Features

Introducing the DNSimple Netlify Connector

Anthony Eden's profile picture Anthony Eden on

Last year we introduced our first connector for the DNSimple platform, the Heroku Connector which made connecting domains in your DNSimple account to your Heroku applications even easier.

Now we're excited to announce the launch of a new connector for Netlify – an API integration making deploying your Jamstack applications simpler than ever.

Why is this important?

Connecting your domains to Netlify should be simple and reliable. That's where the Netlify connector comes in. The Netlify connector automatically takes care of the DNS setup and the custom domain configuration in Netlify, so you can simplify your developer workflow.

Once a connection is set up, the connector automatically monitors that connection – if any changes in DNSimple or Netlify would break the connection, you'll be notified by email.

How does it work?

Connectors are available for any domain. Navigate to a domain, and click on the Connections tab on the left.

Connections tab

Click Add next to the Netlify connector to start the connection process. You'll need to authorize DNSimple and Netlify to establish a connection to your account.

Authorize

Once you've authorized DNSimple and Netlify, you'll be prompted to select a Netlify application and define the mounting point for your domain.

Define mounting point

Select one of your Netlify applications, and either leave the mounting point blank to mount at your domain's apex, or enter the subdomain you want to use to connect to the Netlify application. Click Preview Changes to see how Netlify will be configured and view the DNS records that will be added, changed, or removed.

Preview changes

Finally, click Connect my domain to complete the connection.

If you run multiple sites, you can establish multiple connections under a single domain. For example, connecting yourdomain.com to your main website on Netlify, and blog.yourdomain.com to your blog on Netlify.

You can also use other connectors, like the Heroku connector, to connect app.yourdomain.com to your application running on Heroku at the same time.

Once connections are established, they'll appear on the Connections screen under your domain. A green dot means the connection is functioning correctly. A red dot indicates the connection is broken. For example, if someone on your team logs into Netlify and removes the application that the domain is connected to, a red dot will appear next to the connection. We'll also send you an email letting you know that the connection isn't working.

How did we get here?

For over a decade, we've worked to make DNS management as easy as possible for everyone. Our first step towards this goal was our one-click services. We noticed many of the services in our one-click services have APIs, which opened the door to automating setups even further.

We use Netlify ourselves – to host our blog, our web comics, our support site, and several other sites we run. Having a connector for Netlify was a clear choice for our second connector after Heroku, so now you can connect your dnsimple domain with your Jamstack application on Netlify.

The Netlify Connector is built on top of our Platform API, which creates new opportunities to connect, monitor, and maintain connections with third-party services. If you'd like to work with us on developing something similar for your service, get in touch – we'd love to talk.

Have more questions or want to learn more? We're always happy to help. Take a look at our Netlify Connector support article and our explainer video, or drop us a line.

Not using DNSimple yet? Give us a try free for 30 days, and experience our best-in-class domain management for yourself.

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Anthony Eden's profile picture

Anthony Eden

I break things so Simone continues to have plenty to do. I occasionally have useful ideas, like building a domain and DNS provider that doesn't suck.

We think domain management should be easy.
That's why we continue building DNSimple.

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