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Whitelabel your demos.

Every prospect-facing demo can ship fully under your agency's brand, no ciela.ai anywhere. Strip the mark, reskin the hub, and serve it from a subdomain you own like demos.youragency.com. This page walks all four layers and gives copy-paste DNS steps for the registrars you're most likely on.

Quick facts

Plan
Agency tier ($499/mo) for the full set
Lives at
Settings, Agency Brand tab
Surfaces
The hub at /demo/{slug}, the on-site chat widget, the voice demo, and Agency client portals
Default URL
ciela.ai/demo/{slug} for every tier until you connect a domain
Your domain
One CNAME on a subdomain you own, never the root
Limit
Up to 5 connected domains per account

Tier boundary

Whitelabel is layered. Where the line falls depends on your plan, so it's worth knowing exactly what each tier gets before you start.

  • ProNo Theo demos at all, so nothing to whitelabel. Whitelabel starts at Studio.
  • StudioYour brand name, logo, and accent color render on the demo hub, and demos read "Built by <your agency>". The small "Powered by ciela.ai" mark stays, and there's no hub theme editor or custom domain.
  • AgencyEverything Studio has, plus the switch that removes the Ciela mark entirely, the full demo-hub theme editor, the custom-domain connect, and your brand on Agency client portals at /portal/{slug}. This is the tier the rest of this page assumes.

Walkthrough

01

Set your brand

Open Settings, Agency Brand. Under Your brand set three fields: brand name (shows in headers and footers, eg "Built by Acme AI"), logo (upload from your machine, a square ~256x256 works best), and brand color (any CSS color, drives the accent on the hub and on portal metric numbers).

Leave anything blank and that piece falls back to the generic Ciela look. These same three values carry to your demo hubs and, on Agency, your client portals, you set them once.

02

Remove the Ciela mark

Still in the Agency Brand tab, under Ciela branding, flip on Remove "Powered by ciela.ai" from demos. The mark disappears from every prospect-facing surface: the hub at /demo/{slug} where the voice agents run inline, and the on-site chat widget.

This switch is Agency-only and gets re-checked server-side, not just hidden in the UI. Studio keeps its "Built by <brand>" attribution but the Ciela mark stays alongside it. Removing it entirely is the Agency promise, so the gate is real.

03

Theme the hub

The same tab has a full theme editor for the demo hub with a live preview that re-renders as you type. You control:

  • AppearanceLight or dark base surface.
  • BackgroundFlat, dots, gradient, or a full-bleed image (a readability scrim is applied automatically), with your own background and dot colors.
  • ColorsAccent for CTA buttons, icons, and live badges (overrides your brand color when set).
  • FontA brand display font for the prospect headline and agent names. Body text stays on the clean default sans for legibility.
  • LogosSeparate light-background and dark-background logo slots, since one logo rarely survives both.
  • Favicon + socialBrowser-tab favicon and the 1200x630 image used when the hub link is shared.
  • CopyRewrite the subheadline, the honest-framing disclaimer, and the footer line. All support prospect tokens like {{businessName}}.
  • Agents + voicesSwap or hide each agent's photo, and pick a voice for the two voice agents from the standard demo voice set at no added cost.

Leave any field at its default to keep the Ciela look for that one piece. Hit Save hub theme when the preview looks right.

04

Connect your domain

Scroll to Custom domain in the same tab. Type the subdomain you want demos to live on, like demos.youragency.com, and hit Connect. The card then shows you the exact DNS record to add: a CNAME with a Name (the subdomain label, eg demos) and a Value of cname.vercel-dns.com.

Use a subdomain, never your root domain. Pointing the root (youragency.com) would take down your main website and email. A subdomain like demos. or app. leaves everything else untouched, you're only adding one new record.

Sometimes you also get a one-time TXT verification record alongside the CNAME. Its Name is _vercel, not @ and not your subdomain label, and the Value is the long vc-domain-verify=... string the card shows. On a registrar that auto-appends your root (GoDaddy, Namecheap) you type just _vercel, which resolves to _vercel.youragency.com. Putting it on @ points it at your apex and it never verifies.

05

Add the DNS record at your registrar

Go to wherever the DNS for that domain is managed (your registrar, or your DNS host if you moved nameservers) and add the CNAME. The values are identical for everyone, cname.vercel-dns.com is the same target for every Ciela operator. The per-registrar steps are in the next section.

Add a new record, don't edit or delete existing ones. Your root A/CNAME and your MX (email) records stay exactly as they are. You are only adding one subdomain.

06

Verify and go live

Come back to the Custom domain card. It says "Waiting on DNS" until the record resolves, then flips itself to "Connected and live" automatically, usually within a few minutes. There's a re-check button if you're impatient. Once it's live, every hub serves from your domain with automatic HTTPS, the cert is minted and auto-renewed for you.

