How to Change a Brand’s Customer Portal Custom Domain in BoldDesk
Changing your Custom Domain, known in BoldDesk as a White‑Labelling Domain, changes the public URL of the BoldDesk Customer Portal for the chosen Brand. A White‑Labelled (Custom) Domain substitutes the default BoldDesk portal URL with your branded domain, providing customers with a fully branded support experience without any BoldDesk domain references.
This setup is commonly applied during rebranding efforts, domain consolidation, or when unifying customer support URLs across several brands.
To change a custom domain, follow the steps below:
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Navigate to Agent Portal > Admin Module > Customer Portal > General settings page.
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Click on the Change button.
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A dialog box will appear, in which you must enter the required custom domain you need to change. After entering the custom domain, click the Update button to change the custom domain for your brand.
Consequences to consider before changing custom domain
- You will not be able to access the portal using the old URL. There will be no redirection set up for the old URL from the BoldDesk site.
- If your old URL is taken by another user, you cannot reclaim it.
- You must reconfigure your email forwarding and single sign-in settings to use the new URL.
- All tickets’ links, including file attachments and images, may appear broken in the already sent emails.
- If you have only OAuth or OpenID login enabled and only one brand is active, it is recommended that you enable a social or form login before changing the subdomains.
Understand What Happens to the Existing Domains
Changing the custom domain affects only the custom-domain mapping for the selected brand. It does not deactivate the brand’s default BoldDesk domain.
After changing the custom domain:
- The new custom domain becomes the active branded Customer Portal URL.
- The old custom domain no longer works through the previous BoldDesk mapping.
- The default BoldDesk domain continues to work.
- BoldDesk does not automatically redirect the old custom domain to the new custom domain or the default BoldDesk domain.
For example:
Default BoldDesk domain:
https://example.bolddesk.com
Old custom domain:
https://support.old-example.com
New custom domain:
https://support.new-example.com
After changing the custom domain:
| Domain | Result |
|---|---|
https://example.bolddesk.com |
Continues to provide access to the Customer Portal. |
https://support.old-example.com |
No longer works through the previous BoldDesk custom-domain mapping. |
https://support.new-example.com |
Becomes the active custom domain for the Customer Portal. |
- Website links
- Browser bookmarks
- Customer communications
- SSO callback and redirect URLs
- Embedded Knowledge Base links
- Third-party integrations
- Internal documentation
- Domain allowlists and security configurations
Changing a custom domain is different from changing the default BoldDesk domain. When a custom domain is updated, the underlying default BoldDesk domain remains active and accessible. However, when the default BoldDesk domain itself is changed, the previous default domain becomes inactive and can no longer be used to access the portal.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Can I preview a new domain before making it live?
No preview option is available. Once you click Update, the new domain becomes active immediately. -
Will changing a domain affect my SEO or analytics tracking?
Yes, it may affect SEO and analytics if you’ve integrated tracking scripts or indexed the old domain. You’ll need to update your tracking configurations and notify search engines of the change. -
How to redirect a URL during login when using a custom domain?
BoldDesk doesn’t provide a built-in way to redirect the login URL when you’re using a custom domain. If you change the domain, the old URL won’t automatically redirect, so you’ll need to set up the redirect on your side (e.g., via your DNS/hosting/reverse proxy) if you want old links to forward to the new login URL.
