Is it at all possible to use Google App Engine with a naked domain?

Question

I am working on a site for which I really want to be able to use a naked domain, e.g. example.com. Preferably, www.example.com should redirect to example.com, but that is not strictly necessary.

If I understand this blog post correctly, the reason why one can't use a naked domain is because then all subdomains will not work, which is normally unacceptable.

For now, I am okay with only the naked domain working, so is this possible? Would setting the CNAME record for example.com to the URL provided by Google work? Is there any other way at all to use naked domains?

Answer 1

As you observe, you can't have a CNAME record on the same name as other records. Even if you don't need any other records (subdomains, MX records, etc), there's a set of records that have to be included on a domain, such as SOA and NS records, which preclude adding a CNAME to a naked domain. The only way around this would be to persuade the appropriate TLD (eg, .com) to serve up the CNAME for your domain directly instead of serving redirects to your own nameservers - and that's not a service any of the TLD registries offer.

The reason you must use a CNAME to point your domain to your App Engine app is because the only alternative - A records - make it impossible for Google to load-balance traffic or to move the app between datacenters.

Answer 2

Yes. Naked domain mapping works from the Google Developers Console.

https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=777

We have added support for custom domains for App Engine from the Google Developers Console, meaning you can now associate a custom domain without first associating that domain with Google Apps.

To access the feature, visit https://console.developers.google.com/ and you will find the option to add a custom domain under App Engine > Settings.

NOTE: Currently we do not support SSL on custom domains created through this method (although we expect to rectify this in a future release). In the meantime, we continue to support SSL (via VIP or SNI) for custom domains that are created through Google Apps, and we continue to provide free HTTPS for all *.appspot.com domains.