Custom Domains

Blitzship was specifically designed to make it as easy as possible to deploy your SaaS to a custom domain. Hence, setting this up is a straightforward process that works almost automatically out of the box. This guide will walk you through the steps to set up your custom domain and explain how it affects various components of your application.

Purchasing a domain

The first step is to purchase a domain. Blitzship requires a domain to be purchased through AWS Route 53, as it integrates seamlessly with the rest of your AWS infrastructure.

1. Go to the AWS Route 53 console (opens in a new tab)
2. Click on "Registered domains" in the left sidebar
3. Click "Register Domain" and follow the steps to purchase your domain

Setting the DOMAIN environment variable

Once you have your domain, you need to set it in your environment variables.

1. Open your .env file for production and the .env.{YOUR_STAGE_NAME}.local file for local development
2. Add or update the DOMAIN variable with your new domain

DOMAIN=your-domain.com

See the environment variables guide for more information.

Restart the SST Development Server

After setting the DOMAIN environment variable, you need to restart the SST Development Server.

npx sst dev

This will reconfigure your infrastructure to use your new domain.

Automatic Domain Configuration

Once you've set up your domain and restarted the SST development server, the pre-configured infrastructure in the /infra folder automatically configures your infrastructure to use your custom domain.

This includes:

• API endpoints
• Landing page
• Documentation website
• Main SaaS application
• Transactional emails

Subdomain structure

Blitzship uses a specific subdomain structure based on your stage name and domain. For example, if your stage name is "maxim" and your domain is "your-domain.com":

API (webhooks)

• Local: api-maxim.your-domain.com
• Deployed (non-production): api-maxim.your-domain.com
• Production: api.your-domain.com

Landing page

• Local: localhost:3001
• Deployed (non-production): maxim.your-domain.com
• Production: your-domain.com

Documentation website

• Local: localhost:3001/docs
• Deployed (non-production): maxim.your-domain.com/docs
• Production: your-domain.com/docs

Main SaaS app

• Local: localhost:3000
• Deployed (non-production): app.maxim.your-domain.com
• Production: app.your-domain.com

Email

• Local: info@maxim.your-domain.com
• Deployed (non-production): info@maxim.your-domain.com
• Production: info@your-domain.com

DNS and Email Configuration

Blitzship automatically handles all necessary DNS configurations, including:

• A records for your subdomains
• MX records for email routing
• TXT records for email authentication (SPF, DKIM)
• CNAME records for various services

You don't need to manually configure these records in Route 53 - Blitzship takes care of it all for you.

Sandbox mode for transactional emails

By default, Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) is set to sandbox mode, which restricts email sending. To send emails to any address, you need to request production access:

1. Go to the Amazon SES console (opens in a new tab)
2. Click on "Request production access" in the dashboard
3. Follow the steps to complete the request

Until you get production access, you can only send emails to verified email addresses or domains. This includes the email addresses associated with your custom domain (@your-domain.com in our example).

Summary

With these steps, your SaaS is now fully configured to use your custom domain across all components. The automatic configuration saves you time and ensures consistency across your infrastructure. Remember to always use the appropriate stage name when developing locally to maintain separation between your development and production environments.