DNS can take longer than a few minutes depending on the record's TTL and your provider, occasionally up to an hour, rarely up to 48. If it's still waiting after an hour, jump to Common failure modes below.

What about links you already sent? Connecting a domain changes the links generated from that point on. Demo links you already sent keep working forever on ciela.ai/demo/{slug}, that URL never stops serving and it does not redirect to your domain, so nothing you've sent breaks. Every new send after you connect goes out on your domain. If you later disconnect, new links revert to ciela.ai and links already sent on your domain stop resolving, so only disconnect a domain you're truly done with.

DNS by registrar

Every provider calls the fields slightly different things, but you're always adding the same record: Type CNAME, Name/Host = your subdomain label, Value/Target = cname.vercel-dns.com. Use whatever Name the Custom domain card shows you (for demos.youragency.com that's just demos).

  • GoDaddyMy Products, find the domain, DNS, then Add New Record. Type CNAME, Name demos, Value cname.vercel-dns.com, TTL leave default (1 hour). Save. GoDaddy appends the root domain for you, so Name is just the label, not the full host.
  • NamecheapDomain List, Manage, Advanced DNS, Add New Record. Type CNAME Record, Host demos, Target cname.vercel-dns.com, TTL Automatic. Save the green check. Make sure the domain is using Namecheap BasicDNS, not an external DNS or a parking page.
  • CloudflareDNS, Records, Add record. Type CNAME, Name demos, Target cname.vercel-dns.com. Critically, set Proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud, not orange). Leaving it proxied (orange cloud) blocks the certificate from issuing and the domain never goes live.
  • Google Domains / Squarespace DomainsGoogle Domains migrated to Squarespace, the panel is the same. DNS, then under Custom records add: Host demos, Type CNAME, Data cname.vercel-dns.com, TTL default. Save.
  • Vercel DNSIf your domain's nameservers already point at Vercel, connecting it from the Agency Brand tab wires it up with no manual record at all, just hit Connect and it verifies itself.
  • Any other hostRoute 53, Porkbun, Hover, Bluehost, Hostinger, IONOS, Wix, and the rest all have a DNS or Zone editor. Add one record: Type CNAME, the host/name field set to your subdomain label, the value/target/points-to field set to cname.vercel-dns.com. Don't put https:// or a trailing slash in the value, and don't add a trailing dot unless the panel requires it.

Things agency owners get wrong

  • Root vs subdomainThe connect box rejects a bare root domain on purpose. A root can't be CNAME'd without breaking your main site and email. Always use a subdomain.
  • Cloudflare orange cloudThe single most common failure. Proxy must be DNS only (grey). Orange-cloud proxying terminates TLS at Cloudflare and the cert never issues.
  • One domain, one accountA given host can only be connected by one Ciela account. If it's attached elsewhere you'll get a clear conflict message, disconnect it there first.
  • Don't touch other recordsYour existing site and email are unaffected because you're only adding a subdomain. Editing or deleting your root or MX records is what breaks things, leave them alone.
  • Five-domain ceilingYou can connect up to 5 domains per account. Plenty for most agencies, but worth knowing if you whitelabel per client.
  • "Not switched on" messageIf the card says custom domains aren't switched on for this deployment yet, that's a platform-side toggle, not something you can fix in DNS. Write to support@ciela.ai and it gets enabled.

Common failure modes

  • Stuck on Waiting on DNS

    Record not saved, wrong Name (use just the label, not the full host, on providers that auto-append the root), value has a typo or a stray https://, or it's Cloudflare-proxied. Fix the record and hit re-check.

  • CNAME is right but it still says unverified

    The vc-domain-verify TXT is missing or on the wrong host. Its Name is _vercel, never @ (that's your apex) and never your subdomain label. Fix the Name and hit re-check.

  • That domain is already connected by another account

    The host is attached to a different Ciela account. Disconnect it there, or pick a different subdomain.

  • Enter a subdomain you own, not a bare root domain

    You typed youragency.com. Use a subdomain like demos.youragency.com instead.

  • Live in the card but the page won't load

    Almost always local DNS cache. Try an incognito window or a different network, it'll be resolving for new visitors already.

The trick that makes this scale: every operator points the same record type at the same target, CNAME to cname.vercel-dns.com. There's no bespoke per-agency setup and no certificate ops on your side, the cert is minted and auto-renewed automatically once DNS resolves. If you've done one, you've done them all, which matters when you whitelabel a separate subdomain per client.

Need help?

Stuck on the DNS step for a registrar not listed here? Ask Ciela for the exact record for your provider, or write to support@ciela.ai and we'll confirm it with you before you hit save.

Ask Ciela

Keep reading

Account

Clients and portals (Agency)

The branded client portal at /portal/{slug} that inherits these same brand fields, plus the per-client webhook and monthly summary.

Agents

Theo

The demo agent whose hub, voice, and chat surfaces are exactly what these whitelabel settings reskin.