We always try to make working with pr.co as easy as possible, without you needing to get too technical. That said, hosting a domain is always going to require some level of technical proficiency, mainly because all domains need their accompanying SSL certificate these days. So, if things get too tricky in this guide we'd advise asking your IT-department or hosting provider to have a look with you.
We offer four different options to host your newsroom, listed below ordered by the required level of technical proficiency, and each with their own pros and cons.
Option 1: pr.co subdomain (example.pr.co)
No technical skills required
This hosting option is what we offer out-of-the-box. It's the easiest one to set up because we typically already have this set up for you by default when preparing your newsroom and it just works because your newsroom is hosted on our pr.co domain. We already have a working SSL certificate and you can change the name any time from your newsroom settings.
Option 2: your subdomain through CNAME (news.example.com)
Only access to DNS/domain registrar required
This is our most popular and recommended method of hosting our newsrooms. With this method we set up a dedicated endpoint for your newsroom where we'll install an SSL certificate for you and where you can point your subdomain CNAME record to.
For this method you'll need to have access to your domain registrar or DNS settings for your domain. Once you let us know your preferred subdomain, we'll send you clear step-by-step instructions to set up two DNS records.
A CNAME record to verify us creating an SSL for that domain on your behalf
A CNAME for your subdomain to point to the endpoint we've created for you
You can send these instructions to your IT-department or hosting provider and they'll know exactly what to do or how to help you.
Want to get started with this option? Just contact support or let us know in the live chat and we'll get right to it for you!
Option 3: your subdomain through CDN (news.example.com)
Access to your CDN service required (Cloudflare, CloudFront, Akamai, KeyCDN, etc.)
This is an alternative way to host your newsroom on your own subdomain, but in this case it requires you to make use of a CDN service to set up the endpoint mentioned in option 2. The benefit is that you can set this everything up yourself and are in full control over the hosting of your newsroom.
In short, this is what you'll need to do:
Set up a new endpoint/distribution on your CDN
Configure the endpoint for the subdomain you'd like to host the newsroom on and make sure this includes an SSL certificate (usually part of the setup)
As the origin, have the CDN point to the pr.co subdomain of your newsroom (example.pr.co)
Change the 'Custom domain' setting in your newsroom to your subdomain
This is the basic principle for any CDN, but we wrote a step-by-step guide:
Option 4: subdirectory on your main domain (example.com/news/)
Access to your web server's (Nginx or Apache) configuration file required
This is our most technically advanced hosting option, which we only sell via a special service package to make sure we can provide you with the right technical support from our side to set this up with you and your IT department.
Hosting the newsroom on a subdirectory requires you to set up a reverse proxy rule in your Nginx or Apache web server configurations. The set up is pretty straightforward and we have detailed documentation and tools to help you set this up.
Interested in this option?
Questions? Send us an 📩 at hello@pr.co