🌐 Custom Domain

Discover how to effortlessly set up a custom domain for your web app with our step-by-step guide, enhancing your brand's online presence and credibility.

Why our web app under your own domain makes sense

Our custom domain feature allows you to host your web application on your own domain, whether it's a main domain (e.g., bbc.com) or a subdomain (e.g., app.bbc.com). It's your choice.

This helps you align your web app's URL with your brand identity.

Setting up a custom domain for your tchop™ web application offers several key advantages:

Enhanced Brand Identity: Hosting your app on a domain that reflects your brand (e.g., app.yourdomain.com) reinforces your brand's presence and ensures a consistent user experience.
Increased Trust and Credibility: A personalized domain signals professionalism, fostering greater trust among your users.
Improved Discoverability: Custom domains can positively impact your search engine optimization (SEO), making it easier for potential users to find your app online.

As a standard setting our web app does not impact SEO in anyway, but there are of course ways to especially use all the user generated content for your benefit.

How to set up a custom domain

Setting up a custom domain requires a few steps on your end before we complete the integration on our side.

1. Client-Side Setup

Setting up a custom domain requires a few steps on your end before we complete the integration on our side.

Step 1: Add a CNAME record to your DNS

Depending on where your web app is hosted (AWS or Hetzner servers), you’ll need to add a CNAME record to your domain’s DNS settings:

For AWS-hosted web apps:

Type: CNAME
Name: .yourdomain.com
Content: webapp-custom-domain.tchop.io

For Hetzner-hosted web apps:

Type: CNAME
Name: .yourdomain.com
Content: webapp-custom-domain.tchop.it

Let us know if you cannot add * entry to your DNS - we can provide you with a list of DNS for channels and organisation URLs. In this method, for each new channel in the future or any changes in the existing channel URL, you will need to add a new CNAME record in your DNS.

Step 2: Provide an SSL wildcard certificate

You’ll need to supply a wildcard SSL certificate that covers your main domain (yourdomain.com) and all subdomains (*.yourdomain.com). This ensures secure access to your web app.

We require two or three files from you:

Private key
Certificate file

We only need the NGINX-compatible SSL files for implementation.

For reference, check out an example SSL setup: Lilien.app SSL example

Step 3: Specify your custom domain

Let us know whether you want your web app hosted on a main domain (e.g., yourdomain.com) or a subdomain (e.g., app.yourdomain.com). This is necessary for proper configuration.

2. Our setup process (tchop-side)

Once you’ve completed the above steps, we’ll take care of the following:

Linking your custom domain:

We’ll connect your provided domain to your organization within our system.

interface OrganisationCustomDomainSchema {

	// {channel}-webapp.tchop.live

	channelHostStructure: string;

	

	// webapp.tchop.live

	organisationHost: string;

	

	// tchop.live

	baseHost: string;

	

	isHttps: boolean;

}

Deployment:

Once configured, your web app (including the reader-facing site and admin dashboard) will be available at your custom domain.

Important notes

Deep link URLs:

Custom domains do not support deep links. These links require specific handling for mobile apps and must remain on our default domains (tchop.io or tchop.it).

Access flexibility: