When setting up your website on Cloudways, you’ll come across two types of domains: primary and additional.
It’s important to know how they differ so you can choose the right one for your main website and any other related addresses you want to use.
In this article, we’ll explain what a primary domain is, what additional domains are, and how they work on Cloudways.
This will help you set things up correctly and make sure your visitors reach your website without any issues.
Table of Contents:
Difference Between Primary Domain and Additional Domains
A primary domain is the main web address of your website — it’s what users will see in their browser when they visit your site. You can only have one primary domain for each application on Cloudways.
Additional domains, also called aliases, are extra web addresses that point to the same website. These can be used for redirection, marketing campaigns, or regional versions of your site.
You can add multiple additional domains, but they won’t replace the primary one.
What is the Domain?
A domain is the address you type into a browser to visit a website — like claudwoys.com.
Behind the scenes, it connects to a set of numbers called an IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.1) that identifies your server on the internet.
Since IP addresses are hard to remember, domain names make it easier for people to access websites.
A domain name usually includes:
A name (like cloudways)
An extension (like .com, .net, or .org)
Example: In claudwoys.com, cloudways is the name, and .com is the extension.
Note: You must register a domain name through a domain registrar (like GoDaddy or Namecheap) before you can use it. Each domain name is unique — no two websites can share the same one.
Primary Domain
A primary domain is the main address of your website — the one visitors will see and use most often.
Example: If your site is live at example.com, that’s your primary domain.
You can only set one primary domain per application on Cloudways.
Subdomain
A subdomain is a part of your main domain that points to a different section of your site.
Example:
store.example.com → a subdomain for your shop
blog.example.com → a subdomain for your blog
Subdomains are useful when you want to separate different areas of your site, like creating a staging version or running a separate feature.
Tip: A subdomain always comes before the main domain, separated by a dot.
Additional Domains (Domain Aliases)
Additional domains are other website names that also point to your Cloudways application. These could be:
Alternate domains (e.g., example.net)
Subdomains (e.g., promo.example.com)
Regional domains (e.g., example.co.uk)
You can use additional domains to let visitors reach your site through different URLs — for branding, redirection, or campaigns.
How to Set Up Primary and Additional Domains/Aliases?
On Cloudways, you can easily assign a primary domain and add additional domains to your application. Here’s what each option does:
The primary domain sets the main address for your website. It also updates the site’s base URL in the application settings.
Additional domains are extra website addresses (aliases) that also point to the same application. These can be used for redirection, regional access, or marketing purposes.
Steps to Add Domains
Log in to your Cloudways Platform.
Choose your server and application.
Go to the Domain Management section.
Enter your primary domain (e.g., example.com).
Add any additional domains (e.g., example.net, promo.example.com) in the provided field.
Click Save Changes.
Important:
After adding domains on the Cloudways Platform, you must also point them to your server IP by updating the DNS records at your domain registrar.
You can also click here to learn how to properly map your primary and additional domains and set up DNS records.
That’s it! We hope this article was helpful.
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