By default, everything your customers touch in your referral program lives on ReferralCandy-branded addresses: the referral links your advocates share use the short domain yourstore.refr.cc, and the pages those links open — your advocate portal (like the Join Page and Share Page) and your Friend Offer Landing Page — live at yourstore.referralcandy.com. Setting up a custom domain replaces both with a subdomain you own, like referrals.yourstore.com, so every link and page matches your brand.
This is how you white-label your referral program: if you've been looking for a branded link, a vanity URL, or a way to remove refr.cc from your referral links, this is the setting you want. The whole setup is self-serve from your dashboard — no support ticket needed.
Looking to send referral emails from your own address instead? That's a separate setting — see Setting up a custom email domain. This article covers the domain your referral links and pages use; that one covers the email sender domain.
What you'll need
To set up a custom domain for your referral portal, you'll need:
A subdomain you own — for example referrals.yourstore.com, refer.yourstore.com, or rewards.yourstore.com. Root domains (yourstore.com) and www addresses aren't supported — it has to be a subdomain.
Access to your domain's DNS settings at your DNS provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, and similar) — you'll add a couple of CNAME records there during setup.
Setting up your custom domain
Go to your Custom domain settings:
From your Shopify admin, open ReferralCandy and go to Account > Custom domain.
From the ReferralCandy dashboard at my.referralcandy.com, go to Account > Custom domain.
Enter the subdomain you want to use (e.g. referrals.yourstore.com) and submit.
Add the DNS records shown to your domain's DNS settings. These are CNAME records — copy each Name and Value exactly as displayed. The first record lets ReferralCandy issue the SSL certificate that keeps your pages on https.
Wait for verification. This typically takes 5–10 minutes (occasionally up to 30). The page checks and updates automatically — and you don't need to keep it open: setup keeps progressing in the background, so you can come back later.
When your domain is ready, the page shows a final CNAME record that points your subdomain at your referral portal. Add it the same way, and check the DNS status: Verified (green) means you're good to go; Not detected usually just means the record is still propagating — give it a few minutes and the page will recheck on its own.
Click Activate.
Tip: most DNS providers automatically append your root domain, so you enter just the Name shown (e.g. referrals). A few providers — AWS Route 53, for example — want the full hostname instead (e.g. referrals.yourstore.com); the setup page includes a hint for this.
Important: add the DNS records within 72 hours of starting setup. If they aren't detected by then, the pending setup is cancelled automatically and you'll need to start again.
After you activate
From the moment you activate, your referral links, advocate portal pages, and Friend Offer Landing Page all use your custom domain — every new link your advocates share carries your brand.
Links that were shared before you activated keep working too — anything already out there on yourstore.refr.cc continues to resolve, so activating won't break your advocates' existing posts and messages.
Your Custom domain page now shows your domain with a status badge: Active (green) means everything is live and healthy; Awaiting DNS or DNS issue means your CNAME record needs attention — the page tells you exactly what to fix. From here you can also:
Change your subdomain — switch to another subdomain of the same root domain (e.g. referrals.yourstore.com to rewards.yourstore.com) without re-verifying.
Remove your custom domain — your referral links and pages revert to the default ReferralCandy addresses. You can set up a custom domain again anytime.
Important: changing or removing your custom domain takes effect immediately, and links your advocates shared on the old custom subdomain stop working. If your program has been running on a custom domain for a while, expect some links in old posts and messages to break when you switch.
Custom domain FAQ
Why does my referral link show yourstore.refr.cc but open a referralcandy.com page?
Why does my referral link show yourstore.refr.cc but open a referralcandy.com page?
That's the default behavior, and both addresses are normal. yourstore.refr.cc is ReferralCandy's short-link domain — it keeps the links your advocates share compact. When someone clicks one, it opens the full page on yourstore.referralcandy.com, which is what shows in the browser's address bar. They're the same ReferralCandy-hosted referral portal — just a short link and the page it opens. Once you activate a custom domain, both are replaced: your links and your pages use your own subdomain instead.
Can I use my main domain (yourstore.com) or a www address?
Can I use my main domain (yourstore.com) or a www address?
No — your custom domain has to be a subdomain, like referrals.yourstore.com or refer.yourstore.com. Root domains (yourstore.com) and www addresses aren't supported, since your store's website already lives there. ReferralCandy-owned domains (like refr.cc or referralcandy.com) and platform domains (like myshopify.com) can't be used either.
The DNS status shows "Not detected" or "Wrong target" — what do I do?
The DNS status shows "Not detected" or "Wrong target" — what do I do?
Not detected usually means your CNAME record hasn't propagated yet — DNS changes can take 5–10 minutes to become visible, and the page rechecks automatically. If it stays Not detected, check the record exists at your DNS provider, and if you're on Cloudflare, make sure the record is set to DNS only (gray cloud) — Cloudflare's proxy mode (orange cloud) hides the record from verification.
Wrong target means a CNAME record exists but points somewhere other than the Value shown on your setup page. Update the record at your DNS provider so the Value matches exactly — activation stays blocked until it does.
Will the links my advocates already shared stop working when I activate?
Will the links my advocates already shared stop working when I activate?
No. Activating a custom domain doesn't break anything that's already out there — referral links shared on yourstore.refr.cc before you activated keep working, and links shared after activation use your custom domain. The exception is changing or removing the custom domain itself later: links on the old custom subdomain stop working immediately when you do that.
Why was my setup cancelled and reset to the start?
Why was my setup cancelled and reset to the start?
Setup is cancelled automatically if the DNS records aren't detected within 72 hours of starting — just enter your domain again to restart, and add the records while the setup is pending. If something failed during provisioning instead, you'll see an error banner explaining why, and you can retry by re-entering your domain. Note there's a limit of 10 setup attempts per 24 hours, so if you've been retrying a lot, give it a day before trying again.
I already have a custom domain that was set up for me — can I change it?
I already have a custom domain that was set up for me — can I change it?
If your custom domain was set up manually by our team in the past, you'll see a note on the Custom domain page that it can't be edited directly. To change it, remove the existing domain first, then run the self-serve setup with your new subdomain. If you try to reuse the exact same subdomain and get a "domain is already in use" error, pick a different subdomain — or let us know and we can free up the original one for you.