Set up a custom domain for your public troop website

Custom domains let you point your own domain (like troop123.org) at your Campfire public website, so visitors see your domain instead of the default troopwebsite.org address. This is a Campfire Pro feature.

Campfire Pro required

Custom domain setup requires a Campfire Pro subscription. See Upgrade to Campfire Pro.

How to set up your custom domain

Open troopcampfire.app and sign in.
Tap Account Settings (top right).
Tap Organization.
Tap Public Website and set up your custom domain there.
Add the DNS record Campfire shows you at your domain registrar.

Once your DNS is configured, your public site will be reachable at your custom domain in addition to its troopwebsite.org URL. DNS propagation typically takes a few minutes to a few hours depending on your domain registrar.

What DNS record to add

Campfire gives you one record to add, and that record is the whole setup:

Type: A
Name / Host: the domain you registered — for a root domain, most registrars write this as @
Value: the IP address shown on your Public Website settings page

There is nothing else to add. Campfire does not require a TXT verification record, and it never asks you to put a CNAME on your root domain. Your SSL certificate is issued automatically within a few minutes of the record resolving — you don't need to buy or install one.

Setting up www

Each organization can have one custom domain. So decide which address you want visitors to land on — the root, like troop123.org, is the usual choice — and point that one at Campfire with the A record above. Then send the other address to it using your registrar's redirect or forwarding feature, which every major registrar offers.

A typical setup ends up looking like this:

troop123.org — A record pointing at Campfire
www.troop123.org — registrar redirect to https://troop123.org

If you'd rather visitors land on the www address, do it the other way round: register www.troop123.org as your custom domain in Campfire, and redirect the root to it.

Don't add a second A record for www

Campfire only issues an SSL certificate for the exact domain you registered. If you point www at the same IP address instead of redirecting it, visitors to the www address get a certificate error rather than your site. Use a redirect for the second address.

One ordering tip: set up the redirect after your main domain shows as active in Campfire. Some registrars won't accept a redirect until the destination already has a working SSL certificate.

Will this affect our email?

No. If you have email addresses on your domain — info@, scoutmaster@, and so on — they keep working exactly as they do now, whether they are real mailboxes or forwarding rules. Mail is routed by your MX records, and the record Campfire asks for is an A record. Those are different record types that coexist on the same domain, so adding one doesn't disturb the other. Leave your MX records alone and nothing about your mail changes.

What you'll need

A Campfire Pro subscription
A domain you own — registered through any major registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.)
Access to your domain's DNS settings to add the record Campfire specifies