Serve Peony data rooms from your own subdomain — files.yourcompany.com or docs.yourcompany.com — instead of yourname.peony.ink. Counterparties see your domain, your logo, and your colors, with no Peony branding in the URL.

Available on the Data Room tier ($52/admin/month).

What It Does

Replaces yourname.peony.ink with your own subdomain (e.g. files.yourcompany.com, deals.yourcompany.com).
Gives you a branded URL for investor or client delivery. files.acme.com/series-a lands differently than acme-inc.peony.ink/series-a.
Lets you present Peony as an internal system — useful for M&A sell-side, client proposals, and any situation where the counterparty shouldn't need to know the vendor behind the scenes.

Where to Set It Up

Custom domains are configured at the workspace level, not inside an individual data room. Open the user menu (bottom-left of the app home screen) and click Domain Settings. This opens the Domain settings modal.

The modal has a tab switcher between Peony domain and Your own domain:

Peony domain — pick a short link name and Peony hosts the address for you at your-name.peony.ink. No DNS setup needed.
Your own domain — serve rooms from a subdomain you own (e.g. deck.yourcompany.com). Requires the DNS steps below.

DNS Setup

In the Domain settings modal, select the Your own domain tab. It walks you through three numbered steps.

Choose one domain type. Select Your own domain.
Enter the domain you own. Type a subdomain like deck.yourcompany.com. You must be able to edit DNS records for that domain.
Add this DNS record. Peony shows a table with three columns — Name, Type, and Value:

Name Type Value
your subdomain (e.g. deck) CNAME cname.vercel-dns.com

The Value is always cname.vercel-dns.com — the same for every workspace. It is shown as plain text (there is no copy button, so type or paste it carefully). Add exactly one CNAME record with these values at your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Route 53, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.).
Wait for DNS propagation. Usually 5 minutes to 1 hour. Edge cases with long TTLs can take up to 48 hours.
Return to the Domain settings modal and click Verify. Peony resolves your subdomain's CNAME and confirms it points to cname.vercel-dns.com. Once it verifies, click Save your own domain. Vercel provisions the SSL certificate in the background.

After verification, your data rooms serve from your custom domain automatically. Existing share links keep working on both the old *.peony.ink URL and the new custom domain.

Custom domains customize the prefix, not the root. Your subdomain replaces the part before the secure share hash — so a link becomes deck.yourcompany.com/view/abc123 instead of your-name.peony.ink/view/abc123. Visiting the bare root (deck.yourcompany.com with no path) does not show a room or list your projects; it redirects to a sign-in page. This is by design — a guessable root that resolved to a live room would be a security hole. Always share the specific link, not the root domain.

Common DNS Mistakes

Mismatched subdomain on the two sides. The subdomain you enter in Peony must match the CNAME record exactly at your DNS provider. If you tell Peony deck.yourcompany.com but create the CNAME on portal.yourcompany.com, verification fails. Enter the same subdomain in both places.
Truncating or changing the target hostname. The Value must be cname.vercel-dns.com. Casing, a trailing dot, and surrounding whitespace are all fine — Peony normalizes the resolved record before comparing, so cname.vercel-dns.COM, cname.vercel-dns.com., and cname.vercel-dns.com all verify. What fails is a genuinely different or truncated target (a dropped character, or a leftover Vercel-suggested value like aac32561...vercel-dns-016.com).
Pointing an A record instead of a CNAME. Peony requires a CNAME. Underlying IPs change.
Leaving a conflicting record. If something already exists at deck.yourcompany.com, remove it before adding the new CNAME.
Using an apex domain. Subdomains only. deck.yourcompany.com, not the bare yourcompany.com.
Browser cache after propagation. Hard-refresh (Cmd-Shift-R) or test in incognito.

Provider-Specific Notes

A few DNS hosts have quirks that trip up the setup. The fixes below are what we walk customers through most often in support.

Cloudflare

Disable the proxy on the CNAME. The Cloudflare cloud icon next to your record must be gray (DNS only), not orange. Cloudflare's proxy intercepts the request before it reaches Peony and breaks the SSL handshake, so verification fails even with a perfect CNAME value.
After adding the CNAME (Value cname.vercel-dns.com), click the orange cloud icon to toggle it gray, save, then click Verify in Peony's Domain Settings.
Cloudflare's DNS dashboard shows your full DNS table; the only record that needs to change is the new CNAME. Leave existing MX, TXT, and other records alone.

