{% data reusables.pages.custom-domain-warning %}

On {% data variables.product.prodname_dotcom_the_website %}, {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} works with two types of domains: subdomains and apex domains. For a list of unsupported custom domains, see "AUTOTITLE."

You can set up either or both of apex and www subdomain configurations for your site. For more information on apex domains, see "Using an apex domain for your {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site."

We recommend always using a www subdomain, even if you also use an apex domain. When you create a new site with an apex domain, we automatically attempt to secure the www subdomain for use when serving your site's content, but you need to make the DNS changes to use the www subdomain. If you configure a www subdomain, we automatically attempt to secure the associated apex domain. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

If you set a custom domain for a user or organization site, by default, the same custom domain will be used for all project sites owned by the same account. For more information about site types, see "AUTOTITLE."

For example, if the custom domain for your user site is www.octocat.com, and you have a project site with no custom domain configured that is published from a repository called octo-project, the {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site for that repository will be available at www.octocat.com/octo-project.

You can override the default custom domain by adding a custom domain to the individual repository.

{% note %}

Note: The URLs for project sites that are privately published are not affected by the custom domain for your user or organization site. For more information about privately published sites, see "AUTOTITLE{% ifversion not ghec %}" in the {% data variables.product.prodname_ghe_cloud %} documentation.{% else %}."{% endif %}

{% endnote %}

To remove the default custom domain, you must remove the custom domain from your user or organization site.

A subdomain is the part of a URL before the root domain. You can configure your subdomain as www or as a distinct section of your site, like blog.example.com.

Subdomains are configured with a CNAME record through your DNS provider. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

A www subdomain is the most commonly used type of subdomain. For example, www.example.com includes a www subdomain.

www subdomains are the most stable type of custom domain because www subdomains are not affected by changes to the IP addresses of {% data variables.product.product_name %}'s servers.

A custom subdomain is a type of subdomain that doesn't use the standard www variant. Custom subdomains are mostly used when you want two distinct sections of your site. For example, you can create a site called blog.example.com and customize that section independently from www.example.com.

An apex domain is a custom domain that does not contain a subdomain, such as example.com. Apex domains are also known as base, bare, naked, root apex, or zone apex domains.

An apex domain is configured with an A, ALIAS, or ANAME record through your DNS provider. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

{% data reusables.pages.www-and-apex-domain-recommendation %} For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

{% data reusables.pages.secure-your-domain %} For more information, see "AUTOTITLE" and "AUTOTITLE."

There are a couple of reasons your site might be automatically disabled.

• If you downgrade from {% data variables.product.prodname_pro %} to {% data variables.product.prodname_free_user %}, any {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} sites that are currently published from private repositories in your account will be unpublished. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."
• If you transfer a private repository to a personal account that is using {% data variables.product.prodname_free_user %}, the repository will lose access to the {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} feature, and the currently published {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site will be unpublished. For more information, see "AUTOTITLE."

• "AUTOTITLE"