Setting up your WordPress site¶

Zaroz Cloud WordPress hosting gives you a managed WordPress install (core, PHP, database, and an automatic TLS certificate) without touching a server yourself. There's one thing about it that trips people up, though: unlike some of our other products, WordPress does not come with a free *.zaroz.cloud address. It only runs on a domain you own, because a public blog or store needs a real domain name to be useful. This guide walks through the whole setup wizard, the DNS step in detail, and what to check if something doesn't line up.

Before you start: you need a domain you own¶

You'll need a domain name that belongs to you, for example myshop.com or blog.example.com. If you don't have one yet:

Buy one from any registrar (Namecheap, Cloudflare Registrar, GoDaddy, Google Domains, and so on). Expect to pay roughly $10-20/year for a common TLD like .com.
Come back here once you have it and can log into that registrar's dashboard.

If you already own a domain, make sure you can edit its DNS records. That's usually in your registrar's own dashboard, but if you moved DNS management elsewhere (Cloudflare is common), you'll need access there instead.

A subdomain works fine

You don't need a bare root domain. blog.example.com or store.example.com work exactly the same as example.com for this setup, and let you keep the root domain for something else.

Step 1: start the setup wizard¶

Order a WordPress plan and open the setup wizard from your order page. The first screen just recaps what's above (you need a domain you own, and you'll point it at us in a later step). Click Continue once you're ready.

Step 2: enter your domain¶

On the next screen, type the domain you're going to use, for example blog.example.com. This is not an address we provide, it's the domain you bought or already own.

If you also want the certificate to cover the www. version (www.blog.example.com), tick Also secure www. You can always add it later, but it's one less thing to redo if you decide now.

Type the domain, not a URL

Enter just the hostname (blog.example.com), not https://blog.example.com/. The wizard rejects anything that looks like a full URL, an IP address, or has spaces in it, that's usually a sign of a copy-paste mistake.

Step 3: create the admin account¶

Set the site title and the first WordPress admin account: username, email, and password (at least 8 characters). This is the account you'll use to log into wp-admin once the site is live, so pick a password you'll actually remember or store in a password manager.

Step 4: point your domain's DNS¶

This is the step that actually matters for the domain to work, so the wizard shows you exactly what to do and lets you verify it live before moving on.

The page shows a public IP address, something like 188.213.7.49, this is our HTTP ingress. You need to add an A record for your domain pointing at that IP:

Log into your registrar (or wherever you manage DNS for your domain).
Open its DNS settings.
Add (or edit) an A record for your domain with the IP shown on screen as the value.
If you ticked Also secure www, either add a second A record for www pointing at the same IP, or add a CNAME from www to your root domain.

;; what a correctly configured record looks like
blog.example.com.   300   IN   A   188.213.7.49

Once you've added it, click Check DNS Now. The wizard does a live lookup against your domain and tells you exactly what it found:

✅ Matches — you're good, the Continue button lights up.
⚠️ Resolves to a different IP — either the record hasn't propagated yet, you edited the wrong domain's DNS zone, or something else is intercepting it. See common pitfalls below.
⚠️ Looks like it's behind Cloudflare — if the IP it found belongs to Cloudflare's network, the wizard tells you that specifically, rather than a flat "wrong IP" error. That's actually fine (see Using Cloudflare's proxy), it just can't confirm the record underneath the proxy is correct from here.
❌ No record found yet — nothing resolves for the domain at all. Double check you saved the record and are looking at the right zone.

You don't have to get a green checkmark before continuing, Continue anyway is always available once you've checked at least once, in case you know propagation is still catching up. But we'd rather you see the real status than click through blind, so the wizard makes you check first.

Step 5: confirm and finish¶

The last screen recaps everything: domain, DNS status, site title, admin username and email. Click Confirm & Create. The first WordPress bootstrap (installing core, setting up the database, issuing the TLS certificate) usually takes a couple of minutes once DNS is actually live.

What's next¶

Once your site is up, head to the WordPress tab on your order page to check core/plugin/theme update status, put the site in maintenance mode, and jump straight into wp-admin. See Managing your WordPress site.

Using Cloudflare's proxy¶

If you run your domain through Cloudflare with the proxy turned on (the orange cloud icon in their DNS dashboard), the IP the world sees is one of Cloudflare's edge IPs, not ours directly. That's a completely normal setup and works fine, TLS issuance and traffic both go through the proxy to us. Our live DNS check knows about this: if the resolved IP falls in Cloudflare's published ranges, it tells you it looks proxied instead of just saying "wrong IP". We genuinely can't see what's configured behind the proxy from our side, so if you know you've pointed the underlying A record at us correctly, it's safe to continue.

If you're not intentionally using Cloudflare and see this message, double-check you edited the DNS zone for the domain you actually meant to use.

Common pitfalls¶

Typing an IP address or a full URL instead of a domain. The domain field wants a bare hostname like blog.example.com.
Editing the wrong zone. If you own several domains, it's easy to open the wrong one in your registrar and wonder why nothing changes. Re-check which domain you have open.
DNS propagation. Changes are often live within a few minutes but can take up to 24-48 hours to fully propagate everywhere, depending on your registrar and the record's previous TTL. If Check DNS Now shows a mismatch right after you save the record, wait a few minutes and check again before assuming something's wrong.
A record pointing somewhere else entirely. If your domain was previously used for something else (a different host, a page builder, a "coming soon" service), there may already be an A record that needs to be replaced, not added alongside the old one.
No IP shown at all / "not configured" error. This means the cluster your order landed on doesn't have its public ingress IP set up yet on our side, it's not something you did wrong. Contact support and we'll sort it out.

Frequently asked questions¶

Can I change the domain after setup?

Not from the wizard itself. Contact support if you need to move an existing WordPress site to a different domain, there's some cleanup involved (DNS, certificate, WordPress's own site URL settings) that's easier for us to do directly.

Do I need to keep DNS pointed at Zaroz forever?

Yes, as long as you want the site to be reachable. If you move DNS away, the domain will stop resolving to your WordPress site (and a new TLS certificate can't be issued if you ever need one reissued).

What if I don't have a domain yet, can I try WordPress hosting first?

Not on Zaroz Cloud currently, WordPress orders always need a domain from the start because the setup wizard can't proceed to the final step without one. Buy a cheap domain first if you just want to try it out, most registrars run frequent first-year discounts.

The wizard shows more than one IP address, which one do I use?

If more than one shows up, the primary one displayed is the one to use, but any of the listed IPs will work; that usually means the cluster your order runs on has multiple ingress addresses for redundancy. Pointing at any one of them is enough for the DNS check to pass.