Set up a custom domain for your help center

This guide walks you through pointing a domain you own (for example help.yourcompany.com) at your Deskwoot help center. No technical background needed, we explain every step plus what's happening behind the scenes. Total time: 5 minutes of setup, then 2 to 10 minutes of waiting. Available on the Enterprise plan.

What you're doing in plain words

Right now your help center lives at yourcompany.deskwoot.com. That's perfectly fine, but bigger companies usually want it on a subdomain of their own brand, like help.yourcompany.com or support.yourcompany.com. To make that work, you need to tell the global address book of the internet (DNS) that help.yourcompany.com should serve Deskwoot's help center content.

You do this by adding the DNS records Deskwoot shows you at your domain registrar (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.). For a subdomain this is usually a single CNAME that points traffic to us; sometimes Deskwoot also asks for a TXT record that confirms you own the domain. Once the records are in place, a free SSL certificate is installed automatically so the page loads with the padlock. That's it.

Before you start

• You must be an administrator on your Deskwoot account.
• You must be on the Enterprise plan. Lower plans see the same panel locked.
• You need access to your DNS provider. This is wherever you bought the domain (or wherever you moved its DNS to). Common ones: Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, Route 53, Google Domains.
• Pick a subdomain if you can. Subdomains like help, support, or docs usually need just a CNAME. A root domain (yourcompany.com by itself) needs different records, we'll explain that later.

Step 1: Enter the domain in Deskwoot

1. Open Help Center in the Deskwoot dashboard.
2. Click the Settings tab in the right panel.
3. Scroll to the Custom domain section.
4. Type the full hostname you want (e.g. help.acme.com) and click Register.

Deskwoot reserves the hostname on our edge layer and shows you the DNS records to add at your DNS provider. Each record has buttons to copy its host and its value. The status badge flips to "Waiting for DNS".

Step 2: Add the DNS records at your provider

Add every record the dashboard lists, exactly as shown. For a subdomain this is usually one CNAME record. A CNAME is just a "this name points to that other name" entry in DNS. Most providers have a simple form: pick the type (CNAME), enter a Name, enter a Value, save.

The CNAME (routes your visitors to Deskwoot)

• Type: CNAME
• Name / Host: the subdomain part of your hostname. If you registered help.acme.com, this is help. Most providers auto-append the rest, but some want the full hostname (help.acme.com). Both work depending on your provider.
• Value / Target / Points to: copy this from the Deskwoot dashboard. It looks like xxxxx.up.railway.app.
• TTL: leave at auto / default (usually 300 seconds = 5 minutes).
• Proxy / Cloudflare orange cloud: OFF (DNS only, see Cloudflare-specific notes below).

A TXT record, if the dashboard shows one (confirms you own the domain)

• Type: TXT.
• Name / Host: the host the dashboard shows, for example _railway-verify.help.acme.com (it can also start with _acme-challenge). Many providers want only the part before your domain (_railway-verify.help) and add the rest themselves.
• Value: the value Deskwoot shows next to that row.
• TTL: auto / default.

Every record in the list is required. If the dashboard shows a TXT record and you skip it, the SSL certificate can't be issued and the page won't load over HTTPS. The list can change while the setup runs (a record for the certificate can appear once issuance starts), so press Check now again later and add any new record that shows up.

Step 3: Wait, then click "Check now"

DNS changes take time to propagate around the world. Typical propagation:

• Cloudflare: 1 to 2 minutes.
• Namecheap / GoDaddy / Google Domains: 5 to 15 minutes.
• Old or slow providers / high TTL: up to 24 hours (rare).

Once a few minutes have passed, go back to the Deskwoot dashboard and click Check now in the Custom domain panel. The status badge will update:

• Waiting for DNS: your DNS records aren't visible yet from where Deskwoot is checking. Wait another minute or two.
• Issuing SSL certificate: DNS is good, Let's Encrypt is generating your certificate. Usually takes less than a minute.
• Live: your domain is serving traffic with HTTPS. You're done.

The Check now button has a 10-second cooldown so you don't accidentally spam it. DNS propagation is not faster just because you click more.

