How ShareLive Works
Understanding subdomains, DNS, and hosting platforms
What ShareLive Does
ShareLive gives you instant subdomains (yourproject.sharelive.site) that connect to your app deployed on platforms like Vercel, Netlify, Render, etc.
Important: We don't host your app. We just route traffic to it.
Supported Platforms
Your target URL must be from one of these hosting platforms:
⚠️ Cannot use: google.com, facebook.com, github.com, or other domains you don't control
Why Not google.com or facebook.com?
CNAME ≠ Redirect
Many people think CNAME creates a redirect. It doesn't. CNAME only changes DNS resolution.
If you set: project.sharelive.site → google.com
- DNS says: "To reach project.sharelive.site, resolve google.com's IPs"
- Browser connects to Google's servers
- But browser still sends: Host: project.sharelive.site
- ❌ Google doesn't have SSL cert for your domain
- ❌ Google doesn't know about your subdomain
- ❌ Result: SSL errors or 404
Why Vercel/Netlify Works
When you deploy on Vercel and add your ShareLive subdomain as a custom domain:
- ✅ Vercel provisions SSL certificate for your subdomain
- ✅ Vercel configures their servers to accept your subdomain
- ✅ Traffic flows: Browser → Vercel → Your app works!
Free vs Paid Plans
- ✓Your app stays on Vercel/Netlify
- ✓Our server proxies requests
- ✓Works instantly, no setup needed
- •One extra network hop
- ✓Direct CNAME to your hosting
- ✓No proxy, maximum speed
- !Must add custom domain in Vercel/Netlify
- !Requires one-time setup
Quick Start Guide
- 1
Deploy your app
Push to Vercel, Netlify, Render, or any supported platform
- 2
Copy your deployment URL
e.g., myapp.vercel.app
- 3
Create subdomain on ShareLive
Pick your subdomain, paste your deployment URL, done!
- 4
Access your app
Visit yourproject.sharelive.site — it's live!