Setting up a custom domain with heroku and namecheap

Question

I've followed all the instructions on https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/custom-domains to get my custom domain set up, and it still isn't working.

On Heroku, I have the following domains:

myapp.herokuapp.com

myapp.com

www.myapp.com

And on Namecheap, I have the following settings:

HOST NAME | IP ADDRESS/URL | RECORD TYPE

@ http://myapp.com URL Redirect

www myapp.herokuapp.com. CNAME(Alias)

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When I run: "host www.myapp.com" in my terminal, I expect to get "www.myapp.com is an alias for myapp.herokuapp.com". Instead, I get:

"www.myapp.com is an alias for myapp.heroku.com"

I can't figure out why it is pointing to myapp.heroku.com, because I have only specified myapp.herokuapps.com.

Does anybody know why this is happening?

Answer 1

Update note: Heroku and Namecheap change they interfaces every so often. This answer may have outdated screenshots, but it will be updated over time. See these updates below.

I've just done this myself so I thought I'd chime in as the answer doesn't illustrate how to get both www.domain.com and domain.com working. Heroku also changed its admin interface abit.

Namecheap

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• First, login to Namecheap.
• Go to Domain List and click "Manage" for the domain you're configuring.

- Set both record types to CNAME (Alias) and enter your <name>.herokuapp.com in both url-boxes (@ and www).

(PS: If they're not there, click the "Add new record" and add them there.)

Next, head over to Heroku

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• Login and choose your project from the list. For this example, we're choosing the "Lakka" project.

• On the project page, click Settings

• Scroll down and find the Add domain section

• Enter your domain.com and click Save.
• Click the button again, and input your www.domain.com and click Save.

That's it, You're done! Now when you enter domain.com or www.domain.com in your browser, both will show your Heroku project.

In this example, http://lakka.herokuapp.com would be accessible (after DNSes update) also on http://lakkatracker.com and http://www.lakkatracker.com.

(If you want to redirect traffic from www.domain.com to domain.com, which is a good practise, you can use the record type "URL (Redirect)" for the www host name)

It can take some time before your DNSs recognize the changes. You can try using a proxy for testing, like Anonymouse, if your changes aren't reflected immediately.