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Custom Domains

CareLaunch offers two ways to give your practice a web address:

  • Claim a managed portal address (your-practice.launch.care) — self-serve for solo practices. No DNS work. See below.
  • Bring your own domain — point a hostname you control (for example portal.yourclinic.com) at CareLaunch. See Managing your own DNS.

Most solo practices only need the managed address.

Claiming a managed portal address​

Solo practices can claim an address of the form your-practice.launch.care. CareLaunch hosts it and serves it over HTTPS. You do not create DNS records for this option.

You can claim this address yourself only when the organization is a solo practice (the practice type chosen at signup). The subscription plan name does not decide it. Organizations that are not solo practices, including ones set up as a Practice or Enterprise group, are routed to Support, or they can use a domain they manage themselves. A Platform Admin in an organization on the custom plan can also change the address.

Checking availability​

As you type, CareLaunch reports whether the address is available. It can be unavailable because it is:

  • Already in use by another practice,
  • Reserved or blocked (see below), or
  • Temporarily held after another practice released it.

Address format​

A portal address must:

  • Be 3–30 characters long.
  • Use only lowercase letters (a–z), digits (0–9), and hyphens (-).
  • Start and end with a letter or digit.
  • Contain no consecutive hyphens (--).
  • Use standard ASCII characters only.
  • Not be entirely digits.

Some words are blocked. That includes system names (such as admin, api, www, support, portal, and status), the CareLaunch brand, well-known healthcare brand names, and profanity. Blocked names are reported as "not available."

Changing the address later​

The first address you claim during setup is free. After that:

  • You get one free rename.
  • Further changes wait out a cooldown (90 days by default).
  • The old address is held (180 days by default) so another practice cannot take it immediately. You can reclaim your own previous address during that window.

Claim or change the address from the "Claim your portal URL" step in the setup wizard, or from the Launch Your Practice checklist on Home.

When you use CareLaunch from a CareLaunch-hosted address (a launch.care, carelaunch.app, or carelaunch.dev host), the Base URL field under the instance Settings tab is locked. Change web address in the Launch Center opens that same locked field, so it cannot apply a new name. Reopen the wizard from the instance menu (⋮ → Launch Setup Wizard) and use the Portal URL step, or contact [email protected].

Your current address stays in place until you confirm a new one.

Need a reserved name, or a change sooner than the cooldown allows? Contact [email protected].

Managing your own DNS​

Use your own DNS when the domain also serves a public website, email, or other applications, or when your team must keep the DNS records.

For each hostname that should open CareLaunch, create a CNAME that points at the load balancer address CareLaunch gives you.

Type:    CNAME
Name:    portal
Value:   the load balancer address from CareLaunch
TTL:     300

That example publishes portal.yourclinic.com. Repeat it for each hostname you want CareLaunch to serve. Ask your CareLaunch contact for the load balancer address. Do not point the record at a CareLaunch product hostname you guessed.

HTTPS​

Support configures the TLS certificate for a domain you own and tells you which DNS records to add. The instance Settings tab lists the same requirements: DNS must be updated, Support must configure the certificate, and Support must enable the domain for sign-in. Leave those records in place for as long as the hostname is in use. To add another hostname later, contact Support for the records.

Questions​

Contact [email protected] or your implementation contact if you want someone to review the DNS change.