What is CNAME?

CNAME is the abbreviation for “conical record,” and is the type of record you can add to your DNS to map one domain to another. 

It is commonly referenced as the way to white-label another service (like a website hosting platform), so customers do not realize that you are using a third party platform. With CNAME, users just see your branding and your domain name. 

One quick note is that sometimes people use “CNAME” to mean custom domain, even when they are literally talking about an A record, or a different type of DNS record. For the purpose of this article, we’ll use CNAME to mean any type of domain record that you can use to white-label your video platform, even if it's not technically a CNAME record. 

Why Should Your Video Platform Offer CNAME?

When you share videos with your customers, CNAME allows you to deliver a beautiful, branded customer experience. With CNAME, your customers will not realize that you are using a third party platform. They will see all video messages as coming directly from you. 

No matter what type of video content you’re producing -- hosted videos, webinars, video messages, and more -- CNAME is valuable! Many marketers choose to white-label videos with CNAME to enjoy:

1. Brand consistency - Videos with CNAME look like they are from you and your brand, not a third party platform
2. Ability to get videos through firewalls - If your domain is white-listed in certain places, you should aim to use your own domain to make sure all of your video content is accessible in these places. 
3. Tracking - if you use any tracking on a domain-by-domain basis, you want to make sure you have your domain connected so you can track all video views and engagement in your marketing automation platform (MAP). 

Most video platforms do NOT offer CNAME, because they want your visitors to see that you are using their service. (And who doesn’t want to go viral?). However, it might be worth it for you to pay a little more to deliver a better customer experience. Here are 7 video platforms that do offer CNAME.

Which Video Platforms Offer CNAME

If you’re looking to white-label personalized video messages, live streaming, hosted videos and more, these 7 video platforms offer CNAME:

1. Sendspark offers CNAME for personalized video messages. With Sendspark, you can easily record and share personalized videos for customers with custom URLs. Forget Loom or YouTube branding, you can use Sendspark to deliver polished, custom-branded videos to level-up your customer experience.
2. Mux offers CNAME for live streaming videos. This can help you brand the experience as you share live stream videos with your audience. You can also use Mux as a white-labeled video API for all kinds of video-based product development. 
3. Swarmify offers white-label video delivery (CDN services). Say “goodbye” to YouTube branding, you can use Swarmify to embed custom-branded videos on your website. 
4. SproutVideo offers CNAME for on-demand video hosting. You can use the platform to host white-labeled marketing videos.
5. Brightcove offers CNAME for its suite of video services, including video encoding, publishing, live streaming, and hosting. 
6. 23 offers CNAME for white-labled webinars, so you can engage your audience with a truly polished video experience.  
7. Zoom supports CNAME for meetings and webinars. Of course, Zoom has enough recognition that your customers will know you’re using Zoom, even after you have a vanity URL set up. But branded domains will give you a little additional polish. 

Which Video Platforms Do NOT Offer CNAME

Are you searching to see if your video platform offers CNAME? We’ll save you some time. These video platforms do not offer CNAME (as of September, 2021).

1. Loom - does not offer CNAME. Try Sendspark for a better-branded Loom alternative.
2. Quickpages - is planning to release CNAME, but does not have the feature as yet. 
3. BombBomb - does not have CNAME, but does offer DKIM for premium plans to somewhat white-label video emails. 
4. Covideo - does not have CNAME or public plans to release it soon. 
5. Screencast-o-matic - does not have CNAME or public plans to release it soon. 
6. WarmWelcome - previously published CNAME to their roadmap, but currently has it paused. 
7. Vidreach - does not have CNAME or public plans to release it soon. 

Get Started Using CNAME with Your Videos Today

Custom domain is included with Sendspark’s Business and Enterprise plans. You can get started for free here, and message us if you’re interested in upgrading to use your custom domain with video messages. 

Tell Us If Any Video Platforms Add a CNAME Feature

We want to keep this list up to date. Please shoot us a message if you know that any of these platforms have since added CNAME, or there’s a platform with CNAME we left off the list.