You can connect a custom domain to your Helpable help center by adding a CNAME record in your DNS provider, and the whole process typically takes under 15 minutes. Helpable (gethelpable.com) is a self-service portal for customer-facing support teams, built with a GDPR-native architecture and flat-rate pricing that includes custom domains on every paid plan.
What Is a Custom Domain for a Help Center?
A custom domain lets you serve your support hub on a URL you own, such as help.yourcompany.com, rather than a subdomain like yourcompany.gethelpable.com. This matters for brand consistency, SEO, and customer trust. Search engines treat a custom domain as part of your main site, which can improve the ranking of your help articles over time.
Why a Custom Domain Matters for Your Knowledge Base
When your FAQ software lives on your own domain, every help article earns backlinks and organic traffic that benefit your brand, not a third-party subdomain. Helpable automatically provisions free SSL on your custom domain, so visitors always get a secure https:// connection with zero configuration on your end.
A custom domain also makes your structured data more credible. Helpable generates automatic FAQPage, HowTo, Article, and BreadcrumbList schema on every page, and search engines read that schema as belonging to your domain, not Helpable's.
Quotable stat: Help centers on branded custom domains receive up to 40 percent more organic clicks than those on third-party subdomains, because users recognise and trust the URL.
Step-by-Step: How to Connect Your Custom Domain
The process below applies to any DNS provider, whether that is Cloudflare, Route 53, Namecheap, Google Domains, or any other registrar.
Step 1: Choose Your Subdomain
Decide on the subdomain you want to use. Common choices are help.yourcompany.com, support.yourcompany.com, or docs.yourcompany.com. Using a subdomain (rather than a subdirectory like yourcompany.com/help) keeps the DNS setup simple and avoids conflicts with your main website server.
Step 2: Add a CNAME Record in Your DNS Provider
In your DNS provider's control panel, create a new record with the following values:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | CNAME |
| Name / Host | help (or whatever subdomain you chose) |
| Value / Points to | Your Helpable-provided CNAME target (shown in your dashboard) |
| TTL | 3600 (or Auto) |
Save the record. DNS propagation usually completes within 5 to 30 minutes, though some providers can take up to 48 hours in rare cases.
Step 3: Enter the Domain in Your Helpable Dashboard
Navigate to Settings > Custom Domain inside your Helpable account. Type the full subdomain (for example, help.yourcompany.com) into the field and click Save. Helpable will immediately begin verifying the CNAME record.
Step 4: Wait for SSL Provisioning
Once the CNAME is verified, Helpable automatically provisions a free SSL certificate through its infrastructure. This step takes between 1 and 5 minutes in most cases. You do not need to upload a certificate or configure anything manually.
Step 5: Test Your Help Centre
Open a private or incognito browser window and navigate to your new custom domain. You should see your documentation tool live with a valid https:// padlock. If you see a certificate warning, wait another 10 minutes for DNS to fully propagate and refresh.
For a more detailed walkthrough with annotated screenshots, see the full custom domain setup guide, which covers edge cases like Cloudflare proxy settings and CAA records.
Common Issues and How to Fix Them
CNAME not verified after 30 minutes. Double-check that you did not accidentally add your full domain as the hostname. For example, if your domain is yourcompany.com and you want help.yourcompany.com, the Name field should be help, not help.yourcompany.com. Some DNS providers append the root domain automatically.
Cloudflare proxy (orange cloud) blocking SSL. If you use Cloudflare, set the CNAME record to DNS-only (grey cloud) during the initial setup. Once Helpable's certificate is issued, you can switch it back to proxied if you prefer Cloudflare's CDN in front.
Mixed content warnings. These appear when images or scripts in your articles are loaded over http://. Edit those articles to use https:// URLs for all embedded media.
What Helpable Does After Your Domain Is Connected
Once your self-service portal is live on your custom domain, Helpable handles 4 ongoing tasks automatically:
- SSL renewal. Certificates are renewed before expiry with no action required from you.
- Structured data injection. Every page gets schema markup attached to your domain, helping search engines index your wiki correctly.
- hreflang tags. If you publish content in more than 1 of Helpable's 50 supported languages, hreflang attributes are added automatically so Google serves the right language to the right audience.
- Analytics tracking. Page views, article ratings, and zero-results searches are logged in your dashboard, giving you a clear picture of which help articles need updating.
Helpable's AI assistant, Calli, also answers visitor questions directly from your published articles with no additional training. On the Pro plan at $29/month, Calli handles 2,500 AI answers per month. On Business at $79/month, the limit rises to 10,000 answers with unlimited authors. On Scale at $199/month, the limit reaches 40,000 answers per month.
For a full breakdown of what each tier includes, read the Helpable pricing explained guide before choosing your plan.
Where Helpable Is Not the Right Fit
Helpable is focused on customer-facing knowledge base and FAQ software. It is not the right tool if you need:
- Ticketing and SLA management. Zendesk Suite Professional (
$115/agent/month) or Freshdesk Pro ($49/agent/month) are purpose-built for that workflow. - Developer documentation with code versioning. GitBook (from ~$6.70/user/month) or Mintlify handle version-controlled API and SDK docs better.
- Live chat with human agents. Helpable has a contact form with AI escalation, but no live chat queue.
- SSO on a budget. Single sign-on is available only on the Scale plan at $199/month.
Quotable stat: Teams with fewer than 5 support authors and at least 20 help articles live in 15 minutes on Helpable's Business plan at $79/month, without per-seat fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a paid plan to use a custom domain on Helpable?
Yes. Custom domains are available on all 3 paid plans: Pro at $29/month, Business at $79/month, and Scale at $199/month. The 7-day free trial does not require a credit card, but a custom domain is activated only after you subscribe to a paid tier.
How long does DNS propagation take?
Most DNS providers propagate CNAME records within 5 to 30 minutes. In rare cases with older registrars, propagation can take up to 48 hours. Cloudflare and Route 53 typically resolve in under 10 minutes.
Is SSL included with the custom domain?
Yes. Helpable provisions and renews a free SSL certificate automatically for every custom domain. You do not upload certificates or configure renewals. The certificate is usually issued within 5 minutes of CNAME verification.
Can I use a root domain (apex domain) instead of a subdomain?
Helpable currently supports subdomains such as help.yourcompany.com rather than apex domains like yourcompany.com. Most DNS providers support CNAME-equivalent ALIAS or ANAME records for apex domains, but Helpable recommends using a subdomain for the simplest and most reliable setup.
Does Helpable support multiple custom domains for multiple language versions?
Helpable supports 50 plus languages with automatic hreflang, but currently maps 1 custom domain per knowledge base. Language variants are served under language path segments of the same domain rather than separate domains. This covers the vast majority of multilingual support hub use cases.
Is there a limitation with the Pro plan and custom domains?
The Pro plan at $29/month supports a custom domain, but it is limited to 1 author. If your team has 2 or more people writing or editing help articles, you need the Business plan at $79/month, which includes unlimited users for the flat monthly fee.
Which plan includes the custom domain feature at Helpable?
Custom domains are included on all 3 paid plans. Pro costs $29/month and suits solo authors who need a branded support hub with 2,500 AI answers per month. Business costs $79/month and adds unlimited authors and 10,000 AI answers per month, making it the most popular choice for small teams. Scale costs $199/month and raises AI answers to 40,000 per month while adding SSO, making it suitable for larger organisations with strict access control requirements.