Custom domains

Serve the client portal from your own domain with automatic HTTPS.

A custom domain lets your clients reach their portal at an address you own, such as portal.youragency.com, instead of your default portal address. You add one DNS record. We check it and issue the HTTPS certificate for you.

Plan: Requires a plan that includes custom domains. By default, that’s Agency Pro.

Before you start

You’re an owner or admin of your agency.
You own the domain and can add DNS records at its DNS provider (the company that hosts your domain’s DNS, often your registrar).
Your branding is set up, so the portal looks like yours when it goes live. See Branding.

How it works#

Every agency gets a portal address of the form <your-slug>.iwozena.com, for example northbeam.iwozena.com. You can’t change that address, but you can add your own hostname on top of it. The “Custom portal domain” card walks you through three stages:

Stage	What happens	Who does it
“Add hostname”	You type the hostname you want to use.	You
“Point DNS”	You create one CNAME record, in one click at supported providers or by copying it.	You
“Go live”	We check DNS and issue your certificate automatically.	Us

Choose a hostname#

Pick a subdomain of a domain you own, such as portal.youragency.com or app.youragency.com. Subdomains are recommended: they work with one-click setup and with a standard CNAME record. Using the bare domain itself (youragency.com) is possible but needs extra steps. See Apex domains.

Pick a subdomain you don’t already use for something else, such as your website or email.
Each hostname can belong to only one agency.
Make sure you can sign in to your DNS provider before you start.

Add the domain#

Open the Custom domain tab
Go to White-labelCustom domain.
Type the hostname
Under “Connect a hostname”, type the bare hostname in lowercase, for example portal.youragency.com. Don’t include https://, a path or a trailing slash. The field doesn’t clean up what you type.
Click Add domain
Click “Add domain”. You’ll see “Domain added — set the CNAME, then verify”, and a card for the domain appears with a pending badge.

If you see “Domain already registered”, that hostname is already connected to an agency. Choose a different subdomain.

Point DNS at us#

The domain card shows how to create the record. There are two ways.

One-click setup

If your DNS provider supports automatic setup and your hostname is a subdomain, the card shows a “Set up automatically at [your provider]” button. Supported providers include GoDaddy, Cloudflare and IONOS.

Click the button
Click “Set up automatically at [your provider]”. You’re taken to your DNS provider.
Sign in and approve
Sign in to your DNS provider and approve the change. The provider creates the record for you and sends you back.
Wait for the check
Back on the White-label page, you’ll see “DNS configured automatically — verifying…” and a check runs straight away. If your provider reports a problem, you can retry or set up DNS manually. Continue to Verification and certificate.

If you don’t see the button, your provider or hostname isn’t supported for one-click setup. To create the record yourself instead, click “Set up DNS manually”.

Manual CNAME record

At your DNS provider, add a new record with these values. The card shows the same values with copy buttons.

Field	Value	Notes
Type	`CNAME`	Always CNAME.
Name	`portal`	The part of your hostname before your domain. For `portal.youragency.com`, that’s `portal`.
Target	`customers.iwozena.com`	The same for every agency. Some providers call this Value, Points to or Content.

In a DNS zone file, the record for portal.youragency.com looks like this:

DNS record

portal  CNAME  customers.iwozena.com

Name vs full hostname

Most providers want only the subdomain part in Name. Some want the full hostname instead, for example portal.youragency.com. Check what your provider’s form asks for. Domains with a two-part ending such as .co.uk work the same way: for portal.youragency.co.uk, the Name is portal.

Verification and certificate#

Once a domain is added, we check it for you. While any domain is pending, a “Checking automatically” banner shows. The page re-checks every 30 seconds while it’s open, and our servers check every few minutes, so you can close the page. The “Automatically recheck pending domains” switch turns off the in-page checks.

Our servers keep re-checking a pending domain for 7 days. After that, click “Check now” on the card to run a check yourself. You can click it at any time.

DNS changes can take several minutes to reach us. Once DNS is correct, the certificate usually takes a couple of minutes.

