Use your own domain

Your server always has an address we issue — yourserver.truetick.gg — and that one never goes away. A custom domain is an extra address for the same server: point mc.yourclan.com at it and players can join by that name instead. Both names reach the same server; adding one does not replace the other, and removing one later leaves the original untouched.

It lives under Settings → Custom domains. Adding or removing a domain is limited to the account owner, and to paid plans — a free-plan server shows a line saying so instead of the section. A server that is a member of a server network doesn't get the section at all: those route by port rather than by hostname, so a domain could never reach one.

There is no code to paste

Most hosts hand you a verification string to put in a TXT record. We don't. The proof that a domain is yours is the DNS record pointing at us: only whoever controls a domain can change where it points. That one record is both the proof of ownership and the thing that makes the address work, so there is nothing else to copy across.

The trade-off is the order of operations: we can't accept a domain in advance and wait. You create the record first, then add the domain here — until DNS actually points at us, the domain sits in Checking and doesn't carry traffic.

Which record to create

The panel shows the exact values for your server, each with a copy button — they come from the same place the check reads, so what it tells you to create is what it will accept. Create one of these at your DNS provider:

CNAME — for a subdomain such as mc.yourdomain.com. Point it at your server's hostname (yourserver.truetick.gg). This is the one to prefer: it keeps working if we ever move your server between machines, because the name it points at moves with it.

A CNAME cannot be created at your domain's root — its apex, e.g. yourdomain.com itself. That's a DNS rule, not our limitation. If you want the bare domain, use one of the other two.

A — for a root domain. Point the apex at the IP address the panel shows. Note the difference from a CNAME: an A record names a specific machine, so if your server is ever moved to another one, the record stops being correct and we unpublish the domain until you update it (you'll get an email — see below).

SRV — an alternative to CNAME. Create _minecraft._tcp.<your domain> targeting your server's hostname on port 25565. We check the port as well as the target: an SRV record pointing at the right name on a different port is not accepted, because it wouldn't reach your server.

If a row is missing from the panel, it's because we don't have an honest value for it right now — for example, a server whose machine isn't currently in the active pool has no A-record address to give you. We leave the row out rather than show a placeholder.

Adding it, and what the statuses mean

Once the record is in place, type the domain into the field and add it. The panel then shows one of:

• Checking — we have not seen this domain point at us yet. We check again automatically. The normal state right after adding. We look again on our own; you don't have to do anything, and there's no button to press. How long this takes depends on your DNS provider and the record's TTL, which we don't control, so we won't quote you a number.
• Working — traffic to this domain reaches this server. The domain is live. Players can use it now.
• A line explaining what we actually saw, when the check didn't pass:
  • This domain does not point at us yet. The record exists and resolves, but not to your server. The most common cause is a typo in the value, or a leftover record (including a wildcard on your zone) winning over the one you just created.
  • We could not find this domain in DNS. The name doesn't resolve at all — usually a typo in the name, or a record that hasn't been saved.
  • We could not reach DNS for this domain — we will try again. This one is about us, not you: we couldn't get an answer. It never counts against your domain.

We keep checking after it works

Verification isn't a one-time gate. We re-check live domains on a schedule, so a domain that stops pointing at us — an expired registration, a record someone edited, a server that moved off the machine an A record names — is taken out of service instead of quietly sending players nowhere. It takes several consecutive failed checks, so a single bad moment at your DNS provider won't unpublish a working address, and a check we simply couldn't complete never counts.

When that happens we email the server's owner saying which domain it was and what we saw instead. You don't have to re-add it. Point the DNS back at us and it starts working again on its own at the next check. If you'd rather not wait for that, remove the domain and add it back — that forces a fresh look immediately.

Removing a domain

Remove next to the domain unpublishes it and frees the name. Your yourserver.truetick.gg address is unaffected, and players already using it are unaffected — only the custom name stops resolving to your server.

When adding is refused

The panel repeats what the server said. The ones you may hit:

• "custom domains need a paid plan" — free-plan servers don't get this. Switching plan enables it.
• "servers in a network route by port, not hostname — a domain could not reach this one" — see server networks.
• "that domain is already claimed" — a domain belongs to exactly one server across the whole platform. You'll also see this if the same server already has that domain: it's still there, in the list above.
• "truetick.gg addresses are ours — your server already has one" — you can't claim a name under our own domain; that's what your issued hostname already is.
• "that does not look like a domain name" — enter the bare name (mc.yourclan.com), with no http://, no port, no trailing path.
• Owner only — a team member who isn't the account owner can see the domains but not change them, because a custom domain changes the server's public address.

Troubleshooting

It says Checking and stays there. Look up the record yourself from outside your own network — nslookup mc.yourclan.com on Windows, dig mc.yourclan.com elsewhere — and compare what comes back with the value the panel gave you. The two most common answers: the record hasn't propagated from your provider yet, or something else on your zone (a wildcard, or an older record with the same name) is answering instead.

It worked, then stopped. Check whether the record still resolves to the value in the panel. If your server was moved between machines and you used an A record, the IP in the panel is now a different one than the record holds — update it, or switch to a CNAME, which doesn't have that failure mode.

Players report the old address stopped working. It didn't — yourserver.truetick.gg keeps working regardless of what you do here. If it genuinely isn't resolving, that's unrelated to custom domains; see Connect and share your server.