Connect a GoDaddy domain to Krexel

This guide walks through connecting a domain you bought from GoDaddy to a site hosted on Krexel. Takes about 5 minutes.

Before you start

You need:

• A GoDaddy account with at least one domain
• A Krexel account with at least one site deployed
• Your domain added in Krexel (run krexel domains add yourname.com first, or use the dashboard)

Once your domain is added in Krexel, you'll see a screen showing the DNS records you need to add at GoDaddy.

Step 1 — Log in to GoDaddy

Go to dcc.godaddy.com (the domain control center) and sign in.

Step 2 — Open your domain's DNS settings

1. Click My Products in the top nav
2. Scroll to All Products and Services → Domains
3. Find your domain and click the three dots (⋯) on the right
4. Click Manage DNS

You're now on the DNS management page for your domain.

Step 3 — Add the A records

If you already have A records pointing @ somewhere (your old host, a parking page, etc.), delete them first. They conflict.

Click Add to add a new record:

Click Save.

Add a second A record with the same settings but value 198.51.100.43. You need both for redundancy.

Step 4 — Add the CAA record (recommended)

Click Add again:

Click Save.

This restricts which certificate authorities can issue SSL for your domain. Recommended for security.

If you don't add this, SSL still works (Let's Encrypt is the default), but adding it explicitly is best practice.

Step 5 — (For www subdomain) Add a CNAME record

If you want www.yourname.com to also point to your Krexel site:

Click Add:

Click Save.

Step 6 — Wait for verification

Go back to your terminal:

krexel domains verify yourname.com

Or refresh the dashboard. You'll see one of:

• ✓ Verified — done! Your domain is live at https://yourname.com
• ⚠ DNS not propagating — wait 5 more minutes, retry
• ✗ Records don't match — re-check the values above

GoDaddy-specific gotchas

"I added the records but it still says DNS not propagating"

GoDaddy's UI sometimes caches. Try:

1. Sign out and back in
2. Refresh the DNS page
3. Wait 10 minutes — GoDaddy's nameserver changes can be slow

You can also check what's actually resolving:

dig yourname.com A +short

If you see the Cloudflare IPs (198.51.100.42 and 198.51.100.43), DNS is correct and Krexel's just slow to verify.

"I can't add a CAA record"

Older GoDaddy accounts may not show the CAA option in the UI. You can:

• Upgrade to the latest GoDaddy control panel
• Or skip the CAA record (SSL still works, just slightly less locked down)

"My domain has email records (MX) — will those break?"

No. Adding A/CNAME/CAA records for the website doesn't affect MX records. Your email continues to work.

If GoDaddy was handling your email and you want to keep it that way, leave the MX records alone.

"I had a domain forwarding redirect set up"

If you previously had GoDaddy forwarding yourname.com somewhere, remove it before adding the A records. Forwarding conflicts with normal DNS resolution.

To remove forwarding:

1. Domain list → your domain → ⋯ → Manage (not "Manage DNS")
2. Find Forwarding section → Disable

"GoDaddy wants me to 'verify domain ownership' for the CAA record"

That's the CAA record itself. The "verification" wording is confusing — you don't need to do anything extra. Just save the record as shown in Step 4.

What if I have multiple subdomains?

Add a CNAME for each one:

Each becomes a separate "site" in your Krexel dashboard. They're all managed independently.

Time to live

If your TTL is currently set to 1 hour or 24 hours, lower it to 600 seconds (10 minutes) before making changes. This way, if you ever need to point your domain somewhere else, the change propagates fast.

Troubleshooting

SSL error after verification — usually a CAA issue. Add the 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" record (Step 4).

"This site can't be reached" — DNS isn't pointing to Krexel. Check the records match exactly.

Old site still showing — your browser is caching. Hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows).

GoDaddy support says they can't help with third-party DNS — they can't, that's correct. This is normal. The configuration is between you and Krexel.

Still stuck?

• Email support@krexel.com with your domain name
• Include the output of dig yourname.com A +short (sanitize any sensitive parts)

We can usually diagnose and fix within an hour.

Related

• Connect a custom domain (overview) — for any registrar
• DNS: Cloudflare — if you want better DNS performance
• DNS: Namecheap — if you bought from Namecheap instead
• Billing & plans — what's included per tier