There are a ton of domain name registrars and hosts out there. Finding specific instructions to match the two together is something a bit of a challenge. To make things tougher, instructions aren’t always updated when user interfaces and processes are changed in the tools provided by these services. Hopefully, this article will provide simple instructions.

1. Log in to your Azure account and go to the management portal.
   • Your website must be set to “Shared”, “Basic” or “Standard” tiers in order to use custom domains.
   • If you want to eventually setup SSL on your custom domain, you will need to set the website to “Basic” or “Standard” tier.
   • Read more on pricing.
2. Navigate to the dashboard of the Azure Website you are working with.
3. In the bottom toolbar, click “Manage Domains”.
4. Make note of the IP address listed at the bottom of the popup.
5. Log in to your Namecheap account.
6. Under “account information”, click to view your domains.
7. On the left sidebar, click “Your Domains”.
8. Click the domain you want to connect with Azure from the middle section.
9. On the left sidebar, click “All Host Records”.
10. Copy the IP address from step 4 to the IP Address / URL of the root host name “@”. Change that record type to “A Record”.
11. Copy the “xxx.azurewebsites.net” domain name to the IP Address / URL of the host name “www” where “xxx” is your website name. Change that record type to “CNAME”.
12. Under the subdomains section, add “awverify” and “awverify.www” subdomains. Set both IP Address / URL to awverify.xxx.azurewebsites.net where “xxx” is your website name. Change those record types to “CNAME”.
13. Save your changes. Wait until the DNS records propogate. Sometimes this takes awhile (over 24 hours). In my case, it took about an hour.
14. Go back to your Azure dashboard, add the domain and any subdomains to the popup from step 4. For example, “xxx.com” and “www.xxx.com” where “xxx” is your domain name.