Do you need to buy a domain name for your website?
TL;DR
You do not need a domain to have a live website: a subdomain works and is permanent. You want one when the address itself matters. SayLive does not sell domain names, deliberately: you buy yours at any registrar and stay its holder, and connecting it to a paid site is included, with one CNAME record.
The short answer
No, you do not need to buy a domain name to have a website online. Your site is live on an address like yoursite.saylive.site from the first publish, that address is permanent, it has a valid HTTPS certificate, and you can put it on a card.
You want your own domain when the address itself is part of what you are presenting: a business people will type, an email at the same name, something that should still be yours if you ever change hosting. For a personal page, an event or a first version, a subdomain is genuinely fine.
Why we do not sell you one
Almost every website product will happily sell you a domain at checkout. We refuse, and the reason is the same rule that shapes everything else here: everything we sell degrades without destroying anything. A publication capital runs out and the site stays online. A form stops collecting and the messages you already received stay readable.
A domain name does not degrade. It is lost. If it is not renewed on the right day, it stops being yours, and someone else can take it. Holding that clock on your behalf would mean handing you back the exact recurring dread that a one-time payment exists to remove, along with the rest of the registrar trade: irreversible disbursements, transfers and EPP codes, the question of who is legally the holder, the mailbox that hangs off the name.
You buy your name at a registrar and you stay its holder. Your address should never depend on us.
Connecting it is included
Not selling domains does not mean leaving you to it. Connecting the domain you own is included in the payment for the site: there is nothing more to buy, and no right that expires later. It is not an add-on we could withdraw, because a dated right over your own name would mean disconnecting it one day.
One condition: the site has to be paid for. A free trial that could obtain a credible name with a valid certificate is exactly the shape of a phishing page, and that is not a door we leave open.
How it actually goes
- Buy the name at any registrar you like. You are the holder, and it has nothing to do with us.
- In your SayLive space, open your site, go to Domain name and enter it, in the www form.
- Add the single DNS record we show you, in the DNS zone at that registrar: one CNAME, from your name to connect.saylive.site, TTL left at its default.
- Click Check now. Two things have to be green: your record visible, and the HTTPS certificate issued.
Your agent can do the whole thing from the conversation instead. Ask it to connect the domain and it hands you the exact record, field by field, then tells you where the connection stands whenever you ask.
The two things people worry about
Your email does not move. Mail routing lives in separate MX records, and adding a CNAME for the web address touches none of them.
And your site does not go offline. It keeps serving on its SayLive address the whole time, including while DNS propagates, which can take minutes or hours. Once the domain is connected, both addresses answer, and removing the custom domain later takes nothing offline either.
The full procedure, including the bare domain without www and what to do when a check stays amber, is in the docs. Once the name is live, the thing that actually brings visitors to it is the SEO pass, not the domain itself.
Questions fréquentes
Do I need a domain name to publish a website?
No. Your site is live on a permanent subdomain with a valid HTTPS certificate from the first publish. A domain of your own is worth buying when the address itself matters, for a business or for email at the same name.
Does SayLive sell domain names?
No, deliberately. A domain does not degrade, it is lost if a renewal is missed, so we do not put that clock between you and your own name. You buy it at any registrar, stay its holder, and connecting it to a paid site is included in the price of the site.
How do I connect my domain to my site?
Enter it in your SayLive space or ask your agent, then add one CNAME record at your registrar pointing your name to connect.saylive.site. When the record is visible and the certificate is issued, the domain is live alongside your SayLive address.
Will connecting a domain break my email?
No. Email is routed by MX records, which are separate. Adding the CNAME for your website leaves them untouched.