diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 22c08979..2539e419 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 * Add support for specifying database connection passwords
 * Add support for reading user-specific database_host from redis,
   as per CartoDB-2.5.0 model (#88)
+* Do not force ending dot in SQL-API hostname, for easier testing
 
 1.4.1 -- 2013-11-08
 -------------------
diff --git a/lib/cartodb/server_options.js b/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
index 43b0a533..607bd1aa 100644
--- a/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
+++ b/lib/cartodb/server_options.js
@@ -67,7 +67,9 @@ module.exports = function(){
       var api = global.environment.sqlapi;
 
       // build up api string
-      var sqlapi = api.protocol + '://' + username + '.' + api.domain + ':' + api.port + '/api/' + api.version + '/sql'
+      var sqlapi = api.protocol + '://' + username;
+      if ( api.domain ) sqlapi += '.' + api.domain;
+      sqlapi += ':' + api.port + '/api/' + api.version + '/sql'
 
       var qs  = { q: sql }