Addresses, subdomains and HTTPS on blitz.cloud

Every blitz.cloud account gets one free main address, <name>.blitz.cloud, and each app gets a subdomain under it, like blog.<name>.blitz.cloud. HTTPS is automatic: certificates for your address and all its subdomains are set up when you claim the address and renewed without you doing anything. You can add your own DNS records under your address. Connecting a domain you own is part of Pro, for 7 EUR per month.

Your main address

You claim it once, during onboarding.

The field checks availability as you type.

Subdomains for apps

Each app lives on its own subdomain: <app>.<name>.blitz.cloud. You can have as many as you have apps, and one app can use the main address itself instead.

Subdomain names are 1 to 30 characters: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, not starting or ending with a hyphen and never two in a row. A short list is reserved because we may serve something there for you later or because it would look official: www, api, mcp, admin, login, auth, status, mail, db, database and a few more. The dashboard tells you when you pick one.

You can rename or move an app's subdomain on the app page. The old one stops leading to the app right away.

A subdomain with no app on it, like one you just freed or whose app you deleted, shows a short page that says "Nothing here yet".

Renaming your main address

You can rename your main address at most once every 14 days, counted from when you claimed it or last renamed it. So the earliest first rename is 14 days after signup.

When you rename:

• Your apps move to the new name automatically. A certificate for the new name is ordered at the same time and, like the first one, takes a little while to be ready.
• For 14 days the old name sends visitors to the same page under the new one, so links people saved keep working. blog.oldname.blitz.cloud/post/1 goes to blog.newname.blitz.cloud/post/1.
• Nobody else can claim the old name in those 14 days. After that it stops answering and is free again.
• App settings that contain the old address, like Ghost's url, are changed to the new one, and those apps restart to pick it up.

HTTPS and certificates

Your address and every subdomain under it get certificates when you claim the address, and they renew before they expire.

• All HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS.
• Getting the first certificate takes a few minutes after you claim the address. Until it is ready, an app's page says the secure connection is still being set up, and offers Visit once browsers will open it.
• You don't upload or configure anything. There's also no way to bring your own certificate.

Custom domains

You can connect a domain you own, like www.example.com, to any of your apps. It's part of the Pro plan at 7 EUR per month (what Pro includes), so the free plan can't use it. On the free plan, a common workaround is a redirect from your own domain to the blitz.cloud address at your DNS provider or registrar.

On Pro, the Domains page walks you through a checklist of three steps, with the time each one usually takes. Only the step that needs you is open, and each record comes with its value ready to copy:

1. Show it's yours: a TXT record at _blitz-verify.<your domain>.
2. Point it at blitz.cloud: a CNAME from your domain to edge.blitz.cloud. A bare domain like example.com needs the same CNAME on @. Many providers allow that and call it ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening. If yours doesn't, connect www.example.com and forward the bare domain to it at your provider.
3. Secure it: once the name points at us, we get a certificate for it, usually within a few minutes. Until then, browsers show a warning at your domain. From then on HTTP redirects to HTTPS.

The page reads your domain's nameservers to see which DNS provider runs it, and names the fields the way that provider does. Record names are shown the way most providers want them, like _blitz-verify.www, with the full name underneath. If your provider added the domain a second time, as in www.example.com.example.com, the check says so.

We check the DNS every minute, and there's a "Check now" button for when you've just saved a record. If your domain is on Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (the grey cloud), or we see Cloudflare's addresses instead of yours. Once a domain is connected, you can make it the app's main address: visitors to its blitz.cloud address are then sent to your domain, and links the app writes use it too.

If Pro ends, your own domains stop leading to your apps after the 14 days of grace, and the apps stay reachable at their blitz.cloud addresses. Taking Pro again brings the domains back.

Buying a domain

You can search for a domain name and buy it directly on the Domains page, instead of only connecting one you already own. It's registered in your name: we register it through our registrar, netcup GmbH.

Domain prices vary by name and ending. Prices are shown on the Domains page before you pay. On the free plan, buying a domain comes bundled with a Pro app at 15 EUR. On Pro or Business, you can buy the domain alone.

The right of withdrawal ends once registration completes, since registering can't be undone and happens within the 14-day withdrawal window (section 356(4) BGB). See Domains: the right of withdrawal ends with the registration.

Domains are billed yearly. You can cancel anytime through your account cancel page.

Search engines

Apps on the free plan ask search engines not to list them: their blitz.cloud address answers with an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header. Apps of a Pro or Business account, and any app you made a Pro app (2 EUR a month), don't send it, so Google and other search engines can list them. The same goes for a domain you own on such an app. If your app sends an X-Robots-Tag of its own, we leave it as it is.

To see what an app sends: curl -sI https://<app>.<name>.blitz.cloud | grep -i x-robots-tag.

When the app can't answer

When nothing is running behind an address, visitors see our page instead, and it says why: the app is asleep and waking up, paused, starting, building, or crashed. A page for a paused app says who paused it. When the app itself answers with an error, like its own 500 or 503, the visitor gets that answer as the app sent it. If you'd rather show our page for those too, switch on "Our page for its errors" in the app's Settings tab.

Advanced DNS records

You can add A, AAAA, CNAME, TXT and MX records under your address on the Domains page, for example an MX record to receive mail at your blitz.cloud address, or a TXT record a service asks you to add to prove you own it. Most people never need this. Up to 10 records per account.

A few names are kept for your apps. You can't point your address itself, or a subdomain an app is using, somewhere else with an A, AAAA or CNAME record, because that would take the app offline. TXT and MX records are fine anywhere. The dashboard says which app is in the way when it refuses a record.