Changing Your Main Domain

Changing Your Main Domain

Each HelioHost account can have up to 10 domains in total (including addon domains, subdomains, and aliases) for free. If you need more than 10 domains, they can be added for a donation.

Users cannot yet change the main domain on their account themselves. We plan to add this feature in the future, but there is no ETA for when it may be implemented.

In the meantime, HelioHost staff will be happy to change your main domain for you.

Before Changing Your Main Domain

Before requesting to change your main domain, read up on parked (alias) domains, Addon, and subdomains as a useful alternative to changing your main domain. You can host up to 10 domains on your one hosting account (with the possibility of adding more for a donation), so most of the time it's pointless to change your main domain when you can simply add the new domain as an alias.

Account Reset is Required to Swap Main and Addon Domain

Sometimes, users will ask to swap the main domain and an addon domain, because they prefer one domain to have its files in the 'httpdocs' folder and the other domain to have its files in a folder with the same name as the addon domain.

HelioHost staff recommend against swapping domains in this way. It ultimately does not matter which domain is the main and which domain is the addon, in every case where a user has asked for a swap, the rapid adding and deleting of DNS records ends up breaking their account in some irreparable way, causing an account reset to be necessary to fix it.

As a result, users who insist on swapping their main and addon domains are now required to create an account backup and download it to their local device before requesting an account reset so they can set their preferred domain as the main domain during the rebuild.

When recreating the account as part of the reset process, users can then choose which domain they want to set as the main domain. After the account has been recreated, users can then request an addon domain.

Submit a Request to Change Your Main Domain

Changing your main domain means your current main domain will be deleted. Deleting a domain will delete all the files associated with it, so we strongly recommend you create an account backup and download it to your local device before requesting to change your main domain.

As mentioned in our Terms of Service, it is not HelioHost's responsibility to keep backups of your data.

Make sure the main domain you're changing to isn't already added to Plesk as an Alias or an Addon domain. Otherwise, the main domain change will fail.

To change your main domain (the location of where your visitors will navigate to), submit a request in the Customer Support forum and provide the following information:

1. Your hosting account username
2. The full domain name you want as your main domain, including the top-level domain (TLD):
   • If you're using HelioHost's domains, specify either helioho.st or heliohost.us
   • If you've purchased a custom domain, specify the TLD (such as .com, .net, etc.)

Custom Domains

If you're in the market for a custom domain, HelioHost has an affiliate agreement with Namecheap, so we highly recommend purchasing it from them. Once you set the nameservers to 'ns1.heliohost.org' and 'ns2.heliohost.org', we can host the website on your brand new domain for you. Click on the banner below to use our affiliate link to shop for your new domain:

After checking if your preferred domain name is available, there will sometimes be a Promo Code you can use at checkout, to get a very low price for the first year.

Nameservers

You will need to point your custom domain to the following nameservers:

• ns1.heliohost.org
• ns2.heliohost.org

DNS Records

If you prefer to add A records (IPv4) or AAAA records (IPv6) to your custom domain registrar's dashboard instead of nameservers, look up the IP addresses for your server by using the steps below:

Login > Plesk > Websites & Domains > [domain name] > and check at the bottom of the page.

Next Steps

Whether you are using one of HelioHost's domains or a custom domain, you will need to wait up to 2 hours for your new main domain to become fully active. If after an entire 2 hours, you still see a message saying 'HelioHost Account Queued', please clear your web browser cache.