Guide to Stanford Domains

This documentation is meant to be read by Stanford students and organizations looking for a free, university-affiliated hosting solution for personal projects, VSO websites, and small-scale web applications.

Getting Started

Stanford Domains is a free, self-service web publishing tool used to create personal digital spaces for various media, such as portfolios and wikis. Stanford students, faculty, and staff can register a free subdomain (mysubdomain.su.domains) and install WordPress, MediaWiki, Drupal, or other popular open-source applications.

Important Note: In September 2023, some rates will change for some of the technology services provided by University IT. To view the majority of the planned rate changes for services that are broadly available to Stanford's community, please visit this page. For current rate information, visit this website for the most current university rates.

Features

• Simple web interface: Knowledge of HTML is not required to create a personal website.
• Number of websites allowed: Unlimited.
• Free domains: URL includes SUNet ID username (e.g., sunetid.su.domains, FirstLastName.su.domains).
• Custom domains: Any available domain (e.g., [customdomain].com) for $15/year.
• Storage: 1 GB storage for personal hosting of the website.
• Backup: Stanford Domains sites are backed up daily. You can use cPanel to backup your site and move it to other hosting environments.
• Website migration: Easily migrate to a third-party hosting service when leaving Stanford.

Designed for

• Individual faculty, staff, and students.
• Labs, groups, student or staff organizations.
• For official department websites or websites with more complex needs, check out Stanford Sites.

Requirements

• A full-service SUNet ID

Data security

This service is for Low Risk data. For Medium Risk data, please use Stanford Sites service. For more information about Stanford Security practices, please review the following guidelines:

• Stanford Security Standards for Applications
• Stanford Security Standards for Software-as-a-Service (SAAS)
• Stanford Security Standards
• Risk Classifications

Rates

Free of charge.

Get started

• Review Stanford Policies
• Get Started
• FAQ
• Community Support

Learn more

• Overview of Stanford Domains (video from Stanford WebCamp 2021)
• WordPress Tutorials for Beginners
• WordPress Forums
• WordPress Fundamentals Training
• Using a Custom URL for Your Website
• Stanford WordPress Mailing list
• Drupal Community of Practice information
• Drupal Community of Practice mailing list