Base44 Custom Domain: Which Plan, Cost and Setup

Short answer: you need Base44's Starter plan to put your app on your own domain, and the cheapest way in is Starter billed yearly, $16 a month, because the yearly plan also pays for your first domain year. On the free plan the domain screen is a locked door: we hit it in our own Free workspace, where the Domains tab says custom domains are "available on our Starter plan and above". Once you are on Starter, connecting takes two DNS records, or one click if you buy the domain inside Base44. The same domain is also what lets your app email leads who have not signed up yet, which matters more to a service business than the address itself.

What this page is based on. The Free side is our own: in September 2026 we built a client booking portal on a brand-new Base44 Free workspace and recorded every domain prompt, button and upgrade screen it showed us (our full Base44 free plan review has the build). The paid side is a source roundup: Base44's pricing page and its documentation on custom domains, external domains, buying a domain, sending emails and billing, all read on 14 October 2026. We have not paid for Starter and have not connected a domain, so the setup steps below are Base44's own instructions, not a walkthrough we performed.

Which Base44 plan includes a custom domain

Starter, and every plan above it. Three places say so, and one of them is a screen we saw ourselves:

• Inside a Free app. The Domains tab shows your free yourapp.base44.app address with an Edit URL button, and under Custom domains: "Want to use your domain? Custom domains are available on our Starter plan and above. Upgrade to connect your domain to this app."
• The upgrade window. Clicking the orange Connect domain button in the Free app's toolbar did not open a domain screen. It opened "Pick a plan. Keep building.", where Custom domain and Remove Base44 branding are listed in the Starter column.
• Base44's docs. The custom domain, external domain and domain purchase pages all open with the same line: custom domains are available on the Starter plan and higher (docs.base44.com, 14 October 2026).

You will still find posts, and AI search summaries, saying the domain starts on Builder. Base44's own product and docs say Starter. If you only need your own address, you do not need the $40 Builder plan for it.

One thing the free plan does let you do: rename the free address. Dashboard, Domains, Edit URL turns my-app-948908fb.base44.app into your-business.base44.app at no cost. Base44 warns that the new URL is live instantly and the old link stops working at once, so rename before you send the link to clients, not after.

What it costs: Starter yearly vs monthly

Plan prices from base44.com/pricing, 14 October 2026; the yearly totals are our arithmetic. The free domain comes from Base44's billing FAQ: every yearly plan from Starter up includes one for the first year, Starter only for yearly plans bought from 4 October 2026, and "it is not available on the monthly plan".

So for a business that does not own a domain yet, yearly Starter costs $48 less than monthly for the first year and includes the domain. The voucher has limits worth knowing before you search for a name:

• It covers one domain, once, for one year. Choose a two-year registration and the whole term is charged at the normal price.
• It covers public registration only. At checkout the option "Private registration and DNSSEC" is selected for you and adds a yearly cost; clear it if you do not want to pay it. Public registration lists your contact details in public domain databases.
• Premium domains are not covered, and only the extensions Wix marks as free in your search results are.
• The domain renews every year and is billed separately from your plan. Cancelling your plan does not cancel the domain, and cancelling the domain does not cancel the plan. Base44's docs do not list renewal prices; the checkout shows them.

If you already own a domain for your business, the voucher matters less and monthly Starter is a fair way to test for a month or two. Either way the domain only goes live where you point it, which is the next decision.

Root domain or subdomain: decide before you connect

Most service businesses already have a website, often on another builder. Base44's docs offer two ways to connect a domain you own, and one of them can take that website offline:

• Connect the root domain (yourbusiness.com). Base44's one-click DNS setup replaces the existing records for the names you connect, so "any site currently served at those names may stop resolving". The setup window lists every record before you approve it. Your email (MX) and TXT records are left alone.
• Connect a subdomain (portal.yourbusiness.com or book.yourbusiness.com). One CNAME record, and your main website keeps serving whatever is already there. Base44 issues an SSL certificate per subdomain; wildcard subdomains are not supported, so add each one you want.

For a client portal or booking app next to an existing site, the subdomain is the safe default. Link to it from your main site's Book or Client login button.

How to connect a domain you already own

These are Base44's own steps (docs.base44.com, Connecting an external domain, 14 October 2026). On Starter or above:

1. In your app editor click Dashboard, then Domains, then Connect existing domain.
2. Type the domain or subdomain and click Add.
3. Either click Continue with and your provider's name (for example Continue with GoDaddy), sign in to your registrar and approve the changes (Base44 says the app is usually live and secured within 30 minutes), or open the ••• menu next to the domain, click DNS instructions and add the records yourself.
4. Click Verify next to the domain. Allow up to 48 hours for DNS to spread.

The records, if you add them by hand:

Copy the exact values from your own Domains page; these are the ones Base44's docs listed on 14 October 2026.

Four things that stop verification

Base44's external-domain page lists the problems that block a connection. In plain terms:

1. An AAAA (IPv6) record on the same name. Delete it; Base44 says it can block connections.
2. A second A record. Registrars often add a parking record. The Base44 A record must be the only one on the root.
3. A proxy in front. If your DNS sits on a provider that proxies traffic, such as Cloudflare, keep the Base44 records set to DNS only. (Shopify flagged the same proxy when we connected our own store's domain through Cloudflare; see how to connect a domain to Shopify.)
4. A CAA record that does not allow Base44's certificate authorities, or a domain on hold at the registrar. Base44 suggests a WHOIS lookup if verification never completes.

How to buy a domain inside Base44

If you do not own one, this is the shortest path, and the one the yearly voucher pays for. Since 9 September 2026 every domain bought in Base44 is registered through Wix (docs.base44.com, Buying a domain with Wix, 14 October 2026):

1. Dashboard, Domains, Buy new domain, search, and click Get it. Your free option is marked in the results.
2. Pick the registration period, add the owner's contact details, and choose public or private registration.
3. Pay at the Wix checkout. Base44 creates the DNS records and the SSL certificate; registration usually confirms in about 30 minutes, rarely up to 24 hours.
4. Confirm the verification email from Wix. If it is not confirmed by the deadline on your Domains page, the domain is suspended and disconnected from your app. Country-code domains such as .co.il or .de can give you only a few days.

Two traps in Base44's own words: only the workspace owner can buy and manage domains, and a domain name that contains another company's brand or product name "registers successfully, but your app is not served on it". The publish window in our Free app was already suggesting a name for us ("Suggested domain northlinehelp.com"), so the search will be pre-filled with ideas; check them against that rule.

The reason to connect it: emails to your leads

For a coach, clinic or consultant, the address is the smaller win. In our Free build we asked for an intake form for people without an account, with a confirmation email. The AI built it and said it worked; the lead saw "Check your inbox", and nothing was sent. The app's Logs held the reason, word for word: "Emails to people who aren't registered users of this app need a paid plan and a verified custom domain." On Free, the Sending address field also carries a Starter+ badge and the app sends from a Base44 address.

Base44's sending-emails docs describe the fix (14 October 2026): on Starter, with the domain already connected, open the Email domain section of the Domains page, click Use Your Custom Domain, set a sender name and an address prefix such as bookings, then add the three CNAME records Base44 shows (em, s1._domainkey, s2._domainkey) and click Verify. A DMARC record is optional but recommended. Two numbers to plan with: one email domain per app, and an email from your own domain uses about 2 integration credits instead of about 1. Starter includes 2,000 integration credits a month.

The sending domain sends only. To receive replies at you@yourbusiness.com you still need an inbox, either your existing provider's MX records or the business email Base44 sells, which runs on Google Workspace.

What Base44's own AI told us about the domain

When we asked the Base44 assistant in our Free app to "connect my own domain northlineadvisory.com", remove the badge and make the app private, it searched the docs and answered with directions: connect the domain from the Domains page, the badge and privacy are in App Settings. It never said any of the three needs a paid plan, and the reply cost 0.70 message credits, 2.8% of the free month. Ask the assistant to build things; check plan gates in the Domains tab yourself.

Who should skip it for now

If you are still testing whether clients will use the app, stay on the free base44.app address, rename it to your business name, and spend nothing. A custom domain does not change what the app can do, and Base44's free plan ran our bookings and confirmation emails to signed-up clients without one. Connect the domain on the day you need one of the two things it unlocks: a link you can print on a card, or emails to leads who have not created an account. And if your app should not be public at all, note that private apps are also a Starter feature (Base44 billing FAQ, 14 October 2026).

What to do next

Decide root or subdomain first, then pick the billing: yearly Starter if you will keep the app a year and need a domain, monthly Starter if you already own one and are still testing. If you also need reminders or deposits, skip Starter and go straight to Builder, $40 a month billed yearly, because Workflows and Stripe start there (Base44 docs, 13 October 2026). Every gate we hit is in our Base44 free plan review, and if you are still choosing a booking tool at all, start with the best booking setup for coaches or our guide to building a booking app without code.