What happens behind the scenes

You don't need to know this to make it work, but for the curious:

1. When you click Register, Deskwoot tells Railway (our hosting platform) to add your hostname to their routing table.
2. Railway works out the DNS records your domain needs: a record that routes traffic (a CNAME for a subdomain, an A or ALIAS record for a root domain) and, when needed, a TXT record that proves you control the domain so Let's Encrypt can issue a certificate.
3. You add these records at your DNS provider.
4. Railway's background DNS watcher polls the records every few seconds.
5. As soon as the records are visible globally, Railway automatically asks Let's Encrypt for a free SSL certificate via the ACME protocol.
6. Let's Encrypt confirms that you control the domain, issues the certificate, and Railway installs it on the edge.
7. Your domain now serves HTTPS traffic. The certificate auto-renews every 60 to 90 days; you never need to touch it.

Cost: $0. Let's Encrypt certificates are free, Railway provisions them for us at no extra charge, and Deskwoot includes custom domains in the Enterprise plan with no fee per domain.

Provider-specific notes

Cloudflare

• The most common mistake: leaving the orange cloud (proxy) ON. Cloudflare's proxy terminates the request before it reaches Railway, which can stop the domain check and the SSL certificate. Click the orange cloud to switch it to a grey cloud (DNS only) on EVERY record.
• If you use Cloudflare's Universal SSL, it might warn about a conflict. Ignore the warning, the cert we install at Deskwoot's edge is what your visitors see.
• Propagation on Cloudflare is fast: usually 60 to 90 seconds.

GoDaddy

• In the DNS Management page, use the "Add" button, then CNAME.
• For a record whose name starts with an underscore (such as _railway-verify.help), enter the host exactly as the dashboard shows it.
• GoDaddy strips trailing dots from the Value field, that's expected.

Namecheap

• Go to Domain List, then Manage, then Advanced DNS.
• Add New Record, then CNAME Record.
• For the Host field, "help" auto-appends .yourcompany.com.

Google Domains / Squarespace Domains

• Google migrated most domain customers to Squarespace in 2024. Either platform has the same CNAME flow.
• Look for "DNS", then "Manage custom records", then Add, then CNAME.

AWS Route 53

• Open the hosted zone for your domain, then Create record, then CNAME.
• Use the full hostname in the Name field. Route 53 does not auto-append.

What about the root domain?

The DNS standard doesn't allow CNAME records at the "root" of a domain (yourcompany.com by itself, also called the "apex" or "naked" domain). Deskwoot still accepts a root domain: the dashboard then shows an A or ALIAS record plus a TXT record instead of a CNAME.

You have two options:

• Use a subdomain (recommended): help.yourcompany.com, support.yourcompany.com, docs.yourcompany.com.
• Use the root domain and add exactly the records the dashboard shows. For an ALIAS record your DNS provider needs an "ALIAS" or "ANAME" feature (Cloudflare's CNAME Flattening, Route 53 alias records, DNSimple ALIAS).

Troubleshooting

Stuck at "Waiting for DNS"

1. Did you add EVERY record? You need each record the dashboard lists, including a TXT record if one is shown.
2. Did you copy the exact Value from Deskwoot? Even a small typo (extra character, missing dot) breaks the lookup.
3. Did you turn off the Cloudflare proxy? Orange cloud means "proxied" and can break the check. Grey cloud is correct.
4. Is there a conflicting A record? If you previously had help.yourcompany.com pointing somewhere else with an A record, delete it. A CNAME can't coexist with other records on the same name.
5. Check the records with an external tool: run dig CNAME help.yourcompany.com in a terminal, or use a web-based DNS lookup tool. You should see the Railway target. If you don't, the record isn't propagated yet.

Stuck at "Issuing SSL certificate" longer than 2 minutes

1. Most common cause: a record the dashboard lists (often a TXT record) is missing, has the wrong value, or is proxied through Cloudflare. Press Check now: if a new record appeared in the list, add it too.
2. Verify it specifically, using the host shown in the dashboard: dig TXT _railway-verify.help.yourcompany.com should return the value Deskwoot shows.
3. Some DNS providers strip the underscore prefix or transform it. If your provider doesn't accept names starting with _, switch providers for this domain or contact us, we can help work around it.

The domain shows "Live" but the page shows a security warning in the browser

1. Hard refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows). Browsers cache SSL certificates aggressively.
2. Wait 1 to 2 minutes. Sometimes the cert is issued but not yet installed on every edge node.
3. Try an incognito / private window.

I want to use a different domain, how do I change it?

1. Click Remove in the Custom domain panel. This unregisters the hostname on Railway and clears the DNS values from Deskwoot.
2. Delete the old DNS records at your DNS provider (optional, but tidier).
3. Register the new hostname and add its DNS records.

Frequently asked questions