Growth
$119 /mo, billed annually
or $149 month to month
- Subfolder hosting and a custom domain
- Up to 10 teammates
- A help center in as many languages as you need
Subfolder hosting
Your help center, at yoursite.com/docs .
Serve your help center from a folder of your own website instead of a separate subdomain. Your articles build up your main domain, and customers stay on the address they trust. One proxy rule on your website does it, and HelpCenter.io takes care of everything behind it.
Included in Growth and Catalyst, and in their 14-day trials. No credit card needed.
www.northwind.energy/docs/content/charging-at-home
Why a subfolder
Your answers belong on your website.
A help center on a subdomain works well. A help center in a subfolder of your website does the same job and keeps all of it on one domain: the address, the links people share and the visits search brings in.
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One domain for search
The links and visits your articles earn stay on your main domain, instead of building up a separate subdomain.
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One address for customers
From your homepage to your docs, customers stay on the address they already know and trust.
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Your website stays put
Keep your site where it runs today. A few lines of configuration on your web server or CDN forward one path to us.
How it works
Three steps, and your help center moves in.
Your website keeps running where it is. It forwards one path to HelpCenter.io, and we answer as if we were part of it.
- Enter your address In your help center's Settings, under Subfolder hosting, type the address you want, like www.yoursite.com/docs.
- Add one proxy rule Copy the ready-made rule for where your website runs. It forwards your path to your help center, with the path, cookies and headers intact.
- Check it, then go live We test your setup through your proxy and tell you exactly what to fix. When everything passes, go live and it becomes your help center's address.
What the setup check tests, through your proxy
- Your website forwards the path to your help center
- The full path arrives, so every page resolves
- Contact forms and other POST requests get through
- Cookies travel both ways, for ratings and comments
- Your proxy vouches for each visitor's address
- Your help center's home page loads at your address
Your website
www.northwind.energy/docs
Forwards /docs
Your help center
northwind.helpcenter.io
The rule for nginx
# HelpCenter.io: serve your help center at https://www.northwind.energy/docs
# Add inside the server { } block for www.northwind.energy, then reload nginx.
location ~ ^/docs(?:/|$) {
proxy_pass https://northwind.helpcenter.io;
proxy_ssl_server_name on;
proxy_set_header Host northwind.helpcenter.io;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header X-HelpCenter-Proxy-Secret "YOUR-PROXY-SECRET";
proxy_redirect off;
}In Settings it comes filled in with your own address, help center and secret.
Ready-made rules for
- nginx
- Apache
- Cloudflare
- Vercel / Next.js
- Netlify
- Amazon CloudFront
- IIS
Running something else? Any reverse proxy works if it forwards the full path, the method, cookies and headers.
Taken care of
You add one rule. We handle the rest.
Moving a help center to a new address is more than a proxy. These are the parts HelpCenter.io does for you.
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Every link follows your address
Once you go live, canonical tags, your help center's sitemap and every shared link point at yoursite.com/docs.
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Old links keep working
When you go live, every page on your old address redirects permanently to the same page under your subfolder.
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Test without duplicates
While you test, pages under your subfolder ask search engines not to index them, so nothing is listed twice.
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Everything works through your proxy
Search, contact forms, article ratings and comments work at your address just as they do on ours.
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Each visitor counts as one
A secret only your proxy sends lets us trust the visitor address it passes on, so rate limits and ratings see people, not your server.
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Undo it any time
Stop redirecting, or turn subfolder hosting off, and your help center answers at its own address again.
Availability
Included in Growth and Catalyst.
No add-on to buy. Subfolder hosting comes with the plan, and your 14-day trial includes it.
Catalyst
$179 /mo, billed annually
or $199 month to month
- Subfolder hosting and a custom domain
- Unlimited teammates, with single sign-on
- AI question answering and translations included
Good to know
- For public help centers. Private, password-protected and single sign-on help centers keep their own address.
- Your website needs a web server or CDN that can forward a path to another address.
- Paths are lowercase and up to three levels deep, like /docs or /support/help.
Bootstrap and older plans priced below Growth do not include subfolder hosting. Compare every plan.
What is subfolder hosting?
It serves your help center from a path of your own website, like www.yoursite.com/docs, instead of its own subdomain. Your web server or CDN forwards that path to HelpCenter.io, and every page, link and sitemap entry uses your address.
Why host a help center in a subfolder instead of a subdomain?
Search engines can treat a subdomain as a website of its own. A subfolder keeps your help center on your main domain, so the links and visits your articles earn count toward the site you are already building, and customers never change address between your product pages and your answers.
Which web servers and CDNs does it work with?
Settings gives you a ready-made rule for nginx, Apache, Cloudflare, Vercel / Next.js, Netlify, Amazon CloudFront and IIS, filled in with your own address. Any other reverse proxy works too, as long as it forwards the full path, the request method, cookies and headers to your help center.
Which plans include subfolder hosting?
Growth and Catalyst, and the 14-day trials of both. Bootstrap and older plans priced below Growth do not include it. You can compare every plan on the pricing page.
What happens to my current help center address?
Nothing changes until you go live: your help center stays where it is, and pages under your subfolder ask search engines not to index them. When you go live, every page on your helpcenter.io address, and on your custom domain if you have one, redirects permanently to the same page under your subfolder.
Does it work with a private help center?
No. Subfolder hosting is for public help centers. Private, password-protected and single sign-on help centers stay at their own address.
Can I turn it off again?
Yes. In Settings you can stop redirecting to your subfolder while you keep testing, or turn subfolder hosting off entirely. Your help center then answers at its own address again.
Give your answers a home on your own domain.
Start a 14-day trial, build your help center, and move it to yoursite.com/docs when you are ready. No credit card needed.