When you sign up for a Freshdesk account, you will receive a Freshdesk URL address or subdomain that your admins and agents will use to log in to your Freshdesk account. Your customers will also use this URL to access your self-service portal. E.g., acmesupport.freshdesk.com. However, you can change the default portal URL to better align with your brand.

This article provides details on how you can change the default primary Freshdesk and highlights considerations and impacts to be aware of before making changes.

The article contains:

Key considerations

Before you begin changing the default primary portal URL, please make note of the following things:

• Renaming your subdomain takes effect immediately. We recommend changing the URL during low-volume hours or non-business hours to reconfigure a few functionalities.
• URL naming conventions:
  • Must be unique and not already exist in the web domain
  • Can only contain alphabets and numbers
  • Does not contain a space or special characters except a hyphen (-)
  • Must be longer than 3 characters
• If you use a custom domain URL, ensure that you add the CNAME record in your DNS provider (like GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) For details, check Set Up a Custom Portal URL and Verify DNS.

Tip: Since changing primary portal URL will have impact, we recommend you to change your portal URL instead. This enables you to change the URL your customers see when accessing your help desk without changing the address of your agent interface or Freshdesk account.

Know the impacts

While it is possible to change the default portal URL, we strongly recommend not to change it due to the following reasons:

• Agent relogin
  All logged-in agents will be notified with an error message "We couldn't find the URL." They must use the updated URL to log in again.

• Broken in-line images
  Inline images in existing tickets will no longer be displayed. However, this issue does not affect new tickets after the URL update.

• Invalid ticket URL
  Existing ticket URLs used to check ticket status in your replies, email notifications, and more will become invalid. When you try to access the URLs, an error message, "We couldn't find that helpdesk," will be displayed.

• Invalid Knowledge base article links
  Links to solution articles and forums shared with customers will break. You must provide updated URLs to users.

Change the primary portal URL

You can change the primary default portal URL in the following ways:

• At the time of account creation

• From Admin Settings

Change the primary portal URL at the time of account creation

When you sign up for a Freshdesk account, you can customize your URL by changing the autogenerated URL.

Here, freshworks4360.freshdesk.com is an auto-generated URL. You can change this to match your brand. For example, acmesupport.freshdesk.com. 

Change the primary portal URL from Admin settings

1. Go to Admin Settings > Account > Helpdesk Settings.

2. Click Edit next to the Helpdesk URL field. A warning banner will display the message "Helpdesk URL can only be changed once."

3. Enter the new URL according to the naming conventions (See Before you begin)

4. Click Save.
   

Steps to perform after URL update

Perform the following steps after updating the URL:

1. Update “Forwarded to” address:
   Although Freshdesk automatically updates the "Forwarded to" address under Email Settings, verify and reconfigure it manually in your support mailbox for seamless email-to-ticket conversion.

2. Reauthorize custom mailbox:
   If you use a custom mailbox, manually reauthorize the mailboxes within Freshdesk to avoid disconnection.

3. Reconfigure webhooks in automation:
   If you use webhook triggers in automation, update the callback URL in the respective automation rule to avoid webhook failures.
   

4. Update feedback widget code:
   Replace the feedback widget code on your website or apps with the new helpdesk URL.
   

5. Reconfigure Third-Party Integrations:
   Update integrations like Freshchat, Freshcaller, or any other third-party integrations (e.g., Freshdesk-SugarCRM) with the new Freshdesk URL. Contact [email protected] for further assistance.