When setting up a custom domain on Heroku, you are given a DNS Target. My understanding is that this target should be entered into your domain provider's DNS CNAME data to correctly set up the custom domain. However, most tutorials I see online have you do the herokuapp . com domain. What's the difference, is one preferred over another?
Use the DNS target, as the documentation says:
After you add a domain with the
heroku domains:add
command, you need to point your DNS provider at the DNS target provided by Heroku. You can view this DNS target with theheroku domains
command (see View existing domains for details).
Always trust official documentation over third-party tutorials. Non-official documentation is much more likely to be outdated, or simply wrong.