Use a custom domain

A custom domain serves one of your status pages at a subdomain you own, such as status.example.com, as well as at its <slug>.stector.app address. This guide covers how to add one, what its statuses mean, and what happens when it's removed.

Before you start

  • Admin and Owner roles add and remove custom domains, from the Domain tab of a status page. Other roles can see the tab and the domain's status, but not the buttons.
  • Your plan sets how many custom domains your team can have: none on Free, 3 on Pro and 10 on Business. Every domain counts toward that number, whatever its status. On Free, Add domain is refused with a message saying the plan doesn't include custom domains.
  • A status page can have one custom domain, and a hostname can belong to only one page.
  • Custom domains are subdomains only (for example, status.yourcompany.com); root domains like yourcompany.com aren't supported, because they can't be pointed at Stector with a CNAME record. Use a subdomain you control. Wildcards, IP addresses, ports, and anything with a scheme or path aren't accepted either. For an internationalised name, enter its punycode form (xn--...).
  • Custom domains are managed in the dashboard only. The REST API and the MCP server have no endpoints or tools for them.

Add a domain

  1. Go to Status Pages, open the page, and choose the Domain tab.
  2. Enter your hostname in Your domain, for example status.example.com, and click Add domain.
  3. The tab shows the record to add, in the form status.example.com CNAME domains.stector.app. Add it where you manage DNS for that hostname: a CNAME record for your hostname, pointing at domains.stector.app.
  4. Wait for Status to change to Active. Stector rechecks a pending domain on its own, and Check status checks it straight away.

Once the domain is Active, the tab reads "This status page is served at https://status.example.com. Its stector.app address still works."

Statuses

  • Pending: Stector is waiting for Cloudflare to report both the hostname and its certificate as active. The page isn't served at your domain.
  • Active: both are active, and the page is served at your domain. Stector checks an Active domain once a day. A change to the certificate alone, such as a renewal, doesn't change the status, and the domain keeps serving; Stector checks it every 15 minutes until the certificate is active again. An Active domain changes to Pending or Failed only when Cloudflare reports the hostname itself as no longer active, or no longer has it. Your domain then stops serving the page.
  • Failed: Cloudflare couldn't set the domain up, or no longer has it. Details shows the reason. A failed domain isn't checked again automatically. Use Check status to check it again.

If it doesn't become Active

  • While it's Pending, check that the record points at domains.stector.app, then click Check status.
  • If it's Failed, read Details. If they tell you to remove the domain and add it again, do that.
  • A domain that has never been Active is removed automatically if it's still Pending or Failed seven days after you added it. Stector sends no email when it does. You can add a removed domain again. A domain that has been Active at any time is never removed this way.

What changes and what doesn't

  • The <slug>.stector.app address keeps working. Both addresses serve the same page and, while the domain is Active, the page's canonical tag points search engines at your custom domain.
  • Your domain serves the complete status page, the same pages as its stector.app address.
  • The page itself doesn't change. Every status page shows "Powered by Stector", with or without a custom domain.
  • While the domain is Active, the dashboard and the emails sent to the page's subscribers link to your domain. Otherwise they link to the stector.app address. Subscribers belong to the status page, not to the domain, so adding or removing a domain doesn't change who is subscribed.
  • Changes to a custom domain aren't instant. Allow a short while for them to appear.

Certificates

Cloudflare issues and renews your custom domain's certificate. You can't upload your own.

You can add an SSL monitor for your status domain like any other host.

Remove a domain

Click Remove domain on the Domain tab. Stector asks you to confirm: "Remove status.example.com? Your status page will stop being served there. It keeps working at its stector.app address. You can add the domain again later." Click Yes, remove it to remove the domain, or Cancel to keep it.

Once it's removed, your domain's address stops working, the stector.app address keeps working, and the domain no longer counts toward your plan's limit. Links to your domain in emails sent while it was Active stop working.

Deleting a status page removes its custom domain first. If the domain can't be removed, the page isn't deleted, and you can try again.

When Stector emails your team's Owners

Every Owner of the team gets an email when:

  • Your team is over its plan's limit. If your team has more custom domains than its plan allows, for example after a downgrade or a lapsed subscription, Stector removes the newest domains beyond the limit (on Free, all of them) at its next hourly check, and their addresses stop working. The email names the removed domains and the reason. Each page keeps working at its stector.app address.
  • An Active domain stops serving the page. When a check finds that Cloudflare reports the hostname as no longer active, or no longer has it, the Owners get an email with the subject "status.example.com stopped serving your status page". It gives the reason Cloudflare reported, says the page still works at its stector.app address and that nothing was deleted, and links to the page's Domain tab. Stector sends it each time the domain stops serving, including after it recovers and stops again. A change to the certificate alone doesn't send it.