PLEASE NOTE: At this time, custom domains are in beta and therefore not available for all members. Please contact our Support team if you would like to be considered for access to this beta feature.

Just as it does for you, HoneyBook also aims to streamline the process of booking and project management from your clients perspective.

When you create a Project in HoneyBook, your clients can access all of their files, messages, payments, meetings and other job specific details from their side, too. We call this The Client Portal — it’s the perfect way for everyone to stay organized and up to date while showcasing your unique brand!

There’s no action needed on your side to create a Client Portal, all your clients have access to their Client Portal when you add them to their project.

You can take things a step further by customizing the domain of that Client Portal space through customized URLs in HoneyBook. When customizing URLs in HoneyBook, you have two options: Using Our Domain or using Your Domain.

In this article, we’ll review:

HoneyBook Tip: Customize your Domain without having to learn any technical terminology or ever leaving HoneyBook with our Easy-Connect feature for GoDaddy, Google Domains, and Ionos hosted domains. Skip straight to our instructions here to connect your custom domain in under five minutes now.

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, only account Admins are able to customize URLs.

One of the most important and consistent experiences you give your clients is your branding. It’s at the forefront of every interaction you have with them. Brand awareness, from a business ownership standpoint, will come across to clients as attention to detail, trustworthiness, and professionalism.

Allowing your clients to experience a consistent, branded experience with you allows your clients to gain trust and feel a sense of loyalty to your business and your brand. That translates to repeat clients and high quality referrals!

With custom domains, you will put your best foot forward every time.

1. Domain names: mainly used as names for website (aka your website URL).

In short, instead of having to type each website's IP into our browsers, domain names give websites their own good looking name that can be easily memorized and used by everyone to get to your site.

For example, to access our website, all you need to enter into your browser is honeybook.com, instead of our IP address, which is a string of random numbers like 99.86.38.67. They can have multiple different extensions, such as .com, .net, .org. Domain Name registrations are usually not free and a registration and renewal fee is required for the domain.

2. Subdomains: dependent on standard domains.

They are like an additional level to a domain name. Meaning, you have to first have the domain name, and then add the subdomain as a kind of additional location or page within that website.

Let's say for example you own the domain honeybook.com. You can create additional subdomains for your domain like blog.honeybook.com. Since you already own the domain honeybook.com, subdomains for the domain do not require any additional fees, and you can usually set them up pretty easily.

3. Mapping: The process of connecting a domain or subdomain to your site.

4. DNS: Stands for “Domain Name System” which are web servers that translate an IP address into a legible domain name.

5. CNAME record: Stands for “Canonical Name” record and is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that maps one domain name to another. This can prove convenient when running multiple services from a single IP address.

Imagine a scavenger hunt where each clue points to another clue, and the final clue points to the treasure. A domain with a CNAME record is like a clue which can point you to another clue (another domain with a CNAME record) or to the treasure (a domain with an A record).

For example, suppose www.example.com has a CNAME record with a value of ‘example.com’ (without the ‘www’). This means when a DNS server hits the DNS records for www.example.com, it actually triggers another DNS lookup to example.com, returning example.com’s IP address. In this case we would say that example.com is the canonical name (or true name) of blog.example.com. All CNAME records must point to a domain, never to an IP address.

Now that we’ve gotten our vocab lesson out of the way, let’s dive into the two options you have for white-labeling URLs inside of your HoneyBook account. We’ll also provide step by step instructions on how to add a CNAME record from several of the most popular website hosts.

Your Client Portal will default to use Our Domain through an auto-generated URL of prefix.hbportal.co/app/ with the prefix portion being editable post subscription. Before becoming a member, for example, if your business name is SM Consulting, your client portal might be smconsulting.hbportal.co/app/ as long as that URL isn’t already in use.

From inside the Client Portal, your clients can access all of your files, messages, payments, meetings, and other job specific details.

You’re able to customize the prefix and personalize the login screen your client will see once you’ve subscribed as a HoneyBook member.

PLEASE NOTE: You will only be able to edit the prefix of the default client portal once you are a subscribed member.

1. From any page, click your profile photo in the top right corner of your screen.

2. Select Company Settings from the menu.

3. Select the Domain & Client Portal tab.

4. In the URL field, under the Use Our Domain Section, click the Edit Prefix Button to adjust the prefix to your liking

PLEASE NOTE: You are only able to edit the prefix 3 times — choose wisely!

5. Click Save URL when you're ready.

If you’d like to give your clients an even more customized and integrated experience, you’ll want to consider using a Subdomain through Your Company’s Domain in HoneyBook.

1. From any page, click your profile photo in the top right corner of your screen.

2. Select Company Settings from the menu.

3. Select the Domain & Client Portal tab.

4. In the URL field, under the Use Your Company Subdomain, click Use Company Subdomain.

5. From here, a window will pop up prompting you to complete 3 mandatory steps.

6. Enter your domain name. Be sure that you already own the domain name AND that there is no subdomain entered (i.e. yourdomain.com).

Worried about making a mistake? No problem! We’ll verify your domain in real time once you click to move on to step two. If there’s something wrong, we’ll be sure to let you know to double check your work. The best way to check your work is by ensuring you do in fact own your domain and that there is no subdomain in the information you input (that includes www).

7. Choose your subdomain. This is the fun part! You can choose any name you’d like your clients to see when they access your HoneyBook files, messages and other relevant job details. The maximum length for this subdomain name is 63 characters. Click NEXT: Create Subdomain.

8. Create the subdomain with your website host. Depending on what domain host you use and entered in Step 6, the next steps will vary between a) or b) below:

a) If you use GoDaddy, Ionos, or Google Domains, as your domain host you can use our Easy-Connect feature to create your subdomain without ever leaving HoneyBook.

b) OR If you use any other domain host, you'll want to go to your domain host site and create your CNAME record name.

Every domain host has their own set of instructions, though they’re all a relatively similar set of steps, on how to set up a subdomain within your domain. We’ve linked to a few commonly-used sites below for your convenience.

If you don’t find your domain host listed here, we recommend searching your domain host’s help center for “CNAME record” or “adding a subdomain” to find specific instructions.

Wix

Squarespace

Cloudflare

Pixieset

Showit

Weebly

WordPress

Zenfolio

Once you’ve customized and connected your subdomain, we’ll have to process the registration of the subdomain on our side. No action necessary from you during this process, but it may take a few hours to finalize the process on our end.

You’ll be able to easily track this progress through the status underneath your Custom Subdomain stating either “connecting domain…” or “active domain” once the domain is officially connected.

PLEASE NOTE: During this process of connecting your new subdomain, before it’s officially connected and active, the only active domain will be the default HoneyBook Domain.

When the subdomain is officially connected, your Domain & Client Portal tab will look slightly different to reflect these changes, PLUS you’ll receive a confirmation email. From this email, you can even test out the new subdomain on your website!

On the other hand, if there is a failure in syncing your subdomain with HoneyBook you’ll see a red exclamation and the message “domain registration failed” PLUS you’ll receive an email notice of the failed connection.

Some common reasons a subdomain fails:

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, you will not be able to undo or change your subdomain once registered. In order to remove the registered subdomain or start over you’ll need to contact our Support team by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page

Whether you choose to use Our Domain or Your Own Domain, you’ll be able to personalize your clients’ login screen.

Still have questions? Feel free to send us a message by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page. Our team is always happy to help!