> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mastodon.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bring your own domain

> Use a new or existing domain name to set up your server

## Customize your social media presence

A custom domain name is a great way to claim your identity online - and mastodon usernames work just like email addresses.

Whether you want to be `john@smith.com`, `lois.lane@daily.planet` or `sam@london.football`, you can show who you are, who you work for, or what you're into. Your only limit is finding the right domain name.

## Bring your own domain

Although we don't register domain names for you, we give you all of the info you need to point a domain you have registered to your mastodon.site server. A few minutes is all it takes.

What's more, you can continue to use that domain name for email, a blog, website, online store, or redirects.

## Common domain name choices

<Tip>The important thing to note is that once set, a mastodon server cannot change domain name. That would break the names of the users and other mastodon servers wouldn't know where to find them.</Tip>

The good news is there's a lot of flexibility in choosing how to use a domain name with your mastodon server.

The two main options are:

### Domain is just for mastodon (domain root)

If the mastodon server is the only thing you want to host (you're not also hosting a website or blog, etc) your mastodon server can run at `https://example.com`. This is called the domain 'root'. The users will be `user@example.com`.

If you want to use the domain for email too, that's no problem. Setting up a mastodon server this way does not affect email functionality.

### Domain also has a site (subdomain)

If the domain already has, or you plan for it to have, a website or blog or something else people will see in a browser, the mastodon server can run at `https://social.example.com`. In this case, the word 'social' is a `subdomain`. You can use any word here, as long as it's not hosting something else for your domain.

Even with a subdomain mastodon server running at `https://mastodon.business.com`, the users can still be set at the root - `info@business.com` or `the.boss@business.com`.

<Info>Full step-by-step guides are in [our support pages](/support/help-mastodon-dns-domain-names) if you need any help.</Info>