Introduction
A common question we get asked when many users first get started on the platform is “Does GridPane provide temporary URLs?”. The short is no we don’t, but you also don’t need them.
Many hosts do offer these, however, the URLs used often look bizarre and even untrustworthy, and contain a company name that your client has likely never even heard of.
Why use a hosting companies domain when you can instead use your own brand (or even your clients brand) for this very simple need?
With GridPane you have full control over this, and the workflow is almost exactly the same, with one exception: You choose exactly what your temporary URL will be when you create the site inside of your account.
Provisioning an SSL certificate is also quick and simple when using your own domain when it’s connected to Cloudflare or DNS Made Easy and using our API integration (more info in the further reading section).
Below are the three main methods members of the GridPane community use.
Option 1. Use a Subdomain of Your Business Website
What most of our community do is simply use their own domain for migrations and development sites. This is would normally be:
clientname.yourdomain.com
If you’re using our Cloudflare or DNS Made Easy integrations (which we highly recommend), then our platform will automatically add your DNS records for you as long as they don’t already exist.
Option 2. Use a Dedicated Development Domain
Another popular choice is use a dedicated domain that’s purely for development and migration purposes. It’s your own custom temporary domain, and it’s usually again something like:
clientname.yourbrand.dev
Add it to Cloudflare and use our API integration.
Bonus
As an extra bonus, a dev domain is perfect to use as your Cloudflare or DNS Made Easy challenge domain for provisioning SSL certificates before setting the DNS live when you're not managing a client's DNS. Learn more here:
Provisioning an SSL for a domain using DNS API Domain verification by Proxy Challenge
Option 3. Use a Subdomain of Your Client’s Domain
Finally, you could also use a subdomain of your client’s actual domain. This is generally less convenient than the first two options above, but there are sometimes situations where this can make sense (for example, if you’re building a site on a white label basis).
Further Reading
Using our Cloudflare or DNS Made Easy integrations make using your own custom temporary URLs a breeze. For more information on using these services with GridPane, please check out the following articles:
Provisioning SSL Certificates
You can provision an SSL certificates using our DNS API integrations by following either of these guides:
- You control the website DNS: Provisioning an SSL using DNS API Domain verification
- You DON’T control the website DNS: Provisioning an SSL using DNS API Domain verification by Proxy Challenge