Introducing TheirLabel: domain name white-labeling for Bubble

Hey @maru, @gaimed, I have updated TheirLabel so that page title is now dynamic/can be updated. I have also added support for setting a custom favicon in the page tab. To use this update, please upgrade your plugin to version 1.3.3 . Then, you will see that the “Update white label” action now has a favicon_url field in which you can (optionally) add your favicon url:

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Let me know how it goes. Cheers!

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Hi @zelus_pudding Thanks for the fast update! Setting page / tab titles now works very well. :clap:

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Hi @zelus_pudding , thank you very much it is working very well.

I have a question :
Is it possible to use the paid domain name instead of the bubble free adress before doing the white-label process ? Meaning is it possible to white-label a domain nam and not the bubble free adress ?

I have an issue which maybe you know : on mobile with chrome (not safari) but on an iphone, it is not possible to login (cookie) issue. Is there anything that you can do ?

Thank you

Good morning Alex, yes - this is possible :slight_smile: Works the same way as when you whitelabelled the free bubble address just you would and insert your paid domain name instead of Bubble’s.

I haven’t heard of this one before. Can you follow these instruction for allowing cookies on chrome and let me know if that fixes the issue for you? Thanks

Hi, it seems to be fixed. Thanks !

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Unfortunately I tried and the page appear blank.
On the the iframe page I still have my last free bubble domain adress name (cf html code).
And this free bubble domaine adress is not redirecting automatically towards my paid domain adress.

I just want to thank you for the time, effort, creativity and care you put into the documentation. Even my dog will be able to set it up with that kind of documentation. Thank you.
And, of course, great plugin!

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Aww, thank you so much for those kind words Deniafe :heart: It really means a lot! And if for some reason something in the documentation is unclear or not working, please reach out and we’ll be sure to help :slight_smile: thank you again!

I am new to bubble. I didnt see support for saas like subdomain support. I looked at the plugins and saw there are two.

How does this plugin compair to:

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Hey, great question lotte! So, PowerLabel is very new - just came out last week. I’ve spoken to the creator of it (Ab Advany) and he’s given me access to test it. I haven’t had the chance to completely set it up / go through it yet, but if it works, it’s supposed to effectively do what this plugin does but without iFrames. As a result, it should result in a white label experience that plays better with search crawlers (so better SEO) and should eliminate problems with Safari blocking cookies. However, from what I’ve been told, his approach breaks some native bubble functionality (such as uploads) since that implementation relies on setting up a reverse proxy using a service called Netlify (funny enough, my plugin also requires Netlify). I’m am told there are workarounds implemented to patch those issues up but I am still working to verify this myself.

If you would like to get Ab’s perspective on it, do feel free to reply to his post :slight_smile:

@zelus_pudding , I have 2 questions:

  1. I have a Saas app and I want each of my customers to have their own subdomain like customer23.saas.com . Can I achieve it with your plugin?
  2. Do I have to pay for a Netlify subscription? What is the relevant price per month then? Is there any other additional costs?
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Hey Vova, welcome to the discussion thread :slight_smile:

The answers to your questions are:

  1. Yes, TheirLable was built specifically for the use case of providing your customers with their own subdomain. You can even test drive this functionality right here before downloading the plugin yourself (scroll down to where it says “Test Drive”).
  2. As you know, a companion Netlify account is needed for this plugin to work. The base account needed is currently 100% free. Netlify, of course, offers additional features for a price, but none of these are required to get my plugin working.

Please do let me know if you have any other questions. All best!

Hi @zelus_pudding - this is great! Thanks for your contribution.

Can you or someone else explain to me simply (I’m not a developer) why both your plugin and @gaimed (PowerLabel / SaasAlias) make use of Netlify?

I’ve tried looking at Netlify.com but to a non-developer, I just don’t understand how it fits in here. What does it do that Bubble doesn’t do? I use Namecheap to buy my domains and manage DNS, is it an alternative to that?

Thanks!

