Your practice website is live at yourname.sites.frontdesk.care the moment you publish it. A domain of your own, like www.harborlightcare.com, looks better on a business card and in search results, and you can buy one without leaving FrontDesk. Open Settings → Domains.
Domains come with the website builder, which is available on paid plans.
Find a name
Type your practice name or the exact domain you want and click Search. FrontDesk checks the common endings (.com, .net, .org, .co, .care, .clinic) and shows, for each one, whether it is available and what it costs per year. Names that are taken are crossed out. Below the results, Also available lists close alternatives the registrar suggests.
Tip: if you type an ending we do not sell (for example .xyz), the page says so and shows the same name with the endings we do.
Buy it
Click Buy next to an available name. The checkout shows:
- The price for the first year and the renewal price, which is the same.
- Registrant contact: prefilled from your practice (name, address, phone, email). This is who owns the domain. Check it is right; the registrar uses this email to confirm the registration. WHOIS privacy is included, so none of it is published.
- Renew automatically (on by default): each year the renewal goes on your card on file about six weeks before the domain expires.
- When it's ready: make it your website's address (the default for your first domain), redirect it to the address you already have (the default once a domain is connected), or do nothing yet and decide later from the domain's card.
- The card that will be charged: your card on file from Settings → Billing. No card yet? The checkout sends you there first.
Click Buy for $…. The first year is charged right away and the registrar starts registering the name.
While it registers
The domain shows on the page as Registering. This usually takes a few minutes; the page checks by itself while you are on it, and you can click Check status at any time. When the registrar confirms:
- the domain becomes Active with its renewal date, and you get an email saying so;
- if you chose to connect it, your website now answers at www.yourdomain and at the bare yourdomain; the Website page's Domain tab shows it as connected. If you chose a redirect, visitors to the new domain land on your existing address;
- Amazon Registrar (the registrar of record) emails the registrant contact to confirm the address. Click the link within 15 days; the domain card reminds you until it is done, with a Resend email link if the message is missing or its link has expired.
If the registrar cannot register the name (it happens, for example, with reserved words), the domain shows as Failed, the charge is refunded automatically, and you can try another name.
Connect, disconnect, reconnect
A domain bought here connects with one click: Connect to website on its card. Connecting writes the DNS records for you (www to your site, the bare name to the website servers) and marks the domain verified on the Website page; nothing to copy anywhere.
Disconnect puts your website back on its FrontDesk address and removes those records. The domain stays yours and can be connected again any time. If you type a different domain on Settings → Website → Domain, the bought domain is disconnected in the same way.
Only one domain is the website's address at a time. Connecting another one switches the site over and releases the first.
More than one domain
Practices often own the .com and the .net, or an old name and a new one. Buy the extra domain here (or use one you already bought), then click Redirect to website on its card: visitors who type it are sent to your website's address, keeping the page they asked for, so old links and business cards keep working. The card shows where it redirects; Make it the address swaps roles, and Stop redirect releases it. When you buy a domain while another is already connected, the checkout asks whether the new one should become the address, redirect to it, or wait.
Plans include a number of domains per practice: 3 on Pro, 10 on Elite, unlimited on custom-priced plans. The Domains page shows how many you have used.
Email on your domain
Click DNS & email on the domain card.
- Mailboxes (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365). Sign up with the provider first, then click its button here and Add records. FrontDesk writes the MX record and the SPF record (merging it with any SPF you already had). Microsoft asks for the MX address shown in its admin center; paste it in. If the provider asks you to prove you own the domain with a TXT record, paste that value into the optional verification field and it is added at the same time. Finish creating mailboxes in the provider's console.
- Send FrontDesk email from the domain. Click Set up sending and FrontDesk creates the authentication records (the same ones Settings → Email would ask you to paste) and writes them into your DNS for you. Settings → Email shows the domain verified once DNS has propagated, usually within the hour; from then on reminders and messages go out from an address on your domain. This needs a Pro plan or above.
Other DNS records
The same panel lists every record in your domain and lets you add A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and SRV records or remove ones you added, for anything else you connect to the domain (a booking widget on a subdomain, a verification code, a DMARC policy). Use @ for the domain itself. Records marked Website or Email are managed for you and cannot be edited by hand; disconnect the website, or remove the sending domain in Settings → Email, if you ever need to change them. Name server records cannot be changed.
Fix the contact
Edit contact on the domain card updates the registrant details at the registrar. Changing the email sends a fresh verification message to the new address, which must be clicked within 15 days like the first one.
Renewals
Domains renew yearly. With Auto-renew on, FrontDesk charges your card on file about six weeks before the expiry date and emails you a receipt; the registrar then renews the domain before it expires. Turn the switch off on the domain's card to let it lapse at the end of its term (you get no further charges; the website falls back to its FrontDesk address when the domain expires).
If a renewal payment fails, you are emailed and the charge is retried daily, up to three times. After that, or when fewer than ten days remain, auto-renew is switched off and you receive a final notice. To keep the domain, update your card in Settings → Billing and switch Auto-renew back on before the expiry date.
Already have a domain?
You do not need to buy a new one. On Settings → Website → Domain, enter your existing domain (use the www form), add the CNAME record it shows at your current registrar, and click Verify now. See Set up your practice website.