How to let customers connect a GoDaddy domain in one click

Domain Connect lets a DNS provider apply a service's DNS records after the domain owner approves them once on the provider's own site (the specification is public). A provider never applies an arbitrary list of records: it applies a template, a pre-approved record set with a few variables, and only the templates it has onboarded. DoDomain publishes five in the public template registry, and GoDaddy's Domain Connect API at domainconnect.api.godaddy.com is measured every night for each of them.

So the question for your product is not "does GoDaddy support one-click" but "do the records my product asks for fit a template GoDaddy serves". The table answers it.

Measured state as of 2026-11-12. "Proven" means a real signed apply was approved on GoDaddy's consent page for a zone DoDomain controls, the records were served by GoDaddy's authoritative nameservers, and the session verified. The per-template HTTP results and versions are on Does GoDaddy support Domain Connect?, which is rebuilt from the same nightly data.

One detail you never have to handle: GoDaddy reserves the variable name token, which the three templates carrying the ownership TXT use. For those, GoDaddy loads a -v2 version that only renames the variable to verification, and DoDomain sends the -v2 version to GoDaddy on its own. The records in your session are the same either way.

The most common custom-domain shape is a CNAME on a subdomain plus an ownership TXT. To fill the custom-subdomain-cname-with-verification template, name the TXT _dodomain-challenge under the same host as the CNAME and start its value with dodomain-verify=:

curl -X POST https://app.dodomain.io/api/v1/sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer dd_sk_YOUR_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "domain": "customer.com",
    "records": [
      { "type": "CNAME", "host": "app", "value": "edge.yourproduct.com" },
      { "type": "TXT", "host": "_dodomain-challenge.app", "value": "dodomain-verify=7f3a9c" }
    ],
    "returnUrl": "https://yourproduct.com/settings/domains"
  }'

Hosts are relative to domain, so this asks for app.customer.com CNAME edge.yourproduct.com and _dodomain-challenge.app.customer.com TXT. The response carries a connectUrl to send your customer to; the getting started guide covers the keys, the SDKs and the webhook.

Two shapes that look close but miss: a TXT at _dodomain-challenge on the bare domain next to a CNAME on app fills no single template, and an ownership TXT under your own name (say _yourproduct) needs the universal dns-records template, which GoDaddy does not serve. Both still connect, through guided manual setup. For a bare domain, send an A record at @ with the TXT at _dodomain-challenge; a CNAME is not allowed there. Every shape and its constraints is in Multi-record and email records.

Your customer opens the connect link. DoDomain reads the domain's nameservers, and when they are GoDaddy's (domaincontrol.com) and the records fit a template, the page shows Set up automatically at GoDaddy above the same records in copy-paste form. One click takes them to GoDaddy, where they sign in and approve the change on GoDaddy's consent page, then GoDaddy sends them back.

The redirect back is never treated as proof. DoDomain queries GoDaddy's authoritative nameservers for every record and marks the session verified only when all of them are there. In DoDomain's first GoDaddy proof the CNAME was served by both authoritative nameservers about five minutes after approval; one observation, not a promise.

GoDaddy also tidies around your records, and the proofs recorded how: on a bare domain it removed its default parking record and touched nothing else, the zone's SPF included; for email it replaced its default DMARC record and wrote the SPF include through its own _spfm record, which DoDomain's SPF check follows.

Each of these still connects, with copy-paste records and the same verification:

• The team is on the Free plan. One-click setup is part of the Pro and Scale plans (pricing), decided when the session is created.
• The records fill none of the five templates, as in the two shapes above.
• The set includes an MX record. The Domain Connect path never writes one, because a wrong MX loses the domain's mail the moment it publishes.
• The SPF value carries more than one mechanism, or the email setup uses more than one DKIM selector.
• The domain is registered at GoDaddy but its nameservers point elsewhere.

On the manual path the connect flow shows GoDaddy's own panel steps beside each record (enter the subdomain only in Name, never the full domain; GoDaddy refuses @ as a CNAME name). The same steps are published as the GoDaddy CNAME and A record setup guide for your own support pages.

No card, no sales call: create an app, mint a session, and watch the first domain verify.

GoDaddy's template support and the proven applies are DoDomain's own measurements, published on the state of Domain Connect page with a dated note per apply. DoDomain is not affiliated with GoDaddy.

1. Domain Connect, Domain Connect specification. How a DNS provider applies a service's template after the domain owner consents.
2. Domain Connect, Domain Connect templates. The public registry DoDomain's five templates are published in, which providers onboard from.
3. GoDaddy, Add a CNAME record. GoDaddy's own steps for the manual path, as the DoDomain GoDaddy setup guide repeats them.