Every Helpdesky help center works the moment you create it, at an address such as helpdesky.io/help/yourcompany. From there you can move it onto your own domain in three different ways. This guide compares the four hosting options, so you can choose where to host your help center based on who will set it up, how long it takes and what you get in return.
The four options at a glance
| Option | Example address | Who can set it up | Effort | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helpdesky address | helpdesky.io/help/yourcompany |
Anyone | None, it is on by default | A complete help center with search, Ask AI, sitemap and SSL, hosted by Helpdesky |
| Your own subdomain | help.yourdomain.com |
Anyone who can add a DNS record | About 10 minutes, then a short wait for the certificate | Your brand in the address bar, automatic SSL, everything still hosted by Helpdesky |
| Subfolder on your website | yourdomain.com/help |
Someone with access to your hosting or Cloudflare settings | About 30 minutes with one proxy rule | The strongest SEO setup: help content on your main domain, still rendered by Helpdesky |
| Headless (your own templates) | yourdomain.com/help, rendered by your site |
A developer or an AI coding agent with access to your site’s code | An afternoon for a developer, under an hour with an AI agent | Your site’s own layout, navigation and search around every article |
All four keep the editor, the widget, Ask AI and analytics exactly the same. You switch in Help Center → Domain & Address, and Helpdesky redirects your previous address to the new one so links and rankings carry over.
Helpdesky address
Your help center lives at helpdesky.io/help/yourcompany with nothing to configure. SSL, the sitemap, robots.txt and the social share images are handled for you.
Good for: getting started today, internal documentation, side projects, and any team without access to DNS or hosting settings.
Downsides: the address carries the Helpdesky name rather than yours, and the search authority your articles earn builds on helpdesky.io, not on your domain. Keep in mind that this address never goes away: whichever option you pick, it keeps serving your pages and points search engines at your main address.
Your own subdomain
Add one CNAME record at your DNS provider, enter the subdomain in the dashboard and Helpdesky issues the certificate and serves your help center at help.yourdomain.com. The full walkthrough is in Setting up a custom domain.
Good for: most teams. It takes minutes, needs no developer and works with every website platform, including site builders such as Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and WordPress.com.
Downsides: search engines treat a subdomain as a related but separate site, so the articles do not add as much authority to your main domain as a subfolder would. If search rankings for support content matter to you, look at the next option.
Subfolder on your website
Your website forwards everything under yourdomain.com/help to Helpdesky with one proxy rule (a Cloudflare Worker, a Next.js rewrite, an Nginx location block or your platform’s equivalent). Helpdesky renders the complete page, and the help center becomes a folder of your main site. The guide is Move Your Help Center From a Subdomain to a Subfolder.
Good for: teams that care about SEO and have someone who can edit hosting or Cloudflare settings. Your help content counts towards your main domain’s authority, and you still write nothing but articles.
Downsides: it needs access to the web server or CDN in front of your site, so it is unsuitable for hosted site builders. The layout around the articles is still the Helpdesky template (branded with your colors and logo), not your site’s own navigation. As with headless, the address becomes live only after Check setup passes and you confirm with Make it live.
Headless (your own templates)
Your website fetches articles from the Content API and renders them inside its own templates, at yourdomain.com/help/<article-slug>. The dashboard writes a prompt for an AI coding agent with your values filled in, or a developer follows the Next.js and Express examples. The guide is Render Help Articles Inside Your Own Website (Headless).
Good for: product sites where the help center must look and behave like every other page, teams with an existing site search, and anyone who wants full control of the page around the article.
Downsides: it requires code changes to your website and a deploy. You own the search, the navigation, the sitemap entries and the 404 pages for help URLs, and the address becomes live only after the Check setup step passes and you confirm with Make it live.
Pick this if…
- You want a help center today and nobody touches DNS: stay on the Helpdesky address.
- You want your brand in the address and a ten minute setup: choose Your own subdomain.
- Search rankings matter and you have hosting or Cloudflare access: choose Subfolder on your website.
- The help pages must be part of your site’s own design, and a developer or AI agent can edit the code: choose Headless (your own templates).
You can change your mind later. Moving from a subdomain to a subfolder, or from either to headless, keeps the old address redirecting to the new one with permanent (301) redirects, and the Your help center has moved banner in the dashboard shows what is redirecting where.
Next steps
Open Help Center → Domain & Address, pick the option that matches your situation in the Hosting card, and follow its guide: custom domain, subfolder or headless.