Domain

Here we’ll talk a bit about where to get a domain, and how to hook it up to your web app on PythonAnywhere. However, you should know that most domains cost money, and PythonAnywere also charges a monthly fee to use your own domain name — it’s not much money in total, but this is probably something you only want to do if you’re really committed!

A typical domain costs around $15 a year. There are cheaper and more expensive options, depending on the provider. There are a lot of companies that you can buy a domain from: a simple will give hundreds of options.

Our favourite one is I want my name. They advertise as “painless domain management” and it really is painless.

You can also get domains for free. is one place to get one, but you should be aware that free domains sometimes feel a bit cheap — if your site is going to be for a professional business, you might want to think about paying for a “proper” domain that ends in .

If you went through iwantmyname.com, click in the menu and choose your newly purchased domain. Then locate and click on the link:

And fill it in with the following details:

• Hostname: www
• Value: your domain from PythonAnywhere (for example djangogirls.pythonanywhere.com)
• TTL: 60

Click the Add button and Save changes at the bottom.

It can take a few minutes for your domain to start working, so be patient!

Go to the PythonAnywhere Accounts page and upgrade your account. The cheapest option (a “Hacker” plan) is fine to start with, you can always upgrade it later when you get super-famous and have millions of hits.

Next, go over to the and note down a couple of things:

• Copy the path to your virtualenv and put it somewhere safe
• Click through to your wsgi config file, copy the contents, and paste them somewhere safe.

Next, Delete your old web app. Don’t worry, this doesn’t delete any of your code, it just switches off the domain at yourusername.pythonanywhere.com. Next, create a new web app, and follow these steps:

• Choose “manual configuration”
• Pick Python 3.4
• And we’re done!

When you get taken back to the web tab.

• Paste in the virtualenv path you saved earlier

Hit reload web app, and you should find your site is live on its new domain!

If you run into any problems, hit the “Send feedback” link on the PythonAnywhere site, and one of their friendly admins will be there to help you in no time.