Every Files.com site receives a unique custom subdomain that looks like <your-subdomain>.files.com. This ensures that your custom branding (including logo and colors) is visible for the entire Files.com experience, including logging in and accessing public pages like inboxes and share links.

You can take your site customization a step further—removing all traces of Files.com branding—by setting up a completely custom domain. You could use something like files.your-company.com.

Even if you choose to add a custom domain for your site, your custom subdomain can still be used to access your site.

Example Use Case: Better Branding and Trust

The most obvious use for a custom domain is to present your organization's brand to your customers and other counterparties. With a custom domain, visitors to your site will be confident that they are interacting with an official portal for your organization.

Example Use Case: Resolve Network Restrictions

Some corporate firewalls block sites they consider to be file sharing sites, and sometimes IT administrators decide that category includes Files.com. Configuring a custom domain for your site will usually work around these restrictions. This can also help when negotiating with a third party about their firewall restrictions; asking for only your domain to be whitelisted can seem a more reasonable request than asking for a SaaS platform.

Some customers report better access in China when using a custom domain.

Example Use Case: Enable Other Files.com Functionality

Using a custom domain also automatically provisions dedicated IP addresses for your site. Dedicated IP addresses are helpful when you or your counterparties needs to whitelist the IP addresses used by your site.

Using a custom domain is required in order to enable insecure ciphers for SFTP only.

In order to enable a custom namespace, bypassing the need for usernames to be distinct among all Files.com customers, you must configure a custom domain.

Example Use Case: Multiple Brands

Your organization might need to support multiple brands or subsidiaries within the your Files.com site. In addition to using per-folder logos to support multiple brands, you could also point multiple alternate domains to your site. Only one custom subdomain will function as your "official" custom domain, but with the appropriate CNAME settings and a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) SSL certificate installed, visitors can securely access your site through multiple domains.

Depending upon how much overlap there is between the multiple brands you wish to support, you might consider using Child Sites rather than multiple custom domains. Each child site's settings are completely separate from the main site, including the users, logo, and custom domain settings.

Example Use Case: Migration From Another Domain

Sometimes, the custom domain for your site reflects an old brand, and you want to re-brand as the new organization without causing disruption to existing workflows and legacy processes. With some pre-planning, you can change your custom domain with minimal interruption. You'll need to manage your own Subject Alternative Name (SAN) SSL certificate, but visitors could access your site through multiple domains. If you later choose to drop support for the old brand's custom domain and use only one custom domain, you can return to using a Files.com-managed SSL certificate.