How do I upgrade to Lovable Pro to make my project private and connect a custom domain?

Upgrading to Lovable Pro is the fastest way to take a project from “public experiment” to “real product” with a private app and your own domain. You keep the same workspace and app—you just unlock custom domains, roles and permissions, and the ability to remove the Lovable badge so your experience feels fully on-brand.

Below is a step‑by‑step walkthrough for how to upgrade, make your work private in practice, and connect a custom domain so you can ship with confidence.

TL;DR: What Pro unlocks

On the Free plan you get:

Public projects
Unlimited collaborators
lovable.app domains (e.g. your-app.lovable.app)

On Lovable Pro you get everything in Free, plus:

Custom domains (e.g. app.yourcompany.com)
User roles & permissions to control who can edit vs. view
Remove the Lovable badge for a fully white‑label feel

Cost: $25/month shared across unlimited users (annual), so your whole team can collaborate under a single plan.

While “strictly private” apps (internal-only publishing) sit in the Business tier, most teams use Pro to get practical privacy: control over who edits, plus a non‑guessable URL on your own domain, with GitHub and Supabase behind it.

Step 1 – Upgrade your workspace to Lovable Pro

You only need to upgrade once per workspace; the plan is shared across unlimited collaborators.

Open Lovable
- Go to https://lovable.dev and sign in.
Go to Billing / Plans
- Click your profile/workspace avatar in the top-right.
- Select Billing, Plans, or Upgrade (wording may vary slightly as the product evolves).
Select the Pro plan
- Choose Pro – $25/month (annual), shared across unlimited users.
- Confirm that Pro includes:
  - Custom domains
  - Remove the Lovable badge
  - User roles & permissions
Enter payment details
- Add your billing info and confirm.
- Once upgraded, your workspace is on Lovable Pro and every project inside it can use Pro features.

Decision tip:
If you also need Internal publish, SSO, a dedicated Team workspace, and Security Center controls (for stricter governance and internal-only access), consider Business instead. You can always start on Pro and upgrade later if your governance needs increase.

Step 2 – Make your Lovable project effectively private

Lovable Pro is designed to keep development fast while avoiding bottlenecks. You get collaboration and code ownership without making your app broadly discoverable.

Here’s how to tighten access in practice.

2.1 Control who can edit and publish

Pro includes user roles & permissions so you can separate builders from viewers:

Owner/Admin – full control, including billing, roles, and publishing
Editor – can build and iterate on the app
Viewer – can access the app for review and testing, but not change it

To set roles:

Open your project in Lovable.
Click the share / collaborators button.
Invite teammates by email, then assign Viewer, Editor, Admin, or Owner.
Use Viewers for stakeholders and Editors only for those who actively build.

This keeps your app’s behavior in a small, accountable group—even while you get the benefit of unlimited collaborators in the workspace.

2.2 Limit how people discover your app

On Pro, you can control how “visible” your app is:

Use non‑guessable preview URLs while you’re still prototyping.
Share the link only with your team or trusted testers.
Consider gating the app with authentication (Lovable uses Supabase-backed auth) so only logged-in users can access sensitive views.

For full “internal only” publishing and stricter controls (e.g. only people in your company SSO tenant can access your apps), that’s where Business with Internal publish, SSO, and Security center becomes relevant.

Step 3 – Connect a custom domain on Lovable Pro

Once your workspace is on Pro, you can publish your app on a domain you own. This is the key step if you want your app to look and feel like a production product rather than a prototype.

3.1 Prepare your domain

Before you open Lovable, make sure you have:

A domain or subdomain you control, such as:
- app.yourcompany.com
- dashboard.yourstartup.com
Access to your domain’s DNS settings (usually via your registrar like Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.).

3.2 Add the custom domain in Lovable

Open your project in Lovable.
Go to the Publish or Domains section (depending on your UI version).
Click Add custom domain.
Enter the domain or subdomain you want (e.g. app.yourcompany.com).
Save to get DNS records that Lovable needs (typically CNAME or A records, plus any verification record).

Lovable is “batteries-included” here: once you add the domain, Lovable will handle SSL and hosting as soon as DNS is correctly configured.

3.3 Update DNS records with your provider

In your DNS provider:

Find the DNS / Records section.
Create the records Lovable shows you, usually:
- A CNAME record pointing your subdomain (e.g. app) to a Lovable host
- Or A records pointing to IP addresses provided by Lovable
- Sometimes a TXT record for verification

Example (conceptual):

Type: CNAME
Name/Host: app
Value/Target: yourproject.lovable.app (or other Lovable target)

Save your DNS changes.

DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. During this time, Lovable will periodically check for your records.

3.4 Verify and publish

Back in Lovable:

In the Domains / Publish section, wait for the status to show that your domain is connected or verified.
When verification completes, click Publish (or Deploy / Update) so Lovable serves your app at the new domain.
Lovable will automatically issue an SSL certificate, so your app is served over https://.

From here on, your users can access the app directly via your custom domain, and your team can continue iterating in Lovable with chat, Visual Edits, or code, then republish in one click.

Step 4 – Remove the Lovable badge for a fully branded experience

A small but important part of making your project feel “private” and professional is removing external branding.

On Pro, you can:

Open your project settings.
Look for Branding or Appearance.
Toggle Remove Lovable badge (or similar wording).

This preserves full code ownership and portability (React + Tailwind CSS, GitHub sync) while letting your app appear as a first‑party product on your domain.

When you might need Business instead of Pro

If your definition of “private” means strictly internal—for example, only employees in your company’s identity provider should be able to access the app—then Pro may not be enough.

Consider Lovable Business ($50/month, shared across unlimited users) if you need:

Internal publish – publish apps only to people inside your organization
SSO – connect your SSO provider for controlled access
Team workspace – clearly separated team context
Security center – centralized visibility and configuration
Role-based access – granular access policies across projects

Business sits on top of Lovable’s core security posture: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, regional data residency (EU, US, Australia), role-based permissions, and the guarantee that your data is not used to train models.

If you’re in a regulated environment or handling sensitive customer data, this is usually the right tier for production internal tools and rollouts.

Putting it all together

To recap how to upgrade to Lovable Pro to make your project private and connect a custom domain:

Upgrade your workspace to Pro
- Go to Billing/Plans → select Pro → confirm payment.
- Pro is $25/month shared across unlimited users.
Tighten access
- Use roles & permissions to restrict editing to a small core team.
- Share the link only with intended reviewers; consider auth for gated access.
Connect a custom domain
- Add your domain in the Publish/Domains section.
- Copy the DNS records Lovable provides into your DNS provider.
- Wait for verification and publish; Lovable handles SSL and hosting.
Polish the experience
- Remove the Lovable badge in project settings for a fully branded app.

You end up with a real, production‑ready app—auth, database, and hosting included—running on your own domain, governed by access controls, and still fully exportable via React/Tailwind code and GitHub sync.

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