Serving Portals and Pages on Your Own Domain

Overview

By default your portals and journeys are served from a PeakCommerce address. With custom domains you serve them from your own branded hostnames instead — so customers and staff see your brand in the URL, end to end. You register a hostname, point your DNS at the records PeakCommerce gives you, and the platform verifies the domain and provisions the SSL certificate until it's live.

This guide covers the full lifecycle: registering a hostname, the DNS records to create, verification and SSL, and the lighter-weight subdomain mapping option.

Before you begin

• You can create DNS records at your domain registrar (or your DNS provider).

• You know which experience the hostname should route to — your customer portal, partner portal, a journey, a storefront, or a payment page.

• You're an admin who can open Settings (from your user menu in the bottom-left corner → Settings → Domains).

Custom Domains vs. Subdomain Mappings

PeakCommerce offers two ways to brand a host, both under Settings → Domains:

• Custom Domains — a fully custom branded hostname (for example account.yourbrand.com) with its own certificate. Use this for your primary, customer-facing portal and checkout hosts.

• Subdomain Mappings — route a subdomain to an experience on the shared platform without standing up a fully custom certificate. Use this for quick branded entry points, including pointing a host straight at a specific entry step of a journey.

1. Register a custom domain

1. Open your user menu (bottom-left) → Settings → Domains.

2. Click Add Custom Domain and enter the branded hostname (for example account.yourbrand.com).

3. Choose the experience the hostname routes to: Journey, Storefront, Customer portal, Partner portal, or Payment. (Login and signup hosts can be paired to a portal so they fall back correctly.)

4. Save. The host appears in the list at status Pending DNS.

Admin & CSR Portal (staff-plane) hosts are provisioned by PeakCommerce operations and are not verified from this screen — reach out to support for those.

2. Create the DNS records

1. On the new host's row, open the DNS records dialog to see exactly which records to create — PeakCommerce shows the precise record(s) and target values for your host.

2. At your registrar / DNS provider, create those records exactly as shown.

3. Save them. DNS changes propagate on their own schedule, so the host may stay at Pending DNS for a while.

3. Verify and go live

1. Back on Settings → Domains, use the per-row Verify action once you've added the records. The status moves through the provisioning lifecycle:

   Pending DNS → DNS Verified → Provisioning SSL → Active

2. If verification doesn't pass immediately, wait for DNS to resolve and re-run Verify — don't re-add the host.

3. The host shows Active only after SSL provisioning completes. Don't share the URL until it's Active — it isn't fully serving (with a valid certificate) before then.

Subdomain mappings (the lighter option)

For a quick branded entry point on the shared platform, use Subdomain Mappings instead:

1. Under Settings → Domains → Subdomain Mappings, add a mapping.

2. Pick a page type — Customer portal, Partner portal, Journey, or a specific Page.

3. For a Journey, also choose the exact entry step the host lands visitors on — so a signup domain can drop people directly on the account-details step of a flow, for example.

Tips

• Re-run Verify, don't re-add. A host sitting in Pending DNS is almost always waiting on DNS propagation, not a mistake — re-adding it just restarts the clock.

• Match the experience to the host's purpose. A checkout host should route to the journey or storefront; an account host to the customer portal.

• Wait for Active before launch. Sharing a host before SSL finishes provisioning will show customers certificate warnings.

FAQ

What's the difference between a custom domain and a subdomain mapping?

A custom domain is a fully branded hostname with its own SSL certificate — best for your primary customer-facing hosts. A subdomain mapping routes a subdomain to an experience on the shared platform without a custom certificate — best for quick branded entry points and for pointing a host at a specific journey entry step.

Why is my domain stuck on "Pending DNS"?

DNS records propagate on their own schedule. Confirm the records match the DNS records dialog exactly, then re-run Verify. Re-adding the host isn't necessary.

Can I point a domain at one specific step of a journey?

Yes — use a Subdomain Mapping with page type Journey and choose the entry step the host should land visitors on.