Customising your portal

Everything about the look and feel of your public knowledge base is controlled from HelpGuides editor → Customize Portal. Changes save automatically when you click Save, and a green checkmark confirms the update. This article walks through every available option in the order they appear on the page.

Branding

Portal name

The primary title of your knowledge base. It appears in the portal header, in the sidebar footer, and in the browser tab title.

Company website

A URL that the logo (or portal name text) in the header links to when clicked. If left blank, clicking the logo takes visitors to the portal homepage. Use this to link back to your main marketing site.

Logo

Upload an image to display in the portal header. Any common image format (PNG, JPG, SVG, WebP) works. We recommend a square image at 128 × 128 px or larger — it'll be scaled down to fit the header. Click the existing logo thumbnail to replace it, or the ✕ to remove it.

Accent color

The accent color is applied to links, buttons, active nav items, badges, and other interactive elements across the entire portal. Pick from the preset grid of 10 colors or enter any hex value directly (e.g. #e11d48). The color picker next to the hex input lets you choose visually.

Presets available: Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink, Red, Orange, Amber, Emerald, Teal, Cyan.

Controls the background style of the left-hand navigation sidebar.

Style	Appearance
Default	Light gray (`#fbfbfb`) — clean and neutral
Transparent	No background fill — the page background shows through
Gradient	Subtle fade from white to a tint of your accent color
Accent	Solid tint block using your accent color at 20% opacity

PRO feature. Only the Default style is available on the free plan. Transparent, Gradient, and Accent require a PRO subscription.

Visible tabs

Controls how many section tabs are shown in the top navigation bar before the rest collapse into a More dropdown. The default is 5. Set it lower if you have many sections and want a cleaner header, or higher if you want all sections visible at a glance. Minimum 1, maximum 20.

Homepage style

Determines the layout shown when a visitor lands on your portal root URL.

Option	Behaviour
Auto (default)	Displays the Documentation landing page; adapts based on how many sections you have
Docs	Always shows the Documentation-style landing page with article categories
Hub	Shows a section-cards grid — useful if you have multiple sections (Docs, API, Blog, etc.) and want visitors to choose

Portal path

Your portal slug is the URL-friendly path that forms your portal's public address:

helpguides.app/{your-slug}

Only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens are allowed — anything else is stripped automatically as you type. Keep it short and recognisable (e.g. your company name or product name).

If you've set up a custom domain, your slug is still used as the fallback URL. See Setting up a Custom Domain for the full DNS setup guide.

Custom domain

Serve your portal from your own subdomain — e.g. help.yourcompany.com — instead of the default helpguides.app/{slug} address.

Enter your subdomain, copy the CNAME target shown, add it to your DNS provider, then click Verify. HelpGuides polls for the record and provisions a TLS certificate automatically once the DNS change is live.

PRO feature. Custom domains require a PRO subscription. See Setting up a Custom Domain for step-by-step DNS instructions for Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy, and others.

Homepage content

These fields control the hero section shown at the top of the portal homepage.

Hero title

The large heading visitors see first. Keep it action-oriented or welcoming — for example: "How can we help you?" or "ProfitBooks Help Center".

Hero subtitle

A short supporting line below the title. Use it to set expectations or invite exploration — for example: "Browse guides, tutorials, and FAQs, or search for anything above." Supports line breaks.

Custom button

Add an optional call-to-action button to the top-right corner of the portal header. Common uses:

Back to app — link authenticated users back to your product
Sign up / Start free trial — convert visitors browsing your docs
Contact support — link to a support form or Intercom launcher

Toggle the button on, then configure:

Field	Description
Button text	The label shown on the button (e.g. "Sign up", "Back to app")
Button URL	The destination when clicked
Open in new window	Check this to open the URL in a new tab rather than the current one

The button is hidden entirely when the toggle is off — none of the other fields have any effect until you turn it on.

When enabled, your logo and portal name are displayed in the portal footer on every page. Turn this off for a more minimal footer.

Hide "Powered by HelpGuides"

Removes the HelpGuides attribution line from your portal footer for a fully white-labelled experience.

PRO feature. This option is only available on the PRO plan.

Add custom links to the footer — useful for Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, your main website, or any other page you want readily accessible. Each link needs a label (display text) and a URL.

Free plan: up to 2 footer links
PRO plan: up to 5 footer links

Click Add link to add a new row, or the ✕ to remove one.

Plan summary

The table below shows which options are available on each plan:

Feature	Free	PRO
Portal name, logo, accent color	✓	✓
Portal slug	✓	✓
Homepage content (title, subtitle)	✓	✓
Custom button	✓	✓
Navigation (visible tabs, homepage style)	✓	✓
Sidebar style (Default only)	✓	✓
Sidebar style (Transparent, Gradient, Accent)	—	✓
Footer links (up to 2)	✓	✓
Footer links (up to 5)	—	✓
Hide "Powered by HelpGuides"	—	✓
Custom domain	—	✓

To unlock PRO features, click Upgrade in the sidebar of the HelpGuides editor.