broken domain ever appear as "live" in your product?

Scored in reverse: "No" is the pass answer here.

Good looks like: an unverified domain always reads as pending or failed, never live, no matter what the UI optimistically shows elsewhere.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 7 of 9

Drift monitoring

After setup, do you re-check records on a schedule and alert before the customer notices?

Good looks like: records are polled on an ongoing basis. A changed or deleted record raises an alert before a support ticket does.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 8 of 9

Error specificity

When setup fails, does the error name the exact record at fault, or say "something went wrong"?

Good looks like: the error names the record type, the expected value, and what's there instead.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →

Check 9 of 9

Provider coverage

Does your flow work the same way across the long tail of registrars, or only the top 3?

Good looks like: coverage extends well past the two or three biggest providers, with a guided fallback for everything else.

Why this matters, and what skipping it costs →