Understanding the Challenges of Custom Domain Management and SSL Automation in SaaS: Insights from a Solo Developer

In the world of SaaS development, offering customers the flexibility of using their own custom domains is a highly valued feature. However, behind the scenes, implementing seamless support for vanity domains and managing SSL certificates can present significant technical hurdles.

Recently, I embarked on a project to enable a business client to let their users point their own domains (such as app.theirbusiness.com) to our platform. While on the surface, this might seem straightforward, the reality proved to be a complex journey spanning over six months of troubleshooting and infrastructure management.

The primary challenge involved orchestrating DNS validation, automating SSL certificate issuance, and ensuring smooth renewal processes across numerous customer domains. This process proved far more intricate and time-consuming than initially expected, often pulling focus away from core product development and feature enhancement.

This experience led me to question whether this is a common pain point among other SaaS providers:

• How are you managing custom domains and SSL certificates for your users?
• What are the main difficulties you encounter in this area?
• Have you considered developing an in-house solution, and what obstacles prevented or delayed that process?
• Would a self-service platform that automates domain validation, DNS configuration guidance, and SSL management be beneficial for your operations?

I’m eager to learn about your experiences and whether this challenge resonates with your own development efforts. If automating the complexity of custom domains and SSL certificates could alleviate headaches and save time, I’d be very interested in exploring potential solutions together.

Your insights and stories can help shed light on this widespread issue—let’s discuss how we can simplify and streamline this critical aspect of SaaS infrastructure.