Glossary
Custom domain: short links on a host you own
A custom domain is a hostname you control, pointed at a service that serves it. What you gain by moving short links onto yours, what you take on, and how gc.mw verifies it.
By Wasim Idrishi · Updated · 2 min read
A custom domain is a hostname you own, pointed by DNS at a service that answers requests for it. For
short links it means links.yourbrand.com/launch instead of a code on a shared host.
What you gain
Reputation you control. Mail filters, messaging apps and security products judge at the domain level, and a shared shortener carries the accumulated behaviour of everyone using it. On your own hostname the reputation is yours to build, and a link pasted into a message with no context still says who sent it.
Portability, too. Because the domain is yours, the links on it are re-pointable at another service if you ever leave. That is the practical answer to the goo.gl problem: the shortener can disappear, the printed material cannot, and the domain is the only piece that lets you repair both.
What you take on
Renewals, DNS hygiene and your own abuse handling. A domain that starts sending phishing is your domain, and its reputation recovers slowly. It is also one more thing to remember at renewal time — an expired domain takes every short link on it out at once, which is a worse failure than any shortener outage.
How gc.mw verifies one
Two DNS records: a CNAME from your hostname to cname.gc.mw, and a TXT record at _gc-verify.<host>
carrying a token shown once when you add the domain and stored hashed on our side. The TXT proves control,
the CNAME proves the name is actually aimed at us, and the check re-runs by itself every five minutes until
DNS propagates. Certificates are issued once both pass. On a domain used for nothing else, A records
matching what cname.gc.mw resolves to are accepted instead of the CNAME.
Custom domains are a Business feature; the hard cap is fifty per workspace. Unknown codes on your domain return a 404 on your domain rather than a gc.mw page.
Example
go.growcord.in, two records, verified inside ten minutes. Every alias, UTM default, expiry rule, password
and QR that works on gc.mw works there, and the analytics separate by domain as well as by link.
Check what a hostname resolves to and what certificate it is serving with the link checker.
Questions people ask
What happens to my links if I remove the domain?
They are paused, not deleted, and the dashboard tells you how many were affected. Reconnect the same domain — or another one — and re-enable them. We never silently move links onto gc.mw behind your back.
Does anything run on my servers?
No. Your DNS points the hostname at us; we terminate TLS, look up the code and answer the redirect. There is nothing to install, and no traffic reaches your infrastructure.
Keep going
Try it with your own link
Paste a long link and get a 10-character gc.mw link with a QR code. No account needed for 30 days; free forever with one.