Check results

When a check finishes, you see one of these messages.

Message	What it means	What to do
“No CNAME found yet for [domain]”	We can’t see your record yet.	Add the CNAME record, or wait a few minutes if you just added it.
“Couldn’t reach DNS — we’ll keep retrying”	We couldn’t get an answer from DNS on this attempt.	Nothing. We retry automatically.
“DNS is set — issuing your certificate”	Your record is correct. We’re issuing the HTTPS certificate.	Nothing. This usually takes a couple of minutes.
“Verified — [domain] is live”	DNS and the certificate are both done.	Nothing. See Go live.
“Certificate failed — remove this domain and add it again”	We couldn’t issue a certificate for this hostname.	Remove the domain and add it again.

Your turn or on us

Each pending card has a line labelled “Your turn” when you need to act, or “On us” when you’re waiting on us. For example, “Your turn” with “Add the CNAME record below at your DNS provider, then we’ll take it from there.”

DNS record and Certificate status

At the bottom of each card, two rows show progress.

Row	Status	Meaning
DNS record	“Waiting for the first check”	We haven’t checked yet.
DNS record	“No CNAME found yet”	The record is missing or not visible yet.
DNS record	“We couldn’t reach DNS — retrying”	A temporary lookup problem. We retry.
DNS record	“Points at the target”	Your record is correct.
Certificate	“Starts once DNS points at us”	Waiting on the DNS record.
Certificate	“Being issued, usually a couple of minutes”	In progress.
Certificate	“Issued — traffic is encrypted”	Done.
Certificate	“Couldn’t be issued — remove and add this domain again”	Remove the domain and add it again.

Go live#

When verification completes, the card turns green, the badge changes to verified, and an “Open [domain]” link appears. Open it in a private window to confirm a signed-out client sees your brand.

Before a domain is verified, visiting it shows a neutral page with a “Sign in” heading and a letter icon. It never shows the Wozena brand. Signing in on the custom domain works only after it’s verified.

What changes once it’s live#

Links in emails to your clients, such as invitations and password resets, use your custom domain.
When a client finishes a payment, they return to your custom domain.
Your self-signup link also works on your custom domain. See The client portal.
If you have more than one verified domain, emails and payment returns use the one that was verified first.

We re-check live domains daily. If the certificate stops working, the card shows “Edge certificate is no longer active — remove and re-add this domain”. The domain keeps serving your portal, but fix it soon by removing and re-adding the domain. You can run a check at any time with “Re-check”.

Apex domains#

An apex domain is your bare domain, such as youragency.com. Standard DNS doesn’t allow a CNAME record there, and one-click setup isn’t available for it. To use one, your DNS provider must support ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening. Create that record type at the apex and point it to customers.iwozena.com.

Tip

A subdomain such as portal.youragency.com is simpler and leaves your main website untouched.

Remove a domain#

Click the trash icon
On the domain’s card, click the trash icon.
Confirm
In “Remove [domain]?”, click “Remove”. You’ll see “Removed”.
Clean up DNS
Delete the CNAME record at your DNS provider if you no longer need it.

You can remove a domain even if your plan no longer includes custom domains.

Troubleshooting#

It still says No CNAME found yet

Remove any A or AAAA record at the same name. A hostname can’t have a CNAME alongside other records, and many providers won’t let you save one.
Check the Name. If your provider added your domain to what you typed, you may have created portal.youragency.com.youragency.com. Enter just portal. If your provider expects the full hostname, enter that instead.
Check the target is exactly customers.iwozena.com, with no typos and no https://.
Wait a few minutes. DNS changes can take several minutes to reach us.

My DNS is at Cloudflare

We recommend setting the CNAME record to DNS only (the grey cloud) rather than proxied (the orange cloud).

The certificate failed

Remove the domain, check the CNAME is correct, then add the domain again.

I want to use my root domain

See Apex domains. If your provider doesn’t support ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening, use a subdomain instead.

For more setup problems, see Troubleshooting.

Stuck? Ask Ada or email support, or check Troubleshooting.

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