Multi-Tenant Hosting

By default, a self-hosted Fider installation runs in single-tenant mode: one feedback board at a single URL configured with BASE_URL. This is the right choice for most deployments.

Multi-tenant mode runs one Fider process and one PostgreSQL database, but serves many isolated feedback boards. Each board has its own subdomain, for example acme.feedback.example.com and product.feedback.example.com. This is useful when you want separate boards for different teams, products, or languages without running separate Fider deployments.

Multi-tenancy is a supported, existing feature. It requires specific environment variables, DNS configuration, and a domain that supports wildcard subdomains.

Prerequisites

Before enabling multi-tenant mode, make sure you have:

• A domain name you control (for example feedback.example.com).
• Wildcard DNS pointing to your Fider host (for example *.feedback.example.com), or individual DNS records for each subdomain you plan to use.
• A reverse proxy or load balancer that forwards requests to Fider while preserving the original Host header. Fider resolves tenants from the hostname on each request.
• A working email sender (SMTP, Mailgun, or AWS SES), as tenant signup relies on email verification.

Platform default hostnames that do not support wildcard subdomains are not suitable for multi-tenant mode. For example, the default hostname provided by Azure App Service (*.azurewebsites.net) cannot host arbitrary tenant subdomains such as acme.my-app.azurewebsites.net.

Configuration

Multi-tenant mode is enabled with two environment variables. Add them to your Fider container instead of BASE_URL:

services:
  app:
    restart: always
    image: getfider/fider:stable
    ports:
      - "80:3000"
    environment:
      HOST_MODE: multi
      HOST_DOMAIN: feedback.example.com

      DATABASE_URL: postgres://fider:password@db:5432/fider?sslmode=disable
      JWT_SECRET: VERY_STRONG_SECRET_SHOULD_BE_USED_HERE
      EMAIL_NOREPLY: noreply@example.com

      # EMAIL_SMTP_* or EMAIL_MAILGUN_* or EMAIL_AWSSES_* (required)
      EMAIL_SMTP_HOST: smtp.example.com
      EMAIL_SMTP_PORT: 587

Important notes:

• HOST_DOMAIN is the domain name only. Do not include https:// or a trailing slash. Use feedback.example.com, not https://feedback.example.com/.
• Do not set BASE_URL in multi-tenant mode. In single-tenant mode, BASE_URL is required and HOST_DOMAIN must not be set. Fider will refuse to start if both are configured incorrectly.
• Restart Fider after changing these variables.

You only need one Fider application connected to the database. Running multiple Fider containers against the same database without multi-tenant mode enabled will not create separate tenants; both instances will show the same data.

URL layout

Once multi-tenant mode is enabled, URLs follow this pattern:

URL	Purpose
https://login.{HOST_DOMAIN}/signup	Create a new feedback board (tenant)
https://{subdomain}.{HOST_DOMAIN}/	A tenant's feedback board
https://{custom-domain}/	Optional per-tenant custom domain (configured in site settings)

For HOST_DOMAIN=feedback.example.com:

• Signup: https://login.feedback.example.com/signup
• A tenant named acme: https://acme.feedback.example.com/

Visiting a subdomain that does not match any tenant returns a Page not found response. This is expected. The root domain (feedback.example.com) is not a tenant URL unless you configure it explicitly.

The login subdomain is reserved for tenant signup and OAuth flows. It is not a regular feedback board.

Creating a tenant

The supported way to create a new tenant is through the signup page:

1. Open https://login.{HOST_DOMAIN}/signup.
2. Sign in with OAuth or enter your name and email address.
3. Choose a name and subdomain for the new board. Fider checks subdomain availability as you type.
4. If you signed up with email, confirm your address using the verification link sent to your inbox. The board remains in a pending state until verification is complete.

Subdomain rules:

• Between 3 and 40 characters.
• Letters, numbers, and hyphens only. Must start and end with a letter or number.
• Certain names are reserved and cannot be used, including login, signup, admin, api, www, and others.

Manual database changes to create tenants are not documented here and are not the supported workflow.

Custom domains

Each tenant can optionally use a custom domain instead of its subdomain URL. This is configured per board in Site Settings → General → Custom Domain.

To set up a custom domain:

1. Enter the domain (for example feedback.yourcompany.com) in site settings.
2. Add a DNS record as shown in the admin UI:
   • For most domains: a CNAME from your custom domain to {subdomain}.{HOST_DOMAIN}.
   • For apex domains (for example yourcompany.com): an ALIAS or equivalent record, depending on your DNS provider.
3. Allow time for DNS propagation (up to 72 hours in some cases).

Custom domain settings are only available in multi-tenant mode.

Restricting new tenant signups

By default, anyone who can reach https://login.{HOST_DOMAIN}/signup can create a new feedback board. To disable tenant signup:

SIGNUP_DISABLED=true

When signup is disabled, the signup page and tenant creation API return 404 Not Found.

For additional control, you can restrict access at your reverse proxy or web server (for example by blocking the login subdomain or the /signup path). The exact configuration depends on your infrastructure.

Single-tenant vs multi-tenant

	Single-tenant (default)	Multi-tenant
Environment	BASE_URL=https://feedback.example.com	HOST_MODE=multi, HOST_DOMAIN=feedback.example.com
Number of boards	One	Many
First-time setup	/signup on BASE_URL	https://login.{HOST_DOMAIN}/signup
Tenant resolution	First tenant in the database	Hostname (subdomain or custom domain)
Custom domain UI	Not shown	Available in site settings
Site deletion (Danger Zone)	Not available	Available to the account owner
Roadmap and moderation	Available on self-hosted installs	In multi-tenant mode, these features follow the tenant's plan flags (same as Fider Cloud)

Common mistakes

Running two Fider instances on one database. Multi-tenancy requires a single application with HOST_MODE=multi. Two separate deployments sharing a database will not isolate tenants.

Including a URL scheme in HOST_DOMAIN. Use feedback.example.com, not https://feedback.example.com.

Editing tenants.subdomain in the database without DNS. Changing a subdomain in PostgreSQL does not create DNS records. The new subdomain must resolve to your Fider host.

Expecting login.* to work in single-tenant mode. The login subdomain and signup redirect only apply when HOST_MODE=multi.

Using a platform hostname without wildcard subdomain support. If your hosting provider assigns a fixed hostname (for example a default cloud app URL), you typically cannot add arbitrary tenant subdomains under it. Use a custom domain with wildcard DNS instead.

For the default single-board installation, see Hosting on Docker.