Custom Domain vs Entri: an honest comparison

If you are researching how to let your customers connect their own domains to your product, you have almost certainly found Entri. It deserves the attention. Entri helped define this category, its connection modal is polished, and its homepage lists customers like Square, ClickFunnels, and beehiiv. Any comparison page that tells you the other product is terrible is not worth your time, so let us say it plainly: Entri is a solid product built by a team that knows domains.

We built Custom Domain because we think the job deserves a different shape: one product that covers the entire path from "customer types a domain" to "HTTPS traffic is being served", with pricing that starts at $0 so you can wire it in before custom domains are a revenue line. This page lays out where the two products overlap, where they differ, and how to decide. Entri's pricing below is quoted from entri.com as of July 2026, and you should check their site for current pricing.

What Entri does well

Entri is a suite of five products. Connect is the flagship: an embeddable modal that detects where a domain's DNS is managed, walks the user through authorizing access, and applies the required records automatically. Entri advertises support for 50+ DNS providers and says that coverage reaches about 75% of the market. Power adds managed hosting infrastructure and automatic SSL provisioning, so traffic on the customer's domain can be served without you running your own termination layer. Secure handles SSL certificates at scale, Sell enables in-app domain purchasing across 100+ TLDs with a commission model, and Monitor tracks DNS changes after setup.

Two things stand out in practice. First, the Connect modal is genuinely smooth for end users, and features like login forwarding (sending the setup link to whoever actually controls the company's DNS) solve a real workflow problem. Second, Entri has years of production history behind it. If your procurement process weighs vendor track record heavily, that history counts.

What Custom Domain does differently

Custom Domain is one product, not a suite. The control plane manages connections, records, verification, and certificates. A reverse-proxy edge terminates TLS and serves traffic on your customers' domains with strict multi-tenant isolation. You do not assemble DNS configuration, certificate automation, and hosting from separate SKUs, because the whole path ships together.

The differences that tend to matter in an evaluation:

• Provider coverage and fallback. Custom Domain supports 63 DNS and registrar providers through one-click provider authorization or an API token. When a provider is not covered, a guided manual flow shows the exact records and verifies them automatically, so no customer hits a dead end.
• Time to live. A connected domain is typically serving HTTPS in about 30 seconds: records written, ownership verified, certificate issued before the first request. See how TLS automation works.
• API surface. The REST API covers connections, DNS records, TLS status, monitoring, webhooks, and registrar search and purchase. Everything the widget does, the API does.
• AI agents. Custom Domain ships an MCP server, so agents can search, buy, and connect domains on a user's behalf. We did not find a published MCP server from Entri as of July 2026. If agent-driven onboarding is on your roadmap, read connecting domains with AI agents.
• Pricing floor. Custom Domain has a free tier at $0. Entri's published plans start at $249 per month.

Feature and pricing comparison

Capability	Custom Domain	Entri
DNS and registrar provider coverage	63 providers, plus a guided manual flow with automatic verification for everything else	50+ DNS providers advertised, about 75% market coverage claimed
Embeddable connect widget	Yes, widget plus SDK	Yes, the Connect modal
REST API	Full API: connections, records, TLS, monitoring, webhooks, registrar search and purchase	Modal integration with webhooks; Power is driven by API requests
TLS automation	Automatic issuance and renewal on every plan, including free	Automatic SSL provisioning with Power, included from the Growth plan
Managed edge that serves customer domains	Included: reverse-proxy edge with strict multi-tenant isolation	Via Entri Power (bundled at $749 per month and up)
MCP server for AI agents	Yes	None published as of July 2026
Registrar search and purchase API	Yes, part of the core API	Entri Sell, a separate product with commission pricing, contact sales
Monitoring and webhooks	Included in the API	Webhooks in Connect; Monitor is a separate product
Starting price	$0 free tier; paid plans on the pricing page	$249 per month (Connect, 600 domains per year), $749 per month with Power, as of July 2026

Entri pricing vs Custom Domain pricing

As of July 2026, Entri publishes two prices. The Startup plan is $249 per month for Entri Connect with 600 domain connections per year. The Growth plan is $749 per month and bundles Connect with Power, which adds the hosting infrastructure and automatic SSL. Premium (which adds Secure and raises the limit to 12,000 domains per year) and Enterprise are quoted through sales. No free tier or free trial is listed. Pricing changes, so check entri.com for current numbers.

Custom Domain starts at $0. The free tier includes your first domain connections of the year with the full product: widget, API, automatic TLS, monitoring, and the MCP server. Paid plans scale with the number of connected domains, and the numbers are published on our pricing page. The practical difference is the starting point. With Entri, custom domains are a decision you justify at nearly $3,000 per year before the first customer connects. With Custom Domain, you can ship the feature this week, watch real customers use it, and pay when the volume is real.

When Entri is the right choice

An honest comparison names the cases where the other product wins.

• You want a long production track record and recognizable references. Entri has been in market for years and names large customers publicly. If procurement weighs that heavily, it is a fair reason to choose them.
• You want commission-based domain reselling with the registrar relationships fully handled. Entri Sell partners with registrars who take on support, billing, and compliance, and pays you a commission on sales. If reselling domains is a revenue strategy rather than a convenience, Sell is a mature offering.
• You already run your own edge and only want the DNS modal at high volume. If you have invested in your own certificate and proxy infrastructure and are happy with it, Entri Connect alone, negotiated at enterprise volume, may fit the org chart better than adopting an integrated platform.
• You need setup delegation features today. Login forwarding, where the end user hands the DNS step to a colleague, is a thoughtful piece of the Connect flow.

When Custom Domain is the right choice

• You want one integration, not an assembly. DNS configuration, ownership verification, TLS issuance and renewal, and traffic serving are a single product with a single bill. Read the integration guide to see the whole flow.
• You are early, or custom domains are not yet proven revenue. A $0 tier means the feature can earn its keep before it costs anything.
• You build API-first. Every capability, including registrar search and purchase, is a documented REST endpoint, not a modal you script around. The docs are public, no demo call required.
• AI agents are part of your product. The MCP server lets agents connect domains end to end, which matters for agent platforms and increasingly for everyone else.
• Your customers use long-tail providers. 63 providers plus an automatically verified manual flow means the connection rate does not fall off a cliff outside the top registrars.

Migrating from Entri to Custom Domain

Migration is less dramatic than it sounds, because connected domains are just DNS records pointing at an edge.

1. Inventory your connected hostnames. Export the list of live customer domains and note which are apex domains and which are subdomains. (Unsure of the difference? See apex domain vs CNAME.)
2. Run both side by side. Point new signups at the Custom Domain widget while existing domains keep resolving through your current setup. Nothing breaks by adding us.
3. Move existing domains in batches. Create the connection on our side first, then update the customer's record to target our edge. Certificates issue automatically when the domain arrives, so there is no manual TLS step and no certificate gap. The mechanics are covered in multi-tenant TLS.
4. Re-point your webhooks. Our webhook events cover connection status, record propagation, and certificate lifecycle, so status pages and onboarding emails keep working with a small payload mapping.

The swap can be completed in days, not weeks, and the free tier means you can validate the full flow before committing. If you want a second pair of eyes on your migration plan, book a short call and we will walk through it with you.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free Entri alternative?

Yes. Custom Domain has a free tier at $0 that includes the connect widget, the full REST API, automatic TLS issuance and renewal, and the MCP server. Entri lists no free tier as of July 2026; its published plans start at $249 per month. You can sign up and connect a domain without a card or a sales call.

How much does Entri cost?

As of July 2026, Entri's published pricing starts at $249 per month for Connect with 600 domain connections per year, and $749 per month for Connect plus Power, which adds hosting infrastructure and automatic SSL. Premium and Enterprise tiers are quoted through sales. Check entri.com for current pricing.

Can I migrate from Entri without downtime?

Yes. Existing customer domains keep resolving through your current setup until each one is re-pointed, so you can migrate in batches at your own pace. Custom Domain issues certificates automatically when a domain arrives at our edge, so there is no gap in HTTPS during the move.

Does Custom Domain cover as many DNS providers as Entri?

Custom Domain supports 63 DNS and registrar providers through one-click provider authorization or API tokens, against the 50+ Entri advertises. For any provider outside that list, our guided manual flow shows the exact records and verifies them automatically, so every customer has a working path. The full flow is on the features page.