Vercel (as your DNS host)

If your DNS is managed in Vercel, add a single CNAME on your subdomain with Value cname.vercel-dns.com. Do not use the value Vercel's own UI auto-suggests for its projects (something like aac32561...vercel-dns-016.com) — that is a project-specific target and Peony's verifier will reject it.
Vercel's dashboard sometimes auto-suggests an A record for apex domains — ignore it. Peony only supports CNAMEs on subdomains.

GoDaddy / Namecheap / Route 53

Use a CNAME on a subdomain (deck.yourcompany.com) — never on the apex (yourcompany.com). Most apex CNAMEs are silently rewritten to ALIAS or A records, which Peony's verifier can't follow.
Leave the TTL on default (usually Auto or 1 hour). Lowering the TTL doesn't speed up the first verification — it only makes future changes propagate faster.
If the provider has a "DNS validation" or "redirect" feature, leave it off. Once Peony can resolve the CNAME, SSL is handled automatically — you don't add or manage any certificate.

Still stuck?

Run dig CNAME deck.yourcompany.com (or use dnschecker.org). The output should show cname.vercel-dns.com. If it returns nothing or shows your old record, the change hasn't propagated yet — wait 5–60 minutes (occasionally up to 48 for legacy TTLs).
Most DNS issues resolve within an hour. If it's been longer than that with the right CNAME in place, email deqian@peony.ink with your domain and a screenshot of your DNS panel — we'll trace it from our side.

SSL and HTTPS

Peony serves your custom domain through Vercel, which provisions the SSL certificate automatically as soon as DNS verification succeeds. There is no manual cert generation, upload, or renewal.

If SSL fails, the root cause is almost always DNS. The certificate can't be issued until the CNAME resolves — re-verify the record, wait a few minutes, and try again.

Renewal is automatic.

Troubleshooting

CNAME not verifying. Check with dig CNAME deck.yourcompany.com or nslookup. The output should show cname.vercel-dns.com. If not, the record is mistyped, not propagated, or pointed wrong. The verifier tolerates casing, a trailing dot, and whitespace — so a mismatch here means the target hostname is genuinely wrong or truncated, not just formatted differently.
"Currently points to: cname.vercel-dns.COM" even though mine is lowercase. This was an old case-sensitivity bug that has been fixed — verification now lowercases and trims the resolved record before comparing. If you still see it, no DNS change is needed; just click Verify again.
Worked yesterday, now showing an error. Some DNS providers drop CNAMEs they think are unused. Re-add the record.
SSL warning in the browser. Usually the first 5-10 minutes after verification while the cert provisions. Wait and hard-refresh. Past 15 minutes, re-verify DNS and contact support.

Common Questions

Where is the custom domain setting?

At the workspace level, not inside a data room. Open the user menu at the bottom-left of the app home screen and click Domain Settings, then select the Your own domain tab.

My custom domain root redirects to a sign-in page instead of showing my room. Is it broken?

No — this is by design. A custom domain only customizes the prefix in front of your secure share links (e.g. deck.yourcompany.com/view/abc123). Visiting the bare root with no path shows no room and no project list; it sends you to sign-in. Share the specific link, not the root domain. A custom root landing page is a future consideration.

What's the difference between a Peony subdomain and my own domain?

A Peony subdomain (your-name.peony.ink) works instantly with no DNS setup — pick it under the Peony domain tab. Your own domain (deck.yourcompany.com) serves rooms from a domain you control and requires the CNAME setup above. Both are configured in the Domain settings modal.

The CNAME is added but Peony still won't verify.

The most common cause is a mismatched subdomain: the name you entered in Peony must match the CNAME record exactly. For example, if Peony has deck.yourcompany.com but you created the CNAME on portal.yourcompany.com, it won't verify. Make both sides identical, with the Value set to cname.vercel-dns.com.

My e-signature links broke after I added a custom domain.

A small number of workspaces saw signing links glitch shortly after enabling a custom domain. The underlying cause was traced to Microsoft Defender interfering with the links, and it has since been resolved. If you hit this, removing the custom domain restores signing immediately — then re-add it and email deqian@peony.ink so we can confirm it's clear on your account.

Custom Branding — logos, colors, cover images
Plans and Pricing — Data Room tier required