How does hosting work on CloudCannon?

When a visitor enters a web address into their internet browser, such as https://docs.example.com/setup/, their browser uses DNS to find the web server for that website. If you host through CloudCannon, their browser will connect to CloudCannon's servers and check the SSL Certificate for the web address the visitor requested.

Depending on how you configure hosting in CloudCannon, CloudCannon can return a built Site to the visitor, redirect the visitor to a different domain, or send them to your Fallback Redirect.

Your domain registrar, your DNS Provider, and your Custom Domain and Site settings in CloudCannon each control one part of this process.

graph LR
  V["Visitor's browser"] -->|nameservers| D["DNS Provider"]
  D -->|DNS record| C["CloudCannon"]
  C --> S["Site, redirect, or Fallback Redirect"]

Your domain registrar and DNS Provider#

Website domains are purchased from a third-party domain registrar, such as Cloudflare Registrar or Namecheap. Owning the Base Domain (e.g., example.com) means you also own every Subdomain (e.g., www.example.com or docs.example.com) and subpath (e.g., example.com/staff/) on it.

Your registrar records who owns the domain, and which nameservers manage its DNS records. When you host through CloudCannon, you can choose whether you manage your DNS records through CloudCannon as well, or use an external provider. You make this choice when you connect your domain to CloudCannon.

• CloudCannon DNS — You set the nameservers in your domain registrar to CloudCannon, and CloudCannon manages the DNS records for each Subdomain.
• External DNS — Your nameservers point at a DNS Provider other than CloudCannon, such as your domain registrar or Cloudflare, and you add the DNS records there for each Subdomain you host through CloudCannon.

For more information, please read our documentation on what DNS is, configuring CloudCannon DNS and configuring external DNS.

Your Custom Domain in CloudCannon#

To serve your Sites on a domain you own, you must connect it to your Organization as a Custom Domain. Each Custom Domain you connect gets its own Domain page, where you can see the status of each Subdomain and which Sites it serves.

For more information, please read our documentation on connecting a Custom Domain to your Organization, what the Domain page is, and adding a Custom Domain to your Site.

Subdomains

In CloudCannon, every web address you host on is a Subdomain (e.g., www.example.com, docs.example.com), including the Base Domain itself (e.g., example.com). When you add a Subdomain, you choose its Type, which decides what visitors to the Subdomain get once they reach CloudCannon:

• Site — CloudCannon serves one or more Sites, each at its own subpath. A Site at a subpath needs to build its files into a folder that matches the subpath. For more information, please read our documentation on what a subdomain is and building your Site for a path.
• Redirect — CloudCannon sends the visitor to another domain. For more information, please read our documentation on managing your Redirect Subdomains.

Visitors to a subdomain you haven't added go to your Fallback Redirect. Visitors to a Site Subdomain with no Site yet see a 404 page. On external DNS, visitors only reach a subdomain you haven't added if you also add a wildcard DNS record. For more information, please read our documentation on updating the Fallback Redirect for your Custom Domain.

How visitors reach CloudCannon

Once you've added a Subdomain, its hosting option decides the route visitors take from the DNS record to CloudCannon. Every new Subdomain starts on CloudCannon Hosting, where visitors reach CloudCannon through Cloudflare's global network, except your Base Domain on external DNS, which uses A records that point straight at CloudCannon's origin servers.

You can change the hosting option from the Hosting section of the Subdomain's page. On Cloudflare Proxy, your own Cloudflare account proxies the Subdomain to CloudCannon. On Single Origin, DNS points straight at CloudCannon's origin servers, or at your own proxy in front of them. The hosting option decides which DNS records the Subdomain needs, so changing it can mean updating your records.

For more information on each hosting option, please read our documentation on what a subdomain is. For the records each hosting option needs, please read our documentation on choosing how visitors reach a subdomain.

SSL Certificates

Once a Subdomain's DNS records point at CloudCannon, CloudCannon can issue its SSL Certificate and renew it for you, or you can upload your own. For a Subdomain that is already live elsewhere, you can get the certificate before you switch DNS, using TXT records. Each Subdomain has its own certificate, which covers every Site on that Subdomain.

For more information, please read our documentation on what an SSL Certificate is, issuing the SSL Certificate with TXT validation, and resolving SSL Certificate errors.

Your Site in CloudCannon#

Each Site on a Subdomain also has its own settings, which decide whether CloudCannon can build and host it, and what visitors see at each path within it.

Site Building Mode

Each Site has a Site Building Mode, which you can change on the Details page under Site Settings. In Hosted Mode, the default, CloudCannon builds and hosts your Site, and gives it a free Testing Domain. In Headless Mode, CloudCannon doesn't build or host your Site, but you can still edit its source files.

Your Site must be in Hosted Mode to serve it on a Custom Domain. CloudCannon won't switch a Site that has a Custom Domain to Headless Mode. To switch it, first remove the Custom Domain from your Site. Switching to Headless Mode takes your Site offline and stops its builds.

For more information, please read our documentation on what Site Building Mode is, what Headless Mode is, and removing a Custom Domain from your Site.

Routing within your Site

Routing decides what visitors see at each path within your Site. By default, CloudCannon serves the file in your build output that matches the path, and a Site in Hosted Mode can add redirects, headers, a custom 404 page, and extensionless URLs. For more information, please read our documentation on what routing is.