One of the benefits of Gradual is your community is hosted on your own domain so your community members know the community is associated with and built under your brand.
Each instance (community) within Gradual lives at it's own domain. Typically, this will be a subdomain of your main website, but can also be a root domain: community.gradual.com or gradualcommunity.com.
The method for routing your domain will be slightly different depending on the style of domain being used. Below we highlight the differences and some special considerations if using the a root domain for your community.
Using a subdomain
The most common method of hosting your community is as a subdomain for your main website. This would be something like "community.gradual.com". You would follow the setup instructions below to create a CNAME record pointing your chosen subdomain to Gradual's ingress domain. Once the CNAME record is set up, notify the Gradual team and we'll finish the configuration.
Using a root domain
If you'd like to use a root domain for your community, this is possible, but requires some additional setup and validation to ensure users can access your community. Gradual only supports domain routing via CNAME. In most cases, CNAME records cannot be added for your ROOT or APEX domain. To use a root domain we will actually set it up similarly to the subdomain method above.
Instead of routing a subdomain, you will create a CNAME record routing the "www" prefix to Gradual instead. *Note, if you have an existing DNS record for your WWW prefix, this will need to be removed.
Once the "www" CNAME record is set up according to the instructions below, any traffic to www.{yourdomain}.com will route to Gradual. In most cases, when a user enters your "bare" (e.g. "gradual.com") into a web browser, the browser will automatically add the "www." prefix without the user needing to do anything. However, this may not happen all the time for certain users or browsers.
To ensure all users are routed correctly, we also need to set up an APEX redirect to point your "bare" domain to your "www." domain. This will ensure that users who target your bare domain are sent to the www. domain and then on to Gradual. The flow looks something like this:
User enters "gradual.com"
The APEX redirect sends that user to "www.gradual.com"
The CNAME record sends that user to Gradual
Without the additional APEX redirect it's possible users will receive a 404 page or domain not found page.
If you are using a root domain, please be sure to consult with the Gradual team before implementation to ensure things are set up and configured correctly.
Communities cannot live at a path within a domain like gradual.com/community.
CNAME Record Setup
To set up a custom domain you need to have your IT or web team create a CNAME record that points your custom domain to Gradual.
Your CNAME record should point your domain or subdomain to:
ingress.gradual.us
The record should also be DNS Only meaning any proxy settings should be disabled:
Once the CNAME record is pointing to ingress.gradual.us, send a note to the Gradual team.
Our system will then handle the rest making sure whenever someone visits your community they see your custom domain.
Gradual will issue an SSL certificate and handle TLS termination. If your domain configuration or system needs special handling, we will work with your team to find an alternative method to route traffic—just send a note to the Gradual team.
Migrating your Gradual instance to a new custom domain
To migrate your existing Gradual instance to a new domain, the same domain preparation steps will be true. However, the timing of the domain change as well as some additional consideration needs to be given since the domain is active and traffic will need to be forwarded. The steps below outline the process to migrate your domain.
Establish your new destination domain (e.g.
newdomain.community.com).Create a NEW CNAME record pointing your new domain to
ingress.gradual.us.Coordinate a transition time with the Gradual team to migrate your existing domain to the new domain. This should be done at least 72 hours in advance of a desired domain change.
Establish a 301 redirect to point your old domain to your new domain. Once the new domain is connected to your Gradual instance your old domain will no longer work so it is important to do this step to ensure traffic targeting old pages is routed. Remove your existing CNAME record for the old domain and implement a 301 redirect to point the old domain to the new domain.
301 Redirects can only be done by the domain owner, so routing traffic to your new domain will need to be done in your own DNS tools.
Update other instances of the old domain or brand as needed, including:
Community Name
Community Description
Email sender and address
Company names or titles
If using domain restriction for video hosting, ensure the new domain is added to the list of allowed embedded video locations.
If using the LinkedIn login integration, you must add the new callback URL (with the new domain) to the allowed callback list before Gradual makes the final change. Here is an example of that:
Verify integrations and automation. In some cases automation in places like Hubspot or other tools may be using the URL for an event or other asset. Ensure references to these URLs in filters or automation are updated to the new domain.
If your community leverages SSO for login please get in touch with the Gradual team as there will be additional steps that need to be done to ensure a smooth transition to a new domain.