Hey Alex, that’s a great question. Netlify is a service for launching websites using the JAMstack design methodology. That’s kind of a strange word that stands for relying on Javascript, APIs and Markup. What that boils down to is a way of making webpages that are actually completely pre-rendered (static) rather than rendered at the time that a user makes a request to your site (known as dynamically generated sites, which is how Bubble and last gen apps work). It really has nothing to do with Bubble.

However, being the great service that it is, Netlify has a REST API for deploying new websites which means that developers who use it can, and this is key, programmatically bind their applications to any domain name they want. I saw this as a pathway for Bubble users - who do not have programmatic domain name registration capabilities - to obtain exactly that (the output of this is what you would enter into your Namecheap console). My understanding is that Gaimed stumbled upon what I did and decided to try to improve it.

My plugin leverages Netlify’s REST API to essentially iframe your Bubble application into a Netlify application. Gaimed’s approach is to leverage Netlify’s REST API to write URL rerouting rules to achieve the same thing but without iframes. In theory his approach is better since it renders a full website rather than one nested in an iframe (which has SEO and accessibility implications). And I do believe people have found his version to be useful. However, like my plugin, his has its drawbacks as detailed by the numerous bug reports/concerns on this thread.

As I mention in my docs, I introduced this plugin as an imperfect solution to the “I want to serve multiple domains from one Bubble App” problem. This is functionality I’ve wanted for about 3 years now and, seeing that others really want it too, I’m glad that Gaimed and I have been able to provide something that at least partially serves the community. In the end, I think the preferable long term solution is that @Bubble will rejig Bubble to accommodate this without our Netlify hack. Perhap’s our solutions will inspire an easier fix to what they’ve said is a hard problem. But until then, here we shall be :slight_smile:

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@zelus_pudding sorry - I didn’t see a notification of your reply and I just wanted to say thank you and ask you a follow up:

Do you have an example of a live domain that’s actually using your plugin or SaaSAlias?

I’m curious to understand if this is essentially exporting an app or page out of Bubble and onto another host? Is it still using Bubble markup (when you inspect the page) or is it different? Because right now, there’s no way to migrate away from Bubble like there is with Webflow (you can export code and host elsewhere on a paid plan).

Right, Webflow is pretty different in that regard.

My plugin leverages Netlify’s REST API to essentially iframe your Bubble application into a Netlify application. Gaimed’s approach is to leverage Netlify’s REST API to write URL rerouting rules to achieve the same thing but without iframes.

So neither solution is exporting the Bubble app like Webflow does. As for your usage question, surprisingly, the Bubble marketplace makes it so that plugin developers don’t know who buys them. So not even I know who is using my plugin. Best I can say is it has been installed 25 times. Wish I knew more!

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Hi @zelus_pudding ,
I am working through the cost benefits of giving each of my clients a custom domain versus a vanity /URL and was wondering what the SEO impact of using your plugin would be. There is going to be real active links between each members site and the mother ship so I am hopeful that this will not be deemed to be some sort of link farm by Google. Assuming that it does not fall into that trap, has your experience with current customers been that it gives them an SEO bump?
Thanks,
K

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Hi @zelus_pudding ,
One more thing. I have noticed on SaaSALias has had some issues with generating and managing SSL certificates. Is that a feature your plugin offers or that the approach it takes makes easier to manage?
Thanks,
K

Dear @zelus_pudding ,

I’m looking or a white-label solution similar to that. Just saw that the production plan of Bubble offers sub apps where we can have custom domains too. What is the difference between that and your solution?

Best,
Flurin

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Hey Flurin, that’s a great question! I summarize the differences:

  • Tenant isolation: The main difference is that Theirlabel is for setting up a custom URL to point to a single SaaS app for each of your customers. In this model, all of your users exist in the same database… which makes certain app management aspects easier. The Sub-App approach does the same but where each of your customers exists in their own database (because they’re application is hosted in a distinct sub app).
  • Cost: Bubble’s sub-app functionality starts at $475 per month + $25 per month per sub app. TheirLabel makes it possible to give different customers unique URLs to your app for a one time charge of $48 or $9 monthly.
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