Domain and Free SSL on ChemiCloud

Free domain: who gets it

• A free domain comes with 36-month hosting plans. It is free for the first year, then it renews at the regular rate.
• You must order the free domain when you first sign up.
• Already have a domain? With a 36-month plan you can ask for a free domain transfer instead. Send the request to ChemiCloud's Billing team within 30 days of your plan's activation. Your domain's expiry date is then extended by one year.

Point your domain to ChemiCloud (change nameservers)

If your domain is registered with another company, log in there and replace its nameservers with ChemiCloud's nameservers. ChemiCloud's own nameservers should be used with its shared hosting and VPS plans. Screenshot of where ChemiCloud shows them: added after our own sign-up.

If your domain is registered with ChemiCloud:

1. Log in to your ChemiCloud customer account.
2. In the Client Area, click Domains in the left menu.
3. Find your domain and click Manage Domain.
4. In the Manage menu on the right, click Nameservers.
5. Choose Use custom nameservers and enter the nameservers you want.
6. Click Change Nameservers.

The change can take up to 24 hours to work everywhere. It is often done in a few hours.

Turn on free SSL (Let's Encrypt)

Let's Encrypt is a free certificate authority run by the non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Before you start: your domain and its www address must already point to your hosting account. If they don't, the certificate can't be checked and installed. So change the nameservers first and wait until the change has spread.

1. Log in to cPanel and scroll down to Security. Click SSL/TLS Certificates.
2. In the Wizard tab, find Issue a certificate. Select your domain and click Continue.
3. Click Let's Encrypt Certificate. It takes a few minutes.
4. A green padlock next to the domain means a valid certificate is already in place.
5. Then send visitors to the https:// version of your site.