Introducing Custom Domains for api.video

Introducing Custom Domains — a feature that lets you stream videos or live streams from your own domain (such as videos.yourdomain.com/ or livestreams.yourdomain.com/).

 

Why use Custom Domains? Because it lets you brand your video URL, comply with network security, and increase your SEO ranking. Let’s look at its benefits in detail, pricing, and explain how you can start using your own domains.

 

Benefits of Custom Domain

 

1. Branded Experience

With Custom Domains, you can create a fully branded URL for your viewers. This means that when your audience watches or shares videos or live streams, they will only see URLs with your domain. They will never know you are relying on api.video to actually serve these videos.

 

2. Compliance with Network Security Requirements

Using a custom domain can help you comply with network security requirements.

If you have a firewall in your organization, Custom Domains helps meet the firewall requirements. This ensures that your videos are viewed without any issues, and you can maintain the security of your network.

For example, if you are working in a university or public institution, there are probably network restrictions that could prevent api.video content to be played, and that is when you will need a custom domain.

 

3. SEO Boost

Improving search engine traffic and viewer confidence with brand-relevant URLs is another key benefit of using Custom Domains. By using your own domain name, you can create a more memorable and recognizable URL that is relevant to your brand. This can help improve your search engine ranking and attract more viewers to your videos.

 

How it works

  Without custom domains, your users will see URLs such as

https://live.api.video/{livestreamid} or https://vod.api.video/{videoid}

  With a custom domain set, your users will see your own URL. Depending on how you set it up, it could look like anything! Here are 2 examples for your inspiration:

https://videos.yourdomain.com/{videoid} or https://livestreams.yourdomain.com/{livestreamid}

 

How to enable Custom Domains for your account

1. Reaching out to api.video

The starting price of Custom Domains is $60/month.

Here are different ways you can request access to Custom Domains on your account:

• From the dashboard
• From the docs: Custom Domains page
• Alternatively, you can simply contact our support team via email (hello@api.video) or by reaching out on api.video’s chat.

 

2. Setting up your custom domain (Optional read 😀)

As explained in step 1. above, setting up you own domains is a manual process. It requires an exchange of information between you and our customer care team. Still, if you are curious to know how this works, we will explain it below.

 

2.1 Updating DNS records

You need to update your custom domain’s DNS records. Simply add a CNAME for every custom domain that you want to use. Each custom URL should point to api.video’s corresponding CDN.

• video.mycustomdomain.com CNAME → vod.api.video
• live.mycustomdomain.com CNAME → live.api.video
• embed.mycustomdomain.com CNAME → embed.api.video
• collector.mycustomdomain.com CNAME → collector.api.video

 

The steps to update your custom domain’s DNS records are determined by the domain host that you use. Contact your domain host if you are unsure about the specific steps of updating the DNS records.

Depending on your use case, you might need separate domains for video, live,  collector, and embed services. This should be done for every custom domain that you want to use.

Your use case	Custom domains needed
Live streaming	video.mycustomdomain.com, live.mycustomdomain.com, embed.mycustomdomain.com, collector.mycustomdomain.com
VOD and Live streaming	video.mycustomdomain.com, live.mycustomdomain.com, embed.mycustomdomain.com,collector.mycustomdomain.com
VOD only	video.mycustomdomain.com , embed.mycustomdomain.com,collector.mycustomdomain.com
VOD using your own custom player	video.mycustomdomain.com

  2.2 Providing TLS certificates

api.video requires a valid TLS certificate for every custom domain that you want to use.

Simply upload the certificates for every custom domain through the dedicated support channel.

  2.3 Start using your new video or live domain

After you have configured your DNS records and provided the corresponding TLS certificates, api.video enables traffic for each custom domain that you want to use.

This process usually takes a few hours. If you have any questions, reach out to us!

 

Conclusion

In this article, we have described how custom domains can be helpful to your business (branding, SEO, avoiding network restrictions) and how you can easily set your own custom domains with api.video. We hope the content was clear. Now, try setting up your own domains 😄 And if you don't have an api.video account yet but want to test the product, remember that api.video offers a free signup option, where you can test all of the product features. Happy video day!

 

 

FAQs

 

On which domains can I apply custom domains?

Depending on your use case, your customers will see these URLs when you deliver videos or live streams to them.

video.mycustomdomain.com,vod.mycustomdomain.com,embed.mycustomdomain.com,collector.mycustomdomain.com

 

What is the exact cost of custom domains?

It depends on your use case.

• If you use api.video only for video or live streaming, the price will be $60/month.
• If you use api.video for both video and live streaming, the price is $100/month.

 

How often do I need to update my TLS certificates?

Each TLS certificate has an expiry date. Since you manage these certificates, api.video will not be able to alert you when they expire. To ensure uninterrupted service, make sure that you always renew your TLS certificates and provide them to api.video before they expire.