Plan✕ is hosted at planx.uk. So by default the link to your services will be something like:
https://editor.planx.uk/council/service_name/published
It is likely that instead, you’ll want to use your own ‘subdomain’, such as:
https://planningservices.council.gov.uk/service_name
You can create a different subdomain if you wish, but we recommend planningservices so that links are standardised from council to council.
So users get a consistent, seamless experience navigating from your council web pages, and feel confident that they are sending their data to you.
Plan✕ is hosted entirely on AWS. To serve the static content, we’re using the AWS content delivery network (CDN), which is called CloudFront.
Each custom domain must be backed up by an SSL certificate so that users can connect to the site securely. As of June 2026, the Plan✕ team will manage SSL certificates on your behalf.
Because the certificate we will provision for you is managed by AWS ACM, it will auto-renew. This means there is no manual renewal process - we set this up once, and it works forever!
All that we require of your IT team is to add two DNS records to your nameserver. In most cases, these can be added simultaneously. This is true whether we are onboarding you for the first time, or you are migrating to the new infrastructure.
The first record is to prove you own the domain, so that the certificates we issue can be validated, and the second is to route live traffic from your custom subdomain to CloudFront, which then serves the Plan✕ application. They are both CNAME records, and will look something like…
| Function | Name | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Validation | planningservices.council.gov.uk |
d1234abcd.cloudfront.net |
| Routing | _abc123.planningservices.council.gov.uk |
_def456.xyz.acm-validations.aws |
⚠️ An important thing to note is that both DNS records must be maintained indefinitely, so please do not delete them at any point. This includes the validation record!
<aside> <img src="/icons/arrow-right-basic_blue.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right-basic_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Let us know you are ready to set up your custom subdomain: [email